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 mo

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 luc

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

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 nation