Films

Germany 2024, 77 min
by Daria Kuschev

Germany's only Russian Orthodox women's monastery is located in a small town near Munich. Under the lead of Abbess Maria, 13 sisters of international origin live there, following a strict hierarchical order. As servants of God, the nuns increasingly disappear from the normal world, almost as if they had already 'died'. Symbolically, they always wear black clothes.Nevertheless, the sisters also have to attend to worldly matters, such as everyday work in and around the building, receiving pilgrims and, last but not least, securing the future of their convent.

Belgien, France, Germany 2024, 106 min
by Ilyas Yourish, Shahrokh Bikaran

Zahra was the first in her family to study in Kabul and researched the significance of the kamay plant as an animal feed used by the mountain farmers of Hazarajat. Her suicide hit her parents and siblings hard. In their grief, they fight against a thicket of discrimination, harassment and infringements of justice. In quiet, poetic and monumental images, KAMAY tells the story of an unknown side of Afghanistan. [39 DOK.fest München, Silvia Bauer]55VdR Interreligious Award jury statement: "The film’s poetry, unfolding in the narrative of a sister, embodies the relentless and courageous yet ultimately hopeless fight against an unjust and misogynistic regime. The family members remain united in their dignity and love for each other. The decision of the interreligious jury was unanimous. The visual language and unique storytelling of the awarded film, gradually impact the audience. Through observing the pain and suffering of Afghan women, the directors have created a unique work. The only response to it can lie in human dignity".

2024, 30 min
by Sarvnaz Alambeigi

An Afghan teen girl, with immigrant parents in Iran, strives to pursue her dream of becoming a professionel Muay Thai boxer despite her family's conservative mindset, enduring physical abuse, and anti-immigrant surroundings. Working day and night, she finances her Thai Boxing classes without her family's knowledge. Through this sport, she aspires not only to succeed in the ring but also to overcome life's obstacles. MAYDEGOL portrays the perseverance of Generation Z to escape their seemingly bleak destiny, asserting their rights, especially as women, seeking freedom in life despite the risk of losing it. It also serves as a mirror for them to recognize their strenght, find inspiration, and gain confidence.With Maydegol, Mohadesseh, Farzaneh

Italy, Germany 2024, 73 min
by Caroline von der Tann

Ciretta, a streetwise kid from Naples, organizes a celebration for the Madonna while facing eviction from his temporary home in a theater space – earmarked for conversion to a B&B.In the palimpsest of a city like Naples, which holds countless stories in its heart, we stumble upon that of Ciretta, the 27-year-old son of a prostitute and an unknown father, who occasionally sells his body too, but also worships the Madonna and has an almost heavenly voice. The outcast child of a society that often has no room for those who do not fit into molds, Ciretta will find refuge and companionship among the people who gather around an old theater in Naples, now closed due to the pandemic. There he will dream of the possibility of a better life, until the theater is sold to become a hotel. Ciretta will be forced to find a new haven for both himself and his beloved statue of the Madonna, in this tender, melancholy tale of battered people who seem born to be movie heroes, and a city that changes almost before your eyes. [26 TiDF Thessaloniki]

2023, 92 min
by Daniel Burkholz

According to Muslim belief every so called martyr (like for example the Hamas terrorists and murderers who attacked Israel on October 7, 2023) will be welcomed in Paradise by 72 virgins. Unfortunately the gates of Paradise will be kept closed for so called martyrs if they are killed in battle by a woman. 72 Feminists for Justice tells the story of the terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 and of Israel's war against Hamas seen from the women's perspective. (Photos: Israel Defence Forces, CC BY-NC 2.0)

Germany 2023, 20 min
by Ewelina Rosinska

Polish filmmaker Ewelina Rosinsksa explores the textures and landscapes of her homeland, a place of contrasts and parallels, where Catholicism and the natural world swirl in a baroque gesture. A delicate, melancholy history weaves through the details of this poetic and poignant impression. [IFFR, Fiona Armour]

Germany 2023, 25 min
by Klaus Tümmler

Bogdan (12 years old) lives in the Maramuresch region in the north of Romania in the village called Eichental. The boy has been carving large and small pieces of wood in his father's workshop for three years. Oak wood is the material and chisels and mallets are the tools he uses to carve artistic objects. His father Petru teaches him all the tricks of the trade.Bogdan does not want to miss his family, the village and all the traditions of the area. Being a devout believer and giving gifts to the priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church is still part of everyday life here. In the summer, Bogdan therefore decided to carve an altar cross out of oak wood for the priest. His cousin Raluca comes to his aid with his plan. Together they draw a sketch from which Bogdan can carve the cross.

