Nina Hoss in Christian Petzold's Barbara
"An additional ten world premieres will be screening in the Competition program of the Berlinale 2012," the festival's announced today:
France/Senegal
By Alain Gomis (L'Afrance, Andalucia)
With Saül Williams, Aïssa Maïga, Djolof M'bengue
"What goes on inside the head of a man who knows he has only 24 hours to live?" begins a report from the AFP. "Franco-Senegalese director Alain Gomis takes viewers through this final day."
Barbara
Germany
By Christian Petzold (Yella, Jerichow, Dreileben)
With Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld
The synopsis from The Match Factory: "East Germany. Barbara has requested a departure permit. It is the summer of 1978. She is a physician and is transferred, for disciplinary reasons, to a small hospital far away from everything in a provincial backwater. Her lover, a foreign trade employee at Mannesmann that she met on a spring night in East Berlin, is working on her escape. She does not care about anything around her: the patients, her colleagues, the neighbours, the summer and the countryside. There is nothing holding her here anymore. Barbara is cold, within herself, withdrawing from everyone and everything around her. Her apartment, her job, her life here — they are all meaningless. That summer, her existence is disturbed. She meets a physician, Andre, who was also transferred for disciplinary reasons. Andre confuses Barbara. Did they put him on to her? Or has he fallen in love with her? Barbara loses control — of herself, of love, of her live. "
Cesare deve morire (Caesar Must Die)
Italy
By Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Padre padrone, La notte di San Lorenzo, La masseria delle allodole, San Michele aveva un gallo)
With Fabio Cavalli, Salvatore Striano
Going by a Google translation of this report, this'll be a docudrama based on theater director Cavalli's workshop which has inmates in the Rebibbia prison staging Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
Gnade
Germany/Norway
By Matthias Glasner (The Free Will, Sexy Sadie)
With Jürgen Vogel, Birgit Minichmayr, Henry Stange
From Badlands Film: "Maria and Niels have decided to pack up and leave Germany to start a new life in Norway. A few months later, Maria commits a hit and run accident. Her guilt heavily challenges the family's philosophy of life. At the same time, the tired relationship is enlivened by the secret they now share. What role does 'evil' play in our happiness?"
Jayne Mansfield’s Car
Russian Federation/USA
By Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade, The King of Luck, All the Pretty Horses)
With Billy Bob Thornton, Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon
In October, Crave's Fred Topel attended a press conference and jotted down a few quotes from Thornton: "It's tonally Sling Blade-like. I think there's probably more humor in it than Sling Blade but it's once again, very dark humor as usual. It takes place in the 1960s… Just so you know, Jayne Mansfield is more of a metaphor for the movie. It's not about Jayne Mansfield's death or anything like that. It's mentioned but that's not what it's about. It's really about how war affects different generations, done in sort of a darkly humorous way. And about the examination of life and death and the fear and fascination with both."
L'enfant d'en haut (Sister)
Switzerland/France
By Ursula Meier (Tous à table, Des épaules solides, Home)
With Léa Seydoux, Kacey Mottet Klein, Gillian Anderson, Martin Compston
From Memento Films: "A luxury ski resort in Switzerland. 12-year-old Simon lives in the industrial valley below, with his jobless sister. Every day, he takes the ski-lift to the opulent ski world above, stealing equipment from the rich tourists to resell to the local kids back down. As he partners with a crooked British seasonal worker, Simon loses his boundaries, which affects the relationship with his sister. Confronted with a truth they had both been escaping, Simon seeks refuge up above."
Metéora (Meteora)
Germany/Greece
By Spiros Stathoulopoulos (PVC-1)
With Theo Alexander, Tamila Koulieva
From Ioncinema: "One young monk is drawn to temptation when he meets a nun. They start communicating, sending signals across the abyss from one monastery to another using mirrors and sunlight."
Tabu
Portugal/Germany/Brazil/France
By Miguel Gomes (The Face You Deserve, Our Beloved Month of August)
With Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Ana Moreira, Carloto Cotta
From The Match Factory: "A temperamental old woman, her Cape Verdean maid and a neighbour devoted to social causes live on the same floor of a Lisbon apartment building. When the old lady dies, the other two learn of an episode from her past: a tale of love and crime set in an Africa straight from the world of adventure films."
Csak a szél (Just the Wind)
Hungary/Germany/France
By Benedek Fliegauf (Dealer, Rengeteg, Tejút, Womb)
With Lajos Sárkány, Katalin Toldi, Gyöngyi Lendvai, Géza Jungwirth
As far as I can tell, the film depicts a single day in the life of a Gypsy family, from early dawn until late into the night. With a cast of nonprofessionals.
Was bleibt (Home for the Weekend)
Germany
By Hans-Christian Schmid (Storm, Requiem, Distant Lights)
With Lars Eidinger, Corinna Harfouch, Sebastian Zimmler, Ernst Stötzner
SWR is pleased to report that one of its coproductions will be competing. The film's based on a book by Bernd Lange and tells the story of a family gathering during which one couple and their grownup children are confronted with secrets from the past.
The festival's also announced that Angelina Jolie's In the Land of Blood and Honey will screen in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele's new cinema as part of the Berlinale Special program.
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @thedailyMUBI on Twitter and/or the RSS feed.