2023 Films
Official Selections of the 27th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival
2023 Audience Award Winners:
Best Feature Film: Golden Years – Dir. Barbara Kulcsar
Best Short Film: Rooms – Dir. Welf Reinhart
From Festival Director Sophoan Sorn: We are honored and thrilled to bring to our beloved audience a richly diverse, impactful, and thought-provoking program, including: the spellbinding, call-to-action environmental sci-fi “Everything Will Change” from Marten Persiel (“This Ain’t California”) on Opening Night; a very special 35mm celluloid presentation of the lauded “All Quiet on the Western Front” from Director Edward Berger, a new adaption of the anti-war novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I; the US Premiere of “Family Affairs,” Sönke Wortmann’s equally caustic sequel to “How About Adolf?”; the US Premiere of Fatih Akin’s newest epic, the biopic “Rhinegold” about Xatar’s life journey; the wondrous world and mind of “Werner Herzog – Radical Dreamer”; Barbara Kulcsar’s post-retirement relationship comedy “Golden Years” from Switzerland; Maggie Peren’s audacious heroic true story, “The Forger”; Andreas Dresen’s drama about a mother’s love defying all odds in “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush.”
OPENING NIGHT FILM
Everything Will Change
In Person: Noah Saavedra, Actor
Dir. Marten Persiel –– 93 min. | Germany, The Netherlands | 2022
San Francisco Premiere
In a dystopian 2054, three friends go on a road trip into the past.
Official Selection: Zurich (Competition)
In English
Starring: Noah Saavedra, Jessamine-Bliss Bell, Paul G Raymond, Wim Wenders, Markus Imhoof
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CLOSING NIGHT FILM
All Quiet on the Western Front (35 mm)
Dir. Edward Berger –– 147 min. | Germany | 2022
Special Presentation
Winner of 4 Academy Awards including Best International Film and winner of 7 BAFTAs (including Best Film and Best Director Edward Berger): The gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Based on the world-renowned bestseller of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque. 35 mm film print courtesy of Netflix.
In German with English subtitles.
Starring: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer
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DOC SPECIAL
Werner Herzog – Radical Dreamer
Dir. Thomas von Steinaecker –– 102 min. | Germany, United Kingdom | 2022
Northern California Premiere
Werner Herzog: Master film maker, poet, truth seeker, pith helmeted explorer, brand, meme, actor, lauded voice artiste, doomsayer, legend… a portrait of an iconic artist of our time.
Official Selection: Telluride, IDFA, Santa Barbara
In English and German with English subtitles
Featuring: Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Chloé Zhao, Joshua Oppenheimer, Wim Wenders, Nicole Kidman, Christian Bale, Robert Pattinson
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CINEMA PANORAMA
Axiom
Dir. Jöns Jönsson –– 112 min. | Germany | 2022
West Coast Premiere
An eloquent museum keeper invites his colleagues on a sailing trip, but little by little it turns out that Julius is not who he seems to be.
Official Selections: Berlin (Encounters), Karlovy Vary
In German and some English, with English subtitles
Starring: Moritz von Treuenfels, Ricarda Seifried, Thomas Schubert
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Family Affairs (Der Nachname)
Dir. Sönke Wortmann –– 87 min. | Germany | 2022
US Premiere
The equally caustic sequel to “How About Adolf?” A family reunion wrangles into complicated lines of inheritance, pregnancies, and family concepts.
Official Selection: Zurich (Gala)
In German and some Spanish and English, with English subtitles
Starring: Iris Berben, Christoph Maria Herbst, Florian David Fitz, Caroline Peters, Justus von Dohnányi, Janina Uhse
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The Forger (Der Passfälscher)
Dir. Maggie Peren –– 116 min. | Germany, Luxembourg | 2022
Berlin, 1942. Audacious Cioma poses as a marine officer and forges documents to help fellow Jews escape Nazi Germany.
Official Selection: Berlin (Gala)
In German with English subtitles
Starring: Louis Hofmann, Jonathan Berlin, Luna Wedler, André Jung
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Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush (Rabiye Kurnaz gegen George W. Bush)
Dir. Andreas Dresen –– 119 min. | Germany, France | 2022
Northern California Premiere
A housewife and loving mother from Bremen battles for the release of her son Murat from Guantanamo.
