Arto Sebastian

GDR, August 1989: Hanna and Andreas became a target of the secret police and had to give up their plans for their future studies and desired professions. Instead, they face arbitrariness, mistrust and reprisals. Their only chance for a self-determined life lies in fleeing across the Baltic Sea. Fifty kilometres of water separate them from freedom - and only a thin connecting rope around their wrists saves them from absolute loneliness.

A playful and personal journey through Lebanon’s audiovisual memory, composed entirely of archival footage. It is a love letter to Beirut, spanning 70 years of film, TV, home videos, and photography, exploring the Lebanese collective psyche – marked by joy and intimacy, destruction and loss. Through the eyes of citizens, filmmakers and artists, the film reconstructs a fragmented history in a country without a national archive, celebrating creative expression as both resistance, renewal and a way to preserve memory.

A drama centered around a German construction manager who works with undocumented workers and an Albanian girl searching for her missing father.

With the population in decline, a traditional way of life is ending in a remote, rundown Bulgarian village. This poetic and at times tragicomic film follows the last remaining inhabitants from the perspective of several domesticated animals. There’s a great deal of attention given to sound, light and movement: an overflowing bucket, sunlight dancing in rustling foliage, the ticking sound of ants on the move, and a cowbell clanging in the wind.

David is a raw vegan influencer. In addition to spreading supplements, he also shares stories about dark forces and God. The film delves into a complex world between conspiracy ideologies and self-optimization, portraying people who want to establish a kingdom in Germany.

Fourteen-year-old Li Xing lives in a district full of ruins and reconstruction. School brings him nothing but problems and his family is no help at all. One day, he finds an underground shelter where strange things happen...

Kerstin floats stoically across the Mecklenburg Lake District in her red GDR kayak. Aimlessly, between tourism and dreariness, she glides over the water for days, striving to remain alone. The many rivers and lakes are familiar to her. But where does Kerstin come from? What is she fleeing from? Who is pursuing her? The evenness of this journey breaks when Alima appears, finally asking the paddling loner the right questions.

After 20 years Moni (38) returns home to her sister Silke who has been attacked by a stranger. Moni is willing to do anything possible to find the attacker and to protect her sister. But is that really what Silke (34) wants? And if so, who is actually the one, to be protected? And above all, protect from who? And which role does the offender René (38) play, who doesn't even understand why he did it. A melancholic film that plays with three different perspectives and constantly reinvents itself while searching for answers.

Simon joins left-wing extremism, the far-right scene, and Salafism in various scenarios.

After years of estrangement, single parent Arkadiy gets a visit from brother Igor and his son from Odesa. According to Jewish custom, they mourn their recently deceased mother while digging up old conflicts. As the war breaks out in Ukraine, the family is thrown into turmoil, and the brothers must take a closer look at their relationship to their homeland.

"Snowblind" is set in the black forest in the ice cold winter of 1946. Peter, a 16-year old, blind boy is trying to get out of Germany together with his father Heiner – a former SS officer. They carry the fatally wounded soldier Karl, who promised to guide them across the border to Switzerland. By the time they reach his families remote farm house, Karl has died and Peter and Heiner hope for Karls father to fulfill his sons promise. A snow storm forces them to stay at the farm house, causing highly sensible dynamics between the contradicting characters - sparking a chain of fateful events.

In 1949, a girl disappears from an isolated house in the Black Forest. Fifty years later, another girl disappears. Now, in the present, the ghosts of the past step out of the shadows once more.