The 2024 Berlinale Panorama programme comprises 31 titles, ten of which are documentaries. All the documentaries in selection are world premieres.
“Two works of activism from the Middle East are important humanistic and political records of our time,” the festival notes. “No Other Land by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor takes us to Masafer Yatta in the West Bank. The documentary focuses on the Palestinian-Israeli alliance of co-directors Adra and Abraham as they fight together against the forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population by the Israeli military. The film is a plea for human rights and self-determination in the hope for a peaceful future. In Diaries from Lebanon, Myriam El Hajj follows three generations in their quest to rewrite Lebanon’s national narrative. This urgent portrait of a crisis-ridden country and its courageous population is an expression of its anger against a corrupt and entrenched political elite.”
“Central Africa is also represented this year by two impressive documentaries. In À quand l’Afrique? (Which Way Africa?) by David-Pierre Fila, the established director takes us on a philosophical-meditative journey through the Central African Republic,” the festival writes. “In this personal ode to the nation and its people, Fila reflects on impressions of art, culture and colonial history inside and beyond the country’s borders. In Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night) by Nelson Makengo, parts of Kinshasa are being plagued by power cuts for months after flooding. An audio-visually overwhelming film that unfolds its narrative not only via spoken word but also as oral history through song.”
“The feminist-cinematic space between memory, coming to terms with the past and finding a possible new beginning is explored in three films. In Sayyareye dozdide shodeye man (My Stolen Planet), director Sharifi Farahnaz uses found footage and self-shot material to create an alternative reality for her home country Iran. Four generations of Ukrainian women are portrayed in A Bit of a Stranger by Svitlana Lishchynska in which the director uses her own home videos to explore questions about individual and national identity, belonging and political attitudes in the midst of the Russian war of aggression.”
“In Afterwar, Birgitte Stærmose enters into a long-term close collaboration with her cast to look at a Kosovo still held in a headlock by the past war: a stylistically impressive hybrid film ranging between harsh reality and performative self-determination,” the festival writes.
“Two documentary portraits of artists connected to Berlin also fascinate: Baldiga – Entsichertes Herz (Baldiga – Unlocked Heart) by Markus Stein is about the photographer Jürgen Baldiga who died of AIDS in 1993,” the festival writes. “Using diary entries and photographs, the film looks back in fascinating ways at the gay subculture of West Berlin in the 1980s and early 1990s. At the same time, Baldiga’s merciless chronicling of his disease makes the illness painfully tangible even in 2024. There is also a celebration of another international queer feminist icon: in Teaches of Peaches, Philipp Fussenegger and Judy Landkammer mix interviews, superb archive material and footage from her most recent world tour to create an electrifying portrait of the Canadian musician and performance artist Peaches.”
Berlinale 2024 documentary selection
- Afterwar by by Birgitte Stærmose, with Gëzim Kelmendi, Xhevahire Abdullahu, Shpresim Azemi, Besnik Hyseni, Luan Jaha. Denmark/Kosovo/Sweden/Finland. 2024. The children transform into adults before our eyes. Yet they remain in limbo, haunted by memories of the war in Kosovo. Combining raw realism and staged performance, Afterwar is a meditation on the long-term repercussions of war. World premiere.
- À quand l’Afrique? Which Way Africa? by David-Pierre Fila | with Samuel Fosso, Joseph Ki-zerbo, Simon Njami, Imam Souleymane. Republic of the Congo/Angola/Cameroon. 2024. The people of the forests pound their drums to keep their chants alive. Those of the city shriek of “Progress!” Still more rush in to seize the treasures of the land, only to be met by new voices shouting in defiance. World premiere.
- Baldiga – Unlocked Heart by Markus Stein by Markus Stein | with Jürgen Baldiga, Timo Lewandovsky, Bernd Boßmann, Ulf Reimer, Birgit Baldiga. Germany. 2024. Using diary excerpts, photographs and memories from companions, the film paints the portrait of the artist Jürgen Baldiga who sensitively and authentically captured the West Berlin queer scene of the 1980s and early 1990s with his camera. World premiere.
- A Bit of a Stranger by Svitlana Lishchynska | with Svitlana, Valentina, Alexandra, Stefania. Ukraine. 2024. Svitlana, a Russian-speaking Ukrainian, examines the colonised part of her consciousness and tries to find answers to the question of how Soviet totalitarianism and Russification influenced the relationships within her family. World premiere.
- Diaries from Lebanon by Myriam El Hajj | with Joumana Haddad, Perla Joe Maalouli, Georges Moufarrej. Lebanon/France/Qatar/Saudi Arabia. 2024. Lebanon, 2018. War, politics or revolution: these are the choices faced by Georges, Joumana and Perla Joe. Three destinies and a shared desire to rebuild a troubled country. How is it possible to continue to dream when everything around is falling apart? World premiere.
- Ještě nejsem, kým chci být/I’m Not Everything I Want to Be by Klára Tasovská | with Libuše Jarcovjáková. Czechia/Slovakia/Austria. 2024. After the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková strives to break free from the constraints of the repressive Czechoslovakian regime and embarks on a long journey towards freedom. World premiere.
- No Other Land by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor. Palestine/Norway. 2024. This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli authorities and the unlikely alliance which develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval. World premiere.
- Sayyareye dozdide shodeye man/My Stolen Planet by Farahnaz Sharifi. Germany/Iran. 2024. Farah, an Iranian woman, is forced to migrate to her private planet to be free. She buys other people’s memories in the form of Super 8 films and records and archives her own to create an alternative history of Iran. World premiere.
- Teaches of Peaches by Philipp Fussenegger, Judy Landkammer | with Peaches, Leslie Feist, Chilly Gonzales, Shirley Manson, Charlie Le Mindu. Germany. 2024. Seamlessly weaving together exclusive archival gems with dynamic tour footage, this documentary captures the transformative journey of Canadian Merrill Nisker into the internationally acclaimed cultural powerhouse that is Peaches. World premiere.
- Tongo Saa/Rising Up at Night by Nelson Makengo. Democratic Republic of the Congo/Belgium/Germany/Burkina Faso/Qatar. 2024. Tongo Saa is a sensitive portrait of the residents of Kinshasa with their faith, hopes and disappointments, immersed in the beauty of the nights in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. World premiere.
