The Match Factory heads to Berlin with a refugee, revenge and a funeral

08/02/2017 - The German sales agent is presenting three titles in competition at the Berlinale

The Other Side of Hope by Aki Kaurismäki

Cologne-based world sales agent The Match Factory is making its way to the Berlinale with a strong line-up that includes five festival entries, among them three competition titles. After the immense success of Le Havre [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aki Kaurismäki
film profile], Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki (The Match Factory Girl) is presenting The Other Side of Hope [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Aki Kaurismäki
film profile]. Set in Helsinki, the tragicomedy marks the second instalment in his trilogy on refugees. Scandinavia is also the place where the protagonist in Bright Nights [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Thomas Arslan
film profile] by Thomas Arslan (Gold [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Arslan
film profile]) must go to attend his father’s funeral. Together with his 14-year-old son, with whom he has always had minimal contact, he embarks on a trip to a remote region of Northern Norway.

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In the third competition title, Wild Mouse [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Josef Hader
interview: Josef Hader
film profile] by writer-director-actor Josef Hader, a man’s middle-class life spirals completely out of control when a chief editor fires a famous music critic from a Viennese newspaper. Together with his old school friend, he begins nightly campaigns against his former boss that escalate to extreme lengths.

For the Berlinale Special entry Bye Bye Germany [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Belgian writer-director Sam Garbarski (Irina Palm [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sam Garbarski
interview: Sébastien Delloye
film profile], Vijay and I [+see also:
trailer
interview: Sam Garbarski
film profile]) teamed up once again with popular German actor Moritz Bleibtreu. Set in post-war Germany, the story is about a smooth-talking businessman and his Jewish friends who are trying to make money to fund their trip to America. While business is flourishing for the talented entertainers, they start to ask questions about their German friend’s murky past. A hidden secret is also the main theme in the Panorama title Centaur [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Aktan Arym Kubat (The Light Thief [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). In the movie, a quiet family man and father becomes a horse thief owing to his belief that only a genuine horse racer riding at night can write off the curse that is punishing the Kyrgyz people.