F/SEN 2026, 185 min., Rating: 12+, Original version with subtitles, with an intermission

At a film casting call, two women meet and become mother and daughter in front of the camera: Gloria and Nour. And the family grows before our eyes. Together with other actors and non-professionals, they celebrate a lavish wedding in Paris and travel to Guinea-Bissau to say goodbye to their family patriarch. Between these two rituals—between Europe and West Africa, life and death, past and present—true stories intertwine with fictional narratives. What follows is a grand celebration of life: a circular dance of love and pain, of joy and letting go. 

Inspired by Taoist ideas, the title DAO stands for a continuous, circular flow of life that connects everything and embodies the balance of opposites such as birth and death, migration and home, fiction and reality. Professional and amateur actors—including members of Alain Gomis’s family—improvise within a deliberately open filming framework. 

Director: Alain Gomis
Screenplay: Alain Gomis
Cinematography: Céline Bozon
Starring Katy Corréa, D’Johé Kouadio, Samir Guesmi, Mike Etienne, Nicolas Gomis, Fara Baco Gomis, Poundo Gomis

"DAO, the three-hour experimental documentary-feature film by French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis, is an ode to the extended family. His third entry in the Berlinale competition is an experience, an intoxicating journey, and above all, a film that you feel before you even try to understand it.” Tip-Berlin

"Set between France and Guinea-Bissau, spanning a wedding and a funeral, director Alain Gomis paints a grand portrait of the joy of life." kino-zeit.de

With his new road movie, Alexandre Koberidze continues his poetic exploration of his homeland, Georgia, following *What Do We See When We Look Up at the Sky?*. He shot the film using the camera on a Sony Ericsson cell phone, which is undoubtedly a challenge for viewers accustomed to the flawless visuals of modern mainstream films. However, anyone who embraces the resulting aesthetic will have an enchanting cinematic experience. 

When Lisa, a young sports photographer, goes missing, her father decides to search for her and sets out on a journey through Georgia with her best friend, the mysterious Levani. Lisa had most recently been photographing soccer stadiums across the country. As the landscape passes by and they move from one field to the next, the people and their stories change. But with every soccer field and every village, the chances of finding Lisa seem to dwindle …

Director: Alexandre Koberidze
Screenplay: Alexandre Koberidze
Cinematography: Alexandre Koberidze
Music: Giorgi Koberidze
Starring David Koberidze, Otar Nijaradze, Irina Chelidze, Giorgi Bochorishvili, Vakhtang Panchulidze, Manu Tavadze

“Of great beauty and not quite of this world.” Filmdienst

“Those who have the patience to immerse themselves in three hours of wonderfully strange cinematic art will be rewarded with a poetic journey across boundaries: cinema as a space of experience that turns empty spaces into small miracles.” programmkino.de

Germany/Georgia 2025, 186 min., FSK: pending, original version with subtitles, with an intermission

BRA/F/P/RUM 2025, 211 min., FSK: pending, original version with subtitles, with an intermission

Sérgio travels to Guinea-Bissau in West Africa to work as an environmental engineer for an NGO on a road construction project between the desert and the forest. While exploring the city, he meets Diára and Gui, who are part of the local queer community. While Sérgio witnesses how his colleagues from his European-influenced work environment often behave in a condescending and even violent manner, Diára and Gui become his only refuge, and a fragile relationship develops. But is Sérgio simply trying to escape loneliness in a foreign land? Or can he reflect on his role as a European in an African country and meet his new friends as equals?

With *I ONLY REST IN THE STORM*, Pedro Pinho follows up *A FABRICA DE NADA* with yet another impressive testament to the creativity of Portuguese cinema: a lively, meandering, and surprising film full of unforgettable images that explores the West’s moral dilemma in Africa.

Director: Pedro Pinho
Screenplay: Pedro Pinho, Miguel Seabra Lopes, José Filipe Costa, Luísa Homem, Marta Lança, Miguel Carmo
Cinematography: Ivo Lopes Araújo
Music: Carpotxa, Mazulu
Starring Sérgio Coragem, Cleo Diára, Jonathan Guilherme, Nástio Mosquito, Giovanni Maucieri

"An outstanding film in this year’s Cannes lineup." Screen Daily