Stefan Stabenow

Death Will Come

Tez kills for money. Charles Mahr, a legendary gangster, hires her to avenge the murder of one of his couriers. Once in Brussels, she gets caught up in the thicket of an intrigue in which she herself becomes the prey. Tez has to decide whose instrument she wants to be.

Like a Sick Yellow

An immersion into Nora's memory, where realities merge, the bad and beautiful intertwined until it’s all mingled and something else is formed. A tragedy foretold.

Till the End of the Night

The undercover investigator Robert is supposed to win the trust of a criminal through a fictitious relationship with Leni. However, the feelings are not just a game. It is the spied criminal, of all people, who makes him confront his contradictory feelings…

Everything Will Be Alright

Through following the twists and turns of three generations of women in the Russian-speaking Latvian film director’s family, the film attempts to look at the reality of the half-million community of Russians in the Baltic countries in 2020. Through the story of a grandmother – a veteran of the Second World War who came to Latvia in 1955 in search of a better life, a mother – a lecturer in a closing down Transport and Telecommunication Institute , and an eighteen-year-old daughter – an artist, a student of the prestigious Latvian Art School. The film tries to understand whether this family managed to find its place in the new society after 30 years of Latvian Independence.

One of Us

A former volunteer in the Kosovo war returns to Albania to pursue a career in the police force. In the country's chaotic and corrupt capital city, Tirana, the ex-soldier turned cop and ends up solving the crime he committed.

Lovable

Agate – the older and well-off partner of Matiss and the mother of ten-year-old Paula dies unexpectedly. It becomes a devastating blow for Paula and a grand possibility for Matiss, a charming novice bailiff assistant and a cheating boyfriend, to “upgrade” his social status with Agates splendid house. Matiss and Paula are stuck together in order to find the only relative left – the missing brother of Agate. This journey leaves irreversible footprints on both of them.

Das Licht in einem dunklen Haus

In a hospital in Hamburg, an unidentified woman is disconnected from the life-support system. While the investigators search for the mysterious perpetrator, two more men are murdered.

Looking for Venera

Living in a crowded, multi-generational household in a small village in Kosovo, the quiet teenager Venera can rarely find privacy. However, when she befriends the rebellious Dorina, a new, liberating world opens up to her. Slowly, Venera begins to push against her conservative family’s expectations.

Daughters

Martha and Betty have known each other for twenty years and they have decided to breakthrough. But while Martha realizes that her father has only faked his death wish in order to see the great love of his life again on Lake Maggiore, Betty mourns her stepfather Ernesto, who supposedly died years ago.

Who We Were

A look at the current state of the world, from the hand of six intellectuals and scientists who reflect on the present and postulate about the future.

Open Door

Rudina sets off on a long journey with her unmarried pregnant sister, Elma, to meet their strict and traditional father in the Albanian village where they were born. As Rudina's car makes its way over the mountains, Elma comes up with a plan to enlist a former classmate to play the part of her husband.

Wir wären andere Menschen

Film by Jan Bonny, also known as "Endlich Leben".

Germany. A Winter's Tale

Becky, Tommi and Maik form a right-wing terror cell that lives in the underground and is dreaming of country-wide attention. Entangled in a complex relationship of love, hate and friendship, they follow a path of destruction that leads to a series of violent crime. Their alleged values such as honor, pride and loyalty decline due to their increasing disorientation.

Unser Kind

Katharina became a mother after an artificial insemination when she died in a traffic accident. Although her wife Ellen is the guardian of little Franz, she has custody - unlike in heterosexual marriages - without adoption but not. And not only the biological father of the child, also the parents of the deceased Katharina make claims.

Gutland

Early one summer morning a young man, with a secret stashed away in a duffel bag, emerges from the forest. In a nearby village he asks around for work, but the farmers, suspicious to the point of hostility, are not very forthcoming. Only when Lucy, the mayor’s unruly daughter, takes a liking to him, does the village change its attitude: he is promptly offered a job as a farmhand and a caravan to live in. As time passes and he is gradually integrated into the community, it emerges that he’s not the only one with a past to hide. Something sinister is lurking under the immaculate surface of this picturesque little world - and it is slowly drawing him in.

