Upcoming European Films of 2016

1. La corrispondenza (Italy)

The Correspondence tells the tale of love and loss, a story of Amy (Olga Kurylenko), a young PhD student who takes excessive risks in her paid work as a stuntwoman. Her specialties are the action scenes, the acrobatics full of suspense, the danger that in fiction would typically end with the death of the double. It is through her relationship with an older astrophysics professor (Jeremy Irons) that she learns to reconcile past and present and face life’s vicissitudes.

2. Salt and Fire (Germany)

Based on a true story, Hans Fallada’s powerful and redemptive novel, written shortly after the Second World War, describes a city paralyzed by fear. Otto and Anna Quangel are an ordinary couple living in a shabby apartment block in Berlin trying, like everyone else, to stay out of trouble under Nazi rule. But when their only child is killed fighting at the front, their loss propels them into an extraordinary act of resistance. They start to drop anonymous postcards all over the city attacking Hitler and his regime. If caught, it means certain execution. Soon their campaign comes to the attention of the Gestapo inspector, Escherich, and a murderous game of cat-and-mouse begins. But the game serves only to strengthen Otto and Anna’s sense of purpose, and slowly their drab lives and marriage are transformed as they unite in their quiet but profound rebellion.

3. Julieta (Spain)

The film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar based on three short stories from the book Runaway (2004) by Alice Munro. The film marks Almodóvar's 20th feature and stars Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte as older and younger versions of the film's protagonist, Julieta, alongside Daniel Grao, Inma Cuesta, Darío Grandinetti, Michelle Jenner and Rossy de Palma.
The film protagonist Julieta lives in Madrid and has just lost her husband Xoan. Her daughter, Antía, has just turned 18 and decides to run away without any explanation. Julieta searches by all means to find her, but the only thing she discovers is how little she knows her daughter.

4. From the Land of the Moon (France)

Adapted from the best-selling novel by Milena Agus, follows a French woman in post-World War II Europe who’s torn between the man she’s meant to marry (Àlex Brendemühl) and a charming war veteran (Louis Garrel).
The movie is directed by Nicole Garcia, who also wrote the script with Jacques Fieschi. It was produced by Alain Attal of Les Productions du Tresor.

5. Viking (Russia)

Historical action film by director Andrei Kravchuk, based on the historical document Primary Chronicle and Icelandic Kings' sagas. Screen International has called it Russia's Game of Thrones. The films stars Danila Kozlovsky and Svetlana Khodchenkova.
Kievan Rus, late 10th century. After the death of his father, Svyatoslav I, ruler of Kievan Rus, the young Viking prince Vladimir (Danila Kozlovsky) is forced into exile across the frozen sea in Sweden to escape his treacherous half-brother Yaropolk, who has murdered his other brother Oleg and conquered the Viking territory of Kievan Rus. The old warrior Sveneld convinces Vladimir to assemble a Varangian armada, hoping to reconquer Kiev from Yaropolk and ultimately face the mighty Byzantine forces.

6. Brimstone (Netherlands)

An upcoming western thriller film, written and directed by Martin Koolhoven. The film stars Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Kit Harington and Carice van Houten.
A triumphant epic of survival and a tale of powerful womanhood and resistance against the unforgiving cruelty of a hell on earth. Our heroine is Liz (Dakota Fanning), carved from the beautiful wilderness, full of heart and grit, hunted by a vengeful Preacher (Guy Pearce) - a diabolical zealot and her twisted nemesis. But Liz is a genuine survivor; she's no victim - a woman of fearsome strength who responds with astonishing bravery to claim the better life she and her daughter deserve.

7. Alone in Berlin (Germany)

A war drama film directed by Vincent Pérez and written by Pérez and Achim von Borries, based on the 1947 fictionalized novel Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada. In 1940, a working-class couple in World War II-era Berlin, Otto and Anna Quangel, decide to resist Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, after receiving the news of the death of their only son. They start writing postcards to urge people to stand against Hitler and the Nazis and protest against them. Escherich is the Gestapo inspector charged with finding the source of the postcards.

8. Personal Shopper (France)

A film written and directed by Olivier Assayas. Stars Kristen Stewart (as Maureen), Anders Danielsen Lie, Lars Eidinger and David Bowles. Revolves around a ghost story that takes place in the fashion underworld of Paris.

9. A Hologram for the King (Germany)

An upcoming comedy-drama film directed and written by Tom Tykwer, based on the 2012 novel of the same name written by Dave Eggers. Film stars Tom Hanks and Ben Whishaw. The film tells the story of a washed-up, desperate American salesman who travels to Saudi Arabia to secure the IT contract for a massive new complex being built in the middle of the desert.

10. HHhH (France)

The World War II thriller film based on the Laurent Binet's fictional novel HHhH about the Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. Cédric Jimenez directed the film based on the script he co-wrote with David Farr and Audrey Diwan.
1942: The Third Reich is at its peak. The Czech resistance in London decides to plan the most ambitious military operation of WWII: Anthropoid. Two young recruits in their late twenties, Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, are sent to Prague to assassinate the most ruthless Nazi leader - Reich-protector Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the SS, the Gestapo, and the architect of the 'Final Solution'.