3500+ Films - 2.5 million words – 1 million viewers! Founder and Curator Carmela selects some of our most entertaining, powerful and inspiring films from Germany at We Are Moving Stories including history and the present: women, religion, kids, journeys, the environment, diaspora and borders: Austria.
Total length of this section: 24 films.
<HISTORY>
The German King - Set in 1914 at the start of World War I, The German King is the unbelievable true story of King Rudolf Douala Manga Bell; a German raised African prince who becomes king after his father’s death. Upon returning home to Cameroon, he sees his people being subjugated and enslaved under Kaiser Wilhelmʼs II oppressive colonial rule. He realizes the only way to put an end to his peopleʼs suffering, is to lead a rebellion again. Length: 20 minutes. Writer/Director/Producer/Actor Adetokumboh M’Cormack:
“As an actor and filmmaker, I was frustrated by a lack of roles and the negative stereotypes of African countries in films. I wanted to tell the story of an African hero who deserved to be remembered.”
Strangers to the World - The diaries and letters of two people living through the Second World War come to dramatic life, affirming the power of conscience amidst political supremacy. Length: 56 minutes 35 seconds. Director Grant Fraser:
“Some stories just have to be told. Franz Jaegerstaetter and Etty Hillesum are people no one knows about, but they should be out there. I was inspired by both of them, people who stood by their conscience at a time when every instinct would have said otherwise.”
UB-13 - Following a misjudgement by its ambitious young captain, a German WWI U-boat is forced to wait for a prolonged period on the bottom of the North Sea, facing the threat of enemy torpedo ships. This will cause unprecedented physical and mental challenges for captain and crew. Length: 12:31 minutes. Writer/Director Juri Ferri:
“I would like the audience to feel like they are watching a compelling story, getting absorbed into the world of the film for 12 minutes. I also hope it can touch them on an emotional level. Next to that, I hope the audience would be more mindful of submarine warfare in WWI, and to open up the possibility of telling other stories of WWI U-boats in film.”
Dirty Bomb - Signing his own death wish, a concentration camp prisoner sabotages the construction of the V-2 bomb against the Nazis, while American soldiers struggle to advance against the Germans. Length: 14.59 minutes. Writer/Director Valerie McCaffrey:
“My uncle served in the Battle of the Bulge and he called the V-2’s which was the deadliest weapon of it’s time, “Dirty Bomb”. The Bombs that misfired. In essence, I felt like these Prisoners risked their own lives to save others and in particular, my uncle. I had to bring to the surface the story of these forgotten men who died heroes.”
Tapferkeit - What happens when your government becomes the enemy? Length: 19.17 minutes. Director Joseph Quinn:
“I feel many people begin watching a WWII action genre and it takes an unexpected turn when it delves into the deep, political aspects of the war and personal responsibility.”
<WOMEN>
Geography of the Heart - What would you risk to follow your heart? Short film in German. Shot in Berlin. Length: 20 minutes. Director & Writer: Alexandra Billington:
“I wanted to tell a story that challenged clichéd perceptions of ‘love’ and relationships– we’re conditioned to make choices based on age, culture, social groups but real love cares nothing about such trivialities.
Real love will shake up everything you thought you knew – the heart really is a compass, guiding us to the right people - and that person may be the very last person you imagined yourself with. Far more exciting and unpredictable than society’s idea of who is ‘right’ for us.”
RIOT NOT DIET - The fat women and queers in Riot Not Diet are not ashamed of their expansive body dimensions, but use their bodies to blow up patriarchal structures. Length: 16.50 minutes. Director Julia Fuhrmann:
“I wanted to create a feminist utopia I dream of. Lots of documentaries deal with problems and show how people suffer, but I think it’s even more important to create new ideas of how we wanna live - especially new corporealities.”
