Simon Quack

La empresa is a strange creature of a most ambiguous nature: a fiction film about documentary filmmaking as fiction filmmaking, and what it all does to a region’s economy as well as a collective psychology. Or is it? Isn’t it more to the point to say that... But before we get lost here, let’s state what La empresa talks about: how the caminata nocturna, the illegal crossing of the border between Mexico and the United States, was turned into a business that ranges from four-hour night-time tours for tourists out for a sick thrill to reenactments for film and television crews. The latter, of course, is at the core of André Siegers’ casually ironic look at this economy of disaster. When the Germans arrive in town, they meet a workforce already in place and willing to play to any national stereotype – as the French seem to get other kicks out of presenting the caminata nocturna than the Netflix internationals.

KÖY (Turkish for village) is about the longing for home, for belonging and the freedom of the self. Three women from three generations are united by their Kurdish roots.

KÖY (Turkish for village) is about the longing for home, for belonging and the freedom of the self. Three women from three generations are united by their Kurdish roots.

Markus is a handsome and respectable architect who has a secret: he is a pedophile. Despite feeling disgust of himself, Markus can't help but feel attracted to young boys. When he thinks he won't be able to suppress his deepest feelings, he decides to isolate himself.

Tells the story of mushroom pickers who, in the summer and autumn months head, to the southern Carpathians of Romania to begin their search. Far from being a leisure activity, for many of the pickers this is a main source of income which they and their families rely on to get by. In makeshift campsites, they spend months between dense coniferous forests and the Transalpina road, where they sell the gathered mushrooms to passing tourists or people on weekend breaks. The majority of their harvest is taken by intermediaries, who sell the mushrooms abroad for many times the price.

Every summer, when the major football teams fly their star athletes to training grounds in expensive and sunny locations, some other players meet on a football field in Duisburg. Even though there are professional footballers, they are all unemployed. And they look desperately for a job. "The Other Fields" sheds a new and completely different light on the mythologies of contemporary football. While some may think that “bling-bling” and “glitz” is all there is to modern football, Marco Kugel’s and Simon Quack’s film shows the intricate economic and moral complexities behind the façade of entertainment. Dreams only last a season or two.