Documentaries really stand out among the Dutch productions at Berlin
by Vitor Pinto
- Strike a Pose, Inside the Chinese Closet and Young Wrestlers are among the new Dutch titles being unveiled at Berlin this year
Several feature-length titles produced or co-produced by Dutch companies are heading to the 66th Berlinale, which unspools from today until 22 February.
The documentary genre stands out particularly, with several titles spread across the festival’s sections. Selected for the Panorama Dokumente are Strike a Pose [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan, and Inside the Chinese Closet [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sophia Luvarà. Produced by CTM Docs and The Other Room, Strike a Pose centres on the dancers who formed part of Madonna’s iconic 1990s The Blond Ambition Tour. Inside the Chinese Closet, a Witfilm production, follows a gay couple in Shangai who must face up to the opposition of their families. Unsurprisingly, both titles are competing for the Teddy Award, which recognises the best Berlinale entry with an LGBT theme.
Generation Kplus is hosting the screening of Mete Gümürhan’s documentary Young Wrestlers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a Kaliber Film production focusing on a group of Turkish teenage wrestlers aiming to go to the Olympics.
The Berlinale’s Culinary Cinema section features another three docs, all of which are directorial debuts: Marijn Frank’s Need for Meat, Maurice Dekkers’ Ants on a Shrimp and Rosie Stack's Portrait of a Garden.
In addition to documentaries, the Dutch contingent at Berlin includes The Commune [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile] by Thomas Vinterberg, co-produced by Topkapi Films and being shown in competition. Topkapi is also the co-producer of Turkish director Asli Özge’s Panorama entry All of a Sudden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aslı Özge
film profile].
The Generation Kplus section opens with the world premiere of the partly animated title Siv Sleeps Astray [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Catti Edfeldt and Lena Hanno Clyne, while the Forum will host Humidity [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nikola Ljuca
film profile] by Serbian director Nikola Ljuca, co-produced by Lemming Film. Furthermore, the film features two Dutch actors: Maria Kraakman (Schneider vs Bax [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alex van Warmerdam
film profile]) and Dragan Bakema (The Paradise Suite [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).
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