My personal Berlinale Ranking - 2005
A ranking from films I saw at the Berlinale 2005.
Average Vote for the Festival: 6,31
Average Vote for the Festival: 6,31
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26 titles
- DirectorRadu MihaileanuStarsYaël AbecassisRoschdy ZemMoshe AgazaiA Christian boy escapes to Israel from famine-stricken Ethiopia by pretending to be Jewish.Section Panorama - 10/10
- DirectorHany Abu-AssadStarsKais NashifAli SulimanLubna AzabalTwo childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.Competition - 9/10
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsSoran EbrahimAvaz LatifSaddam Hossein FeysalNear the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children, like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.14plus - 9/10
- DirectorLuis MandokiStarsCarlos PadillaLeonor VarelaXuna PrimusA young boy, in an effort to have a normal childhood in 1980's El Salvador, is caught up in a dramatic fight for his life as he desperately tries to avoid the war which is raging all around him.14plus - 9/10
- DirectorLajos KoltaiStarsMarcell NagyBéla DóraBálint Péntek14-year-old György's life is torn apart in WWII Hungary, as he is deported first to Auschwitz and then to Buchenwald, where he is forced to become a man in the midst of hatred, and what it really means to be Jewish.Competition - 9/10
- DirectorRaoul PeckStarsIdris ElbaCarole KaremeraPamela NomveteWhen the Hutu nationalists raised arms against their Tutsi countrymen in Rwanda in April 1994, the violent uprising marked the beginning of one of the darkest times in African history which resulted in the deaths of almost 800,000 people.Competition - 8/10
- DirectorKari PaljakkaStarsHannu-Pekka BjörkmanKatja KüttnerJohannes PaljakkaAn ordinary suburban family is shattered when their youngest son is killed in an accidental fire while locked inside the family's car on their yard. Mother Marja can't stop crying, father Jaakko can't cry at all but blames himself for the fire. Their remaining son Timo develops problems at school because of his constant worries about his parents' safety. In their grief, Marja and her sister Leena have to confront an old family secret, their little sister's accidental death for which Leena has quietly blamed herself through decades.Section Panorama - 8/10
- DirectorAnna MelikyanStarsGosha KutsenkoNana KiknadzeArtur SmolyaninovSomewhere deep in Russia there's a town called Marks (named after Karl Marks, the founder of communist ideology), where all the people work in a toy factory and receive their wages in the form of toys. News from other places arrive on very rare occasions. One morning, a former boxer Boris wakes up on a train and notices the four letters: MAR_S. From his first steps in town he starts to meet new people as Grigoriy, a young dreamer who is in love with Greta, the local librarian. Her dream is to get out of this God-forsaken town. With each new step, Boris meets new people but the past is hard to escape from.Section Panorama - 8/10
- DirectorSally PotterStarsJoan AllenSimon AbkarianSam NeillIn this film, told almost entirely in iambic pentameter, She is a scientist in a loveless marriage to Anthony, a devious politician. He is a Lebanese doctor in self-imposed exile, working as a chef in a London restaurant. They meet at a banquet and fall into a carefree, passionate relationship. But the contempt He perceives as a Muslim immigrant to the UK causes him to break up with She, offering little in the way of explanation, and return to his homeland. She drags his reasons out of him little by little and tries to sympathize. Keenly feeling the loss of his love, She flies to Havana to sort things out on the beach and in the cabarets. She sends him a ticket, but harbors no illusions that He will join her in this Caribbean melting pot.Section Panorama - 8/10
- DirectorTorun LianStarsLars BrunborgTobias BøksleCeline EngebrigtsenSelma's mother died giving birth to her, and Selma's step-aunt is living proof that men only cause trouble. So the 11-year-old girl makes a deal with her best friends that they will stay away from boys and dedicate their lives to science. By the way, Selma was probably born on another planet and not meant to fall in love with anyone. But what happens when her friends break the pact, and she actually meets a boy who's not like the rest? A beautiful story about exploring and finding out about life and what you want, and how difficult this can be. Especially when "nature" works against your principles and beliefs.Children Section - 8/10