Catalina

Colombian girl, who studies law in France, arrives to Sarajevo in order to write a study about the War Crimes Tribunal. Unexpectedly she finds herself in the center of the intimate tragedy of her new friend, a native woman.

My Happy Family

In a patriarchal society, an ordinary Georgian family lives with three generations under one roof. All are shocked when 52-year-old Manana decides to move out from her parents’ home and live alone. Without her family and her husband, a journey into the unknown begins.

Satan Said Dance

Satan Said Dance is an Instagram film in times of the selfie. A kaleidoscope of moments from life of Karolina – a scandalous writer obsessed with parties, drugs, sexuality and complex relationships, on her way to self-destruction.

I Want to See the Manager

In the light of the current transformations within the global power structure, I WANT TO SEE THE MANAGER traces the linkage of economic ascent and decline in seven paradigmatic episodes. India, Bolivia, China, USA, Italy, Thailand, Venezuela - each place contains fragments of another; each episode bears testament to the hopes and fears of its protagonists. By juxtaposing these local experiences in the face of global economy, the film questions the notion of rise and decay.

The Lies of the Victors

Fabian Groys, a renowned journalist for a political news magazine, enjoys great freedom, since the stories he uncovers make for good sales. When he loses a hot story about the German army, the editor saddles him with a young female intern. Fabian hates teamwork and sticks the intern with what seems a classic tabloid story about the suicide of a man who had himself torn to shreds by a lion at the zoo. But thanks to the intern’s dogged determination, signs emerge that the story Fabian was working on and the gory zoo story are actually interlinked. Is it pure coincidence? And if it isn’t, how can Fabian fight a nebulous enemy?

In Bloom

Eka and Natia leave their childhood behind and ignore societal customs to escape from their turbulent family lives.

The Prize

Architect Alexander Beck has just won an architecture prize. He wants to modernize GDR building blocks in Thuringia. Alex travels to the heart of rural Eastern Germany where he grew up and where people remember him as Alex from the Free German Youth, a pro-GDR youth organization.

The City Below

A man and a woman at an art exhibition share a fleeting moment of attraction, which neither can act upon. Days later, a chance second meeting leads to an innocent coffee and the two strangers – both married - toy with their unexplainable fascination for each other. Svenja is curious and finds herself in a hotel room with Roland, but she does not consummate an affair. A powerful executive at the large bank where Svenja's husband works, Roland is used to getting what he wants. He manipulates the transfer of her husband to Indonesia to replace a recently murdered bank manager. Unaware of Roland’s actions, Svenja now ceases to resist...

Love of the Children

Two single parents decide to move in together and their two teenage children fall in love.

Polar

Luis pays a visit to his father in the mountains. He has not seen him for several years. When he arrives at the remote holiday home he is more than surprised to encounter his father’s new family – about whom his father made no mention. Torn between his desire to be with his father and his anger and frustration over his father’s new-found happiness, Luis tries to provoke his father and break down his reserve.

Counterparts

Teacher Anne and policeman Georg are thought of as the perfect couple. However, appearances are deceptive: one of them is covered with scars and bruises. But which one is the abuser?

Karger

The film tells the story of a steel worker named Karger who is living in the Saxon town of Riesa. Personal as well as professional changes force him to turn his back on his home town that he had never left in his whole life and to enter unknown territory. On his way into the unknown, Karger has to bid many painful farewells. However, he faces them in his characteristic indifferent manner.

I Am Guilty

Armin Steeb is adrift: just finished with school, living with his middle-class parents, clueless about finding work. He tries connecting with a girl, he engages in risky sex with strangers in public toilets, he goes to job interviews. He also sends an anonymous letter to a local Munich newspaper, claiming responsibility for a fatal road accident. He fitfully pursues notoriety as he goes through life nearly without affect. What will it take to get Armin to smile?

Sleeper

Johannes, a new assistant at the university, is asked to provide reports on an Algerian colleague - who is suspected of being a sleeper. He refuses, but the seed of doubt has been planted. A fragile friendship which is overshadowed by professional and emotional competition eventually leads to betrayal.