BERLIN (AFP) - New releases by young European directors kicked off the race for the Golden Bear top prize Friday at the 59th Berlin Film Festival. Francois Ozon of France, best-known for his erotic thriller "Swimming Pool" with Charlotte Rampling, entered the running with "Ricky", a magical realist take on the patchwork family in today's Europe. And Denmark's Annette K. Oleson unveiled "Little Soldier" which tells the gripping story of a traumatised army recruit who returns home from a war zone " Iraq or Afghanistan " to strike up an unusual friendship with her father's Nigerian girlfriend, a prostitute. The films are among 18 new productions from around the world vying for the Golden Bear, to be awarded on February 14 by the Berlin jury president, Oscar-winning Scottish actress Tilda Swinton. The festival got off to a roaring start Thursday with the gala premiere of "The International", a timely big-budget thriller about the murky dealings of a global banking consortium with Clive Owen starring as an Interpol agent. The picture, which drew mixed reviews, was directed by Germany's Tom Tykwer, another leading light in contemporary European cinema. "Ricky" presents a young mother and her daughter Lisa who let a Spanish man into their lives in a bleak housing estate on the fringes of a nameless French city. The adults' affair produces a young baby who appears normal if fussy at first, until he begins to develop wings on his shoulder blades. His abnormality drives the couple apart, to the relief of the jealous Lisa, and the mother and her daughter are at first bewildered then delighted when the infant learns to fly. Then the plot really turns strange. Ozon, 41, told AFP that he liked to see the world through the eyes of a child, embracing the fantastic and suspending his disbelief. "What would be ideal would be to have an audience made up only of children " they don't have the same means of resistance or the same barriers as adults," he said. Ozon, who made the all-star musical "8 Women" with Catherine Deneuve and Emmanuelle Beart in 2002, said he liked keeping an audience on its toes. "I like the films that don't always follow a straight line and stay on the rails," said Ozon. "I liked being shocked as a member of the audience and while I am working on a film, I aim to provoke a reaction in the viewer." Oleson, 43, made her name as an innovative film-maker in 2002 with "Minor Mishaps" about a family brought together by tragedy, which won a Blue Angel prize for best ensemble in 2002. She followed up two years later with "In Your Hands" about a pastor in a women's prison. Oleson calls "Little Soldier" a "gangster film" about human trafficking that also looked at Denmark's reasons for joining in the US-led invasion of Iraq. "It's all about how do you really save someone " be it a person or a country," she said of the lead character, who tries to rescue the worker Lily and reunite her with her daughter inn Nigeria. "When you decide to save someone, you might have to confront yourself with your motivation, because it is very off rooted in something personal." The Berlinale, as the 11-day event is known, is the first major European festival of the year and ranks second only to Cannes in size and prestige.