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?”
With the explosion of the economic crisis, thousands of Spanish horses were abandoned by their owners. A group of girls has gathered around a horsewoman to give these unwanted animals a new lease of life. A cinematic novel about a childhood on the countryside and the first encounter with death.
We travel to King George Island, the gateway to Antarctica, where five different nations operate research stations located in the most extraordinary of environments. The researchers’ work and visits have to be planned with the utmost care because mistakes can cost lives. And only together can they survive such hostile conditions.
Being an actress in Los Angeles is a demanding job on many levels. We take a look at the “working class” of actresses in L.A., the ones nobody ever sees because they are not (yet) famous. A portrait of five women who show us what it really means to “follow your dreams” and demonstrate that happiness and success are not necessarily related.
A docu-comedy about three neo-hippies from Berlin who rent a cottage on a farm in Poland to be closer to nature. They meditate, practice acroyoga, shower naked in the garden and help out on the farms. The villagers consider them complete eccentrics. A cheerful invitation to embrace different approaches to life.
Othmar Ammann, a structural engineer, designed over half of the eleven bridges that connect New York City to the rest of the United States. With his breathtaking constructions, he was himself an agent of progress in the midst of the fast-changing 20th century. We tell his adventure-filled story.
The story of Johanna Langefeld is the only known case of an SS guard being saved from a death sentence after the war by her own victims. In 1946, she escaped from a Cracow prison where she was awaiting trial. Her former prisoners not only helped her escape but also hid her from the Polish authorities for ten years. What were their motives?
Seven-year-old Zakhar lives in the remote north of Siberia. This year, a teacher is moving in with his family to homeschool him. With the vast, snow-covered tundra as its backdrop, the film observes Zakhar’s family’s everyday activities – herding reindeer and fishing are their principal livelihoods.
Being a mother is the most natural thing in the world. Or so it’s said. On her quest to find out what motherhood means to herself, director Antonia Hungerland encounters all kinds of people, none of whom seem to correspond to our traditional notion of a ‘real mother’. But what does it mean to be a ‘real mother’? A personal and poetic documentary.
In their voice-overs, five young Afghanistan war veterans from Pittsburgh first establish familiar foundations: The trauma of 9/11, the ideology of violent retribution, military service as a patriotic family tradition, the “unfairness” of today’s warfare. They are slow to show us their faces. Physically unharmed but full of inner pain they have become the misunderstood upon their return.
While leading middle-class lives in the GDR as a cook, forester and car mechanic, Norbert, Raimund and Eberhard spied for the BND and CIA between the 1950s and 80s. All three were exposed and imprisoned. They tell their extraordinary stories for the first time.
How do we go about making films for children fleeing wars and crises? What can such films accomplish? What inspiration can the cinema give these children for their future? Can film work relieve suffering or even provide hope? A group of 7 young filmmakers from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, Colombia and Iran were selected to tackle these questions.
