Inigo Westmeier

Thirteen German directors present short films exploring the state of their country.

The documentary film Dragon Girls tells the story of three young Chinese girls training to become Kung Fu fighters, far away from their families, at the largest Kung Fu school in China. These girls, in a crowd of 26,000 children, are under constant pressure to conform to the norms and structures. They are turned into fighting robots and yet, if you look behind the curtain, you see children with dreams and aspirations. It show the controversial world of selection of the fittest in a totalitarian system.

A layered, engrossing and intriguing look at a national collective trauma and the ambitious initiative to try and heal the wounds.

In moving interviews, four fathers describe their suffering and efforts to keep contact with their children. A mother justifies the refusal of contact from her point of view. Despite the seriousness of the topic, the film manages to remain entertaining and even delivers an amusing snapshot of German sensitivities and the state of the Republic.

In rural Russia, children convicted of theft, murder and rape are sent to a home for delinquents. Without the outside world's pressures, they're finally allowed to act as children, but for some of them, this new life proves to be a challenge. This documentary tells the stories of several of these adolescents, who must endure separation from their families and who, upon release, are unlikely to be forgiven for their crimes.

A short by Kilian von Keyserlingk.

Documentary film.