Films by Daniel Schönauer

Germany 2023, 102 min
by Ralf Bücheler

We all know the big bad wolf of fairy-tale fame – over hundreds of years the wolf has become a culturally imprinted symbol of fear that’s completely detached from reality. In fact there weren’t even any wolves in western Europe for a long time. But they’re back – for example in Germany, where these social animals now occupy a few scattered areas around the country that people have left to them. The comeback of the wolf in Germany resulted from a democratic decision that is carefully managed within a bureaucratic framework. This meticulous documentary follows some of the people – scientists, conservationists and shepherds – who are keeping a close eye on the wolves.Scenes of these people at work in the field and in laboratories are interspersed with conversations and presentations at political hearings. As well as monitoring the wolves, they add their voices to counter the fact-free public debate and tendentious arguments put forward by opponents. [IDFA]

Germany 2020, 96 min
by Jörg Adolph

The whole world is talking about the environment, but frequently fails to listen to nature itself. Peter Wohlleben has changed all that: in THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES he opens our eyes to the hidden world of the woods.When Peter Wohlleben published his book “The Hidden Life of Trees” in 2015, he stormed all the bestseller charts overnight: no-one had ever written about the German woods like the forester from the parish of Wershofen before. Wohlleben tells us in an entertaining and enlightening fashion about the solidarity and cohesion of the trees and strikes a chord with his ever-growing community of readers: he brings us closer to these astounding living entities in guided tours of the woods and readings. Wohlleben travels to Sweden to see the oldest tree in the world; he visits businesses in Vancouver that are looking for a new approach to how to treat the woods; he sides with the Hambacher Forst demonstrators. Because he knows that we humans can only survive if the woods are healthy – and that the eleventh hour is already upon us…

Germany 2014, 100 min
by Eric Asch

The film's story unfolds in West Berlin in the late 1950's, where my father was part of an undercover intelligence mission in the former US Military Secret Service, the Army Security Agency or the ASA. After moving to West Germany in the early 1970s, my father surprisingly seems to be drawing the attention of American government officials. Later in the 1980's, he makes many new friends in the other part of Germany behind the iron curtain – many of whom turn out to be not such good friends, because he became a victim of eavesdropping and observation by the STASI, the former East German Secret Service. In his STASI file he is identified as an 'agent of an imperialistic intelligence service' and thus receives a code name: 'pirate'. Was my father really a spy? As his son and as a filmmaker I have started a thorough examination of his life. And found myself confronted with a huge pile of material: boxes full of memories, old letters, official and private documents, photos, audio recordings and video tapes. Family events are suddenly intermingled with facts from contemporary history. Conversations with former military buddies in West-Berlin, with friends and possibly girlfriends from the former GDR, with historians, as well as with students, professors or close relatives will hopefully provide answers - or perhaps arouse new suspicions