Berlin Festival’s Generation Section Announces First Titles

COLOGNE, Germany – The Berlin Film Festival’s Generation sidebar has announced the first fourteen films in its 2012 lineup, with titles from as far away as Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea but the bulk coming from near-by European countries.

One U.S. film made the cut: Rebecca Thomas’s Electrick Children starring Julia Garner, Rory Culkin and Billy Zane will have its world premiere in Berlin’s Generation Kplus section. The film is set in a fundamentalist Mormon community and centers on a 15-year-old girl who gets pregnant, she believes, because of listening to forbidden rock music.

A similarly-themed story of youthful sexual rebellion can be found in Chilean feature Young & Wild from director Marialy Rivas which focuses on the sexually adventurous Daniela who is caught between her desire and the strictures of her Evangelical upbringing.

Other Kplus titles (intended for the 14 and over crowd) include Swedish drama The Crown Jewels from director Ella Lemhagen (Patrik, Age 1.5) which features Swedish stars Bill Skarsgard and Alicia Vikander; Love Is In The Air from Denmark’s Simon Staho (Day and Night) and Mustafa’s Sweet Dreams, a docufiction directed by Angelos Abazoglou about the ambitious Mustafa, who wants to become the best baklava baker in all of Turkey.

Mustafa will have its world premiere in Berlin, as will Dutch feature Kauwboy from Boudewijn Koole and Mexican drama A Secret World by Gabriel Marino.

Generation’s European and international premieres include Alice Schmid’s Swiss documentary The Children from the Napf; the Estonia children’s film Lotte and the Moonstone Secret; Indonesian drama The Mirror Never Lies from director Kamila Andini; Dutch feature Taking Chances; Israeli/French co-production Off White Lies; Korean school drama Punch and Rommel Tolentino’s Nono, the story of Philippine slum boy Toto.

The Generation section will announce its full 2012 lineup early next year.