BERLIN: Israeli director Nadav Lapid has scored a slot in the main competition at Berlinale with his third outing Synonyms/ Synonyme, a French, Israeli, German coproduction.  The semi-autobiographical story has its roots in Lapid’s own experiences in trying to integrate himself into the French and more specifically Parisian culture and opens up a highly relevant questions about identity, immigration and fitting into a new and different culture.

BERLIN: Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska has put his country on the European film map with Macedonia / Belgium / Slovenia / Croatia / France coproduction God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya which has scored a slot in the main competition at this year’s Berlinale. Mitevska is not newcomer.  This is her fifth feature and her previous outing When the Day Had No Name premiered in the Panorama two years ago so she is no stranger to Berlinale either. But this is her most focused and successful film to date and the main competition slot is well deserved.

BERLIN: Veteran Polish director Agnieszka Holland delivers a strong Berlin competition entry with Mr Jones a Polish, UK, Ukrainian coproduction that is sure to draw widespread attention because of the true story it’s based on as well as the renown of its director.

BERLIN:German director Angela Schanelec’s Berlin Golden Bear contender I Was At Home But/ Ich war zuhause, aber is a small scale domestic drama about a middle-class family in crisis.  The Berlinale main competition slot will bring more followers to this director whose previous films have already done the rounds of the festival circuit. But a German female director in the main competition in the Berlinale is already a reason to focus attention on a film that is sure to divide critics and audiences between those who will consider it pretentious and those who are ready to see a more profound meaning behind its basic storyline.

BERLIN: German Turkish director Faith Akin has scored a slot in the competition lineup with The Golden Glove, a grim, violent story that reconstructs the case of 1970s serial killer Fritz Honka.  Akin is a favourite with festival audiences and a winner of the Berlinale Golden Bear in 2004 with his film Head-On but this unremittingly dark story based on Heinz Strunk’s 2016 crime novel, about a socially depraved, violent criminal, driven by misogyny, sexual greed and sentimentality will leave many of Akin’s fans scratching their heads and wondering where the humour, charm and irony of his previous films has gone.