BERLIN (December 15, 2022) – Films from Ukraine, Yemen and about Iran are among the first to have been confirmed for the Panorama line-up which also features strong feminist cinema from the US. The 2023 programme manifests a worldwide trend towards transnational filmmaking in both fiction films and documentaries. Of the 14 films selected, eleven are world premieres, with a total of 19 countries involved. There are new films by Sepideh Farsi, Jennifer Reeder, Tina Satter, Sacha Polak, Malene Choi and Ira Sachs.

Panorama 2023: Tracking the Unseen. Films as Tools of Resistance

“This year features impressive independent filmmaking from across the globe. The many works by filmmakers worldwide who are using their films to defy war, systematic persecution and oppression are particularly striking. The trend towards transnational filmmaking is reflected in the numerous strong submissions. This all creates a rich breeding ground for a wide-ranging, highly topical 2023 Panorama,” observes section head Michael Stütz.

The film collective Babylon’13, which includes director Roman Liubyi, completed their documentary Iron Butterflies during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This German co-production uncovers the complex tragedy of the war with forensic precision. In her stirring animated film La Sirène, Iranian director Sepideh Farsi depicts the fateful first Iraq-Iran war, the effects of which can still be felt in Iranian society today. In Al Murhaqoon, director Amr Gamal focuses on the looming decline of a middle-class family, in a Yemen ravaged by civil war, where an unwanted pregnancy provokes many questions. All three films use their different stylistic approaches to illuminate acts of war in various periods – as well as the international repercussions and inevitable consequences these conflicts have for their civil societies.

US indie cinema is distinguishing itself this year with two particularly strong contributions: Tina Satter’s debut film Reality focuses on the arrest of the American whistle-blower Reality Winner whilst Jennifer Reeder confirms with Perpetrator her status as the genre queen of independent US cinema. Her subversive film throws conventions to the wind but knows exactly what needs to be shown to empower her characters and her audiences.

Art thief Nemo fights for sheer survival in Inside by Vasilis Katsoupis. But the merciless security system of a luxury apartment is no match for the great Willem Dafoe. Who is outperforming whom here?

Among the topics explored from a documentary perspective are a reappraisal of the film-historical legacy of the West African country of Guinea in Au cimetière de la pellicule by Thierno Souleymane Diallo; the trans*FARC alliance in Joris Lachaise’s engaging long-term observational project Transfariana; and the everyday life of the young pupils in the Stams ski boarding school in Bernhard Braunstein’s eponymous cinematic portrait.

In 2023, queer cinema will be making a particularly strong showing in the programme. On February 24, the TEDDY AWARD will be presented for the thirty-seventh time; back at last in front of a full house in the much-loved Volksbühne theatre. And, in keeping with tradition, on the final Sunday of the festival the Panorama Audience Award will be presented in cooperation with radioeins and rbb Fernsehen TV channel. We are looking forward to a festival with cinemas filled to capacity, shoulder-to-shoulder with a European Film Market that is being held as an in-person event.

