‘That Kind of Summer’ Review: A Shockingly Banal Look at Sexual Obsession

Manori Ravindran International EditorWarnerMedia has struck a first-look deal with German-Turkish director Fatih Akin.The tie-up marks the first exclusive deal of its kind for Akin in his 27-year career. The helmer is best known for such films as “In The Fade” (2017), “Head-On” (2004) and “Soul Kitchen” (2009).

German-Turkish film director, screenwriter, and producer Fatih Akin has signed a first-look deal with WarnerMedia, the first such agreement the filmmaker has made in his career.

As the people of Ukraine wake up to the reality of war, many of the country’s top filmmakers and industry professionals have issued statements pleading for international intervention.

K.J. Yossman Sky have released first look images for a new Sky Original drama, “Unwanted.”Inspired by the book “Bilal,” an investigative book from journalist Fabrizio Gatti, the eight-part series tells the story of an undercover human rights defender who is helping migrants journey from Africa to Europe as they battle human traffickers and government officials.Stefano Bises (“Gomorrah”) created and wrote the series in collaboration with with the collaboration of Alessandro Valenti, Bernardo Pellegrini and Michela Straniero.

Resembling more of a personal tribute than exhaustive biography, Pietro Marcello‘s Lucio Dalla documentary, “For Lucio,” takes its title as an invitation. A rambling eulogy that is just as often confusing as it is profound, Marcello’s wisp of a film (running less than 80 minutes) may be missing key context for those not already versed in the life and music of the politically-oriented Italian singer-songwriter.

Selome Hailu To celebrate Black history month, Ava DuVernay’s indie distribution, arts and advocacy collective Array has produced “28 Days of ‘Sankofa,'” an event series where select cinemas, universities and festival locations throughout the U.S. are screening Ethiopian director Haile Gerima’s “Sankofa” for free, one screening for each day of February. In addition, Array created a free learning companion designed to help viewers process the weight of what they’re watching.Gerima is best known as one of the leading members of the L.A.

Jamie Lang SF Studios has announced that the 2021 Berlin Generation Kplus player “Nelly Rapp: Monster Agent” is getting a sequel. The original was a hit among kids and parents alike in its native Sweden and won a pair of Swedish Guldbagge Awards. Based on Martin Widmark’s popular children’s books of the same name, the film features rising star Matilda Gross as the titular Nelly, a young girl who, along with her dog London, are dragged into a world of ghosts, vampires and werewolves.Johan Rosell will direct with Jon Nohrstedt and Niklas Larsson producing for SF Studios.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentLoco Films, the Paris-based world sales and production company, has unveiled the trailer for Yulia Trofimova’s feature debut “The Land of Sasha” which is premiering today at the Berlinale, in the Generation 14plus strand.“The Land of Sahsa” tells the story of an indecisive 18-year-old struggling to pursue his desire to become a painter as his mother urges him to choose a safer career path. The sudden appearance of the boy’s estranged father complicates things further. But when Sasha has an unexpected encounter with an unusual girl called Zhenia, he realizes he has no choice but to finally grow up.“The Land of Sasha” was produced by Katerina Mikhaylova and Konstantin Fam for Moscow-based Vega Film.

An isolated house in the country, a small tribe of peculiar characters mostly keeping a wary distance from each other: That Kind of Summer (Un Ete Comme Ca) is a film set up perfectly for the pandemic era. The bonus zinger is that the house is a live-in retreat for supposedly, or maybe just possibly, recovering sex addicts. Nobody leaves, and everyone talks dirty. Denis Cote, the prolific Quebecois provocateur, must have been hugging himself when he thought of that one.

EXCLUSIVE: Isaki Lacuesta’s drama One Year, One Night (Un Año, Una Noche), about survivors grappling with trauma following the devastating terrorist attack at Paris’ Bataclan theater on November 13, 2015, world premieres in competition at the Berlin Film Festival today. Check out a clip above as a group of friends discusses messages of support they received in the wake of the tragedy.

Ben Croll Thrown into uncertainty by the tragic death of star Gaspard Ulliel, production on Betrand Bonello’s “The Beast” will still go forward, the director confirmed to Variety. Bonello and Ulliel recently collaborated on the hybrid, essay film “Coma,” which premiered in Berlin’s Encounters sidebar.A sci-fi melodrama set in 1910, 2014 and 2044 and dealing with questions of reincarnation and technology, “The Beast” was set to reunite Léa Seydoux and Gaspar Ulliel, who both starred in Bonello’s 2014 biopic “Saint Laurent.” Bonello wrote the sweeping project with both actors in mind and planned to start shooting in April.While Ulliel’s sudden passing has upended that specific timeline, the filmmaker still intends to begin production later this year, telling Variety that he will likely recast the role with a non-French star.

