In the center of Hamburg, the discovery of an unexploded bomb from the Second World War not only leads to a far-reaching evacuation, but also to an interpersonal state of emergency.
Social & External
The people behind it
Anne Ratte-Polle
Lane Petersen
Haley Louise Jones
Ava Shabani
Bernhard Schütz
Otto Bismarck
Claudia Michelsen
Hanne Bismarck
Daniel Sträßer
Ben Glaser
Karl Markovics
Viktor Knigge
Lukas Alexander von Horbatschewsky
William Herbst
Barbara Nüsse
Margit Petersen
Thelma Buabeng
Daniela Reiter
Ramin Yazdani
Nika Shabani
Middle-aged, childless couple Olivia and Gavin donate to ‘adopt’ a penguin from a television advert. Their lives are changed when the penguin actually arrives on their doorstep. While Olivia takes to the penguin immediately, Gavin is less pleased, near-disgusted by this foreign invader. However, when the Penguin comes back from his first day of school beaten and abused, Gavin realizes the impact of his prejudice and performs a fatherly act.
Hamburg, Germany, summer 1988. A young bank employee embezzles a large amount of money using an ingenious technique and flees to Australia, from where he phones his girlfriend to tell her what he has done so easily; but her reaction is not what he naively expected.
In a heartfelt night of vulnerability and laughter, two mismatched young women navigate through 'The 36 Questions That Lead to Love' experiment, where they must engage in an intimate four-minute gaze of uninterrupted eye contact, challenging their perceptions of connection and the possibility of falling in love.
Eleanor and Sarah are an eighteenth-century couple situated in Antilia. They live isolated in the forest, but soon the outside world will take notice of them.
The woman known as "Jenny" decides to take justice for refugees in Europe into her own hands.
A mother returns to Mongolia after years abroad to begin life anew with her daughter. When the daughter reveals a truth that challenges inherited values, the mother confronts the tension between social norms and maternal love.
No novel has captivated and moved millions of readers during the past few years like A Little Life by American author Hanya Yanagihara. Ivo van Hove adapted Yanagihara’s novel to theater and created a penetrating performance. Ramsey Nasr won the Louis d'Or (best male performance) for his portrayal of Jude.
A gay artist flees the repressive laws and war in Russia to go to Berlin, leaving his boyfriend behind. Meanwhile, life in Berlin turns out to be less inclusive he had expected.
Hum lives in a refugee camp near Hamburg. He loves films and finances his visits to the cinema by selling lost properties from cinema visits in the refugee camp. One day he meets Anna and her friend Ida. At a dinner together in the shared flat of the two, they find out that they all share a love of music. Anna and Ida can sing great together and Hum shares the contact with his friends who play in a band. A timid and touching love story develops between Hum and Anna. Both are looking forward to the first performance of the band, in which Anna now sings. But shortly before the performance, Hum is to be deported. Neither his love for Anna and music nor his imagination can save him from the everyday life of a refugee.
A reflection on love and identity with detours towards magical realism, which winks at the oral tradition of coastal populations and introduces us to Leo, a young 21-year-old sailor who revisits his relationship with Jimena after his great-aunt reminds him of his favorite myth from when he was a child: the story of the nereids.
A Chinese medical student named Gan Shosho finds himself cut off from his homeland as he is studying in Japan during the outbreak of the war. Despite his difficult circumstances, he finds love in the form of Sachiko and the two marry. They later travel to Nanjing to live a new life together where Sachiko and Shaochang cooperate with the Japanese-backed government. Their ultimate hope is to secure peace but their idealism is not enough to keep them together through brutal times and with the end of the war the two find themselves facing a divorce... --Osaka Asian Film Festival
What would you do if only after the death of your husband, or your father, or your best friend, you found out that he had loved another man? “Tempo Rubato” is a story about two grieving processes—Ravi’s, who lost his first love to police violence, and Dora and Edu’s, who lost their husband and father, respectively. Tiago, Ravi’s childhood friend, visits his family after the funeral and brings with him two boxes full of videos that Ravi recorded throughout his youth, including a farewell video-letter to his family, in which he confesses the secret he kept his entire life.
Bambino and Bawa meet in Lagos and hit it off immediately. During their long trips around the city they develop a deep affection for each other. But in a society which considers homosexuality taboo, they feel the pressure of social norms.
When Jonas loses his job at a Hamburg startup company, he doesn’t have the heart to tell his girlfriend Katharina, as her nerves are already on the edge with her final law exams coming up. Every morning he leaves their flat and drift aimless through the metropole on endless underground rides. After a chance meeting with his former boss Marc, Jonas starts to observe the young manager. His curiosity gradually turns into obsession, small and bigger everyday lies become a kind of survival strategy for Jonas. While Katharina notices his increasingly odd behavior, Jonas is losing control over events more and more. Flood deals with feelings of powerlessness of the individual facing a growing competitive and performance pressure. The fear of failing in a perceived competition of life kicks off a spiral of wrong decisions, with no apparent way out. Georg Pelzer’s debut was shot basing on a 20-page plot description, dialogues and actions where improvised with the actors on location.
Yazmín and Zenaida, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, live awaiting the arrival of their husbands. Time that will reveal infinite possibilities.
