MAISON BAOBAB
In Rabat, a central hub for migrants in Morocco, the MAISON BAOBAB shelter offers protection for women and their children.
The documentary shows everyday life in the migrant-run shelter.
WORKING-CLASS CHILD
The boss can’t cope any longer. He’s burnt out and has lost his voice. The employee now speaks for him. She loves efficiency, but no longer knows how to laugh or cry. Grandad is about to retire, loves work and is afraid of the ‘and then what?’. Grandson Kiddo wants his own employment contract and his big sister hops from internship to internship.
A special family story from the heart of a meritocracy.
MAY THE QUEEN BEAT THE KING?
A woman sits in the opera house, watching intently. As the king on stage tries to kill his wife, and only her powerful operatic voice echoes through the hall, the woman is not actually sitting in the opera house at all. She is sitting on the sofa at home, where she hears her neighbour’s screams as she is once again being abused by her husband. Domestic violence affects us all. Even spectators.
JOSEFINE
When Christa (56) falls in love with the new choir director Josefine (59), unexpected possibilities open up for her. Inspired yet unsettled by her queer desire, her relationship with her husband Michael (62) is suddenly at stake. Torn between lust, guilt and hot flushes, Christa wonders what life still has in store for her and what it means to fall in love with a woman after thirty years of marriage to a man.
I WANT TO LIVE INSIDE YOU
Stina and Malik love each other so much that they begin to physically grow together and must go to a rehab clinic for emotionally dependent couples to separate. A surrealist short film about emotional dependencies in a world where these dependencies manifest physically.
THE FISHERMAN AND THE CHILD
A demoralised fisherman has lost his joy in fishing and is stuck in his daily routine. He is swallowed by a large fish and transported to the moon, where he meets a child. The child invites the overwhelmed fisherman into his carefree world whilst playing and fishing in the moon’s craters.
As the sceptical fisherman and the child grow closer, the fisherman realises that the child is himself. Through the playfulness of his younger self, the fisherman remembers his joy as he returns to his everyday life.
THE TRACKS AHEAD
Train attendant Moe is about to complete his training on the train that accompanies the deceased on their final journey to the afterlife. Yet even in death, not everyone is equal. Following a conflict between passengers, those who have ‘died unnaturally’ are increasingly marginalised. Moe bears this division with him, even though he himself shares the fate of the ‘unnatural’.
When they are then no longer allowed to travel, this opens Moe’s eyes. He voluntarily gets off the train and presents his colleagues with a choice. Will they carry on as before – or will they choose to look?
THE UNWRAPPING PARTY
London 1868: Ada is hoping for a marriage proposal from Cecil. When he invites her to an “Unwrapping Party” (a high-society event in Victorian times where a mummy is unwrapped), she feels close to her goal. Unfortunately, alongside the mummy, Cecil also unwraps his true character. An ancient rage awakens within Ada. A magical connection to the mummy forms and brings it to life.
YOUNG HEARTS
Young people are growing up in a world full of political debates and global crises. Under the constant influence of social media, they must find themselves within it. This intimate generational portrait explores the fears, desires and hopes of young people in Germany and offers a deep insight into their emotional world. The film encounters 14-year-olds at a stage where belonging, peer pressure and self-assertion play a central role: Who am I, and who is my group? Am I prepared to give up my own values for the sake of the group?
Through impressively intimate interviews, YOUNG HEARTS makes it palpable how social moods seep into the emotional world of the younger generation and can lead to political missteps.
A FAIRY-TALE OF GERMANY
2006 World Cup: Whilst the country is gripped by football fever, the childless Brauer couple finally see their long-cherished wish for a child come true: as if by magic, an orphaned boy suddenly appears at their door – ‘little Heinrich’. Everything seems perfect, but the idyll quickly crumbles when their new poster-child turns out to be a staunch Nazi. The prodigy drives a wedge between the parents: whilst mother Birgit desperately tries to bring the boy ‘into line’, Heinrich awakens repressed longings in father Peter, unleashing a whole new power within him. It all culminates in a World Cup barbecue in their own garden, which could bring the family back together in unexpected ways – or blow everything sky-high.
COLDBURN
In a scorching future where daylight is deadly, a crew of night workers discovers a dangerous creature in an abandoned warehouse. Its ice-cold breath makes it valuable – and becomes their mutual downfall.
B 14
Whilst restoring the family’s century-old car, a father attempts to leave his daughter a mechanical legacy she doesn’t know what to do with.
FLOATING
Three years after beating cancer, 23-year-old Vic is finally trying to lead a self-determined life and make up for the time lost to the illness. Yet her mother Tine, whose fear for her child from the time of the illness has never ceased, continues to accompany her to the six-monthly check-ups. When abnormal blood test results are discovered during a routine check-up and the possibility of a relapse looms, the fragile relationship between mother and daughter begins to falter. Whilst Vic represses the potential diagnosis and clings desperately to a sense of freedom, Tine reverts to her old maternal role as protector and carer.
Tine’s care is increasingly perceived by her daughter as control, until the situation escalates and Vic flees her mother’s flat. During a night of excess, she tries to feel alive in the frenzy of city life and to escape the looming reality. Yet the harder Vic fights against her fear, the more inevitable the confrontation with her past and her relationship with her mother becomes.
