( dpa ) - Experimental films by young filmmakers from 33 countries will be shown at the Berlin film festival beginning February 7, organizers said Thursday.
The unconventional and imaginative works, including 32 world and international premieres, will be shown in the Forum section of annual event, outside the main competition.
Many of the films adopt the perspective of children and young people - in a world where often there is no more childhood.
The Australian film Son of a Lion by Benjamin Gilmour is set in Pakistan and focuses on a boy who wants to escape a world characterized by armed violence and archaic traditions.
In the directorial debut of Germany's Brigitte Bertele, Nacht vor Augen (Night Before Eyes), a German soldier returning from Afghanistan takes out his combat trauma on his little brother.
The Philippines is submitting three films in which the central characters are children and young people.
Two of them - Tirador (Slingshot) by Brillante Ma, Mendoza and Mes De Guzman's Balikbayan Box - focus on daily survival by living on one's wits, in which the young often have an advantage over the old.
By contrast, Jim Libiran's Tribu (Tribe), about gangs in Tondo, a poor suburb of Manila, shows how the gang culture is a self-organized substitute for family.
The festival, which will kick off with Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones concert documentary Shine a Light, runs until February 17 when the coveted Golden Bear awards will be made.