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Das Berliner Weltkinofestival hat jetzt das Programm von Wettbewerb und Specials seiner von 29. November bis 7. Dezember stattfindenden 19. Ausgabe bekannt gegeben.

Kurdwin Ayubs „Mond“ ist einer der Filme im Wettbewerb von Around the World in 14 Films (Credit: Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion)

Das Berliner Weltkinofestival Around the World in 14 Films hat jetzt das Programm für seine von 29. November bis 7. Dezember stattfindende 19. Ausgabe bekannt gegeben.

Herzstück ist nach Angaben des Festivals der 14 Filme umfassende Wettbewerb in dem der

Basis Berlin Postproduction Award für Beste Regie vergeben wird. Unter den eingeladenen Filmen von zehn Regisseurinnen und fünf Regisseuren befinden sich auch Titel, die zuvor schon auf Festivals wie Sundance, Cannes, Venedig oder Locarno erfolgreich gezeigt wurde.

Die Wettbewerbsfilme von Around the World in 14 Films im Überblick:

• „Kill the Jockey”, Regie: Luis Ortega (Argentinien)

• „Sujo”, Regie: Astrid Rondero und Fernanda Valadez (Mexiko)

• „The Village Next to Paradise”, Regie: Mo Harawe (Somalia)

• „Vermiglio”, Regie: Maura Delpero...

A plane crashes in the Amazon jungle leaving a sole survivor, a five-year-old child named Rebecca, who is then saved just in time by an Indigenous Iruaté man. Nine years pass, and Rebecca (Helena Zengel) is now widely known as a “miracle” and a faith healer, heavily promoted by her missionary father, Lawrence (Jeremy Xido). As the girl eagerly participates in tent revival sermons, two events occur disrupting the long-established routine. First, a new nurse, Denise (Sabine Timoteo), arrives and suddenly starts questioning the details Rebecca knows about her past. Then, there is the pressing matter of rising tensions between the Iruaté tribe and the loggers destroying their land, and both Lawrence and Rebecca insert themselves into this conflict. Transamazonia, which premiered at the 77th...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

A plane crashes somewhere deep within the Amazon rainforest, screaming down upon the land of Brazil’s (fictional) Iruaté people like a missive from God. By some miracle, a young white girl named Rebecca — later identified as the daughter of a local missionary — has managed to survive the devastation that killed her mother and everyone else aboard the aircraft. Still buckled into her seat after the fuselage exploded around her, Rebecca would have been eaten alive by the ants if not for the tribesman who rescued her from the rubble and carried the girl back to Christian civilization.

That fateful act of kindness will prove to be one of the few truly selfless deeds in Pia Marais’ “Transamazonia,” a potent but emotionally diffuse coming-of-age drama in which everything — even faith, even love — has the potential to be as exploitative as the deforestation that continues to eat away at the soul of the Amazon.

Deep in the Brazilian rainforest, an extraordinary story begins. As a young girl falls from the sky, only by miracle does she survive. But what destiny awaits this solitary survivor in the isolated Amazon? Pia Marais’ intriguing drama Transamazonia follows teenager Rebecca Byrne as she comes of age living among the lush jungle that once witnessed her rebirth.

Guided by missionary father Lawrence, Rebecca has emerged as a healer for the local Indigenous community. Yet shadows from her mysterious past still cling, and forces encroaching on the forest threaten to upset the delicate balance between all who call it home.

Marais crafts a mesmerizing tapestry exploring profound questions of spirituality, belonging, and humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Beautifully photographed by Mathieu de Montgrand, the lush Amazon setting becomes as much a character as any person. Meanwhile, Helena Zengel offers a captivating turn as the enigmatic Rebecca, reticent yet...

Die deutsche Filmemacherin Pia Marais bringt ihr neuestes Werk „Transamazonia“ mit „Systemsprenger“-Star Helena Zengel in der Hauptrolle zum Filmfest Hamburg. Zusammen mit dem US-Regisseur Joshua Oppenheimer, der sein fiktionales Debüt „The End“ zeigt, ist beiden eine kleine, aber feine Werkschau gewidmet.

Joshua Oppenheimer (l.) und Pia Marais (Credit: Kathreine Gowman/Daniel Bergeron/Filmfest Hamburg)

Das Filmfest Hamburg (26.9.-5.10.) widmet der deutschen Filmemacherin Pia Marais und dem US-amerikanischen Regisseur Joshua Oppenheimer in der Reihe „Gegenwartskino im Fokus“ eine kleine, aber feine Werkschau, bei der unter anderem die neuesten Werke „Transamazonia“ und „The End“ im Mittelpunkt stehen werden und es jeweils auch Werkgespräche geben wird.

Die in Südafrika geborene, aber aus Deutschland heraus Filme machende Regisseurin Pia Marais wird gerne wegen ihres Studiums an der Deutschen Film- und Fernsehakademie in Berlin der sogenannten Berliner Schule zugeordnet. Was ihre Festivalerfolge anbelangt, kann man da auch mitgehen: Ihr neuestes Werk „Transamazonia“ (am 27.9. um...

