Films

2025, 132 min
by Marcin Wierzchowski

2025, 14 min
by Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko

In 1970, an entire small town was built in Munich for the Summer Olympics. In addition to the subway station, stadium, indoor swimming pool and housing estate, the largest shopping center in Europe at the time - the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum - was also built. Many migrant workers, so-called guest workers, are employed on the construction site. 2016: Nine people are murdered in a right-wing terrorist attack at the Olympia shopping center. All the victims come from families with migrant backgrounds. 1982: Sohrab Shahid Saless, an Iranian director, makes the film Recipient Unknown in response to the rapidly increasing racism in Germany. In the film, people repeatedly walk past houses, walls and facades smeared with right-wing extremist slogans. The colors flare up brightly and then fade again. In retrospect is an attempt to look back and find connections in the history of a place.

Germany 2024, 29 min
by Pavel Mozhar

Using the streets of his Berlin neighbourhood as a backdrop, a filmmaker from Belarus investigates the systematic nature of Russian and Belarusian war crimes in Ukraine and explores his own responsibility for this war.Six months after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army withdraws from some occupied regions and settlements, leaving a trail of shockingly similar traces of war crimes. In the reports from several human rights organisations and independent groups of journalists, there is increasing evidence that Russian and Belarusian troops in the occupied territories have also been pursuing the systematic destruction of the civilian population’s national identity. Based on accounts from civilian victims, the filmmaker addresses this system of oppression. The individual statements are voiced by two Ukrainian actors, while the streets of his Berlin neighbourhood serve as the film’s backdrop. To determine the responsibility he himself might bear for this war, the filmmaker reflects on his childhood and school education in post-Soviet Belarus. [74 BERLINALE]

Austria, Germany 2023, 130 min
by Selma Doborac

How can cinema engage with complicity in crimes against humanity, extreme violence and state terror without conniving in it? De Facto finds answers to this question via two actors, a precisely compiled collage of texts and a deliberately reduced setting.For her second feature-length film, director Selma Doborac turns her attention to a difficult question: How can cinema grapple with perpetrators, extreme violence and state terror without conniving with them?DE FACTO rejects direct representation to this end, nor is it remotely interested in re-enactment, whereby real perpetrators reproduce their crimes in front of the camera. Instead, the director engages two actors, Christoph Bach and Cornelius Obonya, places them in a pavilion in a Viennese park at a table designed by artist Heimo Zobernig and has them deliver texts in long, precisely composed shots and in isolation from one another, the out-of-frame addressees of which can be inferred. Passages from verdict statements, perpetrator statements, witness testimonies, confessions by whistleblowers and the occasional philosophical text are woven together. At times, it is almost unbearable to listen to. DE FACTO is undoubtedly challenging for viewers, but not as an end in itself; by pursuing an analytical interest, it creates possibilities for insight. (53 Berlinale Forum @ 73 BERLINALE, catalogue text by Cristina Nord)

2023, 84 min
by Markus Schröder

Two ex-commanders of the FARC rebel group re-enter a hostile Colombian society after 50 years of civil war. They soon learn that symbolic football tournaments against former enemies cannot heal the scars of conflict. When the new president derails the peace process, their names appear on paramilitary hit lists, plunging their lives into a struggle for survival.

Germany 2023, 52 min
by Duki Dror, Noam Pinchas, Yossi Bloch

The documentary unravels the dramatic events which took place during Hamas' attack on the music rave 'Supernova' in Southern Israel on October 7th. The film features eyewitness accounts from survivors of the massacre, first responders and real time footage collated from multiple sources and, for the first time, provides a timeline of the startling attack in which 365 attendees were killed, hundreds wounded and 40 kidnapped into Gaza.

