On top of Ulrich Seidl’s competition entry with PARADISE: HOPE, the Austria’s Berlinale line-up includes two international premieres at the Forum: Gustav Deutsch’ narrative encounter with 13 of Edward Hopper’s paintings SHIRLEY – VISIONS OF REALITY; and Anja Salomonowitz’ THE 727 DAYS OF KARAMO, a documentary on bi-national couples and their struggle to defend their love against restrictive immigration laws.

 

COMPETITION

PARADISE: HOPE by Ulrich Seidl (Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion (A), Tatfilm (D), Parisienne de Production (F))

produced with Austrian support by Austrian Film Institute, ORF, Vienna Film Fund, Land Niederösterreich

Her mother in Kenya, 13-year-old Melanie spends her summer vacation in a strict diet camp set in the Austrian countryside. Between workouts and nutrition classes, pillow fights and first cigarettes, she falls in love with a doctor              40 years her senior- and in all innocence sets out to seduce him. “Paradise 3” is a „teen camp” movie thattells of the unconditionality of first love.
with: Melanie Lenz, Verena Lehbauer, Joseph Lorenz, Michael Thomas, Vivian Bartsch

FORUM

SHIRLEY – VISIONS OF REALITY by Gustav Deutsch (KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Filmproduction (A))

produced with Austrian support by: bm:ukk, Austrian Film Institute, FISA, ORF, Vienna Film Fund

The film uses 13 cinematically vivified paintings by Edward Hopper to tell the story of a woman who lives in a reality she doesn’t accept as given but rather as a made up and changeable construct and who sticks to her convictions in moments of truth.
with: Stephanie Cumming, Christoph Bach, Florentin Groll, Elfriede Irral, Tom Hanslmaier, Yarina Gurtner Vargas

 

 

DIE 727 TAGE OHNE KARAMO von Anja Salomonowitz (Amour Fou Wien (A))

produced with Austrian support by: bm:ukk, FISA, ORF, Filmfonds Wien, Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich

They met the love of their life,but love is not boundless for binational couples. The 727 Days Without Karamo is a documentary experiment: 21 couples have been filmed and share personal moments of their story. Everyone of them is only present for a few minutes in this mosaic. Together they form one complete story – of how love can rise above the written law.