Little Soldier

After yet another mission to a foreign battleground, the young soldier Lotte (played by top Danish actor Trine Dyrholm) returns home to Denmark, completely disillusioned with life.

Lotte’s unreliable father, with whom she has never had a close relationship, offers her a job as a chauffeur for his Nigerian girlfriend, the escort girl Lily (played by British actor Lorna Brown).

Trine Dyrholm and Lorna Brown in director Annette K. Olesen’s Little Soldier

Both Lotte and Lily carry invisible scars. And so, reluctantly at first, a friendship slowly emerges between the two women – until things take an unexpected turn.

Directed by Annette K. Olesen, Little Soldier won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. 

Olesen and Dyrholm join Amanda Palmer, Al Jazeera’s entertainment editor, and the FPS audience for a Q&A session about Little Soldier.

And we also meet Lorna Brown, who tells us how she researched the character of Lily, a desperate immigrant with loads of personal style.

Part two

John Rabe

German director Florian Gallenberger’s new film tells the story of an unlikely saviour

Often regarded as the “Schindler of China,” the German businessman John Rabe was an unlikely saviour. And yet, in an amazing story that is not widely known, Rabe sheltered 200,000 Chinese civilians during Japan’s invasion in the 1930s.

A new film by German director Florian Gallenberger, one of the hits of this year’s Berlin Film Festival, tells Rabe’s incredible tale.

Amanda Palmer interviews Gallenberger, along with actors Ulrich Tukur and Anne Consigny, who play Rabe and one of his key collaborators.

Janusz Kaminski

Janusz Kaminski, left, with Steven Spielberg

And speaking of Schindler, Polish-born cinematographer Janusz Kaminski was a relative unknown in cinematic circles before being tapped by Steven Spielberg to shoot his 1993 masterwork, Schindler’s List.

Spielberg must have been happy with the experience, because Kaminski has shot every one of Spielberg’s features ever since, along with Julian Schnabel’s dazzling The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.

Kaminski held a masterclass at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, and he was kind enough to let FPS film the event and speak to him afterwards.

The result is a rare opportunity to get inside the mind of one of the world’s most accomplished visual artists as he talks us through the creative decisions behind some of the greatest films of recent times.

This episode of The Fabulous Picture Show can be seen from Thursday, July 30, at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0600, 1630; Friday: 0130, 0830; Saturday: 1130, 2330; Sunday: 0630, 2030; Monday: 1430; Tuesday: 1930; Wednesday: 0300.