Six-year-old Nila is the product of a temporary marriage, which allows a man in Iran to be married to a woman for a pre-determined time. Children born out of these relationships do not legally exist and cannot attend school. In a system that prioritises men’s rights over women’s, Nila’s mother Leyla fights relentlessly to win custody of her daughter and secure her future.
Graphic artist Stefanie is in the middle of a creativity crisis. In a museum, she is captivated by the satirical photomontages of the world-famous artist and Nazi opponent John Heartfield. Miraculously, she finds herself in his studio. She embarks on an adventurous journey through Heartfield’s extraordinary life 100 years ago.
Hambach Forest in Germany was supposed to be cleared to expand an open-cast lignite mine. In 2018, during a large-scale police operation to evict activists occupying the forest, film student Steffen Meyn was killed in a tragic accident. Based on his film footage, we chronicle Steffen’s journey and follow him into the activists’ world.
Sara Mardini, once a competitive swimmer in Syria, became Europe’s most celebrated refugee after saving 18 people’s lives. After working as a rescue volunteer in the Mediterranean, she is accused of people smuggling and faces a 25-year prison sentence. We follow her fight for justice and journey of self-discovery against the backdrop of Europe’s refugee ‘crisis’.
Pina Bausch revolutionised modern dance with her choreography. But what remains of her legacy? Two spectacular dance projects show how a young generation of dancers from all over the world is rediscovering Pina‘s choreography – A visually intense and emotional journey into the world of modern dance and beyond.
Algorithms decide whether we are creditworthy, entitled to social welfare and which partner is the right one for us. But what happens if algorithms make mistakes? We tell the stories of people whose lives have been turned upside down after algorithms misjudged their situations. Who is responsible if AI turns out to be a curse rather than a blessing?
His mother blames communism, his uncle an inheritance dispute, the others remain silent. Film director Dieu Hao Do examines his fragmented family, which has scattered across three continents since the Vietnam War. Is communism to blame for their estrangement?
Chea Samy, a celebrated dancer at the Cambodian Royal Palace, raises a boy as her own at her home on the palace grounds. Years later, as a forced labourer under the Khmer Rouge, she realises her foster son is Pol Pot. The film tells the almost unknown story of the history and reign of Pol Pot and its connection to classical Cambodian dance.
Civil society and the law system in Russia are under severe pressure from the state. Human rights lawyers have become the last frontier between state violence and society. Mikhail Benyash and a network of like-minded lawyers defend those who dare to speak up. They fight for justice in an increasingly suffocating dictatorship.
An investigative journey to the American west, which is increasingly threatened by water scarcity. Scientific data shows that this region is drying out, with devastating consequences for communities and the environment. Conflicts of biblical proportions are already emerging – defined by the struggle for our most precious resource.
A story about a man who dedicated his life to preserving the Church but instead led it into its greatest crisis: Pope Benedict XVI. After the worldwide sexual abuse scandal became public, Benedict resigned in 2013. An analysis of the failings of an institution that believes in absolute truth as it struggles to come to terms with modern democratic society.
In 1944, for the first time in history, the Americans give female journalists press credentials to cover the Normandy invasion. On their way along the frontlines of WWII, Martha Gellhorn, Margret Bourke-White and Lee Miller add a female subtext to war reporting which forever changes our perception of war as the “father of all things”.
