Doha: Doha Film Institute continues to make an impact globally with eight films supported through its Grants programme selected for the 75th edition of the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) to be held from February 13 to 23. The films have been chosen for the Competition section as well as Critics’ Week, Forum Expanded, and Generation Kplus, as well as in Panorama.
According to Qatar News Agency, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Film Institute Fatma Hassan Alremaihi stated, “The selection of these films at the Berlin Film Festival is a testament to the incredible talent and creativity of young filmmakers from across the world, that stand out for their diversity of themes and their innovative approach to storytelling. It reflects our commitment to supporting filmmakers who are pushing boundaries and telling compelling stories that resonate globally. At Doha Film Institute, we believe in the power of cinema to bridge cultures and inspire change, and this achievement reaffirms our mission to elevate voices that deserve to be heard.”
The DFI-supported films at Berlinale 2025 include “Yunan” (Palestine, Germany, Canada, Italy, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) by Ameer Fakher Eldin, screening in the Competition section, the centrepiece of the festival presenting about 20 selections annually. The film follows Munir, a renowned Arab author exiled in Germany, burdened by psychological torment and plagued by hauntingly vivid dreams. Desperate and despondent, he embarks on a journey to a remote island, encountering Valeska, a wise elderly woman, and her steadfast son, Karl, whose presence unexpectedly radiates hope and redemption.
“Ancestral Visions of the Future” (Lesotho, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, screening in the Berlinale Special segment, is a poetic allegory of the filmmaker’s childhood, an ode to cinema, and an inner nod to his mother. Through fragmented narratives and mythic imagery, Mosese crafts a haunting reflection on dislocation and belonging.
In the Perspectives programme, Mohamed Rashad’s “The Settlement” (Egypt, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) follows Hossam, who gives up his thuggish lifestyle to provide for his sick mother and brother Maro after their father’s death. Hossam works at the same factory as his father and begins to question whether his father’s death was accidental.
Featured in the Forum Expanded is “My Armenian Phantoms” (Armenia, France, Qatar) by Tamara Stepanyan, a tribute to the director’s father, Vigen Stepanyan, a beloved theatre and film actor in Armenia.
Screening in Generation Kplus, a programme showcasing state-of-the-art international cinema, is “The Botanist” (China, Qatar) by Jing Yi, about a lonely Kazakh boy named Arsin in the valley villages of the northern border of Xinjiang, who is obsessed with plants. Through his fascination with the plant world, he recounts memories of his nomadic family in contemporary times.
The two films in the Panorama section include “Yalla Parkour!” (Palestine, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) by Areeb Zuaiter, about Ahmed, who aspires to become an international Parkour champion despite the blockade troubling Gaza, and “Khartoum” (Sudan, UK, Germany, Qatar) by Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, and Phil Cox, where four Sudanese filmmakers mix observational documentary, innovative graphics, archives, and animation to capture the lives of four real characters surviving in the war-torn metropolis of Khartoum.
Selected for the Critics’ Week is “East of Noon” (Egypt, Netherlands, Qatar) by Hala Elkoussi, a satire on the inner workings of an ailing autocracy and its vulnerability to youth’s unchained vision of a better world.