Films by Sven Kulik

Germany 2019, 98 min
by Grit Lemke

"My swing is in an enchanted garden, behind the railway embankment. Up in the air, on my swing, I see the trains, squeaking past day and night shedding black dust. They come out of the huge holes that gape between our villages. As a child, I think the whole world looks like this: Holes, with villages between, my swing in the middle. And the trains. They're coal trains." Gerhard Gundermann (1955–1998), singer-songwriter, poet and excavator operator in the Lusatian brown coal mines. In this region, global problems are condensed on a local level as if by a burning glass – from structural change to climate crisis. Mostly unpublished archive material and Gundermann’s songs enter into a dialogue with observations and conversations in his 'district', accompanied by the voice-over of the director, who is no less deeply rooted in the coal mining district. Home and its destruction through strip mining, utopian ideas and the question of individual responsibility run through the songs, as do their consequences for gainful employment and the environment at the end of the industrial age. And they are more topical than ever today: "Where my swing stood, then your digger, is now a lake." (DOK Leipzig, Frederik Lang)

Germany 2019, 88 min
by Lena Leonhardt

Andreas Drapa used to be a regular paver in a small town, breeding pigeons in his free time. Now he's a millionaire – and the wealthiest high-class racing pigeon breeder in Germany. As such he has become the preferred business partner of multi-millionaires in China and Dubai. Because especially in the Middle Kingdom betting on pigeon races has become a million dollar business behind closed doors. But Drapa's still aiming for more: He wants to belong to the powerful super rich, too.HIGHFLYERS adopts an unusual perspective on the story of winners and losers in a game ruled by the new powers of global economy.

Germany 2019, 103 min
by Elke Margarete Lehrenkrauss

When night falls in rural Germany, old VW-caravans decorated with flashy lights line the country roads which lead through potato fields and dark forests. Inside theses buses prostitutes from Eastern Europe and Africa await their clients who are passing by. The film portraits these women who came from far away in search for money and a better life. Until one day, in the ghostly atmosphere, a murder on one of the prostitutes happens and shakes up the whole scenery causing everybody to take action. A film about a microcosm that describes a society at the hardest end of a globalized capitalism.

2015, 84 min
by Florian Hoffmann

A journey from Africa to Berlin turns into an unexpected journey from childhood to adulthood. The film centres around Arlette, a 15-year old girl from the Central African Republic who suffered severe injuries during the last war. In Berlin a surgery frees her from her year-long pain. This changes her both physically and mentally: suddenly Arlette is in her puberty.But then war breaks out again in her homeland. What was planned to be a short stay in Berlin turns into a journey without a foreseeable end. Alrette is forced to grow up and take her own decisions about her future. Stranded in Berlin the young girl faces the challenges of a foreign culture and a language she doesn't speak.This film is a long-term observation - told resolutely from the perspective of a young girl from the Central African Republic. And the viewer gets to see our everyday life through the genuine and honest eyes of Arlette.