2023, 95 min
by Maria Binder

EREN portrays a woman who has been fighting for fundamental rights and peace in Turkey for more than 30 years. As a lawyer and human rights defender, Eren Keskin is one of the main actors and plaintiffs for women's, LGBTIQ and minority rights, opposing torture and sexualized violence. Her strong sense of justice knows no taboos, shaking even the foundations of the Turkish state. Now she has been designated an enemy of the state and has to defend herself. She faces a life sentence in more than a hundred criminal cases and could could disappear behind bars at any moment.

France, Tunisia, Germany, Saudi Arabia 2023, 107 min
by Kaouther Ben Hania

The life of Olfa, a Tunisian woman and mother of 4 daughters, oscillates between light and shadow. One day, her two eldest daughters disappear. To fill their absence, director Kaouther Ben Hania calls upon professional actors and sets up an extraordinary film mechanism to unveil the story of Olfa and her daughters.An intimate journey full of hope, rebellion, violence, intergenerational transmission and sister-hood, which will question the very foundation of our societies. With: Hend Sabri

2023, 109 min
by Niloufar Taghizadeh

Leyla and her six-year-old daughter Nila are inseparable. But Nila is the product of a so called “temporary marriage”, which leaves her legal status unclarified and prevents her from going to school. Leyla relentlessly fights for her daughter’s custodyLeyla and her six-year-old daughter Nila live in the holy city of Mashhad, Iran. Nila is the product of a temporary marriage, which allows a man to be married to a woman for a pre-determined and limited time, even if he is already married. Children born out of these relationships do not legally exist. Unless the father acknowledges their existence, a birth certificate cannot be issued, and without a birth certificate the child cannot attend school. However, if the birth certificate shows the name of the father, the father has the right to claim custody of the child after it turns seven. Nila’s father has never shown any interest in his daughter but he threatens to take her away from Leyla. The documentary film chronicles Leyla’s relentless efforts to clarify Nila’s legal status, to obtain permission for her to attend school and to secure her future. In a never-ending administrative struggle, Leyla is fighting not only the legal system but also a judgmental society, constant verbal aggression, threats from Nila’s father, sexual harassment from a lawyer who is supposed to help her and other setbacks. Throughout this, she tries to shield her daughter from all she is going through and make her life as positive as possible.

2023, 12 min
by Perghuzat Enver

From afar, Perghuzat Enver reflects on his upbringing in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China. The film is about belonging, friendship, and freedom in an increasingly repressive system. Using delicately-drawn animation and poetic pictures, the film illustrates the search for his own identity, and the inner conflicts that leaving your homeland triggers. [65 Nordic Film Days Lübeck]

Germany 2023, 90 min
by Julia Charakter

Korntal – a little town in the south of Germany, is the scene of the greatest abuse scandal ever to rock the Protestant Church. An estimated 150 former children from homes run by the Pietist Brotherhood have broken their silence: They are revealing the physical and mental horrors to which they were exposed. Many of them were victims of sexualized violence at an early age. The 9,000-person town have responded to the accusations with disbelief and denial. They cannot imagine that this could have happened in their God-fearing town. The film is sensitive portrait of 6 protagonists, who are telling their stories.

Germany, Polen 2022, 109 min
by Hanna Polak

Sinjar, Northern Iraq, 2014: Hanifa, a young Yezidi woman, miraculously survives the ISIS attack on the Yezidi religious and ethnic minority in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. Hanifa escapes abduction by ISIS but her five younger sisters are all trucked off and enslaved.Based on exclusive access to one of the most dangerous and underreported places on earth, Oscar- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Hanna Polak tracks Hanifa’s mission to find her sisters and bring them home – as she had promised her dying father she would.

