BERLIN: Polish writer and director Malgoska Szumowska’s In The Name Of…brings us a visually powerful film that looks at the issue of homosexuality in the Catholic church from a balanced view that rejects easy answers to a complex question.  Coming from a Poland where the Catholic church still occupies a central place in the country’s identity that goes beyond mere religion this film has an especially powerful impact

BERLIN: Georgian director Zaza Rusadze’s A Fold in My Blanket opened the Panorama section of the Berlinale with one of the new crop of interesting films now coming out of Georgia.

BERLIN: Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer never puts a foot wrong in this story of a mother so obsessed by unconditional love for her son that she is willing to anything to save him.

BERLIN: The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman is a light-hearted fairy tale that it is difficult to decide whether or not to take to your bosom but hard to totally dislike mainly due to the likable performances of its main characters Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood.

BERLIN: In Bloom, a debut by Georgian scriptwriter and director Nana Ekvtimishvili and co-directed by German Simon Gross, is another Georgian flower that has bloomed from the carefully nurtured garden planted by the Georgian National Film Centre over the past few years. A first time director, Ekvtimishvili has come up with a winning combination that continues the traditions of Georgian films while at the same time being very much part of contemporary European art-house cinema.