Official Selection: Berlin (Competition)
Award Selection: 2022 German Film Awards Best Film (Silver), Best Actress Meltem Kaptan, Best Supporting Actor Alexander Scheer
In German, Turkish, and English with English subtitles
Starring: Meltem Kaptan, Alexander Scheer, Charly Hübner, Nazmi Kirik
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Rhinegold (Rheingold)
Dir. Fatih Akin –– 140 min. | Germany, The Netherlands, Morocco, Mexico | 2022
North American Premiere
Based on German rapper Xatar’s autobiography “All or Nothing,” the path of Giwar Hajabi’s life from the drug underworld to the top of the music charts.
Official Selection: Hamburg, Rome
In German and some Kurdish, Dutch, Arabic, English, and Turkish with English subtitles
Starring: Emilio Sakraya, Mona Pirzad, Kardo Razzazi, Ilyes Raoul, Sogol Faghani
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GOETHE FORUM
Piaffe
Dir. Ann Oren –– 86 min. | Germany | 2022
West Coast Premiere
A foley artist goes on a voyage of self-discovery while growing the tail of a horse.
Official Selection: Locarno, San Sebastián, São Paulo, BFI London
In German with English subtitles
Starring: Simone Bucio, Sebastian Rudolph, Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau
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SWISS FILM & TALKS
Golden Years (Die goldenen Jahre)
In Person: Petra Volpe, Screenwriter
Dir. Barbara Kulcsar –– 92 min. | Switzerland | 2022
Northern California Premiere
A retired couple heading on a Mediterranean cruise ends up on separate journeys of self-discovery.
Official Selection: Zurich
In Swiss German, German, and French with English subtitles
Starring: Stefan Kurt, Esther Gemsch, Ueli Jäggi
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YOUTH 4 GERMAN CINEMA 2023 WINNER
The Ordinaries
In Person: Noah Tinwa, Actor
Dir. Sophie Linnenbaum –– 120 min. | Germany | 2022
West Coast Premiere
In a repressive three class-society, Paula, a simple Supporting Character, is about to face the most important test of her life.
Official Selection: Karlovy Vary, Munich, Zurich
Award Selection: 2022 Filmfest München German Cinema New Talent Award for Director
In German with English subtitles
Starring: Fine Sendel, Jule Böwe, Henning Peker, Noah Tinwa
View Clip
All four short films will screen altogether in one program. 100 min.
Purchase virtual ticket to view all four short films.
Almost Home
Dir. Nils Keller –– 30 min. | Germany | 2022
Northern California Premiere
When they learn of an outbreak of a dangerous virus shortly before their long-awaited return to Earth, a teenager and his mother struggle to decide whether to land or return to space aboard their confined spaceship.
Award Selection: 2022 Student Academy Award Narrative Gold
In German with English subtitles
Starring: Stephan Kampwirth, Jeremias Meyer, Susanne Wolff
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Aralkum
Dirs. Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko –– 14 min. | Germany, Uzbekistan | 2022
California Premiere – Documentary Format
A few lonely rusty shipwrecks. Low desert scrub grows around them, holding the sand together in the merciless storms. Aralkum, the Aral Desert, is the bare seabed, the last thing left of the Aral Sea.
Award Selection: 2022 Visions du Réel Nyon Jury Prize for the Best Short Film
In Kazakh with English subtitles
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Nakam
Dir. Andreas Kessler –– 33 min. | Germany | 2022
Ukraine 1942. 12-year-old violinist Mitka plays in a Ukrainian restaurant with pianist Yegor. Nobody knows that Mitka is part of a Jewish partisan movement.
Award Selection: 2022 Cleveland International Film Festival Best Live Action Short
In German, Ukrainian, Yiddish, and Russian with English subtitles
Starring: Anton Krymskiy, Peter Miklusz, Jevgenij Sitochin, Rostyslav Bome, Irina Usova
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Rooms (Eigenheim)
Dir. Welf Reinhart –– 23 min. | Germany | 2021
Northern California Premiere
Every tenant’s worst nightmare becomes reality for a senior citizen couple in Munich when their new landlady hands them a notice to vacate their apartment.
Award Selection: 2022 Student Academy Award Narrative Silver
In German with English subtitles
Starring: Ingrid Farin, Reinhart Firchow, Christiane Bärwald
View Trailer
View Showtimes for All Festival Films
Health & Safety Details:
Roxie Theater, San Francisco
Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, Berkeley
