Faces of Death

Nicolas Cage dies all the way from Hollywood to Direct-To-DVD.

Young police officers are supposed to enforce the law and suppress their personal opinions. After their training, protected by bullet proof vests, shields and a gun, they are sent out on the streets. This documentary accompanies students at a German police academy over the course of their first year. A remote location in Saxony-Anhalt. Real-life simulations and practice at the shooting range are the preparation for the second phase of their training - going out on the streets and facing the real world. It's their first year at the academy and on the beat, and these young men and women are often confronted with realities that take them to their limits. This documantary takes an uncensored look at the German police for the very first time.

Laika, a stray dog, was the first living being to be sent into space and thus to a certain death. A legend says that she returned to Earth as a ghost and still roams the streets of Moscow alongside her free-drifting descendants. While shooting this film, the directors little by little realised that they knew the street dogs only as part of our human world; they have never looked at humans as a part of the dogs’ world.

Udo Kier dies his way through film history. He screams, falls, lies, is cut into pieces, shot or commits suicide. Again and again his empty gaze, again and again his rigid body. In 54 years as an actor, Udo Kier played in more than 170 feature films, 120 series episodes and 50 short films. More than 70 times Udo Kier tried to give an expression to dying and death. In Staging Death, these representations of death merge into a montage of the most diverse shots, film formats, special effects and sound designs. "Directors are now thinking increasingly strained about what new ways they can kill me. […] At some point, somebody would have to make a montage of all my film deaths." Udo Kier (Interview Subway Magazine #145, December 1999)

Life’s all about two things: firstly, being loved, and secondly not being alone. But what happens when people aren’t enough, or when they’re too much? Geliebt is not a film about the pros and cons of emotional and sexual relationships with animals but a film about the relationship between humans and animals, poised somewhere between love and dependence.

The guided tours in the Reichstag building are well attended; there’s lots of laughter at the simulated vote on a bill. At the Bundestag’s “Infomobile” in Dresden, a citizen complains that the government is out of touch with the people. SPD parliamentarians attend a workshop to practise strategies for dealing with right-wing populist topics. A crowd chants: close the borders! Journalists from the taz and Bild-Zeitung newspapers discuss the issues of the day. An editorial team from TV station MDR produces a report entitled “Attack on Democracy – the New Right.”

With things growing a bit stale in the bedroom, lesbian couple Claudia and Dylan agree to seek sexual experiences outside their relationship. Dylan discovers new pleasures at a sex club, while Claudia, in drag as Claude, finds a surprising partner.

Felix alone in his apartment. Multiple lanes and syringes of Mephedron and a little G. The filmmaker is watching.

Finally retired—finally enough time for the things that really matter.

Heiko, 51, a sheet metal former trained in GDR times, unemployed since the fall of the wall, pisses on his bed and on the carpet. The film encounters Heiko's dysfunctional family history and his decision to be alone forever. Piss and GDR, a reflection of how deep the consequences of the fall of the Wall are still in the bodies of some people to this day.

A man and his sh*t.

Walter shows himself and his apartment.

A morning visit to Peter, the day begins.

Construction workers' meeting on Sunday afternoon. Wolfgang says how, Carsten does it and Puppy watches.

Everyone has dreams – for some it involves being, slaughtered and eaten. This documentary by Jan Soldat challenges cultural taboos through psychological discovery. Our question – do the three featured men want to be served with andalouse or samourai sauce?

After a long wait, the eagerly anticipated package containing the new Venus 2000 has finally arrived. First, I’m going to have a beer, and of course, I’ll give the machine a try right away.