Director Thom Fitzgerald (The Wild Dogs; The Hanging Garden) evokes virtuoso performances from Oscar-winning actresses Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker in this uproarious dramedy about two women – lovers for 31 years – who must go on the run in order to stay together. Fitzgerald’s film is especially timely against the backdrop of the current marriage battle in Maine taking place this summer. Dukakis plays Stella, an antagonistic, foul-mouthed old bull dyke who lives with her long-time lover– the near-blind and slightly dotty Dot (Fricker)–in their bucolic home by the sea. When Dot’s neurotic granddaughter Molly shows up, announcing that she’s putting Dot in an old folks home, Stella throws her out, giving her an earful in the process. Not to be put off, Molly returns with a policeman and takes Dot away, leaving Stella bereft, but not beaten. Stella soon breaks her out of the home, and the two head for Canada to get married, picking up a young hitchhiker on the way. Thus begins an alternately poignant and riotous comedy that has much to say about the true nature of love and commitment.

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Woman’s Lake takes places in the magical and largely undiscovered landscapes of Brandenburg, the hinterland around Berlin, which is crisscrossed by Europe’s largest network of interconnected lakes. A glorious long weekend in the waning days of summer. The protagonist, Rosa, is a guardian of the lakes and waterways in the magical hinterland north of Berlin. Besides professional fishing, she is in charge of protecting the environment and issuing f ishing licenses, therefore she is a thorn in the side of amateur anglers and tourists. Rosa’s lover Kirsten, a successful architect, lives in a lakeside bungalow, and together the couple play host to two brash and self-confident young students on a weekend break from Berlin. The four women’s intense sexual attraction is fueled by their profoundly different hopes, dreams and worldviews.

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Look at Me Again is a road movie that whisks us away to the wild, semi-arid expanse of north-eastern Brazil. Our tough, cool travelling companion is Silvyo Luccio (‘… I was born a woman, became a lesbian and am now a man’), a thinker in the throes of transition and transformation who finds himself on a journey back into his religious-fundamentalist, deeply prejudiced, traditionalist past. At the heart of old wounds, humiliation and trauma lies an anxiously awaited encounter with a daughter and the hope of familial reconciliation. Look at Me Again portrays a vibrant human being full of resilience, who has broken free of the sexual catechism’s stale trinity of hetero-homo-bisexuality in order to set off on a different path in search of new horizons. Before him lies a baking hot road through regions marked by grinding poverty, ardent religious faith, superstition and bloated machismo, as well as several encounters with some extraordinary people. (Description courtesy of the Berlinale: The Berlin International Film Festival.)

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