Sabbatical

From 9/11 to the Ukraine War: Five lifeworlds of post-migrant people in Germany, that have taken an unwanted turn in the shadow of public discourse.

1919. World War I has just ended. Dörte Helm, a young art student in Weimar, follows Walter Gropius’ call and joins the newly-founded Bauhaus school. A love story grows between Gropius and Dörte, adding fuel to the fire of the ensuing scandal threatening the very existence of the Bauhaus; the school of art that would go on to shape the 20th century like no other…

This melodrama about love in the third age focuses on the 65-year-old Mathilde living alone after the death of her husband. When she gets to know the attractive Carlo in the opera, she sleeps with him at the same evening. Mathilde tries to call him up some days later, but learns he gave her a wrong number. Despite this disappointing experience, she gets to know the sympathetic Hannes. They become a couple, but after a while, Mathilde meets Carlo, who apologizes and admits being married to a dead sick woman, again...

After nine years in psychiatric detention Theo, who has brutally assaulted and raped three women, is released. Living in a supervised community, he connects well with his social worker Sascha, finds a job at a print shop and even a girlfriend, Nettie, his principal's brittle and estranged daughter. But even though superficially everything seems to work out Theo's seething rage remains ready to erupt.

Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland.

Anyone can hold a mini-DV camera. Anyone can get 99 euros in credit. And everyone has already written a five-minute story in school. So everyone is actually prepared to make a 99euro-film. but "99euro-films" is more. It is the proof that German films can also be wild, new, modern, funny, political and entertaining. And all that in 80 minutes. 12 young German filmmakers come together, inspire exciting young actors and go: have an idea and simply film it. Just do it and be independent.

Anja lives with her parents in a small town somewhere in Germany. She is about to graduate, but the weekend is usually celebrated. When Anja runs home from a party one morning, she is hit by a car on the highway. Apparently not much has happened. After the first shock has subsided, everyone is relieved that the accident has gone so smoothly. First. But it is becoming increasingly clear that Anja is no longer the same. She sleeps badly, suffers from panic attacks and delusions. It's as if she's been followed by gloomy shadows since that party night.

After losing part of her memory, Maret, 44, sets out to find out who she used to be. She learns about the many different life paths she followed, in none of which anything was ever really achieved. A profoundly unhappy person in a never-ending, headlong rush. A doctor on the island of Lanzarote offers to put this restlessness to an end through brain surgery. A promise of peace and satisfaction. Will Maret proceed with the surgery that would take away part of her being - or not?

In her former life, Eva Bernhardt was called Evelyn Frank and was a notorious brothel owner in Berlin. But then she decided to testify as a key witness against her husband and his business partner and was accepted into a witness protection program. With a new identity, she now lives as Eva in the Bavarian mountains and starts all over again. She settles into her new surroundings surprisingly quickly and soon makes friends. The two witness protection officers Ines Meder and Holger Nolting observe Eva skeptically and with a watchful eye. Ines in particular has some doubts about Eva's sincerity when she is introduced to her as her daughter. When Eva then wraps the manager of a restaurant around her finger, Ines is certain that Eva is playing a false game...

In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.

Parisian everyman Antoine Doinel has married his sweetheart Christine Darbon, and the newlyweds have set up a cozy domestic life of selling flowers and giving violin lessons while Antoine fitfully works on his long-gestating novel. As Christine becomes pregnant with the couple's first child, Antoine finds himself enraptured with a young Japanese beauty. The complications change the course of their relationship forever.

Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

A husband and wife struggle to keep their marriage alive until they realize they are both secretly working as assassins. Now, their respective assignments require them to kill each other.

In 1960s Hong Kong, two neighbors form an intimate bond after making a discovery about their spouses in this visually stunning tale of unrequited love.

A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, bringing with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown. While Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor.

Marie, who works as a successful door-to-door encyclopedia salesperson, has been married to her husband Francois for 12 years and has a two-year-old son. Though she is relatively content with her life, she feels something is wanting. Enter 50-year old African-American Bill. Initially she is annoyed by his insouciance, but she finds that she is irresistibly attracted to him. Soon the two are in the midst of sordid illicit affair. She knows little about her new lover, and he seems uninterested in learning about her, but the long sessions of lovemaking are something else entirely. Feeling out of control, Marie is increasingly repelled by her own actions. Psychologically, she struggles to reconcile her torrid encounters with Bill and mundane domestic chores such as bathing her son. Moreover, she finds herself incapable of hiding her adulterous behavior, rather she comes home with scratches and hickeys all over her body, to the devastation Francois.

Louise, who has just written a novel, comes to Paris to meet with a potential publisher. While in the city, she stays with her older sister, Martine, who in many ways is the exact opposite of Louise: she lives in a fashionable neighborhood, is cold to others, and has snobby friends, while Louise lives in a small town and is thoroughly unpretentious. Louise's apparent happiness -- and similarities to their mother -- gradually gets on Martine's nerves.

Aspiring Florida defense lawyer Kevin Lomax accepts a job at a New York law firm. With the stakes getting higher every case, Kevin quickly learns that his boss has something far more evil planned.

A troubled Southern man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her (and New York City) in the process.

A passenger on a cruise ship develops an irresistible infatuation with an eccentric paraplegic's wife.

A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba diving accident.