Berlinale Panorama film lineup: full list of confirmed titles

Al Murhaqoon (The Burdened)
by Amr Gamal | with Khaled Hamdan, Abeer Mohammed, Samah Alamrani, Awsam Abdulrahman, Shahd Algonfedy
Yemen / Sudan / Saudi Arabia 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
When Isra’a discovers she is expecting another baby amid the civil war in Yemen, she and her husband decide she should have an abortion. But this creates enormous difficulties – in their relationship and elsewhere. A moving story from an all-too-often forgotten crisis region.
Au cimetière de la pellicule (The Cemetery of Cinema)
by Thierno Souleymane Diallo
France / Senegal / Guinea / Saudi Arabia 2023
Panorama Dokumente | World Premiere | Debut film | Documentary Form
Thierno Souleymane Diallo sets out with his camera in search of the birth of filmmaking in Guinea. Charming and determined, he traces his country’s film heritage and history and reveals the importance of film archives.
El castillo (The Castle)
by Martín Benchimol | with Justina Olivo, Alexia Olivo
Argentina / France 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
The inheritance from her former boss is a poisoned chalice for Indigenous housekeeper Justina: a huge, derelict mansion in the back of beyond. Justina’s daughter Alexia would much prefer to return to Buenos Aires and work as a car mechanic. A dark fairy tale.
Hello Dankness
by Soda Jerk
Australia 2022
Panorama | International Premiere | Debut film
Assembling hundreds of film clips and media images, artist duo Soda Jerk creates a startling narrative about the changes undergone by American society since Trump, while relishing in reflecting on contemporary cultural values.
Inside
by Vasilis Katsoupis | with Willem Dafoe
Greece / Germany / Belgium 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
After a robbery goes wrong, art thief Nemo finds himself trapped in a swanky New York penthouse. Locked in by the high-end security system and surrounded by nothing but priceless works of art, he must fight to survive.
Iron Butterflies
by Roman Liubyi
Ukraine / Germany 2023
Panorama Dokumente | European Premiere | Documentary Form
This lesson in political revelation focuses on the shooting down of the Malaysian passenger jet MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. A meticulous, investigative exposé that lays bare the mechanisms of Russian warfare.
Passages
by Ira Sachs | with Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulous
France 2023
Panorama | European Premiere
On the last day of his shoot in Paris, film director Tomas sleeps with a woman and proudly tells his husband about it. A passionate, jealous and narcissistic relationship unfolds between Tomas, Agathe and Martin.
Perpetrator
by Jennifer Reeder | with Kiah McKirnan, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Lowell, Melanie Liburd, Ireon Roach
USA 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
On her 18th birthday, tough-girl Jonny eats a cake baked by her aunt according to a magical family recipe and goes through a radical metamorphosis. As several classmates go missing, a bloody coming-of-age story takes its course.
Reality
by Tina Satter | with Sydney Sweeney, Josh Hamilton, Marchánt Davis
USA 2023
Panorama | World Premiere | Debut film
Director Tina Satter presents a snapshot of recent US history and, using unedited original dialogue from an FBI recording, re-enacts the 2017 search of whistle-blower Reality Winner’s home as a tense chamber piece.
Silver Haze
by Sacha Polak | with Vicky Knight, Esmé Creed-Miles, Charlotte Knight, Archie Brigden, Angela Bruce
Netherlands / United Kingdom 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
Franky comes from a rough East London neighbourhood and works as a nurse. When she falls head over heels in love with her patient Florence, her life changes profoundly. A film about coming to terms with the past, social origins and the need to belong.
La Sirène (The Siren)
by Sepideh Farsi
France / Germany / Luxembourg / Belgium 2023
Panorama | World Premiere | Animation
Iran, 1980. After an Iraqi missile strike, the oil metropolis of Abadan descends into chaos. Fourteen-year-old Omid, who works as a food delivery boy, is searching for his missing brother – and for an escape route out of the besieged city.
Stams
by Bernhard Braunstein | with Sophia Waldauf, Martina Ambrosi, Eva-Maria Kofler, Pascal Mair, Kevin Kirchebner
Austria 2023
Panorama Dokumente | World Premiere | Documentary Form
The ski boarding school in Stams in the Tyrolean Alps is regarded as a training ground for the best of the best. The goal: the Olympic games. Over the course of one academic year, Bernhard Braunstein takes a highly concentrated look at the young skiing elite as they follow their meticulously timed daily training regime.
Stille Liv (The Quiet Migration)
by Malene Choi | with Cornelius Won Riedel-Clausen, Bjarne Henriksen, Bodil Jørgensen, Clara Thi Thanh Heilmann Jensen, Dawid
Ściupidro
Denmark 2023
Panorama | World Premiere
Carl is expected someday to take over his parents’ agribusiness in a rural backwater in Denmark. But, as an adopted child, he also longs to learn more about his South Korean heritage. A film about otherness and finding your own place in life.
Transfariana
by Joris Lachaise
France / Colombia 2023
Panorama Dokumente | World Premiere | Documentary Form
An unexpected love story between a trans former sex worker and a FARC rebel begins in a Colombian prison and leads to an alliance in solidarity between trans activists and FARC militants who have laid down their arms