Since 2018, the Berlinale funding initiative World Cinema Fund (WCF) has presented a Berlinale Spotlight at the “Around the World in 14 Films” festival (December 1-10, 2022). At its 17th edition, “Around the World in 14 Films” will present an all-day Berlinale Spotlight: World Cinema Fund with five outstanding WCF-funded films on December 4th.
In 2022, the focus is on films from Argentina, Indonesia, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey: Trenque Lauquen Part 1 and Part 2 by Laura Citarella (Argentina), The Dam by Ali Cherri (Lebanon), Under the Fig Trees by Erige Sehiri (Tunisia), Burning Days by Emin Alper (Turkey) and Autobioghraphy by Makbul Mubarak (Indonesia). Another festival film, When the Waves are Gone by Lav Diaz (Philippines), also received WCF funding and will screen in the competition section of “Around the World in 14 Films”.
Laura Citarella has already garnered praise as a producer – in the Argentinian film collective “El Pampero Cine” and of the monumental work La Flor (also funded by the WCF) – and now, as a director, she presents Trenque Lauquen, an original and playful film that deconstructs and re-organises genre conventions.
The Dam was filmed in North Sudan and is the newest film by Lebanese installation artist Ali Cherri, whose works are exhibited worldwide. In individual chapters, The Dam examines how various forces influence the fate of societies and nature.
Under the Fig Trees, the fiction film debut by female director Erige Sehiri, is the portrait of a group of summer workers during the fig harvest. The film is Tunisia’s Academy Award submission for 2023 and celebrated its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Finally, the Berlinale Spotlight will present Autobiography, the cinematic debut by film critic Makbul Mubarak in which he relates his childhood during the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia. Autobiography received the FIPRESCI award at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.
