Sans Tête

In 1981, all of Germany fears for the life of Johannes Erlemann, the eleven-year-old son of entrepreneur Jochem Erlemann, who was in custody on suspicion of fraud at the time of his son's abduction. The boy was snatched off his bicycle by his kidnappers, put into a van and then spend two terrible weeks in a shed in the forest fighting for his life having been chained to a wall and left without daylight, while the kidnappers try to extort a large ransom from his wealthy parents.

Director Gregor Samsa, washed-up and in his late fifties, is reviewing his life. Having wasted it as a cultural worker doesn't exactly add to his joy.

Jojo, a young art student, discovers the microcosm of an art academy with all of its opportunities and contradictions.

A janitor with a loving wife and a devoted son leads a seemingly quiet, orderly life. One day, the boy asks his father an inconspicuous but profound question: “Dad, why are there no photos of you at my age?” Driven by a restlessness that can no longer be suppressed, the man returns to the place of his childhood: a children's home he has avoided for decades.

During the course of a single night, various people cross paths in the pubs, bars, and hookah lounges of Cologne. The issues that all of Germany is talking about are put on the table: the patriarchy, the Middle East conflict, rising rents, and whether Jesus would still buy everyone drinks today. Political convictions are stiffened by alcohol, and old wounds are reopened.