The Universal Theory Die Theorie Von Allem
Synopsis
Not content to let Oppenheimer ask all of the big questions, German director Timm Kröger combines old Hollywood style with heady metaphysical substance in the intellectual thriller The Universal Theory. Set in 1962 at a quantum mechanics conference in an isolated lodge nestled amid the towering landscapes of the Swiss Alps, The Universal Theory is the story of a gifted young physicist, his curmudgeonly mentor, and an enigmatic jazz pianist who knows things about our wunderkind scientist that he’s never told another living soul.
Driven by mind-bending twists, improbable coincidences, and Hitchcockian suspense, The Universal Theory is a captivating nesting doll of a film that nods to the German masters of old Hollywood and considers the metaverse theory from a refreshingly intelligent point of view. Kröger — himself also a cinematographer — films his tale with an eye for the majestic natural beauty that surrounds our characters, effectively evoking both the paranoid postwar era and the brain-tickling complexity of theoretical physics.
Screenings & Events
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Film Credits
- Heino Deckert, Tina Börner, Viktoria Stolpe, Timm Kröger, Lixi Frank, David Bohun, Sarah Born, Rajko Jazbec, Dario Schoch
- Roderick Warich, Timm Kröger
- Jann Anderegg
- Roland Stuprich
- Jan Bülow, Olivia Ross, Hanns Zischler, Gottfried Breitfuss, David Bennent, Philippe Graber
- Diego Ramos Rodríguez
- Ma.ja.de Fiction, The Barricades, Panama Film, Catpics
Sponsors
International Competition Program Sponsor
John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Foundation
Film Supporter
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The Teachers’ Lounge Das Lehrerzimmer
Synopsis
When Carla Nowak, a dedicated sports and math teacher, starts her first job at a high school, she stands out for her idealism. Then, one of her students is suspected in a series of thefts at the school, and Carla decides to investigate the matter on her own. Carla tries to mediate between outraged parents, opinionated colleagues and aggressive students, but is relentlessly confronted with the rigid structures of the school system. The more desperately she tries to do everything right, the more the young teacher threatens to break.
This gripping drama about conformity, racism, and rebellion — Germany’s entry into the Oscars — is an incisive look at the rapidly shifting power dynamics and complex search for truth in contemporary society.
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Film Credits
- Ingo Fliess
- İlker Çatak, Johannes Duncker
- Gesa Jäger
- Judith Kaufmann
- Leonie Benesch, Michael Klammer, Rafael Stachoviak, Anne-Kathrin Gummich, Eva Löbau, Kathriin Wehlisch, Sarah Bauerett, Leo Stettnisch, Oscar Zickur, Antonia Küpper, Elsa Krieger, Vincent Stachowiak, Can Rodenbostel, Padmé Hamdemir, Lisa Marie Transe
- Marvin Miller
- if...Productions
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The Promised Land Bastarden
Synopsis
In 18th-century Denmark, Ludvig Kahlen (played by a rugged, windswept Mads Mikkelsen) lives with purpose and determination. After retiring from the army, he hopes to curry favor with the Danish king by embarking on a quest to settle and cultivate the unforgiving Jutland. All previous attempts to tame the heath have ended in utter failure, and the soil is thought to be hostile to crops.The harsh natural conditions aren’t the only thing standing in Ludwig’s way, however, and he soon begins to butt heads with a local landowner who worries that the settlers’ successful harvest will diminish his own power and influence.
Majestic landscape photography is punctuated with bursts of thrilling action as The Promised Land’s characters careen towards bloody confrontation.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Louise Vesth
- Anders Thomas Jensen, Nikolaj Arcel
- Oliviér Bugge Coutté
- Rasmus Videbæk
- Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Gustav Lindh, Kristine Kujath Thorp, Simon Bennebjerg
- Zentropa Entertainment
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The Echo El Eco
Synopsis
In the small rural Mexican village of El Eco, a teenage girl, Montse, dutifully works alongside her family, caring for the sheep and her grandmother with the same sense of curiosity and devotion. While frost and drought punish the land, she learns the ways of life and death. As in her auspicious fiction feature Prayers for the Stolen, with this lyrical coming-of-age docu-fable acclaimed Mexican-Salvadorean filmmaker Tatiana Huezo beautifully captures both the preciousness of adolescence and the region’s unforgiving elements.
Exquisitely textured and deeply empathetic, The Echo unfolds like a dream, shifting between the sweet and the dark. In sumptuous, vivid images, Hueso observes how children’s lives in these hardscrabble towns mirror those of their parents and grandparents in a generational cycle of struggle and hope.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Tatiana Huezo, Dalia Reyes
- Tatiana Huezo
- Lucrecia Gutiérrez (AMEE), Tatiana Huezo
- Ernesto Pardo
- Montserrat Hernández Hernández, Luz María Vázquez González, Sarahí Rojas Hernández, María de los Ángeles Pacheco Tapia
- Leonardo Heiblum, Jacobo Lieberman
- Maya Scherr-Willson
- Radiola films
- https://lineup.the-match-factory.digital/berlinale-23/the-echo
Sponsors
Documentary Program Sponsors
Cynthia Stone Raskin
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waking up in silence [short film]
Mila Zhluktenko, Daniel Asadi FaeziGermany, Ukraine
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Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara Rapito
Synopsis
A shocking, emotionally wrenching melodrama taken straight from the pages of history, Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara tells the story of Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old Jewish boy in Bologna who was stolen from his parents to be raised by the Catholic Church in 1858. Edgardo was secretly baptized when he was a baby, according to his nurse, stoking anti-Semitic fears that he would be “sacrificed” by his parents for this transgression. His parents try desperately to get their son back, but the conspiracy to claim the child for Catholicism goes all the way to Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon).
Veteran director Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket) handles Edgardo’s story with a blend of righteous anger and sumptuous craftsmanship, for a film that makes a lasting impression both through its story and its style.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Beppe Caschetto, PaoloDel Brocco, Simone Gattoni
- Francesca Calvelli, Stefano Mariotti
- Francesco Di Giacomo
- Enea Sala, Leonardo Maltese, Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Filippo Timi, Fabrizio Gifuni
- Fabio Massimo Capogrosso
- Maurizio Feverati, Alessio Lazzareschi
- Kavac Film
- https://cohenmedia.net/product/kidnapped
Sponsors
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