Films by Daniel Abma

Germany 2024, 91 min
by Daniel Abma

When parents can no longer fulfil their duty of care, the children’s world often falls apart. Nothing stays as it was. Suddenly it is no longer mum or dad who are in charge but the youth welfare system. Daniel Abma followed a youth housing group in a rural area over several years, showing professional educators who want to give five boys between the ages of seven and fourteen what they need most urgently, day by day: security, orientation, a home.The documentary focus is not on the children but

Germany 2019, 85 min
by Daniel Abma

A huge construction project will change Germany´s most notorious bottleneck forever - a long-term observation over eight years of people living in Spa town Bad Oeynhausen. A film about Germany, small town society and a huge motorway."The spa town of Bad Oeynhausen: Every day, thousands of trucks roll through the city centre and over the B 61 federal road which connects the A2 and A30 motorways, respectively Warsaw and Amsterdam. When the threat of losing its status as a health resort looms on th

Netherlands, Germany 2016, 88 min
by Daniel Abma

Once a year, two plastic surgeons from Europe fly to Havana to perform surgery on five Cuban transgender persons. The surgeons are invited by Mariela Castro, daughter of the president and head of the new state program for transgender care. Castro organizes this as a modern completion of the socialist revolution. The state helps transgender people with therapy, hormones, surgery and a new identity.Is Cuba changing into a safe haven for trans people? For more than one year, filmmakers Daniel Abma

Germany 2013, 45 min
by Daniel Abma, Florian Lampersberger

Every winter, the Dutch senior-community takes over the Spanish city Benidorm along with its amazing skyscraper-skyline. The elderly stay several months, or even move permanently into a geriatric-center and find their own comfort there. Far away from home they enjoy the mild climate, they sing, party and laugh.This is where they grow old, this is where they want to pass away. Benidorm became a hideaway. To escape from loneliness, to live the dream of being retired in the south, or tojust enjoy.

Germany 2012, 28 min
by Daniel Abma

A portrait of four young unemployed people, who are part of a work-orientation project in Brandenburg. They do want to work, but they just can’t find a job. The film shows stories and faces of a group of people who don´t occur in the official unemployment statistics.

Germany 2012, 88 min
by Daniel Abma

Daniel Abma’s documentary accompanies three young offenders - Imo (22), Jano (17) and Marcel (25) - on the day they are released from Wriezen prison in Brandenburg, eastern Germany, and over the three years that follow. The young men’s new life begins at Wriezen station, where they all set out hoping for the same things: a job, somewhere to live, a girlfriend. Three simple concepts, but the very first day turns out differently for each of the protagonists. After a while all three young men find

Germany 2011, 45 min
by Daniel Abma

Arvid, Rudi, Marlon and the other guys are actors with body and soul. The stories they play are based on their own lives, and that's why the stories are as weird and special as the actors themselves. The film follows this extraordinary theater group through a year of rehearsals. It ends with the premiere of "Gabriella" and shows that you don't need much to make life a big party.