Achtung Berlin is back!

Clockwise from top left: Kohlhaas, Berlin Telegram, Dragan Wende – West Berlin, Alles was wir wollen

The nine-year-old Achtung Berlin Festival presents 80 movies, all proudly boasting the made in Berlin-Brandenburg stamp, competing for three new Berlin Film Awards in the categories best feature, documentary and short. Check further down for our complete list of English-language films or films with English subtitles.

One recent change has been the influx of expat Wahlberliner filmmakers, generating unconfirmed rumours of an Exberliner-awarded prize at next year’s event. But let’s stick to what we do know.

Opener Kohlhaas (Apr 17), directed by Aron Lehman, gets things underway with a mise-en-abîme romp in the countryside, depicting a historical epic that has its funding cut at the last minute, leaving the director with no solution but to make people believe with, well, make-believe.

Berlin Telegram, directed by Leila Albayaty, deals with a French singer’s achy-breaky heart in a trilingual splurge of expat life; its schmaltz is offset by some incredible Hauptstadt set pieces.

In the documentary section, Alles was wir wollen tells the tale of three Berlinerinnen taking stock of their lives as they turn 30. The understated storytelling of director Beatrice Möller helps the candid film sidestep melancholic mediocrity.

Another extremely watchable doc is Dragan Wende – West Berlin. Vuk Maksimovi grew up in Yugoslavia hearing all about his father and uncle’s (often illegal) adventures in Berlin. Now he goes to the German capital for the first time to catch up with his uncle, working as the doorman of an “all you can eat, all you can f—” bordello. A fascinating portrait of a Charlottenburg man-about-town and his steady decline once the wall came down.

Movies with English subtitles or in English

Feature films