FOCUS GERMANY

Screening List：

3 DAYS IN QUIBERON

FORGET ABOUT NICK

DIFFERENT KINDS OF RAIN

ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE ME

A DYSFUNCTIONAL CAT

ICEMAN

IN THE AISLES

STYX

LOST ONES

ROCK MY HEART

GODLESS YOUTH

3 DAYS IN QUIBERON

Directed by: Emily Atef

Written by: Emily Atef

Starring: Marie Bäumer / Birgit Minichmayr / Charly Hübner / Robert Gwisdek

Plot:

In 1981, Quibéron, Hilde Fritsch arrives to visit her old friend, a world-famous star Romy Schneider, but together, they appear like two regular women who are just happy to be reunited. Yet it quickly becomes apparent that Hilde is supposed to offer the support the sensitive actress needs to be able to truly face her own demons. Shortly after, the young journalist Michael Jürgs and Romy's longtime acquaintance, photographer Robert Lebeck, arrive to conduct an interview for a large German publication. Immediately, a cat-and-mouse game ensues between the fragile diva and the ambitious author. The ups and downs of emotions, between tenderness and mutual manipulation, amidst Hilde's attempts to guard her friend and the journalists' effort to capture for their audience the most inner feelings of this fascinating woman – all of these keeps these four people deeply engaged for three days and nights. And yet, by the end of those days, Romy may have found the inner strength to be able to start over, which she desperately wants.

FORGET ABOUT NICK

Directed by: Margarethe von Trotta

Written by: Pam Katz

Starring: Ingrid Bolsø Berdal / Katja Riemann / Haluk Bilginer / Tinka Fürst / Fredrik Wagner 

Plot:

The worlds of two different women collide in a New York City loft: model vs. intellectual, style vs. comfort, career woman vs. single mom. Jade and Maria are complete opposites in the way they live. Their only common ground is their unfaithful ex-husband: Nick. The ageing Casanova has left his wife - once again - for a younger model. As a farewell gift, however, and to honor the marriage contracts, he has over-written each ex-wife half of a luxurious loft in Manhattan. As neither women would back down, they end up sharing the flat. What starts as a minor verbal hostility leads to a bitter guerrilla warfare. But over time, the two women come closer. Both come to the subtle realization that, despite all their differences, they might not be so different after all.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF RAIN

Directed by: Isabel Prahl

Written by: Karin Kaci

Starring: Bjarne Mädel / Bibiana Beglau / Louis Hofmann 

Plot:

The door has been closed for many weeks. A teenager, Mike, has locked himself in, shutting out a helpless father, mother and sister. He is not sick. He has consciously decided not to take part in the life outside anymore. In Japan, youths like him have already been given a name: Hikikomori (the secluded). The phenomenon also begins to spread throughout the Western world. This is all the family has been able to find out. And his parents or sister cannot do anything about it. All they can do is stand in front of the locked door and prompt, plead, ask, lose it, despair, accuse, ignore, and hope. In the process, the door increasingly turns into a mirror of their own lives and stories.

ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE ME

Directed by: Özgür Yildirim

Written by: Özgür Yildirim

Starring: Emrah Ertem

Plot:

After a botched robbery attempt five years ago, Ricky went to jail for his brother Rafael and his buddy Latif. Now that's he's back out of jail, Latif wants to show his gratitude. He says he has a sure-fire scheme to get rich quickly. Ricky could use the money to set up his new life. Ricky hesitates at first, but then agrees. Complications arise as soon as preparations start. Ricky is forced to take Rafael aboard, whom he really wanted to keep out of trouble. Things keep going awful, especially in the form of hardup policewoman Diana, who's in need of cash and develops considerable criminal energy of her own trying to foil the boys' plan in an unforeseen way.

A DYSFUNCTIONAL CAT

 

 

Directed by: Susan Gordanshekan

Written by: Susan Gordanshekan

Starring: Pegah Ferydoni / Hadi Khanjanpour

 

Plot:

Mina lives in Iran. By Iranian standards, she has left it rather late in the day to decide to marry. Kian is a doctor of Iranian origin. He's single and lives in Germany. Frustrated by a series of unsuccessful blind dates, he finally takes his mother's advice and uses the traditional Iranian method of arranged encounters with potential partners in order to find a wife. When Mina and Kian meet it's not exactly love at first sight and yet they both sense the possibility of a life together. Mina decides to marry Kian and start a new life in Germany. Both have the best intentions to create a harmonious relationship, but marriage is more difficult than they imagined. Over time, the two become familiar with each other. But as Kian increasingly loses control of his life — both privately and professionally — his reacts in a way that damages their relationship severely.

