Berlin: George MacKay, Béatrice Dalle, Fan Bingbing, Sandra Hüller & Joan Baez Movies Head To Fest

London-set revenge thriller Femme, starring George MacKay and Candyman actor Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, has been selected for the Berlinale’s Panorama strand.

It was among a raft of fresh additions to the festival’s Panorama, Generation and Berlinale Special strands announced on Wednesday.

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The picture is co-directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping and is based on their 2021 BAFTA-nominated short film of the same name.

Stewart-Jarrett plays a drag queen whose life is destroyed by a homophobic attack and then plots revenge on one of the perpetrators (MacKay) when he spots him in a gay sauna.

The 21 new Panorama titles also include France-based Austrian director Patric Chiha’s The Beast In The Jungle.

A contemporary adaptation of Henry James’s 1903 novella of the same name, the drama follows a man and woman who frequent a huge nightclub for 25 years in anticipation of a mysterious event.

The cast features Anaïs Demoustier, Tom Mercier and Béatrice Dalle.

Further additions include Han Shuai’s Green Night (starring Fan Bingbing), D. Smith’s Kokomo City, Anthony Lapia’s After, Hannes Hirsch’s Drifter, Sreemoyee Singh’s And, Towards Happy Alleys, Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & Ich (starring Sandra Hüller) and Karen O’Connor’s Joan Baez I Am A Noise.

Sepideh Farsi’s previously announced The Siren will open the strand, the 2023 selection of which is now complete.

The Berlinale’s 37-year-old Panorama prides itself on adventurous selection championing “explicitly queer, explicitly feminist, explicitly political feminist” cinema.

The strand is popular with local audiences, who vote for its main prize, the Panorama Audience Award. The section also oversees the Teddy Award, which is open to all films with queer subject matter across all the sections.

The new titles join 14 previously-announced selections including Tina Satter’s debut Reality, Jennifer Reeder’s Perpetrator, Ira Sach’s Passages and Sacha Polak’s Silver Haze.

In a fresh addition to the Berlinale Special section, the festival announced it would be screening the documentary Kiss the Future, following aid worker Bill Carter’s quest to enlist rock band U2, to help shine a light on the struggle of the Bosnian people during the Siege of Sarajevo.

Here is the full Panorama Selection (synopses provided by Berlin, * new addition)

After *
by Anthony Lapia | with Louise Chevillotte, Majd Mastoura, Natalia Wiszniewska
France 2023
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
A club in Paris. Driving techno beats sweep everyone away. People dance, consume and talk. Félicie meets Saïd and takes him to her place for an after-party. On the cusp between night and day, different lives and views collide.

All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White *
by Babatunde Apalowo | with Tope Tedela, Riyo David, Martha Ehinome Orhiere, Uchechika Elumelu, Floyd Anekwe
Nigeria 2023
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
Bambino and Bawa meet in Lagos and hit it off immediately. During their long trips around the city they develop a deep affection for each other. But in a society which considers homosexuality taboo, they feel the pressure of social norms.

Ambush (Ghaath) *
by Chhatrapal Ninawe | with Dhananjay Mandaokar, Milind Shinde, Jitendra Joshi, Janardan Kadam, Suruchi Adarkar
India 2023
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
An unsparing psychological portrait of the civil war that has been raging in central India for over 50 years. Set in the middle of the jungle, we see what happens to perpetrators and victims whose lives are marked by constant proximity to violence and death.

And, Towards Happy Alleys *
by Sreemoyee Singh | with Jafar Panahi, Nasrin Soutodeh, Jinous Nazokkar, Farhad Kheradmand, Aida Mohammadkhani
India 2023
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Debut film | Documentary Form
A passionate declaration of love for the cinema and poetry of Iran, which also offers a frank view of the precarious situation for critics of the regime and shows the uncompromising daily struggle of Iranian women against their oppression.

The Beast in the Jungle (La Bête dans la jungle) *
by Patric Chiha | with Anaïs Demoustier, Tom Mercier, Béatrice Dalle, Martin Vischer, Sophie Demeyer
France / Belgium / Austria 2023
Panorama | World premiere
The club as a place of endless (im)possibilities. A man and a woman are waiting here together for 25 years for a mysterious, all-changing event to occur. From 1979 to 2004: from disco to techno. A love story and an obsession.

The Burdened (Al Murhaqoon)
by Amr Gamal | with Khaled Hamdan, Abeer Mohammed, Samah Alamrani, Awsam Abdulrahman, Shahd Algonfedy
Yemen / Sudan / Saudi Arabia 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
When Isra’a discovers she is expecting another baby amid the civil war in Yemen, she and her husband decide she should have an abortion. But this creates enormous difficulties – in their relationship and elsewhere. A moving story from an all-too-often forgotten crisis region.

The Castle (El Castillo)
by Martín Benchimol | with Justina Olivo, Alexia Olivo
Argentina / France 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
The inheritance from her former boss is a poisoned chalice for Indigenous housekeeper Justina: a huge, derelict mansion in the back of beyond. Justina’s daughter Alexia would much prefer to return to Buenos Aires and work as a car mechanic. A dark fairy tale.

