Tuvalu

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.

Gate to Heaven

With the help of airport technician Dak, Alexej breaks out of the holding area for refugees. Dak puts up the Russian, who yearns to become a pilot, in an underground labyrinth of pipes and vents. The young Indian woman Nisha is an aircraft cleaner who dreams of being a flight attendant.

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.

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...

Cat People

A Serbian émigré in Manhattan believes that, because of an ancient curse, any physical intimacy with the man she loves will turn her into a feline predator.

Water Lilies

Set during a sultry summer in a French suburb, Marie is desperate to join the local pool's synchronized swimming team, but is her interest solely for the sake of sport or for a chance to get close to Floriane, the bad girl of the team? Sciamma, and the two leads, capture the uncertainty of teenage sexuality with a sympathetic eye in this delicate drama of the angst of coming-of-age.

Lady in the Water

Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world.

A Good Year

Failed London banker Max Skinner inherits his uncle's vineyard in Provence, where he spent many childhood holidays. Upon his arrival, he meets a woman from California who tells Max she is his long-lost cousin and that the property is hers.

Down and Out in Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills couple Barbara and Dave Whiteman find their lives altered by the arrival of a vagrant who tries to drown himself in their swimming pool.

Garden Party

Are you young, sexually confused, just trying to get by? Do you sing, dance or possess some other talent? Welcome to the Garden Party. At the center of the story is 15-year-old April. She is running from one bad situation into another, hoping to find an answer that doesn't involve taking off her clothes.

Private Resort

Chasing women for the weekend at a luxurious Miami resort, teen buddies Ben and Jack get more than they bargained for after crossing paths with a crafty criminal.

Scoop

An American journalism student in London scoops a big story, and begins an affair with an aristocrat as the incident unfurls.