Snapshots from Berlin

Antboy – Revenge of the Red Fury, Ask Hasselbalch's second film about Pelle who develops superpowers when he is bitten by a genetically engineered ant, had its international debut on Monday, 9 February, in the Berlinale's Generation Kplus. Also in the children's competition is Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist Møller's animation featureMini and the Mozzies, premiering Wednesday. Both films are competing for a Crystal Bear for best film, awarded by the children's jury on Saturday, 14 February.

This year's list of Danish films at the Berlin Film Festival includes a wide scope of titles – and quite a number of documentary films.

Vladimir Tomic on stage after the screening of his documentary "Flotel Europa" with his two producers, Srdjan Keca and Selma Jusufbegovic.

Stories from Real Life

More precisely, six documentaries passed through the eye of the needle into the Berlinale, including stories from Indonesia, Oklahoma and North Korea, personal narratives and artist's portraits, films by young talents and veteran filmmakers:

Joshua Oppenheimer's acclaimed second half of his Indonesian diptych,The Look of Silence, screens as part of Berlinale Special, while the director himself is on the Best First Feature jury. Jannik Splidsboel's Misfits in Panorama Dokumente follows three teenagers coming out in the Bible belt, and Vladimir Tomic's memories from growing up on a refugee ship is depicted in Flotel Europa, showing in Forum.

Niels Stokholm (left) did a Q&A after the screening of "Good Things Await" with American chef and food activist Alice Waters, and the president of the Slow Food movement Carlo Petrini.

Christian Braad Thomsen'sFassbinder – To Love without Demands, in Panorama Dokumente, is the director's homage to his friend and artistic soul mate Rainer Werner Fassbinder, based on unpublished interviews he shot with Fassbinder in the 1970s. Vibeke Bryld's Pebbles at Your Door, about a North Korean woman's rude awakening, is in Berlinale Shorts, competing for a Golden or a Silver Bear, to be revealed Saturday evening, 14 February, at the official awards gala.

Finally, Phie Ambo's Good Things Await opened the tenth edition of Culinary Cinema, a perfect fit for Ambo's film portraying an idealistic farmer, Niels Stokholm, and his ideas about sustainable agriculture.

TV Series Join In

For the first time Danish TV dramas are part of the line-up, reflecting the festival’s focus this year on the serial format.

The first five episodes of Heartless are showing in Generation 14plus as a Special Screening on Berlinale Publikumstag Sunday, 15 February. The story about siblings Sofie and Sebastian who are subject to a centuries-old curse aired in Denmark in April and is created by director Natasha Arthy ("Fighter," in Generation 2008) and scriptwriter Nikolaj Scherfig, who holds a strong card in writing for TV ("The Bridge").

Follow the Money, produced by national broadcaster DR ("The Killing" and "Borgen"), world premiered at the Berlinale, screening episodes one and two in the Berlinale Special Series on Tuesday, 10 February. Written by Jeppe Gjervig Gram ("Borgen") and directed by Per Fly ("Waltz for Monica"), the series investigates the white collar crimes behind the global fiscal crisis. Read about sales in Berlin, by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Ten Shooting Stars, with Joachim Fjelstrup (far left).

Young Actor in the Spotlight

And then it's time to learn the name Joachim Fjelstrup. The 27-year-old actor landed his first film role as the lead in Ole Christian Madsen's feature "Itsi Bitsi" (world premiere in Toronto) straight out of acting school.

Fjelstrup is one of the ten European acting talents getting the red-carpet treatment under the Shooting Stars umbrella.

Director of "Sumé", Inuk Silis Høegh, shot at Kino International in Berlin. Photo: Brigitte Dummer

Four Co-productions

Finally, these international collaborations have Danish producers on board:

Iceland's Virgin Mountaindirected by Dagur Kári and co-produced by Nimbus Film is in Berlinale Special, and Greenland's Sume – The Sound of a Revolution by Inuk Silis Høeg and Danish co-producer Bullitt Film screens in Panorama Dokumente as the first Greenlandic film ever to be selected for the Berlinale.

The US major The Yes Men Are Revoltingby Laura Nix, Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum is co-produced by Chili Film and selected for Panorama Dokumente, while Argentina's The Mad Half Hour, in Berlinale Shorts, is directed by Leonardo Brzezicki and co-produced by CPH:LAB.

Read about all the films in our magazine FILM: www.dfi.dk/film

The Scandinavian Film Institutes at the European Film Market during the Berlinale 2015.

Antboy: Revenge of The Red Fury

Ask Hasselbalch, 2014

Antboy has defeated his archenemy The Flea, who is now locked away in a padded cell. He is more popular than ever and enjoying life as a superhero. But his powers are useless against Christian, the new boy in school.

Mini and the Mozzies

Flemming Møller, Jannik Hastrup, Flemming Quist Møller, 2014

The mini beetle Mini appears in a flea circus together with Egon and Dagmar. The flea-girl Miranda bullies Mini and tricks him into interfering in Dagmar's line dancing, making her fall and sprain her foot. Deeply ashamed, Mini runs away and meets a gang of robbers.

Fassbinder - to love without demands

Christian Braad Thomsen, 2015

Danish film director Christian Braad Thomsen was a close friend of Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-82). They met when Fassbinder showed his first film "Love is colder than death" at the Berlinale 1969 and saw each other for the last time just three weeks before he died. This documentary is based on lengthy film interviews that Braad Thomsen shot with Fassbinder in the 1970's, and which have never been published.

Misfits

Jannik Splidsboel, 2015

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, between two of the city's two thousand churches, you find OpenArms Youth Project - the city's only youth center welcoming gay and transgender teenagers that have decided to come out in the middle of the Bible Belt. These kids are considered misfits, as their wicked lifestyle does not fit into Tulsa's conservative and religious society. Misfits is a film about being yourself, even though that choice may cause great personal costs.

Flotel Europa

Vladimir Tomic, 2015

In 1992, a wave of refugees from the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina reached Denmark. With refugee camps completely full, the Red Cross pulled a giant ship into the canals of Copenhagen. The ship, Flotel Europa, became a temporary home for a thousand people waiting for decisions on their asylum applications.

Pebbles at Your Door

Vibeke Bryld, 2015

"If we lived in Paradise, we would no longer need hope." Harmonia lives a happy life in North Korea, but her reality cracks as she learns the truths she has never wanted to know. In the end, she faces a choice of living in a broken paradise of lies and deception or treading the unknown, lonely path of the real world outside.

The Look of Silence

Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014

Through Joshua Oppenheimer's footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence.

Heartless 1

Natasha Arthy, 2014

The unusual siblingsSebastian and Sofie have a mysterious, dark and fatal secret: In order to stay alive they are forced to suck the life force from the people around them, just as a vampire sucks blood. Sometimes they cannot control this instinct and their victims risk going up in flames! Where Sofie is outgoing, somewhat cynical and does whatever is necessary to keep herself and her brother alive, Sebastian is burdened with guilt over the consequences and costs of the curse. In their search for answers, they are lead to the dark and traditional boarding school, Ottmannsgård, and suddenly they find themselves juggling between everyday teen life and their instinct desire.

Good Things Await

Phie Ambo, 2014

Niels is one of the last idealistic farmers in the agricultural country of Denmark. He makes some of the world's finest products, praised by the consumers, prized by the world's best restaurant, NOMA in Copenhagen, and nursed in harmony with the universe. But Niels' ways of farming in accordance with the planets and the primal instincts of the animals are not too popular with the authorities.