09/02/2010

German sales company Beta Cinema has announced it has four international premieres on its catalogue for the Berlinale EFM, promising a whole range of surprising flavours.

David Pinillos’ Bon Appétit sets the tone. This English-language Swiss/German/Spanish co-production (piloted by Morena Films, Orio Produkzioak, Zodiak Pictures and Egoli Tossell Film) centres on two outstanding chefs (played by Unax Ugalde and Giulio Berruti) and an attractive female sommelier (Nora Tschirner) in a leading Swiss restaurant.

Meanwhile, Bjoern Richie Lob’s debut documentary feature Keep Surfing, which was also written, lensed and produced by the director (with Tobias Siebert, in co-production with DIE BASISberlin) and won the Audience Award at Munich, focuses on Munich’s surfing community, who rediscover ocean sensations in freshwater. Prokino will launch the film on German screens this spring.

Su Turhan’s Ayla, produced in Germany by Burkert Bareiss and TV 60 Film, tells the love story between a Turkish-German woman who has broken with the traditions of her family’s culture and a man who represents all she has rejected.

Au Revoir Taipei by US/Taiwanese director Arvin Chen (winner of a Silver Bear in 2007), which was associate-produced by Wim Wenders, is a story of love and crime partly set in Paris. This title will screen in the Forum section.

In the German section, Beta Cinema will also present Swiss director Alain Gsponer’s Lila, Lila [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Daniel Bruehl, Hannah Herzsprung and Henry Hübchen (Whisky with Vodka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andreas Dresen
film profile]); Lancelot von Naso’s Ceasefire; Simon Verhoeven’s German box office champion Men In the City [+see also:
trailer
film profile], featuring Til Schweiger and Nadja Uhl; and Kaspar Heidelbach’s Berlin '36, whose cast includes Karoline Herfurth. These films have all won accolades at several festivals.

(Translated from French)