The week ahead for February 3-9: film in Berlin, a genocide trial and the Sochi opening ceremony
A look at what’s coming up around the world this week.
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- Film in Berlin: Dieter Kosslick, director of the Berlinale Film Festival, poses in front of the official festival’s posters on January 28 in Berlin, before giving a press conference two weeks ahead of the first major European film festival of the year. The Berlin film festival will be held February 6-16 and open with the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. | JOHN MACDOUGALL – AFP/Getty Images
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- Opera in Australia: Spanish soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera playing Carmen, and Dmytro Popov playing Don Jose perform in the final rehearsal of Opera Australia’s production of ‘Carmen’ at the Sydney Opera House on January 31. The production runs from February 3 to March 29. WILLIAM WEST – AFP/Getty Images
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- Genocide trial: This picture taken on January 24, 2014 shows Songa Samuel Havugimana, a 41 year-old survivor of the Kesho massacre, opening one of the 12 coffins of the victims of the Kesho massacre as he stands inside the memorial dedicated to the victims on top of the Kesho hill, in the former prefecture of Gisenyi in western Rwanda, where more than 1400 Tutsi were massacred between April and May 1994. The trial of Pascal Simbikangwa, the first Rwandan man to be judged for genocide in France, starts on February 4. Pascal Simbikangwa was born and grew up around this verdant hill, in a region thqt was the stronghold of Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana, whose assassination on April 6, 1994 triggered the genocide against the Tutsi. | STEPHANIE AGLIETTI – AFP/Getty Images
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- Nuernberger Spielwarenmesse: A visitor tries out a remote-controlled mini multicopter flying toy at the Nuremberg Nuernberger Spielwarenmesse on January 29 Nuremberg, Germany. The Nuremberg toy fair, which is the world’s biggest trade fair for toys, is open to the public from January 29 until February 3. (Photo by Timm Schamberger/Getty Images)
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- London art sale: A Christie’s employee poses in a room with works by Miro at Christie’s auction House on January 30 in London. The works make up part of the ‘Impressionist and Moden Art’ evening sale and ‘The Art of the Surreal’ evening sale which both take place on February 4. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
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- Royal charges: Chief judge of the Balearic islands Francisco Martinez Espinosa announces to the press that Princess Cristina will be allowed to access to the courthouse by car in Palma de Mallorca January 31, 2014. Spain’s Princess Cristina de Borbon is due to appear before court on February 8 on tax fraud charges. The appearance of a member of the Spanish monarchy has no precedent and is seen by analysts and some citizens as a contribution to the deterioration of the royal’s image. REUTERS/Enrique Calvo (SPAIN – Tags: CRIME LAW ROYALS) ORG XMIT: BAR11
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- Continued celebrations in Japan: Penguins wearing a Chinese outfit (L) and a bib with ‘happiness’ written in Chinese character (R) walk to celebrate the Lunar New Year at Hakkeijima Sea Paradise amusement park in Yokohama, suburb of Tokyo, on January 26. The New Year event will last until February 9. | TORU YAMANAKA – AFP/Getty Images
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- Start of Sochi Olympics: Philippines’ Michael Christian Martinez skates during the figure skating training session at the Iceberg Skating Palace at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, January 31, 2014. Figure skating competition begins February 6, one day before the opening ceremony. | REUTERS/Grigory Dukor
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- … amid continued inequality: Barbed wire protects a private home near the Olympic Park at the Adler district of Sochi, February 1, 2014. Sochi will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games from February 7 to February 23. Critics of the Kremlin have argued that the event as a thinly veiled excuse to further enrich politically connected Russian billionaires. | REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk
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- Art in Sri Lanka: A crown made with toy soldiers is seen during the “Colombo Art Biennale 2014” in Colombo January 30, 2014. The festival will be held from January 31 to February 9. || REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
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- Quarterly profits: An employee mounts a Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz emblem to the hood of a S-Class sedans on the assembly line at the Mercedes-Benz plant of Daimler AG on January 24, 2014 in Sindelfingen, Germany. Daimler is scheduled to announce financial results for 2013 on February 6. Other quarterly results due this week include Aetna, General Motors, Linkedin and Sony, according to the Associated Press. (Photo by Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images)
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- Tokyo election: Japan’s former prime minister Morihiro Hosokawa, a candidate for the Tokyo gubernatorial election, wipes his tears while former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi delivers an election campaign speech to support him in Tokyo on January 23. Campaigning officially started January 23 for the February 9 Tokyo gubernatorial election. | KAZUHIRO NOGI – AFP/Getty Images
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- Switzerland votes: Snow covers Saint Nicolas’ church in Rougemont, western Switzerland. Swiss citizens are set to vote February 9 on proposed immigration reforms, GlobalPost reports. | File photo by Boris Heger – AFP/Getty Images
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- Possible Greek strikes: A teacher’s union member shouts slogans as police prevent demonstrators to block a road in front of the ministry of administrative reform, during a protest against the civil servant’s mobility scheme and layoffs in Athens on January 31, 2014. Workers called for strikes on February 7, together with other public sectors workers unions | LOUISA GOULIAMAKI – AFP/Getty Images
Sarah Marsh
Reuters
BERLIN (Reuters) – German movies including a drama about the love triangle of Sturm und Drang poet Friedrich Schiller will dominate the main lineup at Berlin’s international film festival this year, director Dieter Kosslick said on Tuesday.
But world cinema talent will not be absent at the 64th “Berlinale”, which kicks off with the world premiere of U.S. director Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, a comedy about a canny hotel concierge in the 1920s starring Ralph Fiennes and Adrien Brody.
Anderson and other global stars such as George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Forest Whitaker will grace Berlin’s red carpet, Kosslick told a news conference.
The annual cinema showcase, which runs from February 6-16, will screen more than 400 films, but the main programme includes 23 movies, of which 20 will compete for the “Golden Bear”.
For the first time since 2002, it will feature four German films, including Dominik Graf’s “Beloved Sisters” about the relationship between 18th century poet Schiller and two beautiful sisters from the penniless aristocracy.
Others are Edward Berger’s “Jack”, about a 10-year-old looking after his younger brother while his single parent works, and Dietrich Brueggemann’s “Stations of the Cross”, about a teenage girl struggling to reconcile her desires with the ultraconservative Catholic community in which she lives.
“We have a lot of films where people are living in very narrow systems, for example, religious systems,” Kosslick told Reuters. “We also have some strong films about kids.”
“Young people in the world are around 2 billion, and these people are the last ones in a chain of suffering,” he said, referring to Sudabeh Mortezai’s “Macondo”, a coming-of-age story about a Chechen boy in a refugee settlement in Vienna.
While discussing refugees, Kosslick said he was trying to help Bosnian Roma actor Nazif Mujic, who won best actor award at the Berlinale last year, to get asylum in Germany and had invited him to the festival.
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