Films by Christian Lutz

2023, 118 min
by Regina Schilling

At 34, Igor Levit is an exceptional artist in the world of classical music. A young rebel, who - at the piano - transforms into a mature musician. At age nine he arrived in Germany, a Jewish immigrant of Russian descent. Having an opinion and publicly expressing it, is not a choice, it is a survival strategy. The film follows the artist over two years as Levit explores his “life after Beethoven“, as he searches for his next challenge, his identity as an artist. We observe him recording new pieces, his intense immersion into the music, his collaborations with conductors, orchestras and recording artists, his warm embrace of the audiences. And then Covid hits. Having booked 180 concerts all over the world, just to see them being cancelled, Levit is among the first to adapt, establishing a musical lifeline between him and his community on Instagram and twitter. And by doing so he discovers a new freedom, away from the constraints of touring, publishing and marketing.Over the course of two years the film accompanies the artist while he navigates between a traditional career in the classics, his need for activism and an uncertain path as a musician who connects and inspires. [GFQ 4 2022]

2017, 91 min
by Judith Keil, Antje Kruska

Der Film begleitet den Imam bei seiner täglichen Arbeit, in der er für Familienprobleme Rat geben soll und zugleich Stellung beziehen zu politischen Fragen der Öffentlichkeit. Dabei führt er ein offenes Haus, indem er immer wieder zu Diskussionen einlädt. Während er in seiner muslimischen Gemeinde oft gegen eine zu strenge Auslegung der Religion ankämpft, steht er in der deutschen Öffentlichkeit unter Verdacht, zu konservativ, wenn nicht sogar radikal zu sein."Dabei entwickelt der Film eine stimmige Dynamik und umgeht mit beschwingter Leichtigkeit die Gefahr, zum Problemstück zu werden." (FilmDienst)

Germany, Switzerland 2015, 99 min
by Miriam Jakobs, Gerhard Schick

A sick doctor, a highly sensitive code and the solace of art: While our protagonist is going through the unemotional diagnostic algorithm of mainstream medicine in order to find the right medicine for his depression, he also seeks assurance and solace in the artistic perspective; hoping that at some point in time he will be able to make peace with his dark gene, which all but destroyed his life.The search for  the origin of his depression confronts the protagonist with existential questions and bizarre business models as well as guiding him into breath-taking worlds of imagery and sound.

Germany 2010, 95 min
by Eva Wolf

Different countries, different customs. Every year, young people from all over the world go to a foreign country to familiarise themselves with an alien culture. What they experience there is sometimes funny and sometimes tragic. But it is always about finding one’s own borders and about finding a place for oneself among foreign people and their patterns of behaviour: what should be understood without having to say it, when people live together? What can be seen as normal behaviour, and what borders on being weird? 12 Months Germany accompanies four exchange students from three different continents living with their German host families allows us to share in their frustrations, their conflicts and in their successes while living in this foreign country. Kwasi from Ghana was sent by his mother on this journey into the unknown, but in the beginning, he is bored to death from dawn to dusk in the provincial East German countryside. Nairika from the USA is looking for real family life, something that she cannot get from her hard working single-parent host mother in Berlin-Neukölln. Constanza from Chile cannot find a way to communicate with her host family despite the fact that they always have a dictionary at hand. And Eduardo from Venezuela, who now lives in Hamburg-Ottensen, is supposed to start reading real German books instead of just the sports section of the newspaper. The film’s director Eva Wolf accompanies these four protagonists through their exchange year in Germany and through their ups and downs with their host families, she shows that conflict can result in real understanding and closeness, not just alienation. Her film is about the tensions that sometimes arise from cultural differences and sometimes just from the fact that human beings are simply different - everywhere in the world. We do not only find different customs in different countries, but also sometimes in the house next door.