Herbert Schwarze

A lonesome car. The wind is whistling. A door of an undefined building opens—is it a holiday bungalow, a shed or a ruin? A woman is standing at the window. The heat of an idle day of holiday, perhaps. The South, a place of longing.

Water as a physical and metaphysical metaphor and background of human existence. A docu-fictional essay between the Brazilian Sertão-deserts and the Northern-German flood areas of Dithmarschen. Dramas and day-by-day-observations in times of climate change.

By accompanying 20 very different individuals in today's Berlin, cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and filmmaker Ciro Cappellari sketch a portrait of a modern, stimulating metropolis.

The family of Polish woman Jowita lacks the money needed to finally finish building their house, which has been under construction for years. In order to be able to afford the remaining work, Jowita goes to Germany for a few months to work as a housekeeper. It is difficult for her to say goodbye to her husband and child, and the welcome she receives in Germany from Anne, whom she is to look after from now on, is not very warm at first. The 88-year-old, who suffers from early-stage dementia, finds it difficult to accept the stranger in her household. But little by little, the women find a way to get along with each other, as is now the case in many German households where Polish caregivers move in with elderly people. Director Christiane Büchner accompanies Anne and Jowita's everyday life with her camera, without actively intervening in the events herself.

What would we do if the world ended tomorrow? And what do we do to prevent it? "The End of the World As We Know It" is a film about three people who seek survival in the face of great catastrophes: in a bunker far from civilization, in the contaminated Chernobyl exclusion zone, and as a scientist fighting the climate crisis.

Louis Fried goes in search of traces in the Hamburg district of Hammerbrook. An area in whose appearance war and Nazi rule are inscribed to this day. Between wasteland and reconstruction, memorials and urban planning, he encounters his own family history.

Short film made by a group of young directors in Berlin.

Darkness and its possession evoke artistic "pre-images": primarily Expressionism and its "after-images". The story is told of a stroll through the (cinematic) night, of absurd and of dead theater.

"With Your Own Eyes" observes the editorial staff of the public german broadcaster ARD's political magazine "Monitor" in their daily work, focusing on the making of a single program.