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The Candlemas Festival in Spergau in the district of Halle, one of the few examples of a traditional custom that is still largely true to the original. Archival footage from 1925 allows a comparison with current footage of the festivities. In interviews, participants talk about the significance of this custom. The colorful costume of the Candlemas runner consists of many colorful ribbons and floral decorations, which are intended to represent the reawakening of life and spring. The runner, together with other costumed figures such as the singer, trader, peep-box man, kitchen boy, sausage stick bearer, registrar, pritcher, black maker, egg woman, the pea (straw) bear, bear leader, horses and soldiers, parade through the streets from house to house, delighting the locals. The crowning glory of this Candlemas celebration, which takes place every 1st Sunday in February, is a fun party in the marquee with music and dancing.

Francois, an architect together with Florence and Caro, his two sisters spends a weekend in their family house, where they spent their childhood. Soon, a railway for a express train will be built at this place, so the house will have to be demolished. In the past there were some things that he would prefer to hide, but he has many difficulties to do this. It is a happy reunion, but the reunion of being united by the bonds that will open. Francois and Florence immediately resume gestures, frankly sensual gestures, which he experienced with annoyance and which she persistently sought. Then they will reveal to Caro, the eldest, that they loved each other with forbidden love.

Firefighters Stefan and Johannes and psychologist Marta Weber, Stefan's girlfriend, are targeted by the psychopathic arsonist Kovacz. Johannes is killed by an insidious firebomb in an attack on Marta's apartment. Apparently the arsonist also dies in the flames, but his body is never found. Stefan fears that the madman is still alive...

The peak of prosperity a short animation by Claudius Gentinetta

A beach, a jogger, a voice of caution : "Watch out !" But will he listen?...

David the Gnome and Swift the Fox embark on a search to find a gold treasure stolen by trolls.

Handsome Jules has problems with school and girls. His domineering dad doesn't make matters easier, although his mom is supportive of her only child. Contemplating an extramarital affair, Claude Jade attempts to discreetly shop for condoms, a cute twist on what is traditionally a teenage boy's awkward ordeal.

A short film by Marian Dora which shows an unearthed cemetery.

Explores sexual politics in Vietnam today through the individual stories of four Vietnamese women from different social strata and different generations.

Three women from three different generations and walks of life find themselves in a very hot, semi-deserted Spanish town. Patricia is a 17 year old roaming Spain in search for a certain man; Sol is 27, a door-to-door salesgirl in dire economic straits who has just been thrown out of her apartment; and Virginia is a middle aged housewife, who after 20 years decides to start a new life. These three spend a very unique 24 hour period together, often acting, as the title suggests, as modern day "witches".

Short-documentary by Wolfgang Becker

Dengue is a shy, innocent and passionate boy. Without realizing it, he becomes victim of a plot to extort his father. The cause is Candela who lures him into fall in love with her.

The greatest author of the twentieth century finds himself in a hotel room with a gendarme and a chicken...

Robin Krinsky works on a dredging ship. In the evenings he grinds crystals. Then Robin falls ill - from toxins in the port of Duisburg? He meets the beautiful dancer Pia from Africa, who is to be deported. The two try to help each other.

Professor Choron recounts with his memories as a child of a barrier guard, the 2nd World War with its horrors and the trains he saw during those years leaving for Germany or coming from there, full of French or German soldiers, in conquest or in rout according to the period

A high-stakes assignment for rookie police officer Katherin Schmidt. Her boss sends her undercover as Julia Hollander’s assistant at her agency after two clients are murdered. There, she uncovers a complex web of intrigue in which Julia’s mother plays a pivotal role…

A man impulsively commits a crime.

Hannes Schönemann reconstructs the story of his love affair with the Danish communist Julia Szaba a decade after her suicide.

Chen Cheng-Tsai works primarily in video art, photography, and mixed media installations. This work was created during his postgraduate studies in Germany. The trees rotate 360 degrees, and the artit's face reflected in the water, distorted by the ripples, iss overlapped by the trees. The sound of a bell also plays a continuous rythm.

Interviews with the filmmakers from the film Die Kinder von Golzow.

The tragic story of a fun-loving schoolgirl who was the first in her class to become a mother at seventeen, remained unmarried for a long time, worked as a poultry farmer and died of heart failure at the age of 29. It is also the story of her son, who after his apprenticeship in Golzow was unable to find work as a factory fitter and who is also the father of a disabled child.

Leipzig is in a period of change. The uproar of Autumn ’89 is followed by a hectic electoral campaign in Spring ’90. Nightly conversations with street sweepers are dominated by hopelessness and broken self-confidence, but one can also recognise a keen sense for the change in social climate following the political unification in the GDR. Despite their lack of illusions, they have an acute view of their surroundings, and for these street sweepers only one certainty prevails: there will always be dirt.

Molly Cowper is a wilful 80-year-old widow who firmly believes the world is there for her convenience. Her mild-mannered son Geoffrey does his best to help her keep her independence, but Molly keeps trampling on people.

