The hihgly talented composer Johannes Brahms was a close friend of Clara and Robert Schumann. International music critics put his work on a par with Beethoven’s. The docudrama combines dramatic re-enactments with documentary sequences, painting a vivid picture of Brahms’s musical pursuits and private life.
What do giant kiwis, suspended taps and luminous rolls of paper have in common? They’re pieces of art in the centre of traffic roundabouts that attract visitor numbers museums can only dream of. We take a closer look at this little-known art universe and study some of the weird and wonderful pieces on display in some of Europe’s traffic islands.
Design has become a driver of hyper-consumerism. How can design help solve the problems of the world, many of which it is has been the cause of? This film showcases designers who experiment with unusual materials, study energy-saving production methods in interdisciplinary teams and ask critical questions about the responsibility of design.
We are immersed in elegant scenes of traditional temples to wellness. The focus is on design and architecture as well as the culture of bathhouses from various periods: the Géllert Thermal Bath in Budapest, the Sento Takara-yu in Tokyo, the Roman Baths in Bath and the Hamam Kılıç Ali Paşa in Istanbul.
Carlotta cannot see faces, not even her own. For her, human faces are no bastion of trust, but places of fear and confusion. Filmmaker and neuroscientist Valentin Riedl travels through Carlotta’s universe, full of anthropomorphic animals, lucid dreams and bumpy false paths. Her never-ending search for answers leads her to art—and thus an avenue to her own face and back to humanity.
In recent years Moscow has emancipated itself to become Russia’s cultural capital – self-confident and critical in confronting its own history and culture, and yet tolerant and open to new things. We introduce the amazingly diverse Moscow cultural scene and explore this latest chapter in the city’s art history.
Young Sergey Tanin from Yakutia resolved early on with all the tenacity of a Siberian to pursue a solo career as a pianist. We show how he succeeds in making the leap from his icy homeland to Moscow and then to Switzerland and get to know a young man who, though far from home, pursues his career with remarkable discipline.
A land where primeval forests meet mountain deserts, with both tropical regions and icy peaks. One of the poorest countries in the world and yet a magical, mystical place, realm of the gods and a spiritual paradise. A journey to discover Nepal’s natural beauty and the people who make their lives in this harsh and remote setting.
In 2013 an oil painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci appears in Lugano: the portrait of Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua. The owner of the painting, Emidia Cecchini, is about to sell it for 140 million euros when Italy accuses her of illegal export. A search for evidence of an alleged art theft.
At the Mosaik art studio in Berlin, artists with disabilities are absorbed in their work. Filmmaker Sabine Herpich observes the artists in the course of creation and directs her gaze at the institution itself: its processes, staff and spaces. The film succeeds in maintaining its focus on the art itself rather than the handicaps of its creators.
From the perspective of his son Jiří Mucha, the film tells the story of Czech artist Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), one of the pioneers of the Art Nouveau movement. Featuring previously unpublished letters and diary entries, the film creates an intense and intimate atmosphere that takes audiences back to Mucha’s world.
It’s the journey of her life: musician Petra Nachtmanova will travel for weeks on the roads from Berlin, through Anatolia, all the way to eastern Iran in search of the origins of her string instrument, which she discovered in Berlin Kreuzberg: the Saz. She will be always asking one question: “Can you teach me a song you think I should bring back home?”
