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 on those who take the parents’ place. They sometimes remind us of Don Quixote tilting at the windmills, for there is a diffusion of responsibility between school, youth welfare services, and absent mothers and fathers. Words fail when adults do not keep appointments, when those in charge capitulate in the face of racist bullying and propose some “time out” – for the bullied boy – in a psychiatric facility. It would be easy to denounce these mechanisms, but that is not the point Daniel Abma wants to make. His observation, both emphatic and reserved, looks questioningly into the gaps in the system – with those who are in danger of falling through and those who try to fill them with affection. He makes us suspect that the answer is not to close all the system’s gaps. It is people who are there for other people and take responsibility. [67 DOK Leipzig, Luc-Carolin Ziemann]

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 the horizon, which means losing the inviting title of 'Bad', something has to change: A bypass is to be built.Over a period of eight years, the film documents the gridlocked traffic at this bottleneck, the efforts of the mayor, police, fire brigade and construction companies, the delays in the construction of the northern bypass and above all the reactions of the affected residents. The latter look forward to some quiet and relief – or will soon have the motorway right in front of their door. The long-term documentation focuses less on the large-scale infrastructural measures than on their consequences for the people living by the roadside. Other stories are 'picked up' there with a fine instinct for unusual characters and leaving lots of space for their personalities and quirks. These include the local tradition of counting trucks on the federal road or the construction site as well as taking a walk or jogging on the long unfinished section of the road. (Frederik Lang, Catalogue DOK Leipzig 2019)

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 and Alex Bakker follow the three main characters Odette, Juani and Malú and show how they deal with the reality of being transgender in Cuba. As new heroes of the revolution they still face religious intolerance, discrimination, sexism, poverty and often a life in prostitution.

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, 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 a girlfriend. Life settles down a bit, and starting a family seems the obvious thing to do next. Each of the three has a daughter. They are caring fathers, selling drugs and renovating their homes in their attempts to look after their children and satisfy the welfare office’s requirements. Now, though, problems can no longer be solved simply by socking your opponent in the face. How do you fight a court that says you’re incapable of looking after your own child? What happens when you end up back in jail – this time as a dad? What does life in our society ask of each of us? What do we need in order to live an autonomous, successful life? Is release day a chance to start afresh, or do you stay a jailbird forever, unable to cope with the challenges of everyday life?

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 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.