Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)

A depiction of the Wrangelkiez neighbourhood in Berlin. The people portrayed tell their life stories. One woman came to the neighbourhood a decade ago to work in Berlin’s still unfinished Brandenburger Airport, one man reminisces his childhood on a Tobacco farm in Kentucky, another speaks of an exceptional day in an otherwise monotonous workplace. These portraits are interwoven with the story of Elpi, a Greek woman who is waiting for the long overdue visit of an old important friend. The outcome of this mixture is a film which captures the lives and perspectives of some of Wrangelkiez’s most commanding citizens, while at the same time evoking the loss that change and time passing means for places and for people.

In the 15th century, a young goatherd living alone in a mountain hut feels a dark presence in the woods.

Jakob, a young policeman from a remote village, has his world unhinged when a stranger in a dress emerges from the forest and begins killing villagers with a sword.

In the Georgian riverside town of Kutaisi, summertime romance and World Cup fever are in the air. After a pair of chance encounters, pharmacist Lisa and soccer player Giorgi find their plans for a date undone when they both awaken magically transformed with no way to recognize each other.

When Martin, a former GDR citizen, is released from jail, he lately becomes confronted with the consequences of the German re-unification.

A story of love, sex and teen pregnancy in San Antonio, Texas. Petting Zoo is the portrait of a young woman coming into her own, in an environment that does not always present ideal circumstances.

December 1999. I remember that, amidst the Millennium Bug anxiety, I went to the birthday of Enrico, a kid who lived with his family in an old and isolated farmhouse.

After many years apart, Emilie meets her brother Jakob again. She not only shares her sadness about the loss of their parents with him, but also a secret...

Real estate agent Christian travels the countryside scouting for investment prospects. In a forgotten, seemingly abandoned village far off the main roads, he finds more than he is looking for. Getting entangled in an encounter with a taciturn teenage farmhand, he confronts his sexual frustrations and, in the process, gets drawn into the undergrowth of a bloodthirsty rustic community.

A young photographer has fallen in love with his girlfriend's sister. Nobody knows quite what to do. A stylish variation on the problems of triolism made with striking stability of style and a great feeling for mise-en-scène.

A film inspired by one of Germany's most visited blogs. The author of the site www.notesofberlin.com, Joab Nist, posts pictures of real announcements, notes, information that people leave in the streets of Berlin. The film follows 15 genuine notes and protagonists. The result is 15 funny, tragic, fascinating episodes about people and the city they live in. Twenty-four hours from the life of the city. The story begins with a note attached to a street lamp, with the message “For one minute please just stand here in silence, look at the sky and contemplate how amazing life is”. Is it possible that only a very drunk young man notices the text and looks upwards? An extraordinary mood picture of present-day Berlin and a declaration of love for the city.

The mysteriously familiar face of a deceased young woman shakes young surgeon Fabian out of his lethargy. On a whim, he leaves Berlin for Portugal, determined to win back his former girlfriend Doro, who works at an architectural company in Lisbon.

Shortly after World War II, over 1,000 paintings were found in a cellar in southern France. The paintings were created by a young Jewish woman named Charlotte Salomon. She painted her turbulent life story in a unique creation called: ‘Life? Or Theater? – A Tri-Colored Operetta.’ Death and the Maiden unravels the story behind her creation.

Three young Georgians have to clean a castle in Berlin, where a German arms manufacturer's art collection is being set up for an exhibition. Of course, the proletariat isn't welcome at the opening party and they are banished to a servants' room in the attic. Downstairs, however, a splendid buffet attracts them - so why not just ignore the unfair prohibition and cross the line of class society? Didn't the French Revolution start over a piece of cake?

The story of a seemingly settled bank employee who breaks the shackles of his everyday life and becomes a wanderer between worlds. Frederik is an up-and-coming young bank employee who lives an ordinary life. When a bank customer, whom Frederik has denied a loan in the face of the bank crisis, shoots himself in front of Frederik, he snaps. Together with ex-con Vince,he begins to live out a new, dark side of himself. He robs his rich bank customers' homes and gives the money to the needy. The initial rush of crossing social boundaries soon develops into an addiction to ever greater thrills.

Clara is studying for a Ph.D in philosophy in Berlin. In this middle-class male academic environment, she feels pushed to one side. She returns to her childhood village in former East Germany for her mother's birthday, and becomes aware that a distance has grown between her and her family.

Elena is a student in Minsk. She is having an intense but self-destructive love affair with Viktor. When Elena's father goes to prison she has to take charge of his business dealings to help him. She drives repeatedly into the restricted zone at Chernobyl, behind the wheel of a truck, in order to smuggle contaminated steel. The conflicts with Viktor escalate, and Elena is increasingly captivated by the zone's deceptive beauty...

Nina, a young actor, returns to the Ruhr region for her grandmother’s funeral. Tensions surface between her and her mother. The noises of a small town fill the eloquent silences in the complex mother-daughter relationships explored in this endearing film.

Lenz is a daydreamer. Charming, visionary and – as it is good manners for a thirty-year-old in Berlin – radically incapable of decision making. After an intense party night, Lenz wakes up next to Ira, completely deranged. Lenz is in love. As well as Ira. The summer of love begins: fooling through the nights of Berlin, beers at the canal, talks about sex and childhood. Everything is beautiful. Up until the moment when Ira asks this one question that changes everything: „Do you want to have kids?“ Now is the time for Lenz to do what he knows best, when things get tricky. He runs off. Anchorless, he stumbles through the summer and has to take up with the heroes of his daydreams, who keep examining him about his feelings. Meanwhile, his friend Kenn covers Lenz with affectionate incomprehension. When autumn arrives, Ira eventually confronts Lenz and he has to face the big “whatsoever”.

The story of the dog from the title, who in a frame narrative explains how he came to be transformed from an unemployed communist filmmaker into a canine with a philosophical bent. Unable to finance his new project, young Berlin-based director Julian tells foreign exchange student Camille that his job in the countryside is research for an upcoming film. When Camille offers to help, he is forced to uphold the lie. The plantation isn’t the proletarian idyll he had hoped for, but fortunately the reincarnation of Francis of Assisi provides spiritual insight and a new aim in life.