Films by Jana Irmert

Germany 2020, 16 min
by Nele Dehnenkamp

Five years ago, Hanan would never have dreamed that she would now be a swimming teacher. Fleeing IS from northern Iraq, in 2015 she crossed the Mediterranean with her family in a rubber dinghy. The boat filled with water, and Hanan couldn’t swim.She has an instant understanding with children who are afraid of water. Images of the vast blue sea and the fear of drowning are etched into her memory. Now living in Wolfsburg, Germany, she’s determined to have her younger brother learn to swim before h

Germany 2018, 83 min
by Florian Baron

In their voice-overs, five young Afghanistan war veterans from Pittsburgh first establish familiar foundations: The trauma of 9/11, the ideology of violent retribution, military service as a patriotic family tradition, the 'unfairness' of todaymins warfare. They are slow to show us their faces. Physically unharmed but full of inner pain they have become the misunderstood upon their return.(new docs world sales)Jury Statement DEFA Sponsoring Prize for an outstanding long German documentary film,

2016, 82 min
by Anna Koch

Four German teenage girls are getting ready for an exciting school year. The young wrestlers Janny, Lisa, Debby and Michelle have been accepted to the Elite School of Sports, a boarding school in Frankfurt that follows East German traditions in getting talented athletes to the top. The girls can expect years of exhausting, intensive training schedules, strict diets and extreme pressure to perform. In their free time they hang out together, listen to music and long for home – they aren’t all buil

2015, 60 min
by Thomas Beyer, Adrian Dorschner

The BOWLINGTREFF is a bowling alley situated right in the centre of Leipzig opened in July 1987. At that time the quality of life in Leipzig and the whole GDR got worse. Houses collapsed because of poor conditions, public life and amusement was on a very low level.The “Bowlingtreff” was not merely an urban entertainment centre but a revolution in those days. Built with the help of hundreds of volunteers without permission of the state authorities in Berlin the building expresses a free and inter