Das Chicago International Film Festival feiert dieses Jahr 60. Jubiläum. In den Internationalen Wettbewerb wurden u.a. Pia Marais‘ „Transamazonia“ und Mohammad Rasoulofs „Die Saat des heiligen Feigenbaums“ eingeladen. „Der Spatz im Kamin“ von Ramon Zürcher feiert seine US-Premiere, The Match Factory hat gleich drei Koproduktionen dort. Aus Österreich sind „Pfau“ und „The Village Next to Paradise“ im Debüt-Wettbewerb vertreten.

„Der Spatz im Kamin” (Credit: Zürcher Film)

Sowohl „Transamazonia“ von Pia Marais (hier unsere Spot-Besprechung) als auch „Der Spatz im Kamin“ von Ramon Zürcher (hier unsere Spot-Besprechung) feierten ihre Weltpremiere im Wettbewerb von Locarno. Beide Filme laufen nun auch in Chicago, genauer gesagt im internationalen Wettbewerb des Chicago International Film Festival, das dieses Jahr 60. Jubiläum begeht. „Der Spatz im Kamin“ sogar als US-Premiere („Transamazonia“ tut dies Anfang Oktober beim New York Film Festival). Ebenfalls nach Chicago wurde Mohammad Rasoulofs vielgepriesener „Die Saat des heiligen Feigenbaums“ (hier unsere Spot-Besprechung) eingeladen, der von...

Payal Kapadia’s Cannes grand prix winner All We Imagine As Light and Mohammad Rasoulof’s special prize recipient The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, along with Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Venice selection Harvest are among the international competition selections at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival running October 16-27.

A packed line-up also brings Joshua Oppenheimer’s Telluride entry The End to the International Feature Competition, along with the North American premiere of The Quiet Son from Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, which debuted on the Lido.

There are world premieres for Clarissa Campolina and Sérgio Borges’s Suçuarana...

Payal Kapadia’s Cannes grand prix winner All We Imagine Is Light and Mohammad Rasoulof’s special prize recipient The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, along with Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Venice selection Harvest are among the international competition selections at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival running October 16-27.

A packed line-up also brings Joshua Oppenheimer’s Telluride entry The End to the International Feature Competition, along with the North American premiere of The Quiet Son from Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, which debuted on the Lido.

There are world premieres for Clarissa Campolina and Sérgio Borges’s Suçuarana...

Filmfest Hamburg has unveiled the full programme for its 32nd edition, which is set to open with Louise Courvoisier’s Cannes prize-winner Holy Cow and close with Pedro Almodovar’s Golden Lion-winner The Room Next Door.

French filmmaker Courvoisier will be accompanied by lead actors Clément Faveau and Malwéne Barthelemy at the opening gala on September 26 for the German premiere of her debut feature, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes where it won the Youth Prize. The coming-of-age film will be released by Pandora Film in German cinemas on January 2.

The Filmfest’s new director Malika Rabahallah and...

Plunging headlong into the murk of exploitative missionary work and environmentally destructive capitalism, Transamazonia is a film with undeniable import and sociopolitical urgency, which its muddled narrative can’t completely dampen. Pia Marais’s fourth feature centers around American faith healer Lawrence (Jeremy Xido), who preaches the Gospel to an impoverished Brazilian village in the heart of the Amazon, aided by his daughter, Rebecca (Helena Zengel), the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed her mother. Their role in the community is troubled when a conflict arises between a local Indigenous tribe and a violent gang in the employ of the logging industry laying waste to their homeland.

Following a striking, wordless sequence in which an infant Rebecca is discovered in a rainforest clearing and carried to the relative safety of a hospital room, where her new status as a global media sensation disrupts a reunion with Lawrence, a...

Pia Marais’ Transamazonia seeks to connect us to its characters and the environment containing them, but we leave the film far more imprinted by the latter. The fourth feature by the South African-born and -raised filmmaker, she aims to create an emotionally involving story, with rooting interests for sympathetic individual and collective groups––here, the indigenous Assurini people of Trocará, Brazil. But it’s really more effective as a mood piece, the thematic clash between empiricism and superstition emanating like gun smoke from the depths of its jungle setting.

Marais is esteemed on the festival circuit but has been less well-served for theatrical distribution; her 2007 feature The Unpolished, which won the top prize at Rotterdam, is one of the more underrated debuts of its decade. A tough and tender memoir of growing up with very bohemian parents, its highly personal look at a challenging, stimulating upbringing is echoed by Transamazonia’s own plot,...

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled its lineup for the Industry Selects program of films beyond the official fest lineup and available for worldwide acquisition as each gets an in-person screening for film buyers and industry execs.

Leading the selection is Christopher Leone’s Code 3, an action comedy that stars Rainn Wilson and Lil Rel Howery and is from Wayfarer Studios; Locked, David Yarovesky’s remake of the Argentinian action thriller 4X4 toplined by Anthony Hopkins and Bill Skarsgård; and Teemu Nikki’s 100 Litres of Gold, about two sisters famous for their Finnish farmhouse.

Other sales titles headed to Toronto as part of the Industry Selects program include Allan Ungar’s London Calling, where the director reteams with Josh Duhamel for an action comedy; Mehdi Idir’s Monsieur Aznavour from Playtime Group; Korean director Kim So-jin’s Noise; and Rich Flu, directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead,...

