The 36th edition of the Sundance Film Festival will take place from 23 January - 2 February, 2020 in Park City, Utah. It is regarded as the most important North American film festival in the indie scene and is organized by the Sundance Institute which was founded by Robert Redford in 1981. The festival is held in particular esteem as a springboard for up-and-coming independent film directors

EXIL by Visar Morina (DE/BE/XK, Komplizen Film) will be screening at Park City in the World Dramatic Competition. The drama by the writer-director Morina, which was awarded the German Screenplay Prize, centres on Xhafer (Mišel Matičević), a pharmaceutical engineer who feels discriminated and bullied at work, plunging him into an identity crisis.

The cast includes FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS talent Sandra Hüller (TONI ERDMANN). Morina received several awards for his father-son drama BABAI, including the prize for "Best Director" and the "Europa Cinema Label" at the 2015 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, as well as "Best Director" and "Best Script" at the 2015 Filmfest München.

VIVOS by Ai Weiwei (DE/MX, F-Art Foundation) will be shown in the Documentary Premieres section. Since an attack on students of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College in 2014 resulted in six deaths and in the forced disappearance of 43, the students’ families have been living in limbo with their unanswered questions, their struggle embodying the psychological and emotional toll of endemic violence upon Mexican society.

The co-production YALDA - A NIGHT FOR FORGIVENESS by Massoud Bakshi (IR/FR/DE/CH, NiKo Film) will screen in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition and ACASA - MY HOME by Radu Ciorniciuc (RO/DE/FI, Corso Film) in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. THE PERFECT CANDIDATE by Haifaa Al-Mansour (SA/DE, Razor Film Produktion), which celebrated its world premiere at the Competition in Venice, has been programmed in the Spotlight sidebar.

The festival's short film program will be announced in the coming days.

SLAMDANCE

The 26th edition of the Slamdance Film Festival (January 24 - 30, 2020) will run parallel in Park City and characterizes itself as a simultaneous event "by filmmakers for filmmakers" and as an alternative to Sundance.

1986 by Lothar Herzog (DE/BY, Rohfilm Productions, DFFB) will screen in Slamdance's Narrative Feature Competition. The filmmaker's debut feature is about Elena, a student from Belarus. She has an intense, but increasingly destructive love affair with Viktor. When her father is arrested, she has to continue his illegal business. In order to do deals for him, she repeatedly travels to the closed zone of Chernobyl. She is fascinated by the deceptive beauty of the zone – but soon her life seems to be contaminated by a destructive force...

LOVEMOBIL by Elke Margarete Lehrenkrauß has also been invited to Slamdance and will be presented in the Documentary Features Competition. The director spent three years accompanying sex workers from Eastern Europe and Nigeria who are waiting for johns in so-called "Lovemobils" - caravans adorned with fairy lights - in Lower Saxony, and gained their trust. The murder of one of the women shakes the deceptive calm.

All of the German films and co-productions announced so far for Sundance 2020...

Contact:
Dennis Ruh (Festival Relations): ruh@german-films.de

Film still: EXIL ©Komplizen Film