Black Gold

When chaos reigns, while barbaric and fanatical rulers, both ecclesiastical and secular, systematically burn entire libraries, book hunters, secret heroes of history, travel the world saving and copying texts, threatened by the madness of censors, with the noble purpose of preventing the ultimate loss of human knowledge.

The war in the Ukraine has changed the way many European countries view Russian politics. Suddenly it became clear how dependent countries had become on Russian gas imports for decades and what Vladimir Putin was up to. However, no country needs more gas than Germany. It was only after Russia's invasion of the Ukraine that the German government realized that Russia had long used gas as a weapon to impose its will on states. The instrument created for this purpose is the natural gas production company GAZPROM. So how did Germany become so dependent on Russian gas? The documentary shows how, over several decades and several changes of government, a broad alliance of politicians and business representatives did everything possible to secure Germany's energy supply with cheap Russian gas, while the Kremlin's foreign policy became increasingly aggressive and the warnings of experts went unheeded.

Credit Suisse no longer exists despite being “too big to fail” and despite a reputation built up over a century. How did this happen?

Tracing the careers of these two cinema enthusiasts, this documentary reveals the secrets behind the work of Ethan and Joel Coen, screenwriters and directors who are interchangeable within the same two-headed entity. It features fascinating, previously unseen interviews with some of the most iconic actors from their filmography.

In Gascony, a sparsely populated region in the southwest of France, lives Dr. Jean Cadéot, a ninety-year-old veterinarian who continues to work tirelessly and still enjoys doing so. Although his eyesight is getting worse and worse, he treats his animal patients with all his senses and all his love.

A young autistic boy and his two siblings have to stay with their grandparents while their mother is away. Because of his unique abilities and interest in space missions, he considers his grandparents land an isolated planet.

Facing societal pressure to restore her virginity before her upcoming wedding, a 22-year-old woman struggles to afford a hymen reconstruction operation while questioning the oppressive expectations placed upon her body.

The mysterious parallel story of Italian painters Andrea Mantegna (ca. 1431-1506) and Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1435-1516), brothers-in-law, public rivals and masters of the early Renaissance.

Spending every evening in a new and mysterious stranger’s bed, capricious transient Nore agrees to move into a spare room eagerly offered to her by Jonna, a reserved medical student. Against the odds, this unlikely pair finds solace in each other and fall into an intoxicating pattern of partying hard at night with the local men vying for their attention. As their relationship intensifies, Nore’s troubled past comes to light and threatens to dismantle the blissfully ignorant, inexplicably jubilant lifestyle they’ve built together in this “candy-colored, flamboyant and deeply personal film.” (Variety)

Documentary feature film about the life and work of renowned philosopher Hans Blumenberg (1920-1996). Christoph Rüter gives the word to three of Blumenberg's former students, who today work in very different sectors: As a taxi driver, an ad writer and a philosopher. They give a very personal account of how Blumenberg's thoughts and ideas have informed and inspired them.

Thirteen-year-old Daniel lives with his older brother and terminally ill father in a village plagued by rural exodus. There, the young people live their lives between rare bus stops, xenophobia, unemployment, illegal dog fights and chemical intoxicants, among other things. Daniel stands between childhood and adolescence, and in the face of the indifference and stagnation of his surroundings, he becomes the victim of inhuman conditions that force him into a painful loneliness.

Spoonie, the spoon-billed sandpiper, would have long since gone extinct without Dr. Christoph Zöckler and a tight-knit group of international ornithologists. As if that weren’t bad enough, the migration route of this sparrow-sized wading bird—with its peculiar spoon-shaped bill—runs from Russia through North Korea and China all the way to Myanmar, passing through several of the world’s crisis regions of the past decade. The work of the task force is therefore also a political challenge. It requires diplomatic sensitivity in coordinating with the countries along the flyway. In the tragicomic story of Spoonie’s fate, the struggle for threatened biodiversity in an increasingly fragile world is reflected.

With The World of Hans Zimmer - A New Dimension, the music of the Oscar winner conquers the big screen. This concert in Krakow displays the entire spectrum of Hans Zimmer's work and allows the audience to experience his film music with overwhelming intensity. At this concert in Krakow, Zimmer himself is on stage for only one evening of the tour, which has just won the Opus Klassik "Tour of the Year" Award. The orchestra invites the audience into Hans Zimmer's world - a world of unforgettable soundscapes that have made cinematic history. New arrangements of his masterpieces from Dune: Part Two, The Lion King, Gladiator, Interstellar, and many other hit movies are staged in an energetic, visually stunning setting.