There’s a distant, otherworldly aura to Rebecca Byrne, the teenage protagonist of “Transamazonia,” that is quite befitting of someone who literally dropped from the sky. As a small girl, a plane she was on crashed in the remote depths of the Amazon basin, leaving her the only survivor of the tragedy. Hailed by the media as a miracle child, she has since remained where she fell, carving out a reputation in the rainforest as a Christian faith healer. It’s a testament to Helena Zengel’s arresting, secretive lead performance that we’re never sure if miracles are Rebecca’s blessing or her branding. This central enigma informs the other, manifold ambiguities of Pia Marais’s intriguing environmental fable — in which religious mission work and industrial deforestation both pose threats to Indigenous identity.

Premiering in Locarno’s main competition, with a New York Film Festival slot to come, this...

"We don't trust your God." Agreed - neither do I. An early festival promo trailer has debuted for the indie film titled Transamazonia, that's currently premiering at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland underway this week. This France, Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan, Brazil co-production is set in the Amazon rainforest within Brazil. Rebecca, the daughter of a missionary, was declared a "miracle" after she survived a plane crash as a child, deep in the Amazon jungle. Years later, she has become a miracle healer, sustaining their mission thanks to her local fame and power. But when illegal loggers invade the land belonging to the indigenous people they evangelize, her father maneuvers them into the epicenter of this escalating conflict. The film stars Helena Zengel as Rebecca, Jeremy Xido, Joao Vitor Xavante, Pira Assurini, Hama Vieira, and Sabine Timoteo. This looks like a fascinatingly complex thriller, setting up dramatic stakes between two manipulators on opposites sides,...

Im Wettbewerb des gestern gestarteten Locarno Film Festival feiert Pia Marais‘ „Transamazonia“ seine Weltpremiere. Jetzt wurde der Trailer veröffentlicht.

In Pia Marais‘ von der Pandora Filmproduktion koproduziertem „Transamazonia“, der im Wettbewerb des gestern gestarteten Locarno Film Festival seine Weltpremiere feiert, spielt Helena Zengel Rebecca, die als Tochter eines deutschen Missionars im Regenwald des Amazonas lebt. Seit sie als Kind als einzige einen Flugzeugabsturz überlebt hat, gilt sie bei den Einheimischen als Wunder. Als Erwachsene ist sie zu einer Wunderheilerin geworden, die ihre Mission dank ihres wachsenden Ruhms aufrechterhalten kann. Als illegaler Holzfäller in das Land eindringen, das den Ureinwohnern gehört, gerät Rebecca durch ihren Vater mitten in den schwelenden Konflikt.

The trailer for Pia Marais’ “Transamazonia” has debuted ahead of the film’s world premiere in competition at Locarno Film Festival. “Transamazonia,” which will have its North American premiere at New York Film Festival, is being sold in international territories by The Party Film Sales. WME Independent is handling North American rights.

The film centers on Rebecca, the daughter of missionary Lawrence Byrne. Rebecca was declared a “miracle” after she survived a plane crash as a child, deep in the Amazon Forest. Years later, she has become a miracle healer, sustaining their mission thanks to her growing fame. But when illegal loggers invade the land belonging to the indigenous people they’re evangelizing, Rebecca’s father manoeuvers them into the epicentre of this escalating conflict.

In a statement, Marais said: “In this feverish setting, I wanted to work loosely with elements of suspense and genre. In moments to create an uncanny dream atmosphere.

Thirty-three films will make up the Main Slate of the 62nd New York Film Festival, including the latest from David Cronenberg, Sean Baker, Payal Kapadia, Mike Leigh, Mati Diop, Hong Sang-soo and Julia Loktev. The festival will take place Sept. 27 — Oct. 14, 2024.

“The festival’s ambition is to reflect the state of cinema in a given year, which often means also reflecting the state of the world,” the festival’s artistic director Dennis Lim said in a statement. “The most notable thing about the films in the Main Slate — and in the other sections that we will announce in the coming weeks— is the degree to which they emphasize cinema’s relationship to reality. They are reminders that, in the hands of its most vital practitioners, film has the capacity to reckon with, intervene in, and reimagine the world.”

The movies in this year’s Main Slate come from 24 different countries.

Paris-based company The Party Film Sales has boarded international rights to “Aicha,” Mehdi M. Barsaoui’s follow-up to the Venice-premiering “A Son,” and “Transmazonia” by Pia Marais (“Layla Fourie”).

WME Independent is repping North America and multi-territory deals on “Transmazonia.” Both films are in post-production and will be teased by The Party Film Sales at the European Film Market where the company will unveil promo-reels.

Set in contemporary Tunisia, “Aicha” is inspired by true events and tells the story of Aya, a woman in her late 20s who lives with her parents, feeling trapped in a life without prospects. One day, she’s involved in a bus crash while commuting to work. As the sole survivor of the accident, she realizes it could be her chance to start a new life. She flees to Tunis under a new identity, but everything is soon compromised after she witnesses a police blunder.