BERLIN 2009 - FILMS BOUTIQUE'S LINE UP
A Lake (Un lac)
DIRECTOR:
Philippe Grandrieux
The story takes place in a country about which we know nothing: a country of snow and dense forests, somewhere in the North.
A family lives in an isolated house near a lake.
Alexi, the brother, is a young man with a pure heart. A woodcutter.
An ecstatic, prey to epileptic fits, he is entirely opened to the nature that surrounds him.
Alexi is terribly close to his younger sister, Hege. Their blind mother, their father, and their little brother are the silent witnesses to their overwhelming love.
A stranger arrives, a young man barely older than Alexi...
CAST:
Alexi (The Son) - Dmitry Kubasov
Hege (The Daughter) - Natalie Rehorova
Jurgen (The Stranger) - Alexei Solonchev
Liv (The Mother) - Simona Hülsemann
Christiann (The Father) - Vitaly Kishchenko
Johannes (The Little Brother) - Arthur Semay
Can go through skin (Kan Door Huid Heen)
DIRECTOR:
Esther Rots
A brutal assault changes Mariekes life. She leaves her familiar city rhythms for the solitude of a dilapidated house in an empty countryside. Her irrational fears on the frozen farm are a constant struggle.
As springs' orchestra begins, her curiosity for new things that cover the cold rot of winter pull her out of the suffocating interior of her mind. Slowly she accepts the help of John, her neighbour, but as the seasons change so does she.
CAST:
Rifka Lodeizen (Marieke), Wim Opbrouck (John)
God’s offices (Les bureaux de Dieu)
DIRECTOR:
Claire Simon
Djamila would like to be on the pill because her relationship with her boyfriend has become serious; Zoé's mother gives her condoms but calls her daughter a whore; Nejma hides her pills away from home because her mother searches her bag; Hélène complains about being too fertile; Adeline wished she could have kept it, and so does Margot. Maria Angela would like to know who she's pregnant from, while Ana Maria has opted for love and freedom.
Anne, Denise, Marta, Yasmine, and Milena are the advisers. They listen to each of them as they wonder how to cope with sexual freedom. In God's offices, you laugh and cry and feel swamped.
CAST:
Nathalie BAYE, Michel BOUJENAH, Rachida BRAKNI, Isabelle CARRE, Béatrice DALLE, Nicole GARCIA, Marie LAFORET, Emmanuel MOURET
Happiest girl in the world (The) (Cea mai fericita fata din lume)
DIRECTOR:
Radu Jude
Delia, 18 years old, has won an expensive car. She comes with her parents to Bucharest for the testimonial shooting - the proof that she really won the prize.
During the shooting Delia has long talks with her parents - that eventually turn into ugly arguments: Delia wants to keep it, while her parents want to sell it.
What seemed to be a lucky event at the beginning eventually becomes for Delia an extreme and emotionally painful situation, in which she has to rethink and question her family relations.
CAST:
Andi Vasluianu, Serban Pavlu, Luminita Stoianovici, Alexandru Georgescu, Andreea Bosneag, Doru Catanescu, Vasile Muraru, Diana Gheorghian, Bogdan Marhodin , Violeta Haret
Mental (Seishin)
DIRECTOR:
Kazuhiro Soda
Through a serie of portraits of patients, doctors and staff, MENTAL observes the complex world of an outpatient mental health clinic in Okayama (Japan).
Depicting the daily lives and the "joyful sadness" of patients, Kazuhiro Soda questions the conventional boundary that separates the mentally ill and healthy people making us laugh every 5 minutes and cry even more.
CAST:
Noise in my head (The) (Du bruit dans la tête)
DIRECTOR:
Vincent Pluss
After studying abroad, Laura returns to Geneva. She is in her early 30s and her life should contain some sort of stability by now. Feeling lost, she tries to act as an average person but the voice inside her head always tries to make her act differently.
One evening, she meets Simon, a wandering teenager who sells “free” newspapers and invites him to her flat. Soon, she finds herself helpless about the harsh way in which he takes over control.
CAST:
Céline Bolomey, Gabriel Bonnefoy, Frédéric Landenberg, François Nadin
Universalove (Universalove)
DIRECTOR:
Thomas Woschitz
and
Naked Lunch
UNIVERSALOVE is a global love story.
In Marseille, Julie's heart beats wildly when thinking of Rashid. In Tokyo, Satoshi dreams about his adored one who works in a soup restaurant but who doesn't even know who he is. In Rio de Janeiro, Maria falls for a Telenovela star. In Belgrade, a couple fight for their very existence. In Brooklyn, the thoughts of a black taxi driver lead him into the emotional abyss of jealous love. In Luxembourg, a well-settled gentleman finally comes around to showing his true feelings for a young man...
Love happens. Love takes place. Strange love. True love. Crazy love. Desperate Love.
Everywhere, every moment.
Composed from an assortment of images and set to a haunting soundtrack by Austrian indie band Naked Lunch, Universalove is an entirely new type of music film. The music parts can be played live to the cinema projection, thereby creating a friction of media between the partially effect-laden and artificial images and the performative directness and impetus of a highly-concentrated rock concert.
CAST:
Anica Dobra, Dušan Aškovic, Damien Smith, Sri Gordon, Daniel Plier, Sascha Migge, Liza Machover, Samir „RPZ“ Menouar, Magda Gomes, Erom Cordeiro, Kyoichi Komoto, Makiko Kawai
Mental
A film by Kazuhiro Soda
Can go through skin
A film by Esther Rots
Happiest girl in the world (The)
A film by Radu Jude
Universalove
A film by Thomas Woschitz and Naked Lunch
Noise in my head (The)
A film by Vincent Pluss
A Lake
A film by Philippe Grandrieux
God’s offices
A film by Claire Simon