Antje Boehmert

This film tells the story of the unknown pre-history of the AIDS virus, long before people started to die in the US and Europe. Following a team of scientists we uncover a forgotten medical archive in the Democratic Republic of Congo, that tells of an epidemic a full two decades before anyone knew about the novel killer. From high-tech labs in the US to African medics who have their boots on the ground, we trace HIV back to its origin in the jungles of Cameroon. In the decades around the turn of the 20th century, colonialism fundamentally changed the lives of millions of people in central Africa; it created an environment that allowed HIV to leave its original host, the chimpanzee, and start to spread in humans.

Why 119 million people in Europe live under the breadline today. How could this happen? The reality of deprived children, unemployed young adults, and indigent workers spreads all around the Union. What does Europe do for them? Visiting young unemployed people in Ireland, Italy and Portugal, this film investigates beyond the social and economic aspects and outlines how this situation impacts the politics.

The documentary begins when the fictionalized drama ends. Sara spent three years volunteering to save refugees on the same journey that made her so famous, and was suddenly arrested in Aug. 2018, accused by Greek authorities of running a criminal enterprise with charges including “international espionage and people smuggling.” If convicted, she faces up to 25 years in prison and the end of her humanitarian career. Shot over three years, the film follows Sara’s fight for justice and journey of self-discovery.

For US agent Greg Squire and a dedicated network of specialist undercover investigators around the world, the mission is clear: track and catch serial paedophiles who operate across the dark web with the same sophistication and secrecy as international organised crime syndicates. Increasingly, these offenders are far younger than the stereotypical image of a paedophile - tech-savvy young adults who exploit digital anonymity with alarming ease.

Bianca Charamsa made her way to Japan during this year's cherry blossom season to get to grips with the country's character through conversations with some of its artists. Although two violent atomic catastrophes - the bombing of Hiroshima and the Fukushima nuclear disaster - have shaken and shaped modern-day Japan, the artist Takahiro Iwasaki believes that memory of 6th and 9th August 1945 is slowly fading, despite all the folded cranes left by visitors to the memorial sites. Natural catastrophes like sea- and earthquakes also rock Japan time and time again; perhaps this explains why the Japanese aesthetic Wabi Sabi incorporates both beauty and decay...much like the beauty of the cherry blossom as it withers during the annual festival of Hanami

Criminal networks from Nigeria make money from drug and human trafficking. In their home country, they lure young women with the prospect of a secure future in Europe - a fateful promise. Because it leads to forced prostitution. The women pay thousands of euros for the often illegal journey. Once there, the human traffickers demand the money back and force the young women into prostitution. They are put under psychological pressure by an archaic "Yuyu" ritual intended to prevent them from escaping and escaping their tormentors. "Without demand, the business would not exist," says social worker Princess Inyang Okokon. She herself had fallen into the hands of human traffickers, but managed to get out and is now helping other women to break out of forced prostitution. The documentary accompanies the committed Italian prosecutor Lina Trovato and the German investigator Colin Nierenz in their work and tells of the fate of young Nigerian women who managed to escape from forced prostitution