Films by Immo Trümpelmann

Germany 2015, 90 min
by Stefan Eberlein

A Chinese investor buys the regional airport of Parchim in provincial north Germany to turn it into a hub for international cargo and passenger transport. Sheer megalomania or enviable drive and enthusiasm?In 2007 Chinese investor Jonathan Pang bought an old military airport in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, northern Germany. In the small town of Parchim, he wants to create an international hub for air cargo transport between China, Europe and Africa. Mr Pang plans no less than to reroute international commodity flows and turn Parchim into a new centre of globalisation. But is this idea compatible with the north German provinces? The unemployment rate is high, the airport has laid idle for 17 years. A container on stilts acts as a temporary control tower, the runway is crumbling and staff speak no English. While Jonathan Pang’s German adviser Werner Knan gets increasingly bogged down by German bureaucracy, Mr Pang travels the world and with unfailing optimism endeavours to win the support of others for his undertaking. The filmmakers accompanied the investor over a period of seven years, encountering wealthy Chinese entrepreneurs, a German district administrator, a networking member of parliament and finally visiting Mr. Pangs home town in the remote Chinese province of Henan. Will he succeed in turning Parchim into a new centre of global trade?

Germany 2008, 101 min
by Ahmet Golbol

18-year-old Özer lives in Antakya and remembers that hehas already worked as an electrician. Today, he would be 39 and would have a family... if a wall had not caved in on him. Cansu is 11years old. She is not allowed to see her children from her life as Lulu, because her mother-in-law from that past life forbids any contact with them. She can’t get that into her mind. Reincarnationis the subject of 2 HALF LIVES by German-Turkish director Servet Ahmet Golbol. The author and director is also from Antakya.With great sensitivity, he portrays four children and adolescents who say thatthey have lived before. As a son of Turkish migrant workers who moved to Germany in the1970s, Golbol also poses questions about his own history. He, too, has to combine two different lives, two cultures. Seeking advice, he turns to the town’s religious leaders. He talks with the patriarch of the Orthodox Church, the imam of the Habib Neccar Mosque, the Jewish community council, and one of the most respected Alevi sheikhs. Thus the town of Antakya itself plays a supporting role as a peaceful, magical place, which seemsclosely connected to the destinies of the four children through its toleranceand diverse religions.The touching melodies of Quadro Nuevo help to alleviate the children’s highly emotionalstories