A tribute to Frédéric Rossif, the most legendary animal director in cinema, a long animal poem, a walk-exploration through the most secret regions of a little-known continent, the former USSR.

A love story between a former Olympic swimmer turned jewel thief and a pastry chef/sex worker.

Karl Jr. continues his killing spree on a remote island with the help of his father and their army of metal masked mercenaries known as the Infantry of Doom. A band of castaways are turned loose in the wilderness and hunted down, where they must fight to survive. They have moon's phase time to make across the island safely.

The Sahrawi women relate their exil, the tortures, their memories and the difficulties of life as refugees. They are beautiful, touching... Educated by the Polisario Front and attached to the values of islam, they are widows, divorcede or married to fighting men. Owing to the force of circumstances, they have built a society of independant muslim women...

While working on a new railway tunnel, a geologist stumbles upon a hidden valley that is not marked on any map. The inhabitants are Jews who fled here 50 years ago and initially treat the intruder with suspicion.

Prompted by a seminar given by acclaimed German filmmaker Peter Nestler, Prague, March '92 combines 16mm footage shot over the course of a week in the title city with excerpts from Bohumil Hrabal's essay "The Magic Flute," which considers the 20th anniversary demonstrations in Prague to commemorate the death of Jan Palach, who immolated himself in January 1969 to protest the Soviet invasion.

Maisie Blue is an enigmatic black widow figure under investigation by detective Margrave for her involvement in the suicides of successful white men. Through the blurred lines of perception and reality, the myth of the Black feminine mystique is explored under the guise of a murder mystery. The film explores the fetishization of Black women as a manifestation of white male insecurity.

A profile of Ronnie and Reggie Kray, two of the most notorious East End gangsters of the early 60s, as told by their family, friends and enemies. The brothers' reign of terror, which included extortion rackets, fraud and murder, was brought to an end when they were imprisoned for life, and later inspired the film 'The Krays'.

After 5 years, a young Montreal couple's marriage begins to collapse.

On the occasion of the 30th birthday of the German Film and Television Academy Berlin, founded in 1966. Graduate Barbara Teufel accompanies a camera seminar led by director Elfi Mikesch. The students are to produce three short films on the subject of blindness with "real" blind people. Absurd, you think at first...

A scientist of a plague-ridden world goes back to dinosaur times to find an extinct plant that might hold the key to a cure, but bungles up the timelines in doing so.

During a marriage crisis, unhappy Leo has to go to another town for work. There he meets his long-lost cousin Giulio, who has become... Giulia, a very charming girl.

The oldest profession is no longer a business, Pimps Julio Aldama and Jorege Aldama, decide to give this profession a complete twist. Turning their women into "taxi drivers of love", offering their services on board the taxis.

A film about ignorance, intolerance and the lack of responsibility in people. A political film about human kindness, which in many of the so-called "incidents on the border" has been sadly missing.

Two drifters try to steal a car.

Both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are sensitively explored in the Tunisian-French drama. Richard, a French TV journalist has been assigned to do a political story in Jerusalem the night before Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat sign their peace accord. Richard is glad to go as it gives him a chance to see his girlfriend Esther, a psychologist. Esther's father Moshe is continually tormented by his Holocaust memories. Hammoudi, nicknamed "Local Radio," is Richard's taxi driver and guide. He tells Richard the story of his family which was uprooted in 1948 resulting in the disappearance of his grandmother. Mysteriously, her picture appeared in a recent Arabic newspaper. Richard, intrigued, decides to center his investigations upon "Local Radio's" story. As he delves deeper into their lives he discovers that the ancient rivalries between the Israeli's and Palestinians is far too deep and complex to be easily explained away.

Penned by composer Thomas Ades, this contemporary opera is based on the life of the Duchess of Argyll (played by Mary Plazas), who's fallen on hard times in old age. A notoriously oversexed money-grubber in her younger days, the down-and-out duchess faces eviction from the hotel she calls home. Heather Buck, Daniel Norman and Graeme Broadbent also star in this uninhibited production, with Ades conducting the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Hercules was a man of great endurance and strength, honored in his Greek tale. Hera, Queen of the Gods, is jealous of Hercules and his father Zeus. When Hercules is boastful and brash, Hera inflicts him with a terrible fate. Hera tricks him into blind destructiveness then forces him to atone for his actions. Hercules admits his faults and takes on the famous Labours of Hercules.

A group of Africans clandestinely reaches the coast of southern Spain. Among them is Alou, a 28 years old Senegalese. As all his belongings are stolen while in Almsería, he has no choice but to engage in street vending. His only pleasure are the letters he writes to his family to tell the vicissitudes of his Spanish adventure.

A night full of coincidences. Without knowing each other, Pierre and Jasmina break into the same museum and head for the self-same painting – problems that are difficult to solve amicably. Plus there is Martin, the only watchman on site...