The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the final titles for its Generation sidebar of youth and children’s films, adding the animated feature Greyhound of a Girl, which features the voices of Irish actors Brendan Gleeson and Sharon Horgan; the Ukrainian documentary We Will Not Fade Away on teenagers living in the war-torn Donbas region; and the highly-anticipated German drama Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before from director Sonja Heiss to its lineup.
Directed by Enzo d’Alò, Greyhound of a Girl is an adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s children’s book about a 12-year-old girl and her beloved, joke-cracking grandmother who is nearing the end of her life. In addition to Gleeson and Horgan, the film’s voice talents include Mia O’Connor, Charlene McKenna, and Rosaleen Linehan. When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before, based on the autobiographical bestseller by actor and writer Joachim Meyerhoff about his childhood as the son of the director of an adolescent psychiatric clinic, re-teams Heiss with her Hedi Schneider Is Stuck (2015) star Laura Tonke. All Quiet on the Western Front and Drei actor Devid Striesow plays the father and clinic director.
Other world premieres in this year’s Generation lineup include Dancing Queen, a debut feature from Norwegian director Aurora Gossé, which follows a nerdy teenager at the start of a new school year, trying to overcome her demons of self-doubt and body image and dances her fears away; the comedy Autobio-Pamphlet from director Ashish Avinash Bende, which tells a tale of childhood love set against the political and social upheaval of 1990s India; and the horror-tinged Almamula from Argentine director Juan Sebastian Torales, which follows Nino, whose parents send him to a house in a small village to protect his from homophobic attacks, only to find the surrounding forest is haunted by a monster who takes those who commit carnal sins.
On the documentary side, Generation has added Hummingbirds from directors Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía Contreras, which looks at the issue of immigration over the Texas-Mexican border through the lens of their friendship; and Ramona from Victoria Linares Villegas, a portrait of a pregnant teenager living the outskirts of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
Berlin will unveil the titles for the 2023 main competition on Monday. The 73rd Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 16-26.