The Cemetery of Cinema ( Au cimetière de la pellicule)
by Thierno Souleymane Diallo
France / Senegal / Guinea / Saudi Arabia 2023
Panorama Dokumente | World Premiere | Debut film | Documentary Form
Thierno Souleymane Diallo sets out with his camera in search of the birth of filmmaking in Guinea. Charming and determined, he traces his country’s film heritage and history and reveals the importance of film archives.

Do You Love Me?  (Ty mene lubysh?) *
by Tonia Noyabrova | with Karyna Khymchuk, Maksym Myhayilychenko, Natalia Lazebnikova, Oleksandr Zhyla, Daria Palagnyuk
Ukraine / Sweden 2023
Panorama | World premiere
Ukraine at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Vivacious 17-year-old Kira witnesses her family and the country she lives in falling apart. The transformations in their lives arrive gradually but are sweeping. Their whole world is shaking.

Drifter *
by Hannes Hirsch | with Lorenz Hochhuth, Cino Djavid, Gustav Schmidt, Oscar Hoppe, Marie Tragousti
Germany 2023
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
Moritz has moved to Berlin to be with his boyfriend, but their relationship soon ends. The 22-year-old embarks on a journey filled with kinks, metamorphoses and self-discovery into the depths of Berlin’s party scene.

The Eternal Memory *
by Maite Alberdi | with Paulina Urrutia, Augusto Góngora
Chile 2023
Panorama Dokumente | European premiere | Documentary Form
When Chilean journalist Augusto Góngora is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, his wife begins to document his advancing disease on video. The film hints at the tragedy and sadness that his slide into oblivion brings for them both.

Femme *
by Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping | with George MacKay, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett
United Kingdom 2023
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
Jules is a drag artist in London. After a performance, he is brutally attacked and, traumatised, withdraws into himself. Months later, he recognises his assailant in a gay sauna and begins an affair with him, incognito. A gripping revenge thriller.

Green Night *
by Han Shuai | with Fan Bingbing, Lee Joo Young, Kim Young Ho
Hong Kong, China 2023
Panorama | World premiere
Two lone female fighters who have learned to rely on no one but themselves venture into Seoul’s underworld. In search of the big hit that could mean liberation from their useless husbands, these disparate women grow closer.

Hello Dankness 
by Soda Jerk
Australia 2022
Panorama | International Premiere | Debut film
Assembling hundreds of film clips and media images, artist duo Soda Jerk creates a startling narrative about the changes undergone by American society since Trump, while relishing in reflecting on contemporary cultural values.

Heroic (Heroico) *
by David Zonana | with Santiago Sandoval Carbajal, Fernando Cuautle, Mónica del Carmen, Esteban Caicedo
Mexico / Sweden 2023
Panorama | European premiere
Luis, 18, sees only one way to be able to provide for himself and his mother: training at Mexico’s national military academy. The rigid system of violence that is designed to turn him into the perfect soldier pushes him to his limits.

Inside 
by Vasilis Katsoupis | with Willem Dafoe
Greece / Germany / Belgium 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
After a robbery goes wrong, art thief Nemo finds himself trapped in a swanky New York penthouse. Locked in by the high-end security system and surrounded by nothing but priceless works of art, he must fight to survive.

Iron Butterflies 
by Roman Liubyi
Ukraine / Germany 2023
Panorama Dokumente | European Premiere | Documentary Form
This lesson in political revelation focuses on the shooting down of the Malaysian passenger jet MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. A meticulous, investigative exposé that lays bare the mechanisms of Russian warfare.

Joan Baez I Am A Noise *
by Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle | with Joan Baez, Mimi Farina, Bob Dylan, David Harris
USA 2023
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
This intimate and candid portrait of American music legend and civil rights activist Joan Baez interweaves images from her farewell tour with previously unseen footage and highly intimate insights into her life and emotions. Not just for Baez fans.

Kokomo City *
by D. Smith | with Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell, Dominique Silver
USA 2023
Panorama Dokumente | International premiere | Debut film | Documentary Form
A series of moving interviews and encounters with four Black trans sex workers from New York and Georgia in which they talk frankly about their experiences. Questions of belonging and identity within the Black community are candidly addressed.

Matria *
by Álvaro Gago | with María Vázquez, Santi Prego, Soraya Luaces, E.R. Cunha “Tatán”, Susana Sampedro
Spain 2023
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
A vibrant portrait of a woman in a Galician fishing village who is struggling to get by with hard work and rough charm. With her 18-year-old daughter now ready to stand on her own two feet, Ramona begins to question her life up to this point.

 Midwives (Sages-femmes) *
by Léa Fehner | with Khadija Kouyaté, Héloïse Janjaud, Myriem Akheddiou, Quentin Vernede, Tarik Kariouh
France 2023
Panorama | World premiere
Sofia and Louise are newly qualified midwives. They quickly encounter the challenges of everyday hospital life. A sensitive and searing exposé of a key profession and the ramifications of a broken health system for the individual.

