Wednesday, February 14-----Veteran Berlin Film Festival goers know that the program section that often has the most challenging, invigorating and energetically inventive cinema choices are in the Berlinale Forum, which has only grown in stature under the stewardship of Forum head Christoph Terteche. “We see the Berlinale Forum as a kind of laboratory for the mainstream cinema of the future”, Terteche explained. “We offer our audiences and attending professionals a challenging group of fi...

Kilometre Zero , Hiner Saleem, France, 2005The title of Hiner Saleem’s new film is used metaphorically to explain that in the 80 years of Iraqian modern history there has been virtually no progress. Saleem who fled Iraq under Saadam Hussein claims , “when you start from zero, the only direction to go is forward”. In real life Saleem’s brother was taken against his will on the way to the bakery one day and inducted into the Iraqian army. Saleem did not return to Kurdistan until the fall...

Tuesday 17th February 2004 on the closing ceremony at Edwige Feuillère Theatre of Vesoul with the screening of "In the Wild Mountains" by Yan Xueshu (China)at 8.30 PM the following awards have been given out.GOLDEN CYCLO Award of the International Jury with Iranian director Jafar Panahi as chairman and with Ashoka Handagama, Sophie Lee, Ling Fei and Véronique Prost: "VODKA LEMON" by Hiner Saleem (Kurdistan) With humour and with an innovative and poetic cinematic language, the film depicts th...