Germany 2023, 97 min
by Matthias Freier

Marianne Atzeroth-Freier once brought the 'acid-barrel murderer' to justice. In a mix of archive material and re-enacted scenes, the film reconstructs the difficult investigation Atzeroth-Freier had to pursue in a male-dominated environment. In the 1990s, as one of the first women in the Hamburg Police’s homicide division, Atzeroth-Freier solved one of the most gruesome murders in German history. If anything, by chance. When approached by a mother whose daughter has disappeared, she decides to get involved. On the search for the missing person, she repeatedly comes across inconsistencies within the police’s investigation. But she keeps going – until she achieves the breakthrough.With: Constanze Andree, Cornelia Uetrecht, Claudia Haarbrücker, Andreas Lohmeyer, Elke Lorenz u.a.202331 FFHH Filmfest Hamburg

2023, 96 min
by Marcus Vetter, Michele Gentile

Dedicated to Ben Ferencz, the youngest chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials who spent his life fighting to replace war with justice.War and Justice is the first and only true-life verité thriller, about the International Criminal Court (ICC), enlightened by unprecedented access to Benjamin Ferencz (prosecuting attorney of the Nuremberg Trials), Luis Moreno-Ocampo (ICC’s first prosecutor), and Karim Khan (its current prosecutor).The film opens with the ICC’s news-breaking arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the midst of the escalating Ukraine war, charging him with crimes against humanity. It rewinds to the inauguration of first Chief Prosecutor Ocampo. And it proceeds to chronicle the Court’s two decades’ journey as the emerging global authority to punish aggressors and help prevent war.Through unprecedented access, fllm directors Marcus Vetter and Michele Gentile follow Luis Moreno-Ocampo around the world as he enlists the support of Academy Award-winning Angelina Jolie, as he partners with Benjamin Ferencz, as they together fight uphill battles against wars in the Congo, Libya, Syria and Ukraine, always with special concern for any atrocities against children.With the three largest world powers — China, Russia and the United States — still unwilling to sign the ICC treaty, will wars of aggression ever be brought to justice?Sadly, just as the film is about to debut, Ben Ferencz’s lifelong fight has ended. In April 2023, Ben Ferencz died in the age of 103. But Ocampo and Khan fight on in his honor, more determined than ever to put an end to all wars of aggression, along with the inevitable human atrocities they causeWith: Luis Moreno Ocampo, Benjamin Ferencz, Karim KhanWAR AND JUSTICE features music by Bob Dylan.

Germany 2022, 52 min
by Anna Pflüger

They are the unsung heroes of crime investigation – forensic scientists. We meet Europe’s leading experts in forensics. We learn about the newest methods in their profession and take a closer look at their most exciting cases.We take a closer look at the ones working behind the scenes when it comes to solving major crimes. Here, in high tech laboratories in the cellars of Europe’s Universities, hospitals and forensic institutes, is where they work on their crucial share in figuring out what has happened at a crime scene. They are forensic scientists, the unsung heroes of crime investigation. They did not choose a job in the area of criminal investigations. First and foremost, they are scientists. A great interest in their topic is what brought them to where they are today. Like the forensic entomologist Jens Amendt in Frankfurt, Germany, who was fascinated by insects and decided to study them. It was years into his professional career before he became a specialist in forensic entomology. Botanist Martina Weber in Vienna followed her teacher into the field of forensic pollen analysis, and just recently solved a case regarding the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in Pompeji some 2000 years ago. Lorna Dawson from the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen solved a murder by following the traces of soil on the suspect's car and boots. Philippe Esperanca in Marseille even developed a new mixture to make wiped away traces of blood visible again. Professionalism and curiosity, and the eagerness to unravel whatever mystery is put in front of them, is what makes scientists so great at what they do. Whenever a capital crime happens, forensic experts of different fields get to work with the traces left behind at the crime scene. The results of their investigations, put together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, are the ones that help investigators figure out how and when exactly a crime went down. For this documentary, we meet Europe’s leading experts in forensics. We learn about the newest methods in their profession, what made them choose their path, how they became involved with law enforcement, and we take a closer look at their most exciting cases.

