Oscar nominee Cillian Murphy opens the Berlin International Film Festival with the world premiere of a drama about Ireland's notorious prison camps for "failed" young women.
"Little Things Like That," based on Claire Keegan's bestselling novel and starring Michelle Fairley ("Game of Thrones") and Emily Watson ("Chernobyl"), is one of 20 films vying for the festival's top prize, the Golden Bear.
Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o is the first black jury president at the event, known as the Berlinale, which is being held for the 74th time.
With the plight of women in Iran, the war in Gaza and a resurgent far right expected to spark debate and possibly protests at the event, Nyong'o said she expected a challenging festival.
"I think what we're here for is to see how artists respond to the world we're living in right now," she said.
The 11-day cinema preview exhibition has the strongest political slant of the three major European festivals and serves as a key launchpad for films from around the world.
The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Roxborough said the outgoing Berlinale directing duo of Mariette Riesenbeck and Carlo Chatrian had been put in a "difficult situation" as the coronavirus pandemic has cast a long shadow over the past three years.
He told AFP he expected more "excitement" this year both on the red carpet and in the festival's growing European film market, where film rights are bought and sold for global distribution.
"The old spirit should come back to Berlinale," he stressed.
In "Little Things Like That," Murphy, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in "Oppenheimer," reunites with Belgian director Tim Milants, who directed him in the hit series "Peaky Blinders."
Murphy plays a devoted father who uncovers shocking secrets about his town's convent, which is linked to one of modern Ireland's biggest scandals: the Magdalene Laundries, prison workshops run by the Roman Catholic Church from the 1820s to the 1990s.
Most of the laundries' occupants were ostracized women who became pregnant out of wedlock. Others included rape victims, orphans, prostitutes and invalids.
"We are confident that this story, which brings together the kindness that should be directed towards the more fragile and the strength of will to stand up against injustice, will resonate with everyone," says Chatrian.
Adam Sandler will present his latest Netflix production, "Cosmonaut," about a lonely spaceman who seeks the help of an alien when he becomes estranged from his wife, played by Carey Mulligan.
Mexico's Gael García Bernal appears in "Another End," which envisions technology allowing the bereaved to reconnect with the dead. Best Actress Cannes winners Renate Reinswe ("The Worst Person in the World") and Berenice Bejo ("The Artist") star.
The immigrant drama "La Cocina," starring Rooney Mara, promises to be "a tragic and comic tribute to the invisible people who prepare our food" in the world's restaurants.
And in one of the most compelling titles on the program, "Pepe" depicts the hippo life of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Martin Scorsese, nominated for a record tenth time for the Best Director Oscar for "Killers of the Flower Moon", will arrive in Berlin to receive an honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement.
Iranian filmmakers Maryam Moghaddam and Behtaş Sanaiha said they were barred from travelling to Berlin for the premiere of their film "My Favourite Cake".
As far-right parties are on the march across the globe, the festival will pay attention to cinema that examines Germany's Nazi past.
"Treasure" stars Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham in a drama about a Holocaust survivor and his daughter who return together to his Polish hometown and Auschwitz.
And the German drama "From Hilde, With Love," starring Liv Lisa Fries, tells the true story of a couple who were at the heart of the 1942 Red Orchestra resistance group / BGNES