- DirectorChangwei GuStarsJing AnLi FengChangwei GuChina in the late 1970s and early 1980s: the life of an ordinary working family as seen through its three siblings.Competition - 7/10
- DirectorMalgorzata SzumowskaStarsMalgorzata BelaMarek WalczewskiTeresa Budzisz-KrzyzanowskaA pregnant 22-year-old with a dreary job, a difficult home life and an absent boyfriend learns to love her life and share this love with the child in her womb.Section Panorama - 7/10
- DirectorDon McKellarStarsDon McKellarPeter PaigeGil BellowsAn experimental filmmaker takes a job as a driver for a foul-mouthed child actor and his ambitious stage mother.Section Panorama - 7/10
- DirectorOgnjen SvilicicStarsDaria Lorenci FlatzFilip RadosVera ZimaMirjana is returning to Croatia from Germany where she spent some time as a refugee. She is pregnant. Now, when the war in Croatia is over and her visa expired, Mirjana is coming back to her family in a remote and devastated village. Her family is trying to move on with their lives after the war. They rebuild their house and they are trying to find a new husband for their pregnant daughter. Being patriarchal and devoted to their tradition they believe a woman needs to have a husband and a child has to have a father. Of course, the child and the father have to be of the same nationality. Problems start when Mirjana gives a birth to a boy with Asian features. The family and the neighbors are shocked. Mirjana¡¦s rigid father refuses to accept a grandchild of a different nationality, not to mention the one of a different race! Mirjana and her son are forced to leave. She returns only when her father falls seriously ill and requests to see his grandson before he dies.Forum - 6/10
- DirectorFruit ChanStarsBai LingMiriam Chin-Wah YeungSum-Yeung WongAunt Mei's famous homemade dumplings provide amazing age-defying qualities popular with middle-aged women. But her latest customer - a fading actress - is determined to find out what the secret ingredient is.Section Panorama - 6/10
- DirectorRobert GuédiguianStarsMichel BouquetJalil LespertPhilippe FretunA young journalist (Lespert) helps the French President compile his memoirs.Competition - 6/10
- DirectorDominic SavageStarsSamina AwanAliya BhattiMiriam AliAn English lad secretly dates an Asian teen, while a co-worker begins an affair with the girl's older brother.Section Panorama - 6/10
- DirectorYesim UstaogluStarsRüçhan ÇaliskurRidvan YagciDimitris KaberidisAyse/Eleni who is a member of a Greek family in Turkey is forced to immigrate from Trabzon to Mersin in her early ages. However, the events that happen cause her to face her own past.Section Panorama - 6/10
- DirectorErnest AbdyjaparovStarsKumondor AbylovAskat SulaimanovTabyldy AktanovDiscontentment reigns in a Kyrgyzian village: money is not flowing as expected, everyone is trying to arrange his own business, if necessary secretly.Section Panorama - 6/10
- DirectorMark Dornford-MayStarsPauline MalefaneAndile TshoniLungelwa BlouA version of Georges Bizet's Carmen, set in a modern-day South African township.Competition - 4/10
- DirectorGholam Reza RamezaniStarsMohammad Sa'eed BabakhanloMehrdad HassaniGhazaleh ParsafarHayat has an exam. Suddenly on that day her mother must take the father to the hospital outside village. Mother asks her to take care of her infant sister. What will Hayat do now? Will she stay home? or will she go to take the exam?Children Section - 4/10
- DirectorMichale BoganimStarsEsther HossidVictoria LesinaDavid VarerA voyage from the Ukraine to New York to Israel, portraying the wanderings, hopes and illusions of the vanishing Odessa Jewish community.Forum - 4/10
- DirectorBingjian LiuStarsXiaoqing LiuXiding MinZhi YinSection Panorama - 3/10
- DirectorConstantine GiannarisStarsStathis PapadopoulosTheodora TzimouGiannis StankoglouInspired by the real-life story of a bus hijacking in Northern Greece, HOSTAGE explores the sensitive issue of Greek-Albanian relations through a young Albanian who takes over an intercity bus. Upon hijacking the bus, he takes the seven passengers hostage and demands a ransom of half and million euro, and safe passage to his homeland of Albania. Surrounded by police, the bus trundles towards the Albanian border and the tension mounts until the final harrowing conclusion.Section Panorama - 2/10
- DirectorAleksandr ShapiroStarsAleksey GorbunovVladimir GoryanskiyVitaliy LinetskiyBizarre tour of Kyiv in eleven short stories.Forum - 2/10