Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein GmbH - FFHSH

Germany 2001, 90 min
by Monika Treut (Hyena Films e.K.)

WARRIOR OF LIGHT shot on location in Brazil is a feature-length documentary on Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, award-winning artist and human-rights activist who has gained international recognition for her work with street children in Rio. The film recounts how a woman turned her back on a wealthy lifestyle, driven into action by the execution of 8 streetkids by military police in 1993. In subsequent years Yvonne’s struggle to better the lives of endangered and abandoned children has led her to found "Projeto Uere" ("Children of Light") a radical project committed to protection and education of kids who live in the streets and slums of Rio which has brought her into conflict with Brazil’s wealthy elite.

Germany 2018, 92 min
by Stephan Talneau

Petra Nachtmanowa travels to the end of the world and at the same time into her heart. With her Saz on her back, the Berlin musician sets out in search of the origin of the mythical string instrument.She travels from Berlin to Istanbul, across Anatolia, over the snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus to the dusty deserts of eastern Iran. She meets Bosnian instrument makers, music teachers who climb mountains in shirts and suits, and chain-smoking Persians who may have invented blues rock. Everyone asks them one thing: "Play me a song that I can take home with me.""Saz" is a film about the power of music and the vastness of the world, road movie and search for meaning at the same time, a breathtaking trip to the border region between Europe and Asia that shows that despite conflicts and crises there is something out there that holds us all together.

Germany, Switzerland 2018, 80 min
by Arjun Talwar, Bigna Tomschin

There is a beautiful island in the Baltic Sea, where a group of sailors built their own kingdom. They had it all: seventeen acres of land, endless freedom and a donkey called Geronimo – until their community fell apart. Awoken from a utopian dream, the sailors return to the mainland. Now they live on rusty ships parked in a harbor town, almost within sight of their old home. At night they meet on deck, drinking and telling each other the same old stories. Each of them is haunted by the island's dark and compelling promise. Can they ever break through the spell it cast on them?