Germany 2020, 160 min
by Jan Peter, Georg Tschurtschenthaler

"A Perfect Crime" investigates the 1991 killing of politician Detlev Rohwedder, an unsolved mystery at the heart of Germany's tumultuous reunification.Monday, April 1, 1991, 11:30 pm: Detlev Karsten Rohwedder was shot through the window on the 1st floor of his villa in Düsseldorf with a sniper shot. Rohwedder was the head of the “Deutsche Treuhandanstalt”, at that time the largest company in the world. The Treuhand was responsible for the restructuring and privatization of the entire economy of the former GDR. The fatal sniper shot from 62 meters tears the country out of the dream of a non-violent and peaceful reunification. Although a letter of confession from the terrorist organisation of the Red Army Faction was found at the scene, the perpetrators have not yet been identified.The 40-minute episodes MARTYR | CAPITALIST | OCCUOIER | VICTIM present four different perspectives on the figure of Rohwedder and thus possible motives for his murder: Was it the last spectacular murder of the Red Army Faction - their so-called 3rd generation – was the East-German secret service Stasi behind the murder or were other forces, for example Western forces at work?The series is situated in the years 1990/91, the time immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and paints the picture of a divided Germany: the radical economic cure is leading to massive unemployment in the East, the euphoria of reunification has evaporated, in many cities the Monday demonstrations flare up again and tens of thousands of people take to the streets, calls for the Kohl government to resign are louder.The first German Netflix original documentary series offers a multi-perspective view of one of the most prominent unsolved murder cases of the German post-war period. A turbulent case and a piece of history that - as we approach the 30th anniversary of German unity - helped shape the foundation of a nation and still touches the torn soul of this nation and its people.

Germany 2017, 25 min
by Rieke Brendel, André Schäfer

The crime novel as a guide to discover the murderous idyll of France! In the series, Hamburg-based crime writer Friedrich Dönhoff travels to five different French regions to visit five of his colleagues and discover the landscapes that serve as their inspiration: scenically, culinary, as well as culturally. In the Périgord Friedrich Dönhoff meets with writer Martin Walker, in Banyuls he visits Yann Sola and Dominique Manotti shows him her Marseille. Jean-Luc Bannalec is lost without a trace and Anne Chaplet’s protagonist investigates in the Cévennes region.

Switzerland, Germany 2016, 119 min
by Heidi Specogna

It all started with a small school exercise book. But instead of being full of vocabulary, the pages were checkered with the courageous testimonies of 300 Central African women, girls and men. They reveal what Congolese mercenaries did to them between October 2002 and March 2003 in the wake of armed conflict. On their own initiative, they gathered together their testimonies in this book to record the crimes committed against them.As a result of rape, Amzine, a young Muslim woman, gave birth to a child. Looking at her now 12-year-old daughter Fane is a daily reminder of the suffering she entrusted to this book. Arlette, a Christian girl, has agonised for years due to a gunshot to the knee that did not want to heal.After a successful surgery in Berlin, she holds on to hope for a pain-free existence.CAHIER AFRICAIN is a long-term observation that begins accompanying its protagonists in the village of PK 12 in 2008. But while they try to master their difficult daily lives with confidence – and while, in The Hague, the legal prosecution of crimes committed during the last war is still in progress – the next war breaks out in the Central African Republic. Amzine, Fane and Arlette must once again face a maelstrom of violence, death and expulsion. At their side, the film bears witness to the collapse of order and civilization in a country torn apart by civil war and coup d’états.Remarks by the director cahier africain is a personal film. On a research trip and by chance, I came upon this book, which led me to seven years of filming. We visited and accompanied the people who described their suffering and shame in it. Today, the book – along with thousands of other pieces of evidence of war crimes – is locked in the vault at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The fate of the women and their children begotten by force is a tragedy the world turns a blind eye on. It’s estimated that, in the Central African region in recent years alone, more than 100,000 women have been violated during armed conflict. By way of comparison, after the Rwandan genocide approximately 20,000 children were brought to life with this background. The film was originally dedicated to the difficult attempts of women to regain a foothold after experiencing violence. However, the renewed outbreak of war in the Central African Republic abruptly rewrote the script.

Germany 2013, 52 min
by Andreas Pichler