Lunch With Hitler - A fearless group of young women fulfil their duty as taste testers for Adolf Hitler. Length: 8 minutes. Writer/Director Christopher Grant Harvey:
“I came across the story that inspired the film from an online article. It is based on a German woman, Margot Wölk, who revealed she’d been one of Hitler’s tasters during the Second World War. The story struck a chord with me, and I immediately worked on building a story around the article. ”
Becoming Black - A white couple in East-Berlin (GDR) in the 1960s, tells their Black daughter that her skin color is pure coincidence and has no meaning. This is also what the girl prefers to believe, until she accidentally discovers the truth as a teenager. Length: 1 hour 31 minutes. Director Ines Johnson-Spain:
“The film allows a deep insight into the reality of life in East Germany in the ‘60s/70s/80s, which was previously unwritten. It deals with universal themes such as family secrets, racism and the search for identity and opens up ways of dealing with them constructively. When the film moves to West Africa, it turns into a reflection on identity, family concepts and social norms.”
<RELIGION>
Brother Jakob - I lost my brother to a God named Allah. While Jakob searches for the truth, I search for Jakob. Will we ever find each other? 92 Minutes. Director/Producer Elí Roland Sachs:
“My brother’s unexpected conversion to Islam and his fundamental change of lifestyle provoked strong feelings within myself as well as within his family and friends. Filmmaking is my way of coming into a deep contact with him.”
<KIDS>
Speechless - A little boy walks into a toy store full of people talking a strange and incomprehensible language. Alone he bonds with a young mother who finds a way to communicate with him without words. He is going to tell her something she never expected. Length: 7 minutes. Writer/Director Robin Polák:
“I still haven’t forgotten this special feeling of not being understood and being able to communicate with anyone. Back in the days, when I came from the Czech Republic to Germany in 1981, I had to solely trust my instincts and learned non-verbally from social-emotional communication. And this specific feeling is part and parcel of my short film.”
I’m okay (“Alles gut”) - Two children who lost everything have to find a new life in Germany. Length: 95 minutes. Writer/Director Pia Lenz:
“In early 2015, everybody in Germany was talking about the “refugee crisis”. It divided the country in two parts: people who welcomed refugees warmly and wanted to support them - and people with fear and anger who wanted to close the borders and set a limit for refugees in Germany. We started talking about human beings, about thousands of children and parents as an undefined mass; we called them a “ refugee wave”. You could get the feeling that some people felt so overwhelmed by the whole “crisis” that they forgot about the fact that their new neighbours already lived in our country trying very hard to adjust to their new life.”
Zoro's Solo - A 13-year-old refugee from Afghanistan living in an emergency shelter in Germany joins a Christian boys' choir to save his father who was left stranded in Hungary and clashes with the strict choirmaster. Length: 1 hour 30 minutes. Writer/Director Martin Busker:
“Was it a noble thing of the German Chancellor Merkel to open the borders in 2015 to rescue hundreds of thousands of people who were dying at the barb wire fences or did she motivate new refugees to go on the life-threatening journey to reach Europe?”
Gravity - The film tells the story of a small refugee boy. During his flight to Germany he undergoes different situations which are embossed by loss and solitude, fear and hope. Length: 7 minutes. Writer and illustrator Katharina Potratz:
“A question I was asking myself many times during this project was, how would I feel having to leave everything and everyone I’ve known behind?”
<JOURNEYS>
Crossing Fences - In a communist East Germany in 1974, a young couple attempts to escape into the West, seeking freedom, by using a handmade boat to cross the Baltic Sea. The fight for their lives begins when they get discovered and they try to escape decades of imprisonment or being executed on the spot. Length: 14 minutes. Writer/Director Annika Pampel:
“Our film is a love story. It’s an escape tale that you’ll hopefully enjoy watching as much as we did making it. ”
Refugee - A harrowing account of Europe's migrant crisis. A family of Syrian refugees separated by the borders of Europe, fight to be reunited as they migrate from Syria to Germany. Length: 87 minutes. Director Alexander Farrell and Producer Francesco Loschiavo:
“FRANCESCO: We are looking to raise awareness about the Refugee crisis and the over 60,000 refugees still stranded in Greece. We hope that by seeing our film audiences will connect with Refugees stories and see them as people, not statistics.”
