Films by Susanne Schüle

Germany 2021, 90 min
by Andrei Schwartz

The film covers the double life of a group of Roma who have been shuttling between Hamburg and their Romanian village for years. They earn their meagre income through begging and spend nights in improvised shacks alongside train tracks or in the thickets of public parks. Four to five times a year they return home to Nămăiesti, a village about 100 km west of Bucharest, to take care of their children. Only Maria and Țirloi managed to build a bit of normality for themselves in Hamburg; they have a place to stay and their 13-year-old granddaughter is the first in the family to be able to read and write. They form the bridge between the two worlds: he has work, she still begs.

Switzerland 2020, 82 min
by Aldo Gugolz (revolumenfilm)

Fabiano has a simple dream: making goat cheese in an alpine hut located in the mountains an isolated valley in the mountains of southern Switzerland. That's the way his hippie parents used to live and that is also his dream. A dream shared by Eva, his wife, who will soon be a mother. But times have changed and the harsh reality of the global economy transforms his alpine utopia into an ordeal. Furthermore, Fabiano is haunted by nightmares and guilt feelings. He thinks he is responsible for the death of an undocumented Macedonian worker. Torn by all these conflicting feelings, Fabiano can barely keep up with his debts that are piling up. Aldo Gugolz directs an extremely fine-tuned film about what it means today to try to live according to one's own ideals. Cows on the Roof is a critical rethinking of the traditional Heimat documentary (and feature film) that dares to show a different reality of a country struggling between its official imagery and the harsh realities of a global economy. Pushed forward by an unrelenting dramatic pace and extremely precise editing, Cows on the Roof asks serious questions that need to be answered.

Germany 2012, 120 min
by Gerd Kroske

The German painter and cabaret artist Heino Jaeger was once a celebrated radio star. The radio recordings 'Fragen Sie Dr. Jaeger/ Ask Dr. Jaeger' achieved cult status in the 70s. Nevertheless, this popularity seemed to 'hurt' Jaeger as a painter. After ten years, he abruptly discontinued his broadcasting work and began to drink. Weight down by a trauma from World War II and characterized by anarchic madness, but far being an eccentric, arrogant artist, Heino Jaeger died in a psychiatric ward in 1997 at the early age of 59. He spent his last twelve years there as an alcoholic schizophrenic. His paintings are very precise, ambiguous and contain a special irony. They usually depict a fundamental examination of Germany's state of being. The images are spiteful and bizarre, and his provocative game with Nazi symbolism confused viewers - no one wanted to hang something like that in their living room. The documentary shows the pictures, drawings, photographs, film footage, friends and colleagues of Heino Jaeger, reporting on his life in a wealthy West Germany which left him behind. A film about an artist, through whom one can focus on German history like with a magnifying glass. WW II. may end, but they cannot be overcome.

Germany 2011, 85 min
by Diana Näcke

Kuebra is an infestation. As the only female intensive delinquent in Berlin, the most serious category of juvenile offenders within the local youth prison regime, she has been plagued and hated since the age of 14. But in reality she just longs to be an ordinary girl, a girl that someone will care of, and hold her in their arms. She will take us on a journey into her past, to a place where she has grown up and knows like no other: the woman’s prison in Berlin where she served for almost four and a half years. When Kuebra was detained for the first time she met a young woman from Ethiopia, Salema, whose life story, over the course of this film is closely linked with that of Kuebra’s. In their time together in prison the two experience an unusual prison director, Matthias Bluemel. Kuebra's relationship with the prison director goes beyond the prison walls; an extraordinary relationship between two people who come from opposing sides of our society. With Bluemel’s unconventional views on prison methods, and Kuebra and Salema’s unusual intelligence, outrageous views on life and sweeping humor - this film takes us on a touching yet deeply disturbing journey.

Switzerland 2009, 56 min
by Aldo Gugolz (revolumenfilm)

Eliane and Christof are lovers.They have both been disabled since birth.Eliane dreams of moving in with her boyfriend.But her wish meets with unexpected obstacles.

Germany 2008
by Andrei Schwartz

The people on the pier of Sevastopol Bay are a symbol of the inextricable dilemma in which the city finds itself: too impoverished for splendour and glory, and much too alive for the scrap-heap. People such as handsome 14-year-old Push, who finds mopeds much cooler than girl, or shy 13-yearold Nastja, still mourning her lost first love, spend their summer together on the pier. Even 80-year-oldGalina still has a few tears to spare for the bass voice of her erstwhile lover, but not before she completes her morning swim at Apolonovka‘s run-down beach. And then again there‘s wiry, long-distance swimmer Sergej who, despite his 85 years, would certainly never consider neglecting the ‚third point‘ of health - sex. Finally we meet Vova and Andrej on the pier: one a tattooed former prisoner the other a discharged police officer – now working together illegally as divers next to the ships of the Black See Fleet.A summer on Sevastopol‘s pier, a place made fascinating by the encounter between parallel worlds.