Myanmar, Germany 2022, 89 min
by Hnin Ei Hlaing

Two midwives, one Buddhist and one Muslim, defy strict ethnic divisions to work side by side in a makeshift clinic in western Myanmar, providing medical services to the Rohingya of Rakhine State. Over five years we witness their struggles, hopes and dreams amidst an environment of ever-increasing chaos and violence.Hla and Nyo Nyo live in a country torn by conflict. Hla is a Buddhist and the owner of a makeshift medical clinic in western Myanmar, where the Rohingya (a Muslim minority community) are persecuted and denied basic rights. Nyo Nyo is a Muslim and an apprentice midwife who acts as an assistant and translator at the clinic. Her family has lived in the area for generations, yet they are still considered intruders. Encouraged and challengedby Hla, who risks her own safety daily by helping Muslim patients, Nyo Nyo is determined to become a steady health care provider for her community. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing’s remarkable feature debut was filmed over five turbulent years in a country that haslong been exoticized and misunderstood. The filmmaker’s gentle, impartial gaze grants unique access to these courageous women who unite to bring forth life. Filled with love, empathy, and hope, Midwives offers a rare insight into the complex reality of Myanmar and its people.

Germany, Israel 2022, 30 min
by Maya Steinberg

Maya Steinberg is a secular Israeli. Her father, however, had a late religious awakening. He will not appear in her film. Instead, the young director approaches his faith and her lack of understanding for it through a visit to the gravesite of rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Galilee, where she spends a few weeks, observing believers, Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox, and wondering: Is there a place here for women? And can there be a place for queer women? [65 DOK Leipzig, Marie Kloos]

Germany 2022, 85 min
by Tilman König

Lothar König is an original. The long-term youth pastor from Jena doesn’t fit into any system. In the GDR he was under state surveillance, after reunification he was one of the most tireless warning voices against the growing right-wing radicalism. To this day, he takes to the barricades against the extreme right, often on the frontline. Nevertheless, this film portrait by his son Tilman is not an homage but a critical tribute to an outspoken character forced by retirement to re-invent himself.Pastor König is not only regarded as one of the figureheads of the left-wing scene that organises punk concerts, rallies and football tournaments with young refugees. He also has a reputation as a fairly challenging personality. Tilman König shows his father only marginally in his role as a church official. Most of all, he introduces a man who can be courageous and determined, but also stubborn and unfair. His film is enjoyably interested above all in the here and now of this man, the things that Lothar still has to come to terms with. How will he manage the transition to retirement after a restless life between community work and political activism? How can the old rhetorical warhorse hold his own among people who really agree with him but seem to move away from him in thought, speech and action? The border-crosser is entering unknown terrain. (65 DOK Leipzig, Luc-Carolin Ziemann)With: Lothar König, Katharina König-Preuss, Jan 'Monchi' Gorkow

Finland, Germany 2022, 95 min
by Tania Anderson

Every year, over 60,000 missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (most commonly referred to as Mormons) are sent across the world to preach their gospel. The Mission follows four American LDS teenagers who receive a mission from God that takes them from their families and the safety of their remote, religion-filled bubbles to the frozen, forested lands of Finland, home of Europe’s most non-religious, private and skeptical people. The journey they embark on will prove to be the most emotionally and psychologically challenging period of their young lives. As these wide-eyed, impassioned teens struggle with missing their families, language hurdles, aching feet, and daily rejection, they are pushed beyond their limits, falling deeper into their faith.

Germany 2022, 23 min
by Julius Gintaras Blum

Yasin El Harrouk is Yonii is actor, rapper, singer, Swabian, Moroccan. This portrait presents him as a lively shifter between life and creative cultures, between the roles he plays in the studio and in front of the camera, and the expectations that family and community have of him. Yonii has two languages and even more worlds – and enjoys this wealth. But on the sofa in his mother’s Stuttgart living room, it becomes clear that this range of different worlds also means a constant balancing act. [65 DOK Leipzig, Lina Dinkla]

New Zealand, China, Germany 2021, 100 min
by Jan Hinrik Drevs

Everything in the universe continuously changes, according to the ancient Chinese 5-element teaching, which has become popular all over the world. Shot in all seasons all over China the film is looking for an understanding of this millennia old philosophy.

