The first six films for the 2014 Perspektive Deutsches Kino programme of the Berlinale include four feature films and two documentaries.

Till Kleinert’s Der Samurai is described as “a nightmarish thriller” while Johannes Naber’s new film Zeit der Kannibalen is called “an exciting and scathing cinematic feat that paints a picture of global economy in its worst human perversions.”

Lamento, produced by Jost Hering and Maxim Juretzka (BuntFilm), is an HFF Konrad Wolf graduation film by Jöns Jönsson.

Amma & Appa is a personal documentary that focuses on the wedding plans of director Franziska Schönenberger and her fiancé and co-director Jayakrishnan Subramanian. The doc spotlights the clash of Bavarian and Indian value systems

In the 40-minute documentary Raumfahrer, the observation slit in a prison transport bus gives texture to the thoughts of its passengers.

The 36-minute fiction graduation film Die Unschuldigen by Oskar Sulowski (Film Academy Baden-Württemberg), which premiered in early December at the Grand Off Independent Film Festival in Warsaw, will get its German premiere in the programme.

The complete 2014 Perspektive Deutsches Kino programme will be announced in mid-January.

“This year, I paid special attention to variety in content and cinematic aesthetics,” says section head Linda Söffker. “Directors who tell familiar stories using new images, with an interesting script, or filmmakers who take trips and find their subjects while travelling, or who explore and play with a genre, these individuals enrich young German film.”

Forum changes

Berlin’s Forum Expanded programme will include new exhibition spaces in Kreuzberg in addition to the Arsenal cinema. They are St Agnes and Berlinische Galerie – Museum of Modern Art, Photography and Architecture.

This year’s selections will focus on mid-length films, with films by Laura Mulvey, Marc Lewis and Faysal Abdullah, Omer Fast, Dani Gal and Amie Siegel.