Anyway, I don't want to miss to post my Berlinale Post
Unfortunately, this year's Berlinale doesn't offer as many films as I would like, but I won't be leaving empty-handed this year either.
Here is my selection for this year:
• A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo | The Fabulous Time Machine
This was the opening movie for Generation kplus.
Description: “Before everything, it was dark. Then God started playing and making all things up. He made the man from the dust, and the woman from the man … Would women be different if they were made from dust, too? I’m glad I’m not a woman yet. Not me or my girlfriends.” This is how A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo begins. Told from the perspective of a ten-year-old girl, the film follows her and her friends’ journey from childhood to adolescence. Despite living in houses with dirt floors, without tap water, amid the aridity of the Brazilian sertão, they state that they were born with perks – able to eat, study, play, and dream of better futures. The girls invent time machines and travel to a past that was all about pure survival. They playfully deal with complex issues such as gender differences, alcoholism and religion. They joke about death, frustration and fears. Childhood innocence gradually gives way to a mixture of curiosity and anxiety about becoming teenagers. When they realise that fighting against the passage of time is futile, they travel to the future and envision becoming independent and successful women.
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2026/progra ... 09628.html
• Atlasul universului | Atlas of the Universe
Ten-year-old Filip travels with his father to the nearest town to buy new shoes for school. When his father gets sidetracked by an old friend, Filip has to find his way around on his own. A simple mistake at the shoe shop – buying two right-footed shoes – sets him off on an unexpected adventure through an unfamiliar world. Too ashamed to return home empty-handed, Filip decides to fix the problem himself. Along the way, he befriends a stray dog, whom he names after his favourite football player, and finds an unlikely companion. Through small choices and moments of fear and quiet courage, Filip takes his first steps toward independence and growing up.
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2026/progra ... 07554.html
• Tegenwoordig heet iedereen Sorry | Everyone’s Sorry Nowadays
Bianca is a spirited girl of just 13. She is searching for solid ground in a place where she feels unseen – by her mother, whose entire love flows to her little brother and his heart condition, and her father and his new girlfriend Cruz, who consider her to be out of control. Everything shifts when her favourite female celebrity actor, Billie King, suddenly appears in their living room. Over the course of a scorching summer day filled with overwhelming emotions, Bianca’s vivid imagination and jumble of thoughts rise to the surface. She realises that not everything is what she thought, and tries to find her way back to her mother. Based on Bart Moeyaert’s acclaimed novel, the film is a tender, imaginative story about discovery, dreams and finding a place to belong.
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2026/progra ... 16239.html
• Not a Hero
Eleven-year-old Mivan has been raised in the city. Now, he is sent to his family’s ancestral village to stay with his young aunt, Pahi. Used to the rhythms and comforts of urban life, Mivan finds the village slow, unfamiliar and unwelcoming. His relationship with Pahi is also distant, shaped by unspoken tensions and unresolved feelings from the past. As he is drawn into village routines, goes to school and develops new friendships, he begins to experience a world where time moves differently and nothing comes easily. Through everyday encounters with people, animals and nature, Mivan slowly opens himself up to empathy, patience and a sense of belonging. Due to his quiet presence, buried emotions within the household begin to surface. Without recourse to grand gestures, the film observes the gentle transformation of a child – and of adults who rediscover what they have long left behind.
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2026/progra ... 10128.html
• Ghost School
Ten-year-old Rabia discovers that the only school in her village has closed. Rumour has it that the school is haunted and the teacher is possessed by a jinn. A fellow pupil brags that he is now going to a boys’ school in the neighbouring village. Jealous and confused, Rabia goes around asking the adults what is going on, but only receives vague responses. As the rumours about the haunted school take over the village, Rabia increasingly comes to doubt them. She dares the village kids to go into the school and exorcise the jinn. But this leads to devastating consequences. Ultimately, Rabia is left with the choice of either becoming a servant or doing something drastic to be able to go to school again. She decides to make a sacrifice, unleashing magical forces.
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2026/progra ... 03120.html
• En Route To
A seemingly typical day unfolds at an all-girls’ boarding school in the countryside. When form teacher Jong-sung fails to turn up for class, most of the pupils remain indifferent – only the pregnant Yun-ji, a quiet outsider, is increasingly filled with unease. The situation escalates when Jong-sung’s angry wife storms into the classroom. Driven to desperation, Yun-ji leaves the school premises to buy illegal abortion pills. In order to pay for them, she has plundered the savings of her sharp and outgoing roommate, Kyung-sun, who has been putting the money aside from her underground liquid vape business to finance a year abroad in Australia. When Kyung-sun discovers the theft, she embarks on a search for Yun-ji which leads her to uncover a shocking truth. A story about the abuse of power and the right over one’s own body, about love and responsibility, society and community.
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2026/progra ... 07204.html
• Josephine
Early one morning, Josephine and her father Damien are on the way to the park to play football together when they see a jogger being sexually assaulted by a stranger. Damien chases after the man. In the aftermath, Josephine asks what the man was doing to the woman but her dad dodges the question. When Josephine looks up the word “rape”, she starts to see the world as an increasingly dirty, dangerous place. Damien tries to cope with the situation by enrolling Josephine in Kung Fu classes, but he fails to address her emotional trauma. Josephine increasingly displays violent outbursts in school and divides her classmates into friends to protect and foes to protect herself from. A conflict emerges between her parents that causes further instability in Josephine’s life. As she seeks to understand what she has witnessed, and the part she has to play in the search for justice, Josephine starts to take control of her own safety and grows wise beyond her young years.
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2026/progra ... 09270.html
• House of Yang (Series)
A small, secluded spot in the depths of the Black Forest. Two girls disappear from the same house: the first in 1949, the second in 1999. They never reappear. When Jessie inherits the house, she only realises too late the danger lurking in its shadows for her and her daughter, Mila. It is a danger arising from the rift that has run through her German-Chinese family for generations. And the ghosts of the past do not rest. Amidst the creeping horror and inexplicable events, this six-part mystery series poses the all-important question: Are we doomed to repeat the tragic mistakes of our parents and grandparents? Or is there a way to escape the inherited trauma, allowing us to forge our own path, free and unburdened by the shadows of the past?
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2026/progra ... 13902.html
