2010-06-03

TV Films in Competition

House and Child (Germany)

A professor of recent German history wants a house with his wife and a child with his girlfriend. This entangles him, in a summer and winter between Berlin and the Baltic Sea, in an old story that now needs to end well. But is this possible?

Week By Week (Germany)

Miriam and Paul, the parents of Felix Weingarten, split up - amicably, as they point out over and over again. Because of fairness, they decide to share their only son equitably: one week at the mother’s, one week at the father’s. What, in the first instance, seems to be a Solomonian solution, leads to total disorientation for Felix. When his family is cut into two, his material existence doubles. The daily grind he has to cope with consists of two playrooms, two beds, two toothbrushes - but nevertheless, Felix hopes that , of all things, the fight amongst his parents, which - in spite of the intensive psychological attendance of Dr. Theodor Samel - will reunite the family.

Flight Into The Night - The Tragedy of Überlingen (Germany)

In the air above the German town of Überlingen, a Russian jet plane has a collision with a freight plane, leading to the deaths of 71 people.
On the ground, all involved have to cope with the consequences of the disaster.
The film shows how the fates of the air traffic Swiss controller who couldn\'t prevent the collision and the Russian father who has lost his wife and two children lead to a final confrontation, resulting in a second tragedy.

Emma (UK)

Beautiful, clever, and rich Emma Woodhouse is convinced she is good at matchmaking after her older sister and her governess both marry suitable husbands. No matter that, as Mr Knightley drily observes, in reality, she had nothing to do with these relationships. Yet Emma, certain of her talents, plays a dangerous game as she persuades her new friend, the young, pretty and socially inferior Harriet to reject an advantageous marriage proposal to a local farmer in favour of dashing Mr Elton. So begins a story which challenges Emma\'s naïveté, her social preconceptions, and her relationship with Knightley. Fresh and funny, this perceptive adaptation, featuring a stellar cast, brings Jane Austen\'s comic masterpiece to life.

MO (UK)

With an all-star cast, this moving film depicts the extraordinary achievements, and tragic demise, of one of the most controversial and popular figures in British politics - Mo Mowlam, whose time as Northern Ireland Secretary saw the signing of the historic Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998. In the cut-throat world of the British Parliament, you have to stand up and be counted in order to stay ahead. Labour MP Mo Mowlam has no difficulty attracting attention through her contentious comments, and when she is appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland by newly elected Tony Blair, Mo is given the biggest challenge of her career. But in a cruel twist of fate, Mo discovers that she has an inoperable brain tumour. As Mo struggles to keep her political career afloat, her marriage together, and her tumour at bay, things begin to slip from her control. This touching, funny and emotional story looks at politics, betrayal, identity and, above all, love.

Romy (Germany)

\'Romy\' is the first biographical fiction movie that portrays the dramatic life and grief of world-famous German actress Romy Schneider. The film sets out with Romy’s early childhood, and her conflicts with an ambitious actress mom and an absent actor-dad. Her mega success with Sissi, her struggle to leave the good girl/Sissi image behind, her quest for love, and the dichotomy between a family life and stardom, substance and glamour, joy of life and depression, tear the actress apart. Tragic losses, like the death of her husband Harry Meyen who commits suicide, her addiction to painkillers and sleeping pills, and her self-doubt, make her life difficult. The final blow to her somewhat shaky state of being is the accidental death of her son…

Father\'s Home (Korea)

When does fatherhood begin? Sons are obviously raised by their fathers but sometimes it so happens that fathers will see their lives changed by their sons. When a son is in distress, his dad will become a pillar of strength to help him through the crisis.

It was another tough year for many people. Some say things are worse now than they were during the Asian Financial Crisis.
Take a moment to think about how dads have coped during that crisis.

Children are precious to their parents.

We draw you into a heart-touching story of a father and his son.

Once Upon A Time The City of Fools (Italy)

When psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, an outcast in the academic world on account of his radical theories, is appointed director of an insane asylum in northern Italy, he refuses to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, letting his underlings do the dirty work of keeping the patients under control with straightjackets, electroshock and other methods better suited to concentration camps, while he continues his studies. Instead he works to free his patients, fighting the entrenched bureaucracy and beliefs of the time in an attempt to give the mentally-ill a life worth living.

The Voices of the Pamano (Spain)

1943. In the middle of Spain’s post-War period, a young schoolteacher is assigned to a small village in the Pyrenees, where he settles with his pregnant wife. Yet his idea of an idyllic life in the mountains soon fades away, as he finds himself forced to lead a double life, trapped between the town’s Falangist sector and the underground struggles of the Spanish Maquis. Fifty years later, a schoolteacher finds the notebooks in which the young man recorded the truth, which is diametrically opposed to the official history that has been passed down from generation to generation.

Wizards of Waverly Place (USA)

Wizards of Waverly Place focuses on the Russos, a typical family, which includes a mom, Theresa Russo; a dad, Jerry Russo; a son, Justin Russo; a daughter, Alex Russo; and another son, Max Russo. The kids and the family live normal lives but what their friends don\'t know is that they are wizards!

Take Ex-Wife Home (China)

There is a disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The patients have normal thoughts and feelings, but the functions of their organs are declining as if they are freezing, and the patients will finally die from suffocation.
Li Lianqiao has got ALS and lost all her family. Her ex-husband Lao Ding and his wife Jin Ling gave her their aid, but out of pride, Lianqiao kept refusing to accept it. Finally, she was stricken by the disease. She had to resign herself to fate, but meanwhile, she came to see life and death and the feelings of her family in a new light. Lao Ding and Jin Ling’s pity for her surpassed their resentment against her, and defeated death in the end. Because of the love, there was no sorrow in death. Everyone has a purer philosophy and final relief.

The Scandal of The Roman Bank (Italy)

Mattia Barba, a young journalist in search of success, is forced to close his newspaper “The Cefalù Courier” and decides to go to Rome to write freely for newspapers such as “Il Popolo Italiano” (The Italian People).
Mattia also finds himself dragged into a net of unprecedented corruption and forced to make a difficult moral choice: on the one hand, the simple, concrete ethics practised by his father; on the other, the moral code adopted by his fascinating director, caustically summed up by Diderot in ‘The Man and the Moral’ as ‘Man’s only duty is to make himself happy.’

The young Sicilian journalist is initially dazzled by his new life in the capital, by the prospect of rapid and brilliant success, and by his love for Renata, a beautiful singer. Only gradually does he realise the innate cruelty of the system, and accept that he must pay a personal price to recover his integrity and honesty.

The Magic Tree (Poland)

Once upon a time, there was a magic tree – a huge, old oak-tree. But people not aware of its power cut it down and made things out of its wood. Still, the wood kept the magic power and the strange things started to happen to the objects, when they arrived in shops in many different places around the world.
A red chair made out of the magic oak gets into one home. It can walk, fight and fulfill the wishes of everyone who is sitting on it. An accidentally expressed wish starts a series of incredible events…

The Shopping Trip (Japan)

In a quiet farming village in north-eastern Japan, there lives an elderly couple. One day, a notice about an antique camera triggers the old man’s memory of the time when he used to love cameras, and he decides he wants to go to Tokyo. When they arrive in Tokyo, they find that this city is totally different from what they expected. They can’t adjust to it well. Then a dream trip becomes a culture-clash trip. At the same time, they take photos to record everything interesting around them.