Films by Martin Reimers

Germany 2019, 89 min
by Christoph Röhl

DEFENDER OF THE FAITH tells the story of a man who has dedicated his life to preserving the Church but instead led it into its greatest crisis: Joseph Ratzinger, the German Pope Benedict XVI. During his 30 years working within the Vatican he was the key figure in restoring fundamental Catholic doctrine after a brief period of modernization in the 1960s. The interview partners, who have all worked within the clerical system, describe how Ratzinger's policies contributed to the dramatic loss of moral authority that the Church suffers from today. The film deals with Ratzinger's past to understand his mind-set. We treat his key advisors – many of who were involved in the cover-up of the global child sex abuse crisis and were implicated in corruption scandals. This is an epic story, with a tragic hero in the central role. Ratzinger, who believed that truth could exclusively be found in the teachings of Catholic Church and that contemporary society was lost if it did not rediscover its Catholic values, was forced in a moment of heightened crisis to acknowledge that his greatest enemies were inside the Church, even amongst his inner circle. By the time that he became aware of his errors, he found himself surrounded by chaos and enemies, his whole world crumbling around him.

Czech Republic, Germany 2018, 79 min
by Cyprien Clement-Delmas, Igor Kosenko

"Why are you here? Are you mentally sick? Do you want to kill people?“ the Ukrainian military commander asks the 18-year-old recruit Artiom.Artiom is 18 years old and has just one wish: to go to war and fight for his homeland, Ukraine. Everything else comes second. He dresses in camouflage, watches war videos online, and in his free time practices battle scenes with his friends. Or at least they think they are battle scenes. As a child, he only sees the surface of the war. And he has the bad luck that the fighting rages so tantalizingly close. This observational documentary studies the cult of war in a post-Soviet setting where those who succumb to the allure of battle are the least suitable and least predisposed to fighting – a fact perfectly illustrated by Artiom’s final struggle with the reality of war.See also prequel THE LAST TAPE. As Artiom prepares to fight for the Ukrainian army Anatoly his 88-year-old grandfather and war veteran records their diminishing time together and questions his choice. 12min © 2016

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 built for this kind of regime. Michelle struggles with her weight, Lisa is homesick, Jenny feels insecure within the group, and Debby sets the bar very high. For years on end the film follows the girls at school, during the grueling workouts, in the intimacy of their lodgings and on the mat – the place where it’s all really supposed to happen. In slow motion, hair swings about and faces show strain as they maneuver themselves and their opponents into astonishing positions. While each win provides a euphoric moment, the film is dominated by scenes of sadness, frustration and anger. Still there's also the will to always get back up and rise to the challenge.(IDFA)

Syria, Germany, Sweden 2013, 91 min
by Talal Derki 

Filmed between August 2011 and August 2013, this is a remarkably intimate portrait of a group of young revolutionaries in the city of Homs in western Syria. They dream of their country being free from President Bashar al-Assad and fight for justice through peaceful demonstrations. As the army acts ever more brutally and their city is transformed into a ghost town, the young men become armed insurgents. The protagonists are two friends: Basset, the charismatic 19-year-old goalkeeper of the national soccer team whose revolutionary songs make him the voice of the protest movement, and the 24-year-old media activist and cameraman Ossama. The close-up camerawork takes the viewer right into the group. Scenes of lively protest parties make way for panicking civilians on the run, followed by grim battles in a deserted city, and rising numbers of fallen loved ones. Basset's a cappella protest songs are the only soundtrack, apart from the "silence, interrupted only by birds and bullets." From time to time, the director makes a comment in voice-over: "The world is watching how we are getting killed one by one, while it remains silent as the grave."