Category: Berlin25

Berlin25 · cinema · EIFF25 · Interviews

Islands Interview: Jan-Ole Gerster – ‘I seem to be terrified by the idea of living the wrong life’.

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 Following on from the success of indies in his home country of Germany, writer and director Jan-Ole Gerster’s latest work Islands marks his English-language feature debut. After having its world premiere in Berlin back in February, the film screened at Edinburgh International Film Festival before going out on UK general release this month.

 Sam Riley stars as a has-been pro turned tennis coach Tom who works out of a holiday resort in Spain, usually whilst hungover from partying at the local club the night before. His hedonistic lifestyle is upended when Anne (Stacy Martin) and Dave (Jack Farthing) arrive on the scene and ask him to give their young son private lessons. What follows is a suspenseful noir mystery with more twists and turns than a Grand Slam winning rally. I took the opportunity to sit down with Gerster to discuss the piece…

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Berlin25 · cinema · Interviews

Late Shift Interview: Petra Volpe – ‘COVID came, everybody was clapping for nurses, and then we forgot’.

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Earlier this year I attended Berlin Film Festival and the final screening of my trip was the gripping Swiss-German drama Late Shift which follows an eventful day in the life of surgical nurse, Floria who is brilliantly portrayed by Leonie Benesch. It was one of my festival highlights and ahead of its UK release next month, I was fortunate to sit down with its writer and director Petra Volpe to discuss the film…

It feels like very important, especially post-pandemic, to focus a film on the experiences of a nurse. What drew you to tell this story initially?

Well, I had lived with a nurse for many years before COVID even, and I kind of observed how the conditions she worked under got worse and worse, and how it affected her deeply. I just always felt like the work I’m doing, at home writing screenplays, was so banal compared to what she encountered every day. It’s such an emotionally complex but also technically complex job.

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Berlin25 · cinema

Film review: Köln 75

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 On 24th January 1975, American jazz musician Keith Jarrett performed to a sell-out crowd at Köln’s Opera House whilst playing a broken piano. The recording has since become the best-selling solo jazz album of all time, and the gig almost didn’t go ahead. Written and directed by Ido Fluk, period drama Köln 75 tells the amazing true story of how the evening came to be – the ‘scaffolding’ supporting the masterpiece as it is put in the film’s introduction.

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Berlin25 · DVD & Digital

Film review: Late Shift (Heldin)

Garry Arnot1 Comment

 After working mostly in television across her career, actor Leonie Benesch has garnered acclaim on the big screen of late with standout appearances in The Teachers’ Lounge and September 5 – both of which see her character’s work life take traumatic turns for the worse. Her latest portrayal is in another workplace thriller as she stars in Swiss-German feature Late Shift. Written and directed by Petra Volpe, the plot follows a hectic day in the life of surgical nurse Floria at a severely understaffed hospital ward. As problems mount from challenging patients and their family members, she comes under intense pressure.

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Berlin25 · DVD & Digital · EIFF25

Film review: Islands

Garry Arnot1 Comment

 Set on the scorched island of Fuerteventura, mystery drama Islands marks the third feature from German writer and director Jan-Ole Gerster. The neo-noir plot follows washed-up tennis coach Tom (Sam Riley) who slipped through the net of turning professional, now working at a luxury resort. Spending his evenings raving in the local nightclub and his days nursing hangovers while showing tourists how to improve their forehand swing, his hedonistic lifestyle is interrupted when British couple Anne (Stacy Martin) and Dave (Jack Farthing) arrive and ask that he gives their young son Anton (Dylan Torrell) some private lessons.

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Berlin25 · cinema

Film review: If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

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 A gear shift from her mumblecore beginnings, writer and director Mary Bronstein has joined forces with the team behind the Safdie productions for her latest feature If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. An anxiety-horror of sorts, the plot follows psychotherapist Linda (Rose Byrne) whose life takes a turn when her ceiling caves in from a flood in the apartment above. With her husband out of town on a work trip, she and her sick daughter (Delaney Quinn) move into a shabby motel, and things go from bad to worse when her vulnerable patient Caroline (Danielle Macdonald) goes missing.

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Berlin25 · cinema

Film review: Peter Hujar’s Day

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 The downtown scene of New York City in the 1970s was rich in culture, innovation and edge, with key figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Fran Lebowitz, and Andy Warhol pioneering an avant-garde community of creatives. Behind many of the iconic images of this time was photographer Peter Hujar, who mostly captured his subjects in a striking black and white. Inspired by a 2021 book of the same name, Peter Hujar’s Day is the latest piece from writer and director Ira Sachs that brings to life a tape recording that was discovered years later in amongst the archives of his work. Set entirely in his Manhattan apartment in December 1974, journalist Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) and Hujar (Ben Whishaw) have an in-depth conversation where he talks her through what he did the previous day.

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Berlin25 · cinema

Film review: Blue Moon

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 It’s been thirty years since the first collaboration between actor Ethan Hawke and filmmaker Richard Linklater, when they began working on the now beloved ‘Before’ trilogy. They have reunited for period piece Blue Moon which, like a lot of the director’s work, takes place across one day – or one evening in this case to be more specific.

 Set almost entirely in a New York City bar in 1943, the historical snapshot plot centres around troubled lyricist Lorenz Hart (Hawke) after he attends the opening night of stage musical Oklahoma! on Broadway. Feeling bitter about his writing partner Richard Rodgers’ (Andrew Scott) success in his new duo with Oscar Hammerstein II, he distracts himself and everyone else around him by regaling them with stories of his infatuation for Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), a 20-year-old student who he claims is his latest protégé.

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Berlin25 · Features

Top 5 Must-See Movies of Berlinale 2025

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This year marks the 75th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, often referred to simply as Berlinale. It’s set to be a star-studded 11 days of cinema with festival favourite Tilda Swinton announced to collect an Honorary Golden Bear award and Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet in attendance to celebrate the German premiere of James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. I will be covering the event for the very first time, and have picked out five pieces from the programme that I have my eye on…

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