<ENVIRONMENT>
What Remain - A mother fights to save the remaining 10 percent of a 12,000 year old German forest, facing off against an energy company determined to cut down the remaining trees in order to mine coal. Length: 13.12 minutes. Writer/Director/Producer/Editor Emily Harmon:
“The film was made in four weeks so the development was quick. I went to Germany hoping to tell a story about climate refugees but thanks to a connection with CARE International I met Antje Grothus. I knew I wanted to lift her story up and highlight all of the dedicated people who have sacrificed so much in an attempt to do good for the world. I didn’t know how much it would evolve beyond a simple profile piece but thanks to the activists having such a strong community, I was able to put together a multi-scened documentary that moved beyond a simple profile piece. ”
FINITE: THE CLIMATE OF CHANGE - Concerned citizens in Germany step forward to save an ancient forest from one of Europe’s biggest coal mines, whilst they form an unlikely alliance with a frustrated community in rural northeast England who are forced into action to protect their homes from a new opencast coal mine. Length:1 hour 39 minutes. Director/Producer Rich Felgate:
“FINITE is a local chapter of the story that will define humanity: the climate and ecological emergency. It’s a universal David and Goliath story but leverages an insiders view of the climate movement to reveal the people behind the headlines of climate protests.”
Still Waters - While car fans are driving laps at the Nürburgring, people not far away in the Ahr Valley are hovering between confidence and hopelessness half a year after the flood disaster. Length: 29 minutes 27 seconds. Director Kevin Koch:
“This film hopefully gives an insight into the lives of people who are recovering after a massive climate disaster in a well-developed country like Germany without many climate disasters yet. It should also make people think about what matters – a racetrack or flood protection.”
Tomorrow’s Power showcases three communities from Gaza, Colombia and Germany and their responses to the environmental and economical crises they face. Length: 76 minutes. Writer/Director Amy Miller:
“People appreciate the film- they have never seen these stories and it is not a basic introductory film that deals with themes of Climate Justice but rather is more advanced in the analysis and storylines, which many people very much value.”
<DIASPORA>
Stille Nacht - A widowed German mother living in diaspora in Australia finds answers to generational secrets through her gay daughter. Length: 12.53 minutes. Director/Producer Matthew R. Young:
“Australia is so globalised now which favours the demand for better and fairer representation of diverse stories and identities, and I wanted this film to spark more open dialogue about our increasingly shared, interconnected and hybrid stories and identities in relation to these diasporic groups (German, Austrian and other German-language based cultural hybrid identities).”
<BORDERS: AUSTRIA>
Brothers of the Night - Soft boys by day, kings by night. The film follows a group of young Bulgarian Roma who come to Vienna looking for freedom and a quick buck. They sell their bodies as if that's all they had. What comforts them, so far from home, is the feeling of being together. But the nights are long and unpredictable. Length: 88 minutes. Writer/Director Patric Chiha:
“I spent a year with them. We went out together a lot, to get to know each other and build up an atmosphere of trust, and so I could indicate what I wanted to do with them. And I stress “with them”. I didn’t want to make a film about them: and I wanted it to be with them.”
Royal Blue - On his way to take his daughter to gymnastics, a gambling addict stops at a betting shop, leaving the 9-year-old girl in the car. When he returns, he realizes nothing will ever be the same again. Length: 20 minutes. Writer/Director Dinko Draganovic:
“You should watch this film as it tells a unique story about a father daughter relationship in a setting which has not been shown on film yet. Also, Royal Blue captures a lot of current topics like racism, addiction but also family.”
20 Matches - A young woman, her face illuminated only by match light, tells the story of an Austrian serial killer who murdered 20 immigrant women – one per year. Length: 9.38 minutes. Director/Producer/Writer: Mark Tapio Kines:
“We made an effective “horror” film that doesn’t rely on any blood, violence or jump scares. I hesitate to even call 20 Matches a horror film – it’s more of a drama, told in monologue form – but a lot of film festivals have programmed it in a horror context, so there you go.”