Love letters rarely include knock-off Barbie dolls engaging in incest, but the conventional is often off the table when it comes to French director Bertrand Bonello. “Coma,” Bonello’s latest, begins with a miscellanea of incongruent images, zoomed in and blurred, an amalgamation of amorphous shapes that exacerbates the sharpness of the accompanying words.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian director Roberta Torre, known for campy Mafia musical “Tano to Die For” and other anarchic pics, is making “Le Favolose,” about a group of transgender women who reunite after 20 years to commemorate a dead friend and do right by her after her identity has been violated.“Le Favolose,” which translates as “The Fabulous Ones,” is being produced by Donatella Palermo, who is at the Berlinale with auteur Paolo Taviani’s competition entry “Leonora Addio.”Palermo, who has a longstanding rapport with Torre, is the Italian producer behind two Berlin Golden Bear winners: the Taviani brothers’ “Caesar Must Die” and Gianfranco Rosi’s “Fire at Sea.” “When a person decides to face the [gender] transition from man to woman it can be a very painful process in several different ways: social, physical, etc.,” said Palermo, who notes that “when a trans dies, most of the time their body is returned to their families.” Torre’s new pic is based on a real-life story of Antonia, one of the “Fabulous Ones,” who is buried by her family dressed as a man under her original name, Giampaolo, amid the indifference of most.

An imaginative insight into an 18-year-old’s mind, Bertrand Bonello’s Berlin Film Festival Encounters strand entry Coma comes with a preface: it’s dedicated to his teenage daughter. It aims to both reflect the concerns of her generation and to reassure her that some kind of rebirth will come after the pressures of lockdown during the Covid pandemic. Coma stars just two actors in-camera, with voice work from Gaspard Ulliel, who died tragically earlier this year. Bonello’s introductory comments about loss feel particularly poignant after the death of his Saint Laurent star. 

The latest movie from French filmmaker Claire Denis, Fire (or Both Sides Of The Blade), premieres tonight at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Ben Croll “I asked myself, why was it so difficult to name a Quebecois film from the past 25 years that treated sexuality as its central theme?” Côté told Variety. “Why could France foster directors who filmed the human body in direct and unselfconscious ways, and Quebec could not? Were Quebecois more prudish than others?”And so the Montreal-based filmmaker started on his 14th feature, which follows three so-called “hypersexual” women, plagued with troubled histories and fragile mental states, as they participate in a month-long therapy retreat. But as he developed the script with a local sexologist, the filmmaker saw potential traps in two very different directions.“The film could never be meant to judge,” Côté explained.

Christopher Vourlias Social media, sexual politics and the struggle of a rebellious young woman to find herself are at the heart of Kurdwin Ayub’s fiction feature debut, “Sonne,” which has its world premiere Feb. 12 in the Berlin Film Festival’s Encounters strand.Set in Vienna, the story begins as three teenage girls in hijabs lip-synch and perform a provocative dance routine to a pop song. A video quickly goes viral, turning the trio into overnight sensations, especially among Kurdish Muslims.But for Yesmin (Melina Benli), the only one of the three with Kurdish roots, the sudden popularity pushes her away from both her friends and her culture.

EXCLUSIVE: Organizers of the Berlin Film Festival have told us that the world premiere screening of opening film Peter Von Kant was disrupted last night due to “a server problem”.

The first phase of plans to redevelop Piccadilly Gardens has been revealed.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Top Argentine sales and production company, FilmSharks Int’l, has picked up worldwide sales rights to Matias Lucchesi’s latest film “The Broken Land” (“Las Rojas”) ahead of its debut at the European Film Market (EFM).This will be the second time for a Lucchesi film to be present in Berlin. Lucchesi snagged the best feature prize at the Berlinale Generation Kplus sidebar with his feature debut, “Natural Sciences,” in 2014.Shot mainly in the majestic Cordillera de las Andes of Mendoza, Argentina, “The Broken Land” can be described as a thriller with Western undertones, highlighted by the soulful music of composer Hernan Segret.Drama centers on two female paleontologists, played by Argentina’s Mercedes Moran (“La Cienaga”) and Uruguay’s Natalia Oreiro (“The Unseen”), who are at loggerheads from the moment they meet. Oreiro’s character, Constanza, has come to the protected national reserve where Moran’s equally strong-willed character, Carlota, has been toiling for years.