Films by Jan Zabeil

2023, 180 min
by Anne von Petersdorff, Georg Tschurtschenthaler

For many years, King Juan Carlos I was a Spanish hero, celebrated around the world for reforming Spain with his modern, progressive, democratic values. He led his country from the Franco dictatorship to parliamentary monarchy, transforming Spain into a modern European state and becoming the most popular Spanish ruler in history. King Juan Carlos had a loyal Queen, a loving family, international respect, friends in high places and faithful subjects; he had everything a King could wish for. So, how did this revered Monarch take such a drastic fall from grace that he was forced to abdicate in 2014 and eventually flee into exile in 2020? The documentary shows how a fateful hunting trip to Botswana revealed the King’s secret love affair with his companion, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, and set off a series of events that shook the Spanish monarchy to its core. The house of cards began to crumble when questions were raised about the King’s financial affairs, his lucrative links with the Spanish establishment and alleged global corruption, including a €65 million payment.

Germany 2018, 94 min
by Veronika Kaserer

Heiko, 29, is a fun-loving dance teacher from Berlin. For the past seven years he has battled with a fatal illness. Just when his family and his friends had begun to get used to Heiko’s continued survival in spite of all the prognoses, he receives the diagnosis that he does not have much longer to live. He decides to return to his parents’ house to die. But even now, Heiko and especially his father, Jürgen, refuse to give up hoping for a miracle. His mother, Karin, on the other hand tries to prepare him for what is to come. She would like to tell her son about her own near-death experience but can’t seem to find the right moment. Day and night, so many of Heiko’s friends and relatives come to the house to spend time at his bedside, wanting to be near him again, to cry, but also to laugh together. Heiko’s sister preoccupies herself with the organisational side of things and tries to hold up by keeping her distance. The ways in which all of these people cope with loss and grief are as diverse as they are.

Germany 2010, 73 min
by Sonja Baeger

As we get to know the internationally reknowned, Berlin based, German artist Thomas Zipp, we discover the background of his installations, which refer to the human urge of hubris and selfdestruction and are dark and humourous at the same time. His interest in psychonautics – the research of the psyche and the subconscious – is the angle from which he questions the supporting pillars of our culture and education. As he connects acknowledged values and historical characters beyond logic, he uses the freedom of art to create and claim a playfully anarchistic monument of thought. Another important part of Thomas Zipp's way of expressing himself is music. In various constellations with artist-friends they improvise a kind of psychedelic noise-rock, enriched with self-developed instruments, like a cast- iron bell (with the inscription: mind over matter) and air-raid sirens. The film has no voice-over and interweaves looking and thinking about art within the flow of storytelling. It consists of a broad variety of situations and moods: from daytoday life to being the star of his shows, up to all-night music-sessions in a country house, where art-production and rock 'n' roll come together. In chronological order of events, the scenes become a contemporary document (2006-2009), which turns the introduction to the art of Thomas Zipp into a film experience.

Germany 2008
by Jan Zabeil

50 years later: Tam, Duong and Cuci travel together with their classmates from Hanoi, Vietnam to Moritzburg, former German Democratic Republic.In the name of Ho Chi Minh, they were educated in the GDR 50 years ago. Now they travel by Orient-Express and Transibirian-Railways halfway around the world, through their memories and back to their past.