Douglas Wolfsperger

In conservative southwestern Germany, four people face a fundamental challenge in their quest to find a path to a happier life. In doing so, everything changes for them. At one point in their lives, they knew with every fiber of their being that things could not continue as they were and that a major change in their lives was necessary. Otherwise, there would be no escape from their emotional chaos and no hope for a happier future. Their names are Gabriel, Elisabeth, Melina, and Dunja. Before, they had different names, different lives, and different genders.

"Get on board" is the slogan used by a bus company to attract bachelors looking to get married. A few village simpletons, including the shy gravedigger Eugen, gladly accept the offer. And off they go to Poland to the marriage market. Eugen's acquisition is named Goschka. However, before the young Polish woman can enter into holy matrimony with him, she reveals to Eugen's overprotective mother that she is a wanted murderer of men. Shortly thereafter, Goschka takes a job as a cleaning lady at the crematorium. And finally, Eugen's friend even sells her to a brothel...

The film accompanies protagonists and observers of the Ride of Blood in Weingarten, the largest equestrian procession in Europe with up to 3,000 riders and 30,000 pilgrims. Catholics from all over Upper Swabia take an active part in this procession. The film shows, among others, a country butcher and his family, a couple of beekeepers, a practicing Indian friend from Waldburg, the customs researcher and museum founder Jürgen Hohl, a monastery brother and the abbot of Weingarten Monastery. With ironic overtones, Wolfsperger creates a multi-faceted picture of society that goes beyond popular piety and folklore and delves into existential questions about faith, partnership and death.

Edeltraut Hertel - a midwife caught between two worlds. She has been working as a midwife in a small village near Chemnitz for almost 20 years, supporting expectant mothers before, during and after the birth of their offspring. However, working as a midwife brings with it social problems such as a decline in birth rates and migration from the provinces. Competition for babies between birthing centers has become fierce, particularly in financial terms. Obstetrics in Tanzania, Africa, Edeltraud's second place of work, is completely different. Here, the midwife not only delivers babies, she also trains successors, carries out educational and development work and struggles with the country's cultural and social problems.

"Did you ever fall in love with me?" - that was how the popular comedian Max Hansen ironically yet endearingly attacked Adolf Hitler as a homosexual. In the late 1920s Hansen was forced to leave Germany. The multi-talented entertainer lost his audience and was never again to be seen on a German stage. His children and many others who were part of his life tell their side of the story about the tragicomic life of the popular artist.

For young priest Strobel, a bus trip from Lake Constance to Lourdes turns into an ordeal. Accompanying a group of Catholic pilgrims, he not only has to deal with a recalcitrant bus driver and an overly serious nun. He is horrified to discover that his lover Theresa has stowed away among his flock. She corners him, forcing him to finally reveal their relationship. After all, she is expecting his child. As the bus trip turns into a grueling odyssey, Strobel struggles to keep his double life hidden.

A city, a cinema, and a reluctant farewell. In 2017, in the city of Constance on Lake Constance, Europe’s largest chain of drugstores opened the city’s fifth branch store: more diapers, more toothpaste and more toiletries for the local residents and the consumer tourists from Switzerland. Until the year 2016, the premises were reserved for film culture, this was the location of the former “Scala Film Palace”. When Douglas Wolfsperger returns to the magical site of his cinematic socialization, the public opposition to this pending closure is in full swing. The filmmaker becomes witness to the final rebellion of a dying art house cinema, speaks to passionate film enthusiasts and matter-of-fact city administrators about loss and expansion, the increase in pleasure and trade, intransparent vested interests and advantageous business situations. Inner cities and cultural concepts change – in Constance and everywhere else. But who decides how and for whom?