Films by Juergen Kleinig Neue Celluloid Fabrik

2023, 103 min
by Mark Michel

HERDERS – GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH follows five herders and their families in Peru, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, India and Germany throughout the seasons. For months they trek through changing landscapes with their herds, living only from what nature provides. It is a life far from the romantic picture we have, a life under harsh conditions, in direct contact with nature and its extreme elements – birth, death, storm and sun, rain and drought are fundamental parts of their lives. HERDERS tells the story of their struggles for survival. Their animals are partners, even friends.HERDERS – GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH is a graceful and moving meditation on a disappearing life form. Tender and unsentimental at the same time. In landscapes of remarkable size and beauty, the film portrays the lives of the often invisible and marginalised pastoralist cultures that exist throughout the world. The film captures the beauty and hardship of this dying way of life, explores the deep and ancient union between people and animals, and tells of a way of food production and a way of life that gives more back to the nature and to humanity than what it takes away. There is a wisdom in the ancient practices of nomadic pastoralism that deserves to be preserved and protected. Time for a tribute. And a chance to rethink.

Germany 2019, 76 min
by Tom Fröhlich

Six people reveal their interpretation of the perfect black and explain their search for it.The story begins with a view through a vast telescope in the Thuringian Forest. Dr Eike Günther, an astrophysicist specializing in discovering Earth-like planets, is on nightshift. But he’ll never find perfect black in the real universe as it only exists as a definition on paper.Gerhard Wiesbeck is a tattoo artist. Getting a tattoo is a moment when the mask comes off, a moment of love, he says – and returns to the totally black pattern he is producing on his client’s back. His speciality is to colour bodies completely black.Even in the depths of the ocean where light cannot penetrate, life still exists. The aphotic or ‘midnight’ zone is explored by marine biologists like Professor Antje Boetius. The black depths are her home.Can you hear black? There are a handful of synaesthetes who associate colours with sounds. Perceiving colours as feelings is a rare phenomenon; hearing colours is almost unique. But Katja Krüger has this ability. And being a musician, she can make these sounds audible, even if she’s the only one who can feel them.If you dedicate your life to death, you’re surrounded by black. But that’s a popular misconception, says Dorothea Stockmar, artist and formerly part of the hospice movement. Everything in life is colourful – including mourning and death. Perfect black is far more important than life or death, for by giving everything a shape it enables us to see things.What is perfect black? The answer might be that it doesn’t exist. The six protagonists’ search for meaning is a metaphor for all the moments in which we think we know the answer.

Israel, Germany 2017, 86 min
by Rina Castelnuovo, Tamir Elterman

Muhi, a brave and spirited Palestinian boy, has lived in an Israeli hospital for seven years. With a rare disease and life threatening outbreaks that left both his arms and legs amputated, he cannot return to his family in Gaza where the shattered healthcare system is unable to treat his condition. Watched over by his grandfather Abu Naim and a volunteer Israeli humanitarian Buma Inbar, Muhi has just begun to understand the rules and conflict that divide his world. His updated visa status “Generally Temporary” strikes a particularly poignant note.