Gate to Heaven

Fool's Mate

Matthieu Carriere, who once starred in German director Volkor Schlondorff's breakthrough film Young Torless, turns director himself for Fool's Mate. Michael Marwitz plays a once-famous concert pianist and chess whiz. He compromises his talents by casting his lot with a group of self-destructive druggies and gamblers. Marwitz' new circle of friends effectively ruins his marriage to Victoria Tennant, an English architect. Fool's Mate makes no effort to cheer up its audience, but this sort of fare apparently is what the European film-festival circuit thrives on.

Tour Eiffel

Lulu from Sicily drives with his small rickety Fiat to Paris to fulfill his lifelong dream: he buys a red cabriolet. From the top of the Eiffel Tower he has to watch as his car is stolen by a man who intends to steal the Mona Lisa. In the course of a chase with the police, his car is completely wrecked. When getting back to it, the police takes Lulu for the thief and arrests him.

Uzbek Express!

Tashkent Station in the Uzbekistan capital: Passengers rush to catch their trains. A couple, locked in an intimate embrace, so deeply affects the train driver that leaves the train standing and makes a fundamental change in his life. A miniature by Veit Helmer.

Gondola

In the Georgian mountains, a cable car connects a village with a smaller town in the valley. Iva started working for the cable car as a conductor and is now in charge of handling the gondolas. While one gondola goes up to the village, the other goes down to the valley. Halfway down, the gondolas meet every half hour. This is exactly the moment when Iva and Nina, the conductor of the other gondola, meet each time. Where at the beginning only collegial greetings were exchanged, over time a flirtation develops. What follows is the big love and stress with the boss.

Superstau

Every year, many Germans are preparing to spend their vacations in the sunny south. And they all have to use the same highways. And every year everything ends in a big traffic jam.

A Trick of the Light

A rare gem of cinematic storytelling that weaves docudrama, fictional reenactment, and experimental photography into a powerful, reflective work on the early days of German cinema. The film tells the story of the Skladanowsky Brothers, the German-born duo responsible for inventing the "bioskop", an early version of the film projector.

Tuvalu

Set in a dilapidated indoor swimming pool (the Central Baths in Sofia), the film details the efforts of Anton, a clueless dreamer who yearns to sail the world, and Martha, the button obsessed cashier, to maintain the illusion for Anton's blind father that business is thriving. Working to sabotage their efforts is Gregor - Anton's brother - an amoral developer who is determined to raze the entire town and construct a sprawling condominium complex. Gregor engineers an accident that seems certain to doom the business and in the process steals away Eva, the beautiful woman of Anton's dreams. Will Gregor's dastardly plan succeed?

Absurdistan

An allegorical comedy centered on two childhood sweethearts who seem destined for one another until the women of their isolated village, angered by male indifference toward the water shortage, go on a sex strike that threatens the young couple's first night of love.

The Bra

Train driver Nurlan’s heading to Baku for the last time before retirement, but on his fateful journey around the neighborhoods of the city his train snags a blue bra off a washing line. To escape from his lonely existence, Nurlan embarks on the most adventurous journey of his life: to find the owner of this perky piece of underwear. He rents a small room in Baku and begins his quest to find his “Cinderella”.

Caspian Bride

Beneath layers of grime and waste, a man unearths an ancient mannequin, bringing it back to his humble abode. After a meticulous cleansing and adorning, he embarks on a whimsical bicycle journey through the oil fields, with the mannequin as his unconventional companion. As a band of curious children playfully trails behind him, their escapade takes an unexpected turn when they encounter a flock of grazing sheep.

Fiddlesticks

Life could be so good for the children of Bollersdorf if the town had not been discovered by the Society for Consumer Research because of its mediocrity. New products are to be tested here. The market researchers know that what the people of Bollersdorf like sells well everywhere. But while the local parents enthusiastically take part, their children quickly get fed up with the annoying product testers. Even more so when they want to send their beloved grandmas and grandpas to a care home to bring the average age back into line. This is a case for the coati gang! Together with the clever coati Quatsch, the children hatch a clever plan: With adventurous inventions and crazy world records, they want to prove Bollersdorf's uniqueness so that the consumer researchers finally disappear again...

Baikonur

“Whatever falls from heaven, you may keep.” So goes the unwritten law of the Kazakh steppes. A law avidly adhered to by the inhabitants of a small village, who collect the space debris that falls downrange from the nearby Baikonur space station. The last two youthful members of the village are the radio operator Iskander, known as Gagarin, and the spirited Nazira. While Nazira finds it increasing difficult to conceal her love for Iskander by means of her unconventional behaviour, Iskander is evidently not only crazy about Baikonur and the vastness of outer space, but also deeply smitten with the beautiful French astronaut Julie Mahé, whose journey to the stars he wistfully follows on television.

Akiko, the Flying Monkey

The monkey child Akiko lives in the zoo, but his family sends him on a big mission: he is supposed to go out into the world and get his relatives out of the forest. Together they want to free the animals from the zoo

Dingi

Homeless children are chased away at the harbour by boatmen. But the boys have an ingenious way of retaliating...