FILMS Boutique

Germany 2021, 217 min
by Maria Speth

MR. BACHMANN AND HIS CLASS is an intimate documentary portraying the bond between an elementary school teacher and his students. His unconventional methods clash with the complex social and cultural realities of the provincial German industrial town they live in.Where does one feel at home? In Stadtallendorf, a German city with a complex history of both excluding and integrating foreigners, genial teacher Dieter Bachmann offers his pupils the key to at least feeling as if they are at home. Aged between twelve and fourteen, these pupils come from twelve different nations; some have not quite mastered the German language. On the brink of retirement, Bachmann is eager to inspire these citizens-in-the-making with a sense of curiosity for a wide range of crafts, subjects, cultures and opinions. Watching this absorbing, sensitive documentary, one is overwhelmed with the realisation that, if only all children were blessed with such emotionally intelligent, ever-patient educators, conflict would be mitigated via discussion and John Lennon’s “Imagine” could be our reality. Those who, like filmmaker Maria Speth and her cinematographer Reinhold Vorschneider, are able to recognise and highlight so beautifully not only the importance of education but also what a quietly spectacular process it can be, are heroes in their own right, too.

2021, 90 min
by Daniel Carsenty, Mohammed Abugeth

In the southern West Bank, Hamouda and his cousin Ismail are among the Bedouin drivers who risk their lives smuggling illegal workers over the border. Between them and the destination, there is the desert – of which they know every inch – and the heavy presence of the Israeli military patrols. If they are caught, they go to jail. Yet only those fares can help them provide for their families, so they keep on driving and enjoying each day of freedom as it might just be the last.

France, Germany 2015, 93 min
by Jean-Gabriel Périot

In the late 1960s, the postwar generation, in direct conflict with their fathers, was trying to find its place. From this soon radicalized seething youth emerged in 1970 The Red Army Faction, a German revolutionary terrorist group founded notably by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. Based on archive footage, the film aims to question viewers on the significance of this revolutionary movement during its time, as well as its resonance for today’s society.

Germany, Austria, France 2012, 88 min
by Yves Montmayeur

Michael Haneke is a theorist of images, probably the most battle-hardened of his contemporaries in the exercise of deciphering images and their mise en scène. In fact it’s in this frame of mind that he undertakes most of his media interventions. Michael Haneke is a great author, as captivating as he is mysterious, a veritable Viennese ‘Gregory Arkadin‘ who is always trying to confuse the issues of his past. Our documentary passes through the Hanekian looking glass by travelling with the director over a tenyear time-span on a journey that pings across Europe from Vienna to Paris via northern Germany and Romania. We draw closer to Haneke as we turn an unusually raw light on his work and simultaneously reveal a fascinating moralist who knows better than anyone how to denounce the dross of our contemporary western society. Between many of his film shoots and appearances at the Cannes Film Festival, we catch intense, unfettered moments of his thoughts about his work as we watch an oeuvre bloom under constant pressure. Isabelle Huppert and Susanne Lothar, two of his most powerful performers, discuss the rigorous and visionary approach he has to his unique mise en scène. Michael Haneke has learned through his cinema to express the 'disturbing strangeness' of the modern world, a world that has lost all its illusions and thus the very meaning of existence itself.

Germany 2020, 110 min
by Marc Bauder

A cinematic essay - inspired by the book "who we were" by Roger Willemsen We may think that we're simply not capable of understanding the increasingly complex problems of our planet, but for these charismatic scientists, that's not enough. Whether it's on the top of the world, in the depths of the ocean, inside the human brain, at the G-20 summit, or in the heart of the International Space Station ISS, they are searching for practical ways to save our world. Considering their drive, we have to ask ourselves if, we as citizens of the planet, are finally ready to take on responsibility – if only for the sake of those who will come after us and ask: "WHO WE WERE"? With Alexander Gerst (astronaut), Sylvia Earle (deep sea researcher), Mathieu Ricard (buddhist monk), Dennis Snower (economist), Felwine Sarr (philosopher) und Janina Loh (critical post- humanist).

2016, 87 min
by Pieter-Jan De Pue

A gang of Afghan kids from the Kuchi tribe dig out old Soviet mines and sell the explosives to children working in a lapis lazuli mine. When not dreaming of the time when American troops finally withdraw from their land, another gang of children keeps tight control on the caravans smuggling the blue gemstones through the arid mountains of Pamir.With: Gholam Nasir, Khyrgyz Baj, Noor & Zulfu, Koko Ewas, Koko Mullalih, Marina Golbahari, Sergei Kovinchenko, Devin A. Cleeves (U.S. Soldier) and children from Ladjewar Sho, Badachschan; Bezirk Argo, Badachschan; Nichigam, Kunar; Sudgul, Nuristan; Zurabad, Bagram

Switzerland, Germany, Austria 2012, 91 min
by Markus Imhoof

Albert Einstein once said: “If bees ever die out, mankind will have only four years left to live”. In the past five years, billions of honeybees simply vanished for reasons still obscure. If the bees keep dying, it will have drastic effects for humans as well: more than one third of our food production depends on pollination by honeybees. Seeking answers, the film embarks on a world journey to discover bees and men. MORE THAN HONEY is the provocative yet touching tale of what may happen to mankind all over the world. A 2M Euro budget documentary by Oscar® nominated director Markus Imhoof and by the creators of LET'S MAKE MONEY & WE FEED THE WORLD

Germany, Croatia 2012, 76 min
by Ilian Metev

Sofia, Bulgaria. In a city where only 13 ambulances struggle to serve several million people, three paramedics face Kafkaesque situations. Struggling against an avalanche of absurdities in a crumbling medical system, they do what they do best: save lives.