Siblings Lea and Konstantin are picked up late from school by their stepmother Sylvia. The mood in the car is bad. On the way to go shopping in neighbouring Poland, Sylvia's nerves are increasingly frayed. When Konstantin wants to go to the toilet shortly after the border, the stepmother unceremoniously lets them both off in the middle of the country road and drives on alone. After a cigarette break, Sylvia returns to the place where she threw the children out, but they are gone. Without bothering to look, she drives back home, but once there, she cannot find the courage to tell her husband what happened.

DE 2003 – 94 min.
Editor: Gisela Zick. Director: Christoph Hochhäusler. Writers: Christoph Hochhäusler, Benjamin Heisenberg. Director of Photography:: Ali Olcay Gözkaya. Composer: Bendikt Schiefer. Sound: Torsten Bolzé. Production: fieber.film München, Colonia Media, Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv, Cine Image. Cast: Judith Engel, Horst-Günter Marx, Miroslaw Baka, Sophie Charlotte Conrad, Leonard Bruckmann. Distributor: Filmgalerie 451

Over two years, the 35-year-old pianist Igor Levit, who also became known for his politically and socially committed stance, is accompanied: At concerts, on trips, while shopping, exploring his "life after Beethoven", in the creative collaboration with sound engineer Andreas Neubronner, in dialogue with the audience and the press. Always on the move, always looking for new challenges and attitudes. Then Covid puts the brakes on all previous dynamics. 108 booked concerts all over the world are cancelled. In the middle of the crisis, Levit is one of the first to establish a musical connection, with house concerts streamed every evening. Whether in the concert hall, at recordings, in the pandemically lonely living room or at the improvised concert for environmental activists in the Dannenröder forest, his music is always shown in its creation and its impact.

DE 2022 – 118 min.
Editor: Carina Mergens. Regie: Regina Schilling. Director of Photography: Johann Feindt, Piotr Rosołowski, Axel Schneppat, Jule Katinka Cramer, Thomas Keller, Hajo Schomerus. Sound: Miguel Murrieta Vásquez, Christian Lutz, Filipp Forberg, Andreas Hildebrandt, Matthias Lempert. Production: zero one film. Distributor: Piffl Medien, Berlin.

The fate of Antoine Leiris and his family, based on true events: During the terrorist attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris on the night of 13 November 2015, Antoine loses his wife Hélène, the mother of his two-year-old son. Shocked and upset, he writes a Facebook post in which he addresses the attackers directly – refusing to become part of their spiral of hatred. Instead, he confronts them with his love for his child. This message spreads unexpectedly quickly on the web, so that Antoine has to cope not only with his deep grief, but also with the suuden media attention bearing down on him.

DE, FRA, BEL 2022 – 102 min.
Editor: Andrea Mertens. Director: Kilian Riedhof. Writers: Jan Braren, Marc Blöbaum, Stéphanie Kalfon, Kilian Riedhof. Director of Photography: Manuel Dacosse. Composer: Peter Hinderthür. Sound: Thomas Grimm-Landsberg, Kai Tebbel, Emmanuel De Boissieu. Production: Komplizenfilm (DE), Haut et Court (FRA), Frakas Productions (BEL). Cast: Pierre Deladonchamps, Zoé Iorio, Camelia Jordana. Distributor: Tobis Film, Berlin.

A multi-layered portrait of the Nobel-prize-winning artist emerges from archive finds, private photos, known and unknown interview passages, associative tracking shots through biographically relevant landscapes as well as urban-cultural motifs, and a newly recorded off-camera commentary by Jelinek, who actually withdrew completely from the public eye in 2004 after the protests of many Austrians against her Nobel Prize and only spoke through her work. The musical flow of Jelinek's works, read by Sandra Hüller, Martin Wuttke, Ilse Ritter and Sophie Rois, among others, is set in dialogue with a collage of set pieces, contradictions, socio-political image and sound associations and biographical links, which juxtaposes the flow of language with a flow of images and leaves room for the listener's own associations.

DE 2022 – 96 min.
Editor: Mechthild Barth. Director: Claudia Müller. Kamera: Christine A. Meier. Composer: Eva Jantschitsch. Sound: Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer. Production: CALA Filmproduktion, Plan C Filmproduktion. Distributor: Farbfilm Verleih, Berlin.

There is a gaping sinkhole in Yaniklar. In this small (fictional) town, somewhere in the parched plains of Anatolia, the groundwater has receded to such an extent that craters are opening up which threaten to swallow entire houses. This is where Emre, a recently graduated prosecutor, is sent to investigate the causes of the water crisis, and to keep a close eye on local officials.

