Germany

Like an exquisitely restrained Baraka, this radiant, magnificently photographed celebration of the natural wonders of the world takes us to four pairs of places directly opposite each other on Planet Earth – including New Zealand.

Palme d’Or, Best Film, Cannes Film Festival 2012. Veteran French stars Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva are unforgettable in Austrian director Michael Haneke’s tender, wrenching story of love and death.

Eight countries, one language: drawings and digital data that move. This collection of recent animated shorts from around the world is designed to amaze and delight audiences aged 7-11 and their more senior companions.

The superb German actress Nina Hoss casts a surprising spell in this subtly shaded story of love and intrigue set in an East German village a decade before the fall of the Wall.

Compelling, seductively humorous doco about Simeon II of Bulgaria’s rollercoaster journey from boy king in 1943 to popular hero in 2001. “A mesmerizingly strange true-life tale– a documentary delicacy to savour.” — Time Out

Gerhard Richter, one of the world’s greatest living painters and now nearly 80 years old, talks about his work as a small film crew documents his creative process. “Akin to being in a museum that’s come alive.” — Film Comment

An extraordinary surreal night journey through Paris starring Denis Lavant. With Kylie Minogue, Eva Mendes. Don’t miss the sensation of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, rapturously received and wildly debated. “Weird and wonderful, rich and strange – barking mad, in fact… A great big pole-vault over the barrier of normality by someone who feels that the possibilities of cinema have not been exhausted.” — The Guardian

“Chronicling wartime events in (and under) the Polish city of Lvov, this Oscar-nominated drama uncovers an incredible true story of courage and humanity... Illuminating, provocative and bracingly unsentimental.” — Time Out

An intense, slow-burning Russian war drama that considers moral choice in the moral vacuum of occupation. “Truly eloquent and moving… Actors and landscapes alike could have come out of 19-century Russian paintings.” — Sight & Sound

A senseless triple homicide committed by two 18-year-olds during a car theft has been the defining event in a world of damaged lives investigated in this ‘rigorously humane’ (NY Times) documentary by Werner Herzog.

An intense, compelling drama following a day in the life of an underclass Romani family, set against the background of a series of racist attacks on their community. Winner of the Jury Grand Prix, Berlin Film Festival 2012.

Incisive award-winning doco interrogates the framing and persistence of the military legal system that rules Palestinians living under occupation in the same territory as Israeli citizens who live under civilian law.

Julia Loktev’s tense drama of a young American couple and their local guide on a trek in the spectacular Caucasus mountains stars Gael García Bernal. “A stunning evocation of a relationship and a haunted place.” — Cinema Scope

Australian director Cate Shortland’s superb new film brings an acutely fresh eye to Rachel Seiffert’s post-World War II story of a spiky young German girl fleeing the Allied forces with her four younger siblings.

Acclaimed, flawlessly naturalistic drama of what happens to an ordinary family when a husband and father becomes terminally ill. “This is a film that will likely return to haunt and perhaps even to succour its audiences.” — The Telegraph

A finely crafted, vividly edited and moving portrait of three friends who became part of the underground skateboarding culture in East Germany in the 70s and 80s.

A programme for the very youngest Festival-goer. We had children from three to six in mind when we selected these animated gems from around the world. Culminating in the rather scary but happily resolved The Gruffalo’s Child.

A woman is mysteriously separated from the rest of humanity by an invisible wall. Stunning alpine landscapes are juxtaposed with existential terror in this literate psychological thriller, based on German novel Die Wand.

“A daring, novelistic and unforgettable account of the real lives of female prostitutes in three very different countries and social contexts… A wrenching journalistic exploration… and something close to great cinema.” — Salon.com