Berlin festival names films to be screened

Photo: Berlin festival names films to be screened

Organizers of Berlin film festival said Monday that they would feature the oil-boom epic "There Will Be Blood" along with a movie focusing on prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and the latest film from Polish director Andrzej Wajda.

The three movies were among the first to be chosen for the official program at the festival, which runs from Feb. 7-17 - the first of the year's major European festivals.

"There Will Be Blood," directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, stars Daniel Day-Lewis as a California petroleum baron who clashes with his son and a local preacher in the early 1900s.

The movie will make its international debut in Berlin, where Anderson's "Magnolia" won the top Golden Bear award in 2000.

The festival also will feature "S.O.P." ("Standard Operating Procedure") from Errol Morris, whose "The Fog of War" won a best documentary Oscar in 2004.

The new film looks into the scandal over the abuse of prisoners by U.S. personnel at Abu Ghraib, and also takes a broader look at the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, organizers said.

Damian Harris' "Gardens of the Night," starring John Malkovich, will premiere at the festival, as will "Lake Tahoe," directed by Fernando Eimbcke.

Showing out of competition is Wajda's "Katyn," the story of the murder of thousands of Polish officers - among them the filmmaker's father - by the Soviet secret police during World War II.

Other movies at this year's competition will include German director Doris Doerrie's "Kirschblueten - Hanami"; Brazilian hit "Tropa de Elite" ("The Elite Squad"), directed by Jose Padilha; and Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai's "In Love We Trust."

Festival organizers said in a statement that they will complete the competition program by mid-January.

They have already announced that Constantin Costa-Gavras, the Greek-born director of "Z" and "Missing," will head the jury.

In 2007, the Golden Bear went to Chinese director Wang Quan'an's "Tuya's Marriage."