World premieres of new documentaries by Mika Kaurismäki (Mama Afrika) and Peter Dörfler (The Big Eden) are among the last batch of films to be confirmed by the Berlinale’s Panorama 2011 lineup.

Section head Wieland Speck announced that the Panorama Dokumente programme will open on Feb 11 with Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius’ Barzakh, co-produced by Aki Kaurismäki, about the horrors of the war in Chechnya after the withdrawal of the Russians, while Panorama Special will be launched the same day with two films, Brazilian filmmaker José Padilha’s Elite Squad 2 (Tropa de Elite 2)and Lee Tamahori’s Belgian production, The Devil’s Double.

A day earlier and as an alternative to the festival’s Competition opening film True Grit, the Panorama’s main programme will be kicked off with French director Céline Sciamma’s second film Tomboy about a 10-year-old girl who passes herself off to other children as a boy.

Kaurismäki’s film is about Miriam Makeba, the first black African musician who won international stardom and whose music was always anchored in her traditional South African roots, while Peter Dörfler delivers a portrait of Germany’s last playboy, the 80-year-old Berliner Rolf Eden.  

Speck told ScreenDaily in an exclusive interview that this year’s Berlinale will see a unique collaboration between the Panorama and Forum sections for the presentation of the TV production Dreileben by German filmmakers Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf and Christoph Hochhäusler. The Forum will host the three films’ world premiere at the Delphi Filmpalast, with Panorama screening Dreileben as part of the Berlinale Kinotag on Feb 20.

In addition, Speck revealed that, on the occasion of the 25th TEDDY Awards, the TEDDY SPECIAL Prize will go to the South African entertainer and HIV/AIDS activist Pieter-Dirk Uys.  Julian Shaw’s documentary portrait Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story had been shown at the Panorama in 2008.

The final Panorama titles to be confirmed are:

Barzakh by Mantas Kvedaravicius (Finland/Lithuania)

Bombay Beach by Alma Har’el (US)

How Are You by Jannik Splidsboel (Denmark)

Im Himmel, Unter der Erde. Der Jüdische Friedhof Weißensee by Britta Wauer (Germany)

Leicht muss man sein, Fliegen muss man können by Annette Frick (Germany)

Mama Africa by Mika Kaurismäki (Germany-South Africa-Finland) [pictured]

The Bengali Detective by Philip Cox (UK/US/Austria)

The Big Eden by Peter Dörfler (Germany)

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