Germany, Thailand 2021, 90 min
by Thunska Pansittivorakul, Phassarawin Kulsomboon

Danse Macabre, or Dance of Death, is an artistic, allegorical genre of the Late Dark Ages. Although this period was known for its strict religious virtues, it was also the most degenerate in European history. Danse Macabre is a dance ritual for people of all classes - from kings to beggars - serving as a reminder that death can happen at any time and to everyone.In this film, Danse Macabre is a dance that explores deaths that are remembered and forgotten in history, including those of kings, citizens, and stateless people, on land that many kings chose as their vacation residence. People's deaths are as different as the social class they belong to, in a country where social inequality strongly persists. Many deaths were suspicious in nature, but nobody dared to question them. This has happened over the past 90 years (and may well continue throughout the next century), just like what the deceased warned the living in this dance: "What we were, you are; what we are, you will be."

Germany 2021, 204 min
by Michael Schmitt, Max Langfeldt, Thorsten Glotzmann, Katharina Woll

The Age of Enlightenment from today’s perspective: following Denis Diderot and the quest for knowledge, Thomas Jefferson and the idea of equality, Olympe de Gouges and the fight for freedom, Immanuel Kant and the concept of responsibility. A truly innovative documentary series. The period of Enlightenment began three hundred years ago. The goal was to bring progress, reason and self-determination instead of myths and ideologies. This 4×52 min documentary series – produced with ARTE – follows the traces of historic Enlightenment thinkers Denis Diderot, Olympe de Gouges, Thomas Jefferson and Immanuel Kant. In four episodes, we’re putting their ideas to the test, investigating their heritage in the present world: the principle of science and knowledge, the idea of democracy and universal human rights, justice and equality, freedom and responsibility.The series is hosted by Norwegian AI entrepreneur Anita Schjøll Brede, political scientist Emilia Roig, founder of the Berlin Center for Intersectional Justice, German actress Pegah Ferydoni and the Austrian philosopher Armen Avanessian. Our hosts travel the world, from Europe (Paris, London, Oxford, Oslo, Berlin, Zurich) to Ghana, Benin, Martinique, China and the United States, meeting the most important Enlightenment thinkers, artists and intellectuals of the present.

Canada, Germany 2021, 87 min
by Julian Sher

Just before the Taliban sweep back to power and the United States withdraw in defeat, former Globe and Mail war correspondent Graeme Smith returns to Afghanistan. In the timely TVO Original documentary GHOSTS OF AFGHANISTAN, Smith offers a first-hand account of NATO’s failed attempt to bring democracy and women’s rights and freedoms to the country. He reveals the true face of the "forever war" taking an unflinching look at what went wrong in the world’s deadliest conflict that ended in chaos and tragedy. For Canada, it was the biggest deployment since World War II and one of its bloodiest — 158 soldiers dead and at least 2000 injured. For Afghanistan, 20 years of war, hundreds of thousands of lives lost, billions of dollars wasted in corruption, all sorts of abuses... As Afghans share their hopes and fears, Smith sees the deep divisions in the country that hint an explanation for the Taliban’s return to power. In his quest to hear all sides of the conflict, he travels deep inside Taliban territory to catch a glimpse of their growing control over the country and speaks to top Taliban leaders confident of victory at the failed peace talks in Doha. The Afghan inferno grows more dangerous each day.  The documentary GHOSTS OF AFGHANISTAN helps us understand how it all went so wrong. (GALAFILM)

Germany 2021, 52 min
by Carmen Butta

More and more young women in Jordan are breaking out of their traditional role and stepping into the ring, wearing boxing gloves besides of the hijab. By fighting they want to strengthen their bodies, but also their personality, in order to empower and defend themselves against violence and oppression. But still, in the conservative, male dominated Jordan society, their path is full of stones.The film portrays the 31-year-old Bedouin Reem al-Shammary, Jordan's featherweight champion. We follow her during ups and downs at boxing-matches and training for the Olympics qualification, as well in her daily life. Reem's fight continues also beyond the ring: in the town hall, where she argues with conservative men, and in the desert, supporting young Bedouin women to rebel against the will of their fathers. More and more, rage is brewing behind the hijab.

France, Germany, Turkey 2021, 93 min
by Ahmet Necdet Cupur

In a village in the south east of Turkey, Mahmut wants to divorce his newly-wed wife. At the same time, his sister Zeynep enrols in an open high school and takes on a job in a factory. Against her father’s wishes, she wants to leave the village and ultimately go to university. The siblings’ demands become the center of conflict in their conservative family and community, who are not used to what Mahmut and Zeynep strive for. Intimately captured by their elder brother Ahmet Necdet Cupur, who left the village twenty years ago to pursue his studies, LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES is a story of clashes between generations, between the past and the present.