Directing
Four people talk about aspects of their work. A flight attendant on a 747 shows us some of what's involved in getting the cabin ready for the next flight. A man in a hardhat discusses the capacity of a huge steam shovel shaped like a wheel, as it turns and moves earth in the background. A man who sells room furnishings talks about trying to make advertising fliers. A cemetery manager describes burial options. All are cheerful.
Hand luggage is stuffed into a bag; one last cigarette before the guard knocks on the door. A prisoner is about to go on a journey. René is to be transported in a prison bus to another town for a court hearing. "Raumfahrer" describes the curious procedure of the transfer of a prisoner – or ‘Verschubung’ as it is known in German – from the point of view of the prisoner. It’s a case of constant stop and start in front of closed doors and gates, as well as endless periods of waiting around. As the bus travels through town and country, the world moves past René’s narrow observation slit in cinemascope. Everything seems close enough to touch and yet so very far away.
Portrays the film star Mario Adorf and his passion for acting, the stage, the cinema, singing and writing. Together with the director Dominik Wessely, the film comes closer to Mario Adorf as a person and highlights important stations of his private life and his international career. When Mario Adorf begins to talk about his life, over 60 years of theatre and film history come to life. A dialogue with him is not only a retrospective, but also an intensive exchange of ideas about film and theatre and his view of the world, love and ageing.
Follows the artist over two years as he explores his „life after Beethoven“, as he searches for his next challenge, his identity as an artist.
In focusing his attention on the competitors of Mr Gay Syria, director Ayse Toprak shatters the one-dimensional meaning of “refugee”. Using the pageant as a means of escape from political persecution, the organiser Mahmoud — already given asylum in Berlin — hopes to offer the winner a chance to travel as well as bring international attention to the life-threatening situations faced by LGBT Syrians.
In December 2025, the extraordinary artist Hildegard Knef would have celebrated her 100th birthday. Her life was shaped by numerous talents, an unshakeable will to succeed and the ability to keep pushing herself forward. This documentary sheds light on the life of the legendary actress and singer.
Highly topical, serious and humorous, this film observes people who are passionately devoted to bird watching. Through their eyes and ears, we discover the world of the birds that becomes a metaphor for the state of the world.
An emotional journey back to the 50s and 60s: Through photos and film footage from her childhood, the 48-year-old filmmaker Marie remembers growing up in bourgeois post-war Germany. Marie is once again confronted with the early death of her mother and the excessive demands of her conservative father. He has no understanding for her and deports her to a Catholic girls' boarding school. A youth characterized by constant rebellion against the mustiness of the post-war years and against a society that expects one thing above all from girls: to smile nicely into the camera and under no circumstances direct the film themselves!
One last time, Hubertus Meckelmann sounds the horns for a big drive hunt in the wild. In the central area of the former military training ground, hunting will soon be prohibited. For the hunting grounds in the area, this is quite an imposition: the populations of red deer, fallow deer and wild boar, limited only with great effort, will get out of control. Nor will the return of the wolf change anything – according to the hunters in the area, the wolf has no place here, anyway. The film accompanies three hunters in their forests and in long, tranquil shots provides insights into the hidden world behind hunting terminology and loden coats.
The incredible story of Bruno Lüdke (1908-44), the alleged worst mass murderer in German criminal history; or actually, a story of forged files and fake news that takes place during the darkest years of the Third Reich, when the principles of criminal justice, subjected to the yoke of a totalitarian system that is beginning to collapse, mean absolutely nothing.
The desert city of Agadez in Niger has been a hub of trade routes since time immemorial. The local Tuareg population always earned a good living by transporting goods and people across the Sahara. But Agadez is also a place where migrants pass through on their way to Europe.
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A documentary comedy that seeks to get to the bottom of collective German melancholy and pessimism.
Out of love for Huskies, nature and cold winters Dave and Kristen Olesen moved from Minnesota to the North West Territories in Canada 25 years ago to create their own little universe on the magnificent East arm of Great Slave Lake. With their two daughters Annika 15 and Liv 12 and their 37 dogs, the Olesens enjoy a unique lifestyle in the wide open wilderness far away from civilization. One winter they all leave their self-built homestead with ten dogs on a two and a half thousand mile family expedition allowing Annika to run the Junior Iditarod in Alaska. As unexpected obstacles all along the trip culminate in three heavily injured dogs the whole endeavor is at risk. Optimism, love and loyalty prevail on this exciting epic family voyage.
In this dystopian world set in the near future, everyone’s reputation is measured and visible. Your “Karma count” defines you, as Cee soon discovers. Victim of a sexual assault that goes viral on social media, the young graphic designer becomes more ostracised as she fights back.
What happens to the food we digest after it leaves our body? Is it waste that is thrown away or a resource that can be reused? In search of answers, director Rubén Abruña embarks on an investigative and entertaining search through 16 cities on four continents. He follows the trail of feces from the long sewers of Paris to a huge sewage treatment plant in Chicago.
The well-known artist Olaf Schubert believes that his mother had a brief but hot affair with Mick Jagger in the 1960s, during the GDR era. He looks like Jagger's spitting image - that is, if you look closely…
May 27th, 1971 was a rainy day. In the small town Radevormwald, the world seems to be still in order. But on this day, 46 people die in a train crash, amongst them 41 schoolchildren. Since then, Radevormwald has been connected with one of the worst railway catastrophes of Germany. The touching documentary reconstructs the tragedy and shows how much the event still influences the life in the town until today.
In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the heart of Jerusalem, six different Christian denominations, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Syrian, Roman Catholic, Ethiopian and Coptic Christians-have divided the sacred site and simply can not agree on which of the claims on the tomb of Jesus is the most legitimate. So they fight. Sometimes through a difficult time cleaning, sometimes even by force. An intuitive and entertaining approach to the fact that faith is a very human thing.
