19 January 2022
Berlinale Selection 2021

A German film screening series by the Goethe-Institut brings the best Berlinale films to Cyprus.
20-27 January 2022, Pantheon Nicosia

Berlinale Selection 2021 is the third edition of the film series organised by the Goethe-Institut Cyprus since 2019. The series aims to bring current German cinema to audiences in Cyprus. This year eight films will be screened, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2021. For the first time, the films will be shown at Pantheon Cinema on the big screen, between 20th and 27th January 2022.

The opening film is Maria Schrader's latest film, I'm your man (Ich bin dein Mensch), starring Maren Eggert, who won the Silver Bear for her performance. The film is about the tragicomic and futuristic relationship between a woman and a humanoid robot.

Two documentary films deal with the future of our planet. Who we were (Wer wir waren), inspired by Willemsen's essay by the same name, is a reflection on the current situation of our world. Six prominent thinkers and philosophers reflect on our times and offer inspiring outlooks for the future. The Dutch-German film Silence of the Tides (Der Atem des Meeres) is a cinematic portrait of Wadden Sea, showing the fragile relationship between human and nature, captured in magnificent images and incredible sound.

Three films are about children and young people. The awarded and highly acclaimed documentary Mr Bachmann and his class (Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse) shows that school can be more than a place of knowledge transfer. In Wet Dog (Ein Nasser Hund) we experience the meaning that belonging to a group has for young people. 16 year-old Iranian Soheil hides that he is Jewish in order to become a member of a Muslim gang in Berlin. What are young people prepared to do for the acceptance of their peers? Set against the historical backdrop of the Second World War, Dear Mr Führer (Das Glasszimmer) is about betrayal and father-son relationships.

Famous actor Lars Eidinger plays the lead role in The last execution (Nahschuss), a thriller based on the life of Dr Werner Teske, who was the last person to be sentenced to death and executed in the GDR in 1981. The last execution tells the unsettling story of a man who gets caught up in the mills of a system of injustice and breaks as a result.

The film series concludes with Fabian - going to the dogs (Fabian oder der Gang vor die Hunde) by Dominik Graf starring Tom Schilling. This film shows the crazy life in Berlin after the world economic crisis. It is based on the novel Fabian. Die Geschichte eines Moralisten by Erich Kästner from 1931, which was labelled as "degenerate" by the national socialists and was among the victims of the book burnings.

Berlinale Selection 2021 is organised in collaboration with Pantheon and is supported by the Friends of Cinema Society.