There'll be three New Zealand films premiering at the Berlin Film Festival - one of the world's most important film festivals - next month.
Tusi Tamasese's One Thousand Ropes and Jackie van Beek's The Inland Road will have their world premieres at the festival, and Tearepa Kahi's Poi E: The Story of Our Song will have its international premiere.
Congratulating the filmmakers, New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) chief executive Dave Gibson said: "Berlin is an important festival for New Zealand, giving us an opportunity to introduce our voices and stories to a European audience.
"It's also an invaluable experience for the filmmakers to watch their films on the big screen with an international audience."
One Thousand Ropes will have its world premiere in the festival's Panorama section as a Panorama Special. This is the first New Zealand film to be selected for Panorama in a decade, and only the third New Zealand feature ever to have screened in the section.
Tusi Tamasese said, "It is a great honour to be selected in Panorama Special for the world premiere of our film, and thrilling to be returning to Berlin, where I attended the Talent Campus in 2010, and where The Orator screened in 2013."
One Thousand Ropes is Tusi Tamasese's follow up to his much-awarded feature debut, The Orator, and tells the story of a father re-connecting with his youngest daughter and putting to rest the ghosts that haunt them. The film stars Uelese Petaia, Frankie Adams, Beulah Koale and Sima Urale.
The Inland Road will show in the Festival's Generation14+ section, and is Jackie van Beek's debut feature following her successful short Go the Dogs which screened at the 2011 Berlinale.
The film explores the unconventional love story between an antisocial teenager, a Scotsman and a five-year-old girl. It stars Gloria Popata, David Elliot, Chelsie Preston Crayford, Jodie Hillock and Georgia Spillane.
The Berlinale is one of the world's most important film festivals, and past festivals have selected Kiwi outings Boy, The Weight of Elephants and What We do in the Shadows.
The festival kicks off on February 9.
Newshub.
