Films - Competition - Berlin 1998

The emotive journey of a former schoolteacher who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

Shortly before an election, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a Presidential sex scandal.

The antisocial son of an alcoholic father and a bipolar mother grows up in 1960s Ireland.

A man comes to Hong Kong and becomes deeply in love with a girl. He watches when this girl has a passionate relationship with her boyfriend. As he approaches her life, he begins to notice that he is becoming more and more in love with the boyfriend instead.

A musical story about how people find their love on the streets of beautiful Paris.

A flight attendant with a criminal past gets nabbed by the ATF for smuggling. Under pressure to become an informant against the illegal arms dealer she works for, she must find a way to secure her future without getting killed.

Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT, has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.

Against a background of holocaust memories, a liberal Jewish girl becomes a nanny to a young Jewish boy with a disability and grows fond of him.

A young boy and his sister are drawn into one man's obsessive pursuit of his former lover.

Young vicar Mr. Paul arrives at the Faroe Islands to take up a benefice, and meets the young Barbara, twice married to vicars, and with both husbands laid cold in the grave. Despite the warnings of the surrounding community and his own religious scruples, he falls victim to Barbara's at once innocent and sinful charm. The appearance of the charming and gallant Andreas Heide in Thorshavn puts their love to the severest of tests.

Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it.

Young Danny Flynn is released from prison 14 years after "taking the rap" for the IRA and tries to rebuild his life in his old Belfast neighborhood.

Brett Sprague is a violent and psychopathic man, who is released on parole after serving a sentence for assault. As he returns to his family house and we watch him and his brothers, Stevie and Glenn, for the next 24 hours, it becomes clear this day will not end well.

An out-of-favor British politician is sent to Brussels as the new European Commissioner for Industry. He is made aware of a web of political and industrial corruption through a series of anonymous letters. Despite his own history of political expediency, the Commissioner rises to the moral challenge, and faces off with the evil forces responsible.

It's a story about love, desire - Taboo love between a sister and a brother.

Two British best friends and in-laws, Dawn and Jackie, work together at a factory. When Dawn is diagnosed with a brain tumor Jackie shares $100,000 she's got from her secret lover with Dawn.

Jeanne has an appetite for love that can never be satisfied. Lovers at every corner of her life she is still in search of that "one". When a impromptu tryst on the subway with Olivier gives her butterflies like never before she finally finds herself in love, truly in love. Yet she continues her affairs but now with a realization that they are not what she wants, she wants Olivier. Olivier reluctant to continue the romance with Jeanne for fear of hurting her or worse yet her seeing him at his worse. Olivier reveals to Jeanne he has AIDS from a bad needle during his heroine use. This however does not scare Jeanne off and her love for him turns her into a new person who wants to care for him, but that is not what he wants. The two share a common friend that is an AIDS Activist but they don't know it. Then Olivier because severely ill and Jeanne professes her love and her infidelity. That is the last she ever sees of Olivier. She returns to the hospital to find he has left with his parents, and left no forwarding address. Much time passes, and still the pain of her lost love resides. She knows of nothing of his whereabouts and no way to find him, until she bumps in to a friend that accompanied Olivier on the subway when she met him. Then she finally learns her love has passed on. A musical about the french governments lack of concern and role in the dire conditions of their citizens and about the different classes in society from the immigrant workers, soldiers, upper class and economic dependency on credit cards. A story that covers all walks of life and the pains of love.

Maria finds some stolen money in the trash can. She hides it from her husband Gregor and calls her former lover Martin who is trying to raise money to make a movie. Maria abandons Gregor and becomes pregnant.

Begoña is a thirtysomething consultant who has rebelled against her background and has overdone it with sex ever since her youth. Her shrink recommends that she keep a video diary of her encounters.

The film follows the life of Sada Abe, who became a celebrity in 1936 after strangling her lover and slicing off his penis.

36-year-old Sonja Buloh visits her father Bojan in Tasmania's capital after 20 years absence. She left him when he beat her up in a drunken rage, and she finds him a sad alcoholic. That brings back the memories of their hard life 30 years ago when they emigrated to Australia from Slovenia.

Alyosha has a gambling problem and his girlfriend becomes a stripper to help pay off his debt.

Incredibly, the bride at the altar falls in love with the best man on first sight, and even though he makes efforts to avoid her infatuation with him, she is determined to annul her marriage and marry the best man. And although she is able to dissolve her marriage, because she has never consummated it, the best man leaves... only to return to her many months later.

Emma, a 17-year-old girl, sends a synopsis to a filmmaker whom she admires. Intrigued and seduced by this reading, Paul invites Emma to his home. The arrival of this groupie will seriously disturb the established order. Very quickly Emma is ready to love Margot, Paul's wife, very quickly she wants to identify with her daughter in everything. By turns friend, confidant, rival, victim, seducer and even manipulator, she interferes in their hearts and their lives.

Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.