 

ICEMAN

 

 

Directed by: Felix Randau

Written by: Felix Randau

Starring: Jürgen Vogel / André M. Hennicke / Sabin Tambrea

 

Plot:

The Ötztal Alps, more than 5300 years ago, a Neolithic clan has settled nearby a creek. It is their leader Kelab´s responsibility to be the keeper of the group’s holy shrine Tineka. While Kelab is hunting, the settlement is attacked. The members of the tribe are brutally murdered, amongst them Kelab’s wife and son included. Only one newborn survives, and Tineka is gone! Blinded by pain and fury, Kelab is out for one thing alone – vengeance! The pursuit of the murderers is shaping up to be quite an odyssey for Kelab. He fights for the infant’s survival and against the forces of nature. And a fatal error even turns Kelab from hunter to prey. On top of all that, the loneliness causes Kelab to doubt his actions more and more. When Kelab finally faces the murderers of his clan, his greatest challenge will be not to become a victimizer himself…

 

 

IN THE AISLES

 

 

Directed by: Thomas Stuber

Written by: Clemens Meyer / Thomas Stuber

Starring: Franz Rogowski / Sandra Hüller / Peter Kurth

 

Plot:

After the shy and reclusive Christian loses his job, he starts to work for a wholesale market. Bruno from the Beverage aisle takes him under his wing and quickly becomes a fatherly friend to him. Bruno shows him the ropes and patiently teaches him how to operate the fork lift. In the aisles he meets “Sweets”-Marion, and is instantly smitten by her mysterious charm. The coffee machine becomes their regular meeting point and the two start to get to know each other. But Marion is married and Christian’s feelings for her seem to remain unrequited, especially when Marion does not return to work one day. Christian slowly becomes a member of the wholesale market family and his days of driving fork lifts and stacking shelves mean much more to him than it seems.

 

STYX

 

 

Directed by: Wolfgang Fischer

Written by: Wolfgang Fischer / Ika Künzel

Starring: Susanne Wolff / Gedion Oduor Wekesa

 

Plot:

Rike - mid-30s, a doctor from Europe - embodies a typically Western model of happiness and success. She is educated, determined and committed. She sets out on a much-needed holiday on Gibraltar. There she fulfills a long-held dream and sails out to sea alone in her sailing boat. Her goal is the island of St. Helena. But her dream holiday is quickly broken off on the high seas, when, after a storm, she finds herself near a stricken refugee boat. Unless she intervenes, around a hundred people will drown - their utterly overloaded boat has sprung a leak. Rike follows maritime law and radios for help. But when her calls are left unanswered, and rejected for spurious reasons, she decides to overcome her fear and try to rescue whoever she can. Rike realizes that the refugees' boat is sinking faster than expected. She decides to help anyway, but fate turns cruelly against her. Despite a chain of unhappy events, she experiences moments of friendship, gratitude and solidarity in the short time that is left to her.

 

LOST ONES

 

 

Directed by: Felix Hassenfratz

Written by: Felix Hassenfratz

Starring: Maria Dragus / Anna Bachmann / Clemens Schick / Enno Trebs / Meira Durand / Anne Weinknecht

 

Plot:

Maria feels free when she is playing the organ. At home the 18-year-old feels responsible, for Hannah, her younger sister, who is rebelling and planning her escape from the village, and for Johann, her father. After the early death of their mother, the two dissimilar sisters live alone with their father in a south German province. Maria stoically fulfils the expectations of the others, as protector, sister and daughter loved by her father. It's a fragile balance that she tries to keep together with all her might - even at the expenses of her own dreams. However, everthing changes when Valentin, a young travelling carpenter, finds a position in her father's film. Maria falls in love, for the first time, and against all reason. Valentin returns Maria's secret affections, but the nearer he comes to her, the more she withdraws from him. In order to keep a carefully guarded family secret, Maria is prepared to sacrifice herself. But as Hannah starts to understand what is going on, her sister's world is already collapsing around them. Hannah decides to save her sister.

 

ROCK MY HEART

 

 

Directed by: Hanno Olderdissen

Written by: Clemente Fernandez-Gil

Starring: Lena Klenke / Emilio Sakraya Moutaoukkil / Dieter Hallervorden

 

Plot:

At 17, Jana has already lived half of her life, at least according to the statistics about her congenital heart disease. Every beat of her heart could be her last. But according to Jana, this is just not fair. Much to her Parents distress, Jana jumps head over heels into every adventure she can think of. When Jana gets to know the thoroughbred stallion ‘Rock My Heart’, her entire life changes. The two are soul mates, rebellious and untamed in equal measure, made for each other. Rock's trainer Paul, understanding the connection between girl and horse, persuades Jana to ride him for a big event. He has no clue, however, that Jana is fatally ill, and that the training is incredibly dangerous for her. But for the first time in her young life, Jana has something to look forward to and to fight for. But will she really manage to ride the big event in spite of her condition?

 

 

GODLESS YOUTH

 

 

Directed by: Alain Gsponer

Written by: Alex Buresch / Matthias Pacht

Starring: Jannis Niewöhner / Fahri Yardim / Emilia Schüle

 

Plot:

In a not-too-distant future, in which the society serves to protect the elite and isolate the weak, the cities are hellholes and the countryside holds the fairytale promise of a better life. A young school girl is found dead in the woods during the annual graduates’ assessment camp. Knowing for this upstanding morals, a teacher breaks with his own values on a quest for the truth – and is increasingly entangled in a net of his own lies. Suddenly someone confesses to a murder that they couldn’t have committed and the fragile cohesion of a youthful elite society is threatened to destroy itself.