Anton Yaremchuk

The climate crisis, Germany’s nuclear phase-out and Russia’s war against Ukraine are just three of the heavy pieces in the dramatic game about the future of energy. Caught in the middle are two small towns with barely a thousand residents each: Gundremmingen in Bavaria, home to a shuttered nuclear plant, and Choczewo on Poland’s Baltic coast, where the country’s first facility is now under construction. What do the good people on the ground think about it all?

The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine is not only waged with bombs, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, but also in the media. It is a "propaganda battle" internally and externally. Russia spreads targeted disinformation in order to systematically devalue news. At the same time, their own population should be convinced that they want to liberate Ukraine from Nazis. Ukraine's narrative wants to emotionally mobilize its own population and strengthen resistance to the aggressor. Spindoctors are of particular importance in the propaganda battle over Ukraine. On the Ukrainian side, it's often influencers like Oleksiy Arestovych. On the Russian side, Vladimir Solovyov, Putin's snout, is supposed to sell the war to his own people with his daily TV talks. The documentary shows the new front lines of virtual warfare and provides insights into the populists' bag of tricks on social networks.

When Mara flees from the military dictatorship in her country of origin in Latin America, she leaves a lot behind. Twenty years later, mother and daughter are living in Berlin when an amnesty and compensation for the exiles are announced. The events and the reunion with an old acquaintance awaken fears in Mara that she was able to suppress for a long time. She relives the past in vivid nightmares.

As a student at the National Music Academy in Kyiv, Denis takes his graduation project very seriously. But he doesn’t want to be absorbed by the routine of formal examinations. He decides to revisit and present a new edition of The Barber of Seville, bringing to the stage young and unknown vocal talents, and motivating the artists to sing and recite in Italian, the opera’s original language. What does it mean to be both a student and a conductor? How do you deal with organisational problems and a hostile orchestra, unwilling to collaborate? How do you get through all of this without lowering the artistic standards your mentor has been teaching you for the past few years?