Berlin - Arab Today
New movies by Terrence Malick, Kenneth Branagh and Peter Greenaway will screen at the 65th Berlin Film Festival in February, organisers said Monday.
Unveiling the first titles that will feature at the 11-day Berlinale, as the event is known, the festival also announced entries from Guatemala, Russia and Germany.
The reclusive Malick, who won Berlin's prestigious Golden Bear top prize for "The Thin Red Line" in 1999 and the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2011 for "The Tree of Life", will premiere "Knight of Cups".
Starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman, the drama revolves around the perils of fame.
Branagh will show his retelling of the "Cinderella" fairytale featuring Blanchett, Lily James and Helena Bonham Carter. It will screen out of competition.
Fellow Briton Greenaway ("The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover") will present "Eisenstein in Guanajuato" about the legendary director of "Battleship Potemkin" and his Mexican exile.
And Andrew Haigh, director of the HBO show "Looking", about gay friends in San Francisco, will enter the competition with "45 Years" starring Charlotte Rampling in a surreal drama about a long-married couple.
Guatemala's Jayro Bustamante will show his debut feature "Ixcanul Volcano" while Alekei German will premiere "Under Electric Clouds", a portrait of contemporary Russia told through interwoven storylines.
Andreas Dresen, who grew up in communist East Germany and in 2011 picked up the Un Certain Regard award in Cannes for "Stopped on Track", will present "As We Were Dreaming", an adaptation of a bestseller about a group of wayward youths after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
US director and screenwriter Darren Aronofsky will serve as president of the jury handing out the Golden and Silver Bear prizes.
The Berlinale, running from February 5 to 15, is the first major cinema showcase on Europe's calendar for the year.
Source: AFP