Opponent (Motståndaren) *
by Milad Alami | with Payman Maadi, Marall Nasiri, Björn Elgerd, Ardalan Esmaili
Sweden 2023
Panorama | World premiere
Iman, an Iranian, lives with his family in Sweden in an ever-changing succession of refugee hostels. To increase his chances of obtaining residence permits for them all, he resumes his career as a wrestler – and is confronted with why he had to flee.

Passages 
by Ira Sachs | with Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulous
France 2023
Panorama | European Premiere
On the last day of his shoot in Paris, film director Tomas sleeps with a woman and proudly tells his husband about it. A passionate, jealous and narcissistic relationship unfolds between Tomas, Agathe and Martin.

Perpetrator 
by Jennifer Reeder | with Kiah McKirnan, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Lowell, Melanie Liburd, Ireon Roach
USA 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
On her 18th birthday, tough girl Jonny eats a cake baked by her aunt according to a magical family recipe and goes through a radical metamorphosis. As several classmates go missing, a bloody coming-of-age story takes its course.

Property (Propriedade) *
by Daniel Bandeira | with Malu Galli, Zuleika Ferreira, Tavinho Teixeira, Samuel Santos, Edilson Silva
Brazil 2022
Panorama | International premiere
When rebelling workers occupy Teresa’s family estate, she flees at the last minute in an armoured car. She is trapped, but refuses to negotiate. A thriller about the extreme disparities between social classes in Brazil.

The Quiet Migration (Stille Liv)
by Malene Choi | with Cornelius Won Riedel-Clausen, Bjarne Henriksen, Bodil Jørgensen, Clara Thi Thanh Heilmann Jensen, Dawid Ściupidro
Denmark 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
Carl is expected someday to take over his parents’ agribusiness in a rural backwater in Denmark. But, as an adopted child, he also longs to learn more about his South Korean heritage. A film about otherness and finding your own place in life.

Reality 
by Tina Satter | with Sydney Sweeney, Josh Hamilton, Marchánt Davis
USA 2023
Panorama | World Premiere | Debut film
Director Tina Satter presents a snapshot of recent US history and, using unedited original dialogue from an FBI recording, re-enacts the 2017 search of whistle-blower Reality Winner’s home as a tense chamber piece.

Silver Haze 
by Sacha Polak | with Vicky Knight, Esmé Creed-Miles, Charlotte Knight, Archie Brigden, Angela Bruce
Netherlands / United Kingdom 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
Franky comes from a rough East London neighbourhood and works as a nurse. When she falls head over heels in love with her patient Florence, her life changes profoundly. A film about coming to terms with the past, social origins and the need to belong.

Sira *
by Apolline Traoré | with Nafissatou Cissé, Mike Danon, Lazare Minoungou, Nathalie Vairac, Ruth Werner
Burkina Faso / France / Germany / Senegal 2023
Panorama | World premiere
After a brutal attack, a young nomad named Sira refuses to surrender to her fate without a fight and instead takes a stand against Islamist terror. A feminist counterpoint to current reporting from the Sahel region.

The Siren
by Sepideh Farsi
France / Germany / Luxembourg / Belgium 2023
Panorama | World Premiere | Animation
Iran, 1980. After an Iraqi missile strike, the oil metropolis of Abadan descends into chaos. Fourteen-year-old Omid, who works as a food delivery boy, is searching for his missing brother – and for an escape route out of the besieged city.

Sisi & I (Sisi & Ich)*
by Frauke Finsterwalder | with Sandra Hüller, Susanne Wolff, Georg Friedrich, Stefan Kurt, Sophie Hutter
Germany / Switzerland / Austria 2023
Panorama | World premiere
In this wild reinterpretation of the “Sisi” myth, the focus is on Austrian Empress Elizabeth’s close friendship with her last lady-in-waiting, Irma Countess von Sztáray, who falls in love with the charismatic Sisi and is captivated by her modern ideas.

Stams 
by Bernhard Braunstein | with Sophia Waldauf, Martina Ambrosi, Eva-Maria Kofler, Pascal Mair, Kevin Kirchebner
Austria 2023
Panorama Dokumente | World Premiere | Documentary Form
The ski boarding school in Stams in the Tyrolean Alps is regarded as a training ground for the best of the best. The goal: the Olympic games. Over the course of one academic year, Bernhard Braunstein takes a highly concentrated look at the young skiing elite as they follow their meticulously timed daily training regime.

The Teachers’ Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer)*
by İlker Çatak | with Leonie Benesch, Leonard Stettnisch, Eva Löbau, Michael Klammer, Anne-Kathrin Gummich
Germany 2023
Panorama | World premiere
When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.

Transfariana 
by Joris Lachaise
France / Colombia 2023
Panorama Dokumente | World Premiere | Documentary Form
An unexpected love story between a trans former sex worker and a FARC rebel begins in a Colombian prison and leads to an alliance in solidarity between trans activists and FARC militants who have laid down their arms.

Under the Sky of Damascus *
by Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, Ali Wajeeh
Denmark / Germany / USA / Syria 2023
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Experiencing violence is commonplace for Syrian women but they do not discuss the prevalence of – often sexual – exploitation for fear of revenge. A collective of young women want to break the taboo with a theatre project. But how free are they themselves?

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