Vincent Assmann

Sauerland, autumn 1995: In the middle of the forest on the Wilzenberg, a walker finds the body of high school graduate Sonja Risse. However, the fact that the killer left a music box with the lullaby "Hush Little Baby" at the crime scene does not lead to a clear solving. 25 years later, the investigative journalist Stefanie Schneider, known as "Mütze", made a surprising discovery in Cologne. In a disused multi-storey car park, she films an undressed corpse of a man with a music box running next to it! When her colleague Jan Römer, who reported on the spectacular Sonja case as a young journalist in 1995, recognizes the melody from back then, he immediately believes there is a connection. He goes to Wilzenberg with his ambitious colleague to interview Sonja's mother Maria, her former teacher Waldheim and her best friends. The more the journalists compile, the clearer the contradictions and gaps that the investigators should have noticed at the time.

Isn’t the trajectory of a shared life determined in advance? Get married, have kids, be like everyone else… According to Dietrich Brüggemann, who competed in Vary six years ago, 30-somethings conceivably have it all, yet they fail in their attempts to achieve their set ideals. Nö delivers a critique of contemporary values, while also highlighting the struggle to find and nurture love.

Paul (12) leaves home with his best friend Max (12) on the first day of summer vacation. Following in the footsteps of Paul’s missing father, the boys venture into the forest of the Swabian Alb and into a mysterious cave. Children feel freer and more carefree in the forests and mountains than ever before in their lives. But the challenges of their adventure are much bigger than they thought.

The Bra tells the story of the lonely and soon to be pensioned train driver Nurlan. On his last day of work his train hits a clothes line and snags a white bra with blue dots with it. Determined to find the owner, Nurlan leaves no stone unturned and embarks on a dazzling journey through the neighbourhoods of Baku, trying to convince as many women as possible to try on the lost bra.

On a cold, wintry night, Lena shows up on the doorstep of the Rossberg family mansion. She claims her car has broken down, but her arrival is intentional. Lena is in pursuit of Anselm Rossberg, an aged Auschwitz guard who lives with his daughter, Maria. Anselm and Maria both deny Anselm's past, but Lena is determined to get him to confess, even as her own weapon is turned on her and she is forced into a moral dilemma.

A look at one of Chicago’s more troubled South Side neighborhoods from the point of view of two young boxers and their families.

Crowley is 11 years old and lives together with his father on a ranch in Colorado. At first glance Crowley is a little cowboy, but he is 'not quite there yet' as he says himself. A real cowboy takes on responsibility and is able to stand on his own two feet. Crowley helps out on the ranch wherever he can: he helps branding animals, catching cattle, that got lost in the large canyons and repairing the fences. It's not an easy life. But nonetheless, he wants to take over the ranch when he's all grown up so he can finally say: I am a real cowboy!

An African-German Author loses his memory and is used by a modern National Socialist Party as promotion-figure for more political power over Germany.

Maria finds herself caught between two worlds. At school this 14-year-old girl has all the typical teenage interests, but when she’s at home with her family she follows the teachings of the Society of St. Paul and their traditionalist interpretation of Catholicism. Everything that Maria thinks and does must be examined before God. And since the Lord is a strict shepherd, she lives in constant fear of committing some misconduct...

While on a GPS treasure hunt in the Palatinate forest four teenagers come across an old US military radio tower station. Back in the days of the Cold War it was part of a secret military program that produced horrific side effects, but has long since abandoned. Until now, when the station is mysteriously powered up again.

Martin leaves his protective parents’ home and comes to Berlin as a law student with high hopes. He finds a tiny, run-down flat in a strange, dark apartment block, from which the previous tenant has disappeared without a trace. Having no luck with social contacts at the university, Martin quickly falls for his mysterious landlady Simone, who lives just next door behind a thin wall. Hoping to find trust and intimacy, Martin loses himself in the house’s disturbing world of sex and violence. Deep in the walls, Martin discovers the true horror of his first love.

“Whatever falls from heaven, you may keep.” So goes the unwritten law of the Kazakh steppes. A law avidly adhered to by the inhabitants of a small village, who collect the space debris that falls downrange from the nearby Baikonur space station. The last two youthful members of the village are the radio operator Iskander, known as Gagarin, and the spirited Nazira. While Nazira finds it increasing difficult to conceal her love for Iskander by means of her unconventional behaviour, Iskander is evidently not only crazy about Baikonur and the vastness of outer space, but also deeply smitten with the beautiful French astronaut Julie Mahé, whose journey to the stars he wistfully follows on television.

An independent tragicomedy, Run If You Can is the debut feature for director Brüggemann who, along with his sister, also wrote the compelling screenplay. Forced to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, Ben is deeply desperate, despite his humor and vivaciousness. When he meets Christian, his new assistant, Ben treats him like every other helper he’s had. Things suddenly change when Christian meets Annika, “the cello player” whom Ben has been observing from his window for years. The three become close friends, putting Annika in the middle of an emotional, and somehow dangerous, ménage à trois. While conquering Annika is nothing very serious for career-focused Christian, Ben’s love for Annika reminds him of his past and forces him to face his most remote fears. A character-driven story, Run If You Can owes much of its power to the actors’ performances, especially Robert Gwisdek’s outstanding interpretation of Ben.

An allegorical comedy centered on two childhood sweethearts who seem destined for one another until the women of their isolated village, angered by male indifference toward the water shortage, go on a sex strike that threatens the young couple's first night of love.

A movie wannabe from Singapore and some of Hollywood's elite contribute to Storyville's illuminating view of the world of casting.