Writer/director Sanna Lenken (pictured) who was at the 2013 Berlinale with her short film Eating Lunch, comes back in the Generation Kplus section with her first feature length My Skinny Sister, dealing as well with eating disorders. The film produced by Annika Rogell (Story AB) centres on 12 year-old Stella who wants to be like her older sister Rebecka (played by pop singer/TV presenter Amy Diamond). But the latter suffers from anorexia and starts manipulating her family. “To go to Berlin is the start we had hoped for as it’s one of the best festivals in the world. We’re very happy to be back with Sanna’s first feature”, said Rogell. My Skinny Sister will open in Sweden in the fall 2015.
Flocking (Flocken) screening at Generation 14Plus is Beata Gårdeler’s second feature after Into Your Veins. Her new drama about bullying is directed and produced by Agneta Fagerström Olsson (2afilm). Dyke Hard screening at the Panorama is described by the festival’s sidebar as a ‘zany, quasi musical of post-punk lesbo rock’n’ roll calibre: underground fun at its purest’. First timer Bitte Anderson directs and Filmlance International is producing.
Denmark is bringing to Generation KPlus the animation film Mini and the Mozzies (Cykelmyggen og minibillen) by Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist Møller . Tegnefilm 2 is producing and TrustNordisk handles sales. The documentary film Fassbinder-to Love without Demands brings for the first time to the general public exclusive footage of the German master Rainer Werner Fassbinder taken by his friend, Danish director/writer/distributor Christian Braad Thomsen.
Norway is presenting Ole Giæver’s Out of Nature (Mot naturen) at the Panorama section where the director had his breakthrough in 2011 with his debut The Mountain. Mer Film is producing and NDM handles sales.
Norway’s Ape & Bjørn is minority co-producer of top Haitian director Raoul Peck’s drama Murder in Pacot, screening at the Panorama, while Finland’s Edith Film is co-producing iconic British director Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato vying for the Golden Bear. Finnish actor Elmer Bäck plays the legendary Russian filmmaker Sergej Eisenstein while he was in the Mexican city of Guanajuato in 1931 for the filming of Que Viva Mexico!
The final selection of titles in the Generation and Panorama sections will be announced in January 2015. The Berlinale runs February 05-15, 2015.