Berlin 2022

The first thing to note about Everything Will Be OK, world-premiering in Berlinale Competition, is that you will have never seen anything quite like it. And that in itself should be enough to make you want to experience the latest work by Cambodia’s leading arthouse filmmaker, in which animals in the near future have taken over the role of totalitarian tyrants that we, as humans, have so far reserved for ourselves.

Young love has been a mainstay of film and television drama for many years, but rarely, if ever, has it made the transition to documentary. The delicate, challenging and complex emotions that define young love are at the gentle heart of this film from Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes, a hybrid film that is honest and subtly moving without ever being exploitative or traumatic.

As the song goes, diamonds are forever…but are they? They may well represent the grandest of romantic gestures and are often priced as the most expensive bauble a person might own, but as Jason Kohn’s fascinating and provocative documentary examines, the little-discussed infiltration of the jewellery market by synthetic diamonds could have massive implications in years to come.

A real-life, distinctly non-glitz version of 'Fame', but with a lot more drama and a lot less sentimentality, Rookies gives you all you could ask for: bright, beautiful, young people with layered and complex personalities, a compelling story line, failure and success, meaningful relationships…and bucketloads of energetic hip hop.

Two years on from the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE) launch at Berlinale 2020, co-directors Brigid O’Shea and Marion Schmidt remind Business Doc Europe of the association’s raison d’être, explain its modus operandi, underline the importance of docfests both as thought hubs and venues for business/creative interaction, and give an overview of DAE activities during Berlin 2022.

The first film selected for Berlinale from the Central African Republic, We, Students! is a complex study both of the country’s youth and a university education system which is both physically rundown and seemingly blighted by corruption. Director Rafiki and producer Boris Lojkine speak to Business Doc Europe.

Nelly & Nadine (a world premiere this month in Berlin) is one of several films that Swedish director Magnus Gertten has been inspired to make using remarkable newsreel footage shot in his home town of Malmö at the end of the Second World War. He explains more to Business Doc Europe.

With no Doc Salon in 2022, Dennis Ruh, Director of the European Film Market, and Martina Valentina Baumgartner, EFM Documentary Coordinator, answer questions posed by Business Doc Europe about how they plan to tackle docs, the needs of doccers and all issues pertaining to the documentary sector during the upcoming edition, running 10-17 February.

Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok in Main Competition, three world premiere documentaries in Encounters and six docs in Berlinale Special section, including Lucrecia Martel’s Terminal norte (North Terminal) and a world prem of Andrew Dominik’s This Much I Know To Be True, with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

“It’s a meditation on trans humanity, and I’ve never seen another film like it,” comments Canadian actor, producer and activist Elliot Page about Nicolò Bassetti’s new film, a coming-of-age story about four friends who share important turning points in their lives and their gender transition. The film is set to world premiere in Berlinale Panorama.