Emre quickly encounters strange customs and murky entanglements. His attempts to enforce authority and the rule of law soon make him the target of rumors and intrigue. Who can he trust – the overwhelmed local policeman? The inscrutable judge? The journalist Murat, whose anti-corruption campaign also bears the hallmarks of a vendetta against the powerful mayor? When Emre is confronted with his first serious criminal case, what remains of his standing and composure, threatens to slip away.

TUR 2022 – 131 min.
Original title: Kurak Günler
Editor: Özcan Vardar, Eytan Ipeker. Director & Writer: Emin Alper. Director of Photography: Christos Karamanis. Composer: Stefan Will. Sound: Krešimir Rodic, Nardi van Dijk. Production: Ay Yapim, Liman Film. Cast: Selahattin Paşali, Ekin Koç, Erol Babaoğlu, Seli̇n Yeni̇nci̇, Erdem Şenocak, Sinan Demirer. Distributor: Cinemien Germany, Frankfurt am Main.

In 1900, 17-year-old novice Elisabeth is about to take her religious vows. The death of her older sister Innocente forces her to leave the convent and return to the family farm in the Valais mountains of southern Switzerland to help with the field work. Both her conservative Catholic parents and the morally strict village community remain silent about the circumstances of her sister's death. But accompanied by the eager glances of the male village youth, Elisabeth traces Innocente's secret. With increasing urgency, she follows in her sister's footsteps and, like her, discovers for herself the all-shaking belief in free love.

CH 2022 – 92 Min.
Editor: Xavier Sirven. Director & Writer: Carmen Jaquier. Director of Photography: Marine Atlan. Composer: Nicolas Rabaeus. Sound: Carlos Ibañez Diaz, Raphaël Sohier, Matthieu Fichet, Denis Séchaud. Production: Close Up Films. Cast: Lilith Grasmug, Mermoz Melchior, Benjamin Python, Noah Watzlawick, Sabine Timoteo, François Revaclier. Distributor: Sister Distribution, Geneva.

35-year-old Margaret is the eldest of three daughters of former concert pianist Christina. For a long time, Margaret has been unable to control her temper and repeatedly becomes violent in the heat of the moment. After she assaults her mother, she is taken away by the police. For three months, Margaret is only allowed to come within 100 meters of her mother's house, where her youngest sister Marion also lives. But the ban only reinforces Margaret's desire for closeness and reconciliation with her family. She approaches the initially invisible ban circle every day – which prompts Marion to mark the 100-meter distance with a blue line.

CH, FRA, BEL 2022 – 103 Min.
Editor: Nelly Quettier. Director: Ursula Meier. Writers: Stéphanie Blanchoud, Antoine Jaccoud, Ursula Meier. Director of Photography: Agnès Godard. Composer: Jean-François Assy, Stéphanie Blanchoud, Benjamin Biolay. Sound: Patrick Becker, Etienne Curchod, Valène Leroy, Franco Piscopo. Production: Bandita Films (CH), Les Films de Pierre (FRA), Les Films du Fleuve (BEL). Cast: Stéphanie Blanchoud, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Elli Spagnolo, India Hair, Dali Benssalah, Benjamin Biolay, Eric Ruf. Distributor: Filmcoopi, Zurich.

Walter, in his late 50s, was the director of an industrial combine in GDR times, but is now unemployed. The industrial plant on the outskirts of the city is decaying and is now only a ruin; evidence of a bygone world. His wife Sylvie works as a waitress in a restaurant and supports them both them. Walter cannot come to terms with his fate, feels discarded and no longer needed by this new society. He becomes increasingly aggressive and depressed, and his wife has to bear the brunt.

Walter begins a secret double life in which he roams the Berlin subways at night with two young people, René and Gina. The three patrol the trains on their own authority and intervene when foreigners are attacked or passers-by are accosted. In their joint rampage, the self-appointed sheriffs aggressively seek opportunities to confront the nationalists and small-time crooks of the Berlin night.

DE 1999 – 95 Min.
Editor: Gisela Zick. Director: Andreas Kleinert. Writer: Johann Bergk. Director of Photography: Jürgen Jürges. Composer: Andreas Hoge, Steven Garling. Production: ö Filmproduktion, Cast: Hilmar Thate, Cornelia Schmaus, Henriette Heinze, Dirk Borchardt, Ingeborg Westphal, Daniela Hoffmann, Roland Schäfer. Distributor: Filmgalerie 451