Bettina Blickwede

The Tara is a river on the outskirts of Taranto whose waters are believed to have healing properties; bathing there is a tradition for the inhabitants of the city. Starting from this bucolic place, Volker Sattel and Francesca Bertin take us on a journey through a territory where myths clash with reality and where so-called “progress” has taken a heavy toll on nature and society.

It starts with "Peter Schlemihl's Miraculous Story", which tells of a man travelling the world in seven-league boots. Adelbert von Chamisso wrote the tale before setting off to Russia on scientific expedition in 1815. He analysed the flora of Alaska and then explored the Northwest Passage, just like Cook and voyager Bering had done previously, the latter with physician and naturalist Steller in tow. A porthole reveals the view. Thus begins Ottinger's journey from Alaska to Kamchatka via Chukotka, with her predecessors’ log books to accompany her on her way.

Unannounced, Aziza is once again standing in her room – internship, Portugal, everything canceled. But her room is occupied. Her mother, Trixi, has rented it out. Zach lives there now, a twenty-something from New Zealand, who came to Germany on a one-way ticket. Starting from this situation, the film develops an almost documentary-style portrait of a Kreuzberg ‘situation’: everything is readily available, time, people, summer, streets. And in the end a crash, the film itself: ‘for nothing’?

In Echigo in Japan the snow often lies several feet deep well into May covering landscape and villages. Over the centuries the inhabitants have organised their lives accordingly. In order to record their very distinctive forms of everyday life, their festivals and religious rituals Ulrike Ottinger journeyed to the mythical snow country – accompanied by two Kabuki performers. Taking the parts of the students Takeo and Mako they follow in the footsteps of Bokushi Suzuki who in the mid-19th century wrote his remarkable book “Snow Country Tales”.

"In the Shadows" slithers through underworld Berlin in grand style. En route to a twisty finale, German writer-director Thomas Arslan keeps his audience glued to the increasingly desperate actions of Trojan, a thirtysomething career criminal whose latest job slowly catches up with him.

Berlin in the 3rd millenium. Rather by chance Kai Starel gets into the newly founded CC Institute "Carl Celler Culture", where hip creative minds buzz around in bleak spaces and think about company logos with animals. This brings up art, campaigns or something inbetween - and a liaison between the designer queen Rena Yazka (Sabine Timoteo) and Kai, who becomes her model.

Анна с супругом Робертом и их общим сыном Максом живет в живописном загородном доме уединённого местечка Уккермарк. Ее пожилая мама, нуждаясь в уходе, также проживает теперь здесь. Во время летних каникул их семья значительно увеличилась: из Берлина приехала дочь Анны Лаура от первого брака со спутником жизни Паулом и двумя детьми. Кажется, пришло необременительное время отпуска: отдых с чистым деревенским воздухом и прохладой от близлежащего водоёма. С приездом Софи, сестры Лауры, которая с недавнего времени живет за границей, рушится семейная идиллия. Общение членов семьи становится поверхностным, а отношения между друг другом и вовсе осложняются.

Ulrike Ottinger’s documentary Prater (Austria-Germany), a half-decade in the making, chronicles over the past century and more the attractions that contributed to the rise and fall of Prater, the world’s oldest amusement park.

Aus der Ferne is a personal travelogue, a documentary about a trip through Turkey. Thomas Arslan, who filmed the journey himself, undertook the trip in May/June 2005. The route takes him through Istanbul and Ankara to Gaziantep in the southeastern part of the country, from there further eastwards via Diyarbakir and Van to Dogubayazit near the Iranian border. The film describes moments during the journey that differ from the usual motifs that inform the image of present-day Turkey – from impressions of day-to-day life in such Western cities as Istanbul and Ankara all the way to regions in the country’s easternmost territory that were locked in battle until recently.

В фильме «Двенадцать стульев» зрелищно соединились драматургия поиска сокровищ и погони с плотными образами людей и мест. Он рассказывает как вчера, так и сегодня, о реальности людей в странах СНГ и об универсальности наших действий. Таким образом, большая социальная утопия смешивается с индивидуальной надеждой на личное счастье, будь то деньги или любовь.

Documentary about the german police force.

A woman faces a variety of emotional crises as she spends the summer interacting in various ways with friends, family, and lovers.

A day in the life of the 21 years old Deniz, who aims to become an actress and makes her living by dubbing movies. After she has split with her old boyfriend she gets to know Diego and spends the evening with him.

With 1970s Germany in the background, this film depicts the story of a family from the “R.A.F. Terrorist” group and their search for a normal life and their inner self.

Can and his girlfriend, Jale, live with their young daughter, Meral, in a tough Turkish neighbourhood of Berlin and barely manage to scrape enough money together for their existence. Can is a small-time dealer and errand-boy for drug boss Hakan, who has to keep his customers supplied within his narrowly staked out territory. Jale, who works in the ware-house of a department store, has been pressing Can to give up this activity. Can, also fed up with his situation, sees a bright new beginning for himself and his family when Hakan offers him the prospective chance to run a bar on his very own. But Can has little control over the pressures that gradually begin to build up around him and soon finds himself floundering in quicksand.

Thomas Arslan's second feature film and part of his Berlin-trilogy is a slow-paced milieu study of German-Turkish youth in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The film depicts the every day life, domestic conflicts, dreams and disappointments of three siblings and their aimless, meandering strolls through the Kreuzberg district.