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New drama series from HBO Max, Amazon Prime and Sky U.K. will have their world premieres in Berlin next month as part of the Berlinale Series program, the television sidebar of the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival.
Lust, a Swedish comedy from HBO Max featuring The Bridge star Sofia Helin, Sky U.K.’s supernatural crime mystery The Rising, starring up-and-coming Danish actress Clara Rugaard, and Amazon’s Iosi, el espía arrepentido (Yosi, the Regretful Spy), an Argentinean thriller from director-turned-showrunner Daniel Burman (Family Law), have all been picked for the 2022 Berlinale Series lineup.
The Shift, a Danish workplace drama from An Education director Lone Scherfig for public broadcaster TV2, set in a maternity ward and featuring The Killing star Sofie Grabol; the Czech mini-series Podezreni (Suspicion), from Czech TV and French/German channel Arte; Icelandic crime drama Black Sands from director Baldvin Z for Channel 2 Iceland; and Québécois show Le temps des framboises (Last Summers of the Raspberries), a family drama produced for French-language streamer Club illico, were also selected for Berlin’s 2022 small-screen showcase.
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Berlin was the first major film festival to add a TV series section to its official lineup, and the Berlinale Series sidebar remains a highlight of the German event. This year’s Berlin International Film Festival is being planned as an in-person event, with the main festival running Feb. 10-16, with public repeat screenings for local audiences running Feb. 17-20.
Berlin on Friday also unveiled the final titles for its Generation section for children and youth films, which will include the world premieres of Bubble, a Japanese animated feature from director Tetsuro Araki, the Mexican drama The Realm of God from director Claudia Sainte-Luce, and Stay Awake, a look at the U.S. opioid crisis from first-time feature director Jamie Sisley, an adaptation of his short film of the same name, which premiered in Berlin’s Generation lineup in 2015.
This year’s Generation program will be the last under long-time section director Maryanne Redpath, who has shaped the Generation sidebar for nearly three decades. Her final selection is as diverse and polyglot as previous Generation lineups, including debut features from South Korea (Lee Ji-eu’s The Hill of Secrets), Australia (Sara Kern’s Moja Vesna) and Japan (My Small Land from director Emma Kawawada), alongside a broad range of documentaries, including Laura Wadha’s Born in Damascus, focused on the director’s experiences as a Syrian refugee in Scotland; the Columbian-set doc Alis from directors Clare Weiskopf and Nicolas van Hemelryck about a home for girls from the streets of Bogota, and Waters of Pastaza, from Portuguese director Ines T. Alves, which follows the daily life of a young collective living along the Pastaza river, on the border between Ecuador and Peru.
Reflecting over the time as Generation director, Redpath said she had learned to “never underestimate the young audience, that growing up can be beautiful as well as dangerous [and] that this is no time for ordinary cinema.”
Meanwhile, Berlin’s co-production market unveiled the 34 feature projects that will be presented during its 19th industry event, which runs, online-only, Feb. 12-16. Romanian director Radu Jude, whose 2021 Golden Bear Berlin Festival winner Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, was a 2020 co-production project, returns looking for backers for his upcoming feature Heia, Heia, Safari! The 2022 market also features new projects from arthouse favorites Agnieszka Holland (Spoor), Burhan Qurbani (Berlin Alexanderplatz), Sophie Hyde (52 Tuesdays) and Bence Fliegauf (Womb).
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