After losing his eyesight in a tragic accident, a once-successful young man retreats into isolation, struggling to accept a life that no longer resembles the one he knew. To help him navigate daily life, he hires a university student as his caregiver. Their relationship begins awkwardly, shaped by frustration, pride, and the difficulties of dependence, but gradually the young man’s warmth and patience begin to break through the walls of bitterness and despair. As trust grows, their connection deepens into something more intimate, offering the possibility of love and renewed purpose. Yet their bond is tested by jealousy, social prejudice, and the expectations of those around them. Faced with emotional wounds and outside pressure, the two men must decide whether they are willing to fight for a future together despite the obstacles that stand in their way.
The Promise is a Vietnamese BL series about two stepbrothers and their budding romance. The feisty teenage protagonist has a rocky relationship with his older stepsibling. After getting into trouble at school, the main character is surprised when his nemesis shows sympathetic support. Their relationship improves, but they must navigate their vague and uneasy feelings for each other.
Is it possible to remain friends when our feelings are outside the bounds of friendship? Can we overcome the pain of one-sided love so that we don't lose the other person?
A film that explores the metaphor of human emotions through meteorological phenomena. The story follows a Queen whose feelings influence the weather: the skies are clear and radiant when she is in love, but her inner turmoil can unleash storms. This allegory reflects how our emotional states can affect our environment and relationships. The film highlights themes of identity and self-expression, positioning itself within a queer perspective.
The fair-skinned gym teacher keeps catching 13-year-old Byeo-ri’s eye, but it is difficult to approach the gym teacher as she is constantly surrounded by other students. On the day of the fitness test, Byeo-ri can’t tell whether her racing heart is because of the shuttle run or the gym teacher. The film delicately captures the 13-year-old’s emotions, which go high and low through the secret glances and the teacher’s smallest gestures.
Dramatization depicting the events surrounding Adolf Hitler's last weeks in and around his underground bunker in Berlin before and during the battle for the city.
The film follows Kaspar Hauser, who lived the first seventeen years of his life chained in a tiny cellar with only a toy horse to occupy his time, devoid of all human contact except for a man who wears a black overcoat and top hat who feeds him.
Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel’s son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the ‘Führer’ and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat.
Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.
Hitler: The Last Ten Days takes us into the depths of der Furher’s Berlin bunker during his final days. Based on the book by Gerhard Boldt, it provides a bleak look at the goings-on within, and without.
A group of POWs in a German prison camp during World War II play the German National Soccer Team in this powerful film depicting the role of prisoners during wartime.
On 24th August 1992 in the eastern German city of Rostock, a rampaging mob, to the applause and cheering of more than 3,000 bystanders, besieged and set fire to a residential building containing, among others, more than 120 Vietnamese men, women, and children on what has since become known as "The Night of the Fire." The riots became a symbol of xenophobia in the just-reunited Germany. This film recounts the incident from the perspectives of three very different characters.
A young refugee of the Sudanese Civil War who wins a lottery for relocation to the United States with three other lost boys. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with a brash American woman assigned to help them, but the young man struggles to adjust to this new life and his feelings of guilt about the brother he left behind.
Mr. K, a traveling magician, finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he can’t find the exit of his hotel. His attempts to get out only pull him deeper, entangling him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.
A middle-aged man recalls his childhood growing up in and around London during World War II.
Under the watchful eye of his mentor, Captain Mike Kennedy, probationary firefighter Jack Morrison matures into a seasoned veteran at a Baltimore fire station. However, Jack has reached a crossroads as the sacrifices he's made have put him in harm's way innumerable times and significantly impacted his relationship with his wife and kids.
On the eve of the Second World War, two of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud converge for their own personal battle over the existence of God. The film interweaves the lives of Freud and Lewis, past, present, and through fantasy, bursting from the confines of Freud’s study on a dynamic journey.
The story of a close-knit group of young kids in Nazi Germany who listen to banned swing music from the US. Soon dancing and fun leads to more difficult choices as the Nazis begin tightening the grip on Germany. Each member of the group is forced to face some tough choices about right, wrong, and survival.
On Amrum Island in spring 1945, twelve-year-old Nanning hunts seals, fishes at night, and works the fields to help feed his family. When the war ends, his mother sinks into depression, and he must navigate new conflicts while struggling to find his own path.
In a small North German village a drama played out during and shortly after the Second World War about duty versus individual conscience and morality.
In 1942, Friedrich Weimer's boxing skills get him an appointment to a National Political Academy (NaPolA) – high schools that produce Nazi elite. Over his father's objections, Friedrich enrolls. During his year in seventh column, Friedrich encounters hazing, cruelty, death, and the Nazi code. His friendship with Albrecht, the ascetic son of the area's governor, is central to this education.
Alone in her empty flat, from her window Anne observes the people passing by who nervously snatch up the personal belongings and pieces of furniture she has put out on the pavement. Her final gesture of taking a ring off her finger signals she is leaving her previous life in Holland behind. She goes to Ireland, where she chooses to lead a solitary, wandering existence, striding through the austere landscapes of Connemara. During her travels, she discovers a house that is home to a hermit, Martin.
In the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, Jews rise against the Nazis.
Michaela, an epileptic, enrolls in college to study education. She goes off her medication and soon begins hearing voices and seeing apparitions that tell her to avoid religious objects, although she is devoutly Roman Catholic. One priest scoffs at the idea that Michaela could be possessed by demons, but a younger pastor arranges an exorcism for the young woman.
The "Memphis Belle" is a World War II bomber, piloted by a young crew on dangerous bombing raids into Europe. The crew only have to make one more bombing raid before they have finished their duty and can go home. In the briefing before their last flight, the crew discover that the target for the day is Bremen.
