Films by Andreas Wolff

Germany 2023, 77 min
by Andreas Wolff

When the most fulfilling element in your life gets taken away: A professional female snowboarder fights against depression and mistreatment by her federation in order to fulfil her dream of an Olympic comeback.Silvia Mittermüller is in a traumatic conflict with her federation. Being expelled from the national team immediately after her first Olympics participation, she plunges into depression with thoughts of suicide. It takes Silvia more than one year to recover. She dares a comeback and decides to tell her story in this film. But the president of the German snowboard federation tries to intervene in the making of the film. Does Silvia succumb to the threats or does she take the chance to start a new phase of her life?

Germany, United Arab Emirates 2017, 88 min
by Stefanie Brockhaus, Andreas Wolff

Hissa Hilal is the voice from behind the veil. Her weapon is her word. Hissa is a self-taught writer and she says what she thinks. She decides to take part in the Million’s Poet show, an Abu-Dhabi based TV show. It is the Arab world’s biggest poetry competition, and it is dominated by men. Hissa works herself up, becoming the first woman in the finals. In her poems she criticizes the patriarchal Arab society and she attacks one of the most notorious Saudi clerics for his extremist fatwas, live, in front of 75 million viewers. We’ll never see Hissa’s face. Like the majority of Saudi women, Hissa is covered from head to toe. She is not allowed to drive a car. She doesn’t own a passport. And she requires consent from her husband for any sort of activity. Coming out of nowhere, the housewife Hissa is suddenly breaking news in the biggest Western and Arab media. How did she gain the knowledge and the courage to step on stage and risk her life? This is Hissa‘s story.

Somalia, Germany 2013, 76 min
by Andreas Wolff

After the award winning 'On the Other Side of Life', Andreas Wolff's second feature documentary unfolds the notorious hostage situation of the German container ship ‘Hansa Stavanger’. The story tells the intense relationship between the captain and the head of the Somali pirates', which evolved over the course of four months of captivity.For the making of this film the filmmaker accompanied both, the traumatized captain Krzysztof Kotiuk and the Somali Ahado, for over two years. Andy Wolff was integrated into Kotiuk’s intense psychotherapy. Moreover, with insiders’ help, the filmaker was allowed to follow the pirate's preparation of his next hijacking job. This film uncovers the unknown secrets about Somali pirates and their relationship with their hostages.

Germany 2010, 88 min
by Stefanie Brockhaus, Andy Wolff

Lucky and Bongani pretend to be cool and in the know. To survive in a Cape Town township, they learned their lessons early: where to get drugs, where to get money, how to pick up girls and how to get rid of them. Their mother does not pay much attention to her sons, but at least their grandmother is on their side. The two brothers share everything: the bed, the food and now even an accusation of murder. The first thing they get in prison is an unmistakable lesson about the rules there. No question, newcomers are always at the bottom of the hierarchy. They must learn quickly who may be attacked and who must be served. A matter of survival in jail. Out on bail, something special awaits them - an initiation of a different kind. The brothers move through three cultures, each of which calls for its own gestures and rituals. The deep rift between the generations becomes painfully obvious. The old people still have the sense of honour of African tradition; their successors have only a tiny chance of escaping the squalid suburbs. What will be their package in life? Through a clever dramatic narrative structure, the film rises above a social environment study to become a far-ranging discourse about the future of an Africa ground to pieces between tradition and modernity. HDCam | SR | Dolby 5.1 | Isixhosa/English version with English subtitles available