Ghost School; Lali; In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones; Members of the Problematic Family; Flying Tigers; shorts – Berlinale 2026 reviews
Associate Editor Suman Bhuchar casts her critical eye over ‘Ghost School’ which opens this year’s UK Asian Film Festival (May 1-10) – we saw also ‘Shadowbox’; which closes UKAFF* this year…
Ghost School (Geisterschule) – European Premiere Debut Film Generation K Plus
Director: Seemab Gul
1 hour 28 minutes
CENTRED around a young girl called Rabia, this is a charming and moving film.
Rabia (Nazualiya Arsalan) learns that her school is closing down and sets out to discover why this is happening.
Rabia is played with a mixture of curiosity and naivety and she wanders around the small town, asking people only to be fobbed off by one lame excuse to another by them. From the feudal landlord to the local politician, it’s a child’s insight into corruption and passing the buck attitude of the bureaucracy.
Gul who was present at a Q&A afterwards in Berlin, talked about such schools which are built ostensibly for education but then the money runs out and buildings are left standing.
This then adversely impacts on the education of girls in Pakistan.
‘Ghost School’ is shot in an academy format by Zamarin Wahdat and has a quality of magic realism and Rabia comes up with an imaginative solution to her predicament.
ACV rating: **** (all out of five)
Lali – World Premiere Panorama
Director: Sarmad Khoosat
1 hour 56 mins
LOOSELY translated as ‘redness’, ‘Lali’ is a meditation on the colour, red, very simply put.
It is a colour that symbolises, marriage, celebration, anger, blood among other things.
‘Lali’ begins with a narrative storyline until it all goes a bit strange.
The main character, Channan Hanif makes his debut as the groom Sajawal who gets married to Zeba (Mamya Shajaffar), a woman who has had three suitors die beforehand. Obviously, he’s concerned.
The multidisciplinary artist, Farazeh Syed makes her debut as the groom’s mother, Sohni Ammi and she steals the show with the best lines and her comedic timing.
There are also four actors who play a troupe of singing brothers and the live songs are superb.
There is a lot of humour and the Punjabi dialogue is enjoyable – ‘Lali’ takes a dark turn as Sajawal gets obsessed with controlling his bride and sussing out what happened to the previous suitors.
The cinematography by Khizer Idrees is beautiful and the performers are excellent.
(Incidentally, Hanif’s parents are the writer, Mohammed Hanif and actor, Nimra Bucha (who also appeared in Khoosat’s film ‘Manto’).
Khoosat came to the opening on Zoo Palast with an entire contingent of cast and crew and incidentally Hanif’s parents.
Despite its surreal turn (where the makers really do lose the plot), this is an enjoyable and entertaining film.
ACV ****
In which Annie Gives It Those Ones – Berlinale Classics
Director: Pradip Kishen
1 hour 52 mins
APPEARING in the Restored classic film section of Berlinale, it is set in an architecture school in Delhi.
It is scripted and features Arundhati Roy in a role as an actor, before her debut novel, ‘The God of Small Things’ which won the Booker Prize in 1997 and established Roy as one of the leading global voices of her generation.
Directed by Pradip Krishen, it is enjoyable, eclectic and has some cogent arguments on role of architecture in modern India – is it to provide housing for the society or make the architects rich – coming from a thought raised Roy’s character Radha in the film.
A great cast of ensemble characters, including Arjun Raina as Annie; Roshan Seth as the principal, Yam Doot; and Divya Seth as Lake, this is mostly performed in English – I found it hadn’t aged with time and it does depict a radical generation of minds.
Wonderful.
ACV rating: ****
Members of the Problematic Family – World Premiere Forum
Director: R Gowtham
1 hour 45 mins
MESSY and revolving around the death of a young man, Karuththadayan, on a lonely beach, this is a mystery to be unravelled. What happened and how?
As his family come to mourn him and generally be rude about him – we flash back to scenes with many people – his mum, his uncle, who are all trying to figure out the possible cause and deal with their own guilt.
Shot in chapters of scenes with a documentary approach, it is quite gross but experimentally to be applauded.
ACV rating: ****
Flying Tigers – World Premiere Forum Documentary
Director: Madhusree Dutta
1 hour 45 mins
IT IS A CHANCE remark by the filmmakers’ Alzheimer’s afflicted mother that set off our director on a quest.
Madhusree Dutta finds herself on a quest to find out more about these “flying tigers”.
She learns that it was a special air force unit of the US Army that used to fly across the Himalayas, delivering military aid to Kunming – a city in China which was at the hub of resistance against Japan and the Axis powers during the Second World War.
Aided by her friend, the Chinese media scholar, You Mi and Assamese writer, Purav Goswami, this documentary mixes archive, dramatised sequences, imaginary renderings and connects the “butterfly effect” of one incident on global infrastructure, ecology, borders, memory and history.
From the planes that flew to China, we criss-cross to the rail road in Burma and the floating islands of the River Brahmaputra to the Polish border town of Małaszewicze which has the largest dry cargo port station in Europe.
‘Flying Tigers’ is a hybrid feature – sometimes a bit confusing but you have to marvel at the academic rigour and variety of approaches to tell this story.
This film has been acquired by a Berlin-based Visionar Films with worldwide sales rights.
ACV rating: ****
Abracadabra – Generation K Plus Short Films
Director: Amay Mehrishi
ALONGSIDE the feature films acv also saw some short films which are a calling card introducing the talented filmmakers of the future. This section featured an impressive range of talent and genres.
They say never work with children but most of the filmmakers below have disregarded that warning and have created moving stories, around friendships, team work and emotional empathy.
‘Abracadabra’ written and directed by Amay Mehrishi – in this short – Agastya (Advay Pradhan) and Naman (Arsh Victor Suri) are best friends, but Naman chooses not to sit next to him on the bus ride home.
This upsets Agastya and we see the story from his point of view. The director of photography Aditya Sharma shoots long scenes on a moving bus which hones into the emotions of the central protagonist.
*UK Asian Film Festival 2026 preview is coming to the site shortly… (May 1)
