One cannot imagine film without landscapes. The scenery is as variegated as the potential and functions of these topographies are comprehensive and diverse: Landscapes in films tell stories, express moods, can play the lead or the villain, become psychic landscapes or places of longing. They are symbolic foils, islands of stasis within the frequently breakneck flow of the plot. Landscapes are "the freest element of film, the least burdened with servile, narrative tasks, and the most flexible in conveying moods, emotional states, and spiritual experiences" (Sergej Eisenstein). Since the beginning of cinematography, film has made prolific use of this mutable vehicle for conveying ideas: Early screen images of both exotic foreign locations and the native countryside quickly merged into genre films with an intensive use of landscapes. And yet even outside of this genre, a broad panorama of landscapes has opened up in the areas of documentary, fiction, and experimental filmmaking – the representation, construction, and questioning of which we shall examine in a series of eleven films to be screened in January.

Again, the Berlin newspaper "Der Tagesspiegel" is putting together a 9-person Reader’s Jury, which will award a prize to the best film showing in the Forum. Anyone interested in being part of the jury during the Berlinale can apply to the Tagesspiegel until January 28th. Participants should have an interest in independent cinema and enough time between February 7 and 15 to watch the entire Forum program. The jury watches four to five films per days. The winning film will be announced on February 16th and shown again on February 17th in a joint event organized by the Forum and the Tagesspiegel.

This week, two films from last year’s Forum program, FOR ELLEN and HIVER NOMADE, go on general release. FOR ELLEN, the third film by So Yong Kim following IN BETWEEN DAYS and TREELESS MOUNTAIN, tells the story of an irresponsible rock musician attempting to reconnect with his young daughter after a long absence. Manuel von Stürler’s debut HIVER NOMADE, which recently received the European Documentary Film Prize, accompanies the difficult everyday life of two Swiss shepherds during the winter months.

arsenal distribution will be releasing Rainer Kirberg's THE SLEEPING GIRL (DAS SCHLAFENDE MÄDCHEN) on January 17. The film received its world premiere as part of the Forum Expanded program in 2011. It opens theatrically in selected cinemas on January 17 and will be screening daily at Kino Arsenal from January 17-23 with the director and further members of the film team attending the opening night.