Tollhaus

Bastian Clevé - 14 mins - 1976

Experimental short film by Bastian Clevé (1976).

"This is my first feature-length personal film which I started shooting while on a scholarship at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1975/6 and which was shot during a months-long lecture/film-showing-tour throughout the USA and Canada. The extensive postproduction work on an Optical Printer has been completed in Germany, and the reknown German bass-musician Eberhard Weber made the wonderful soundtrack while watching the film. To me this film is like an elaborate tapestry woven by thousands of fade-ins and fade-outs. It feels like stepping into a river and getting carried along." Bastian Clevé

After receiving no letters by Christmas Eve, Santa calls the elves together and announces that no one believes in the spirit of Christmas anymore and he plans to retire. Toby, the tiny mailroom elf, sets out to find the letters and tumbles through the mailbox into the den of the wicked Mrs. Buzzard (Jo Anne Worley), who has put a spell on the mailbox to ruin Christmas.

A German woman named Jasmin stumbles upon a dilapidated motel/diner in the middle of nowhere. Her unusual appearance and demeanor are at first suspicious to Brenda, the exasperated owner who has difficulty making ends meet. But when an unlikely magic sparks between the two women, this lonely desert outpost is transformed into a thriving and popular oasis.

The German soldier Clemens Forel - determined to be reunited with his beloved family - makes a dramatic escape through bitter cold winters, desolate landscapes, and life threatening ventures from a Siberian labor camp after World War II. 8000 miles and three endless years of uncertainty later, he is finally about to reach his destination... An edge of your seat drama that celebrates the power of the human spirit and the force of will, while inspired and impowered by love.

Bastian Clevé - 10 mins - 1977

Music by Klaus Schulze.