Theatrical releases

Tito, the stray cat of an Italian filmmaker, falls from the eighth floor, triggering events that reach as far as China and affect the filmmaker to her very core. Will my cat ever be able to walk again? Will we ever be able to walk again? This is the question that every paraplegic asks themselves. The film accompanies six paraplegic French people who have volunteered for a clinical trial in China and Tito the cat on their journey to China, where they will receive artificial spinal cord transplants (neurogel). The fall of her cat also confronts the filmmaker with her own story. With experiences that reach deep into her childhood and which she allows the audience to participate in coming to terms with.

The Mechanics of Things is a filmmaker’s journey in search of healing, during which she has to learn to accept that there are things that cannot be restored and things that we can restore.

“Berlin Bytch Love” is a documentary film by Heiko Aufdermauer and Johannes Girke about Sophie and Dominik, a young homeless couple in Berlin. The film shows their life on the streets of Berlin, their relationship and the challenges they face.

Sophie, 15, and Dominik, 17, have been living on the streets around Görlitzer Park for six months. Their everyday life is characterised by a struggle for survival, including sleeping in doorways, collecting bottles and begging. Despite the difficult circumstances, their relationship remains strong. The film also sheds light on Sophie’s pregnancy and Dominik’s upcoming trial for several criminal offences.

At the age of 9, he came to Chicago illegally from Mexico with his three brothers and his parents. He had the right to stay in the USA until he was 17. His status changed on his 18th birthday: in the eyes of the law, he has been in the USA illegally ever since. The American dream turns into a nightmare. The slightest mistake can lead to his deportation.

The director couple Stephanie Barbey & Luc Peter accompanied Carlos and his family for more than two years and through them experienced what it means to live in the USA without legal status. The black and white cinematography by Nikolai von Graevenitz (German Camera Award 2022) was specially chosen to highlight these contrasts and contradictions and emphasize what it means to live in the shadow of the US legal system. They make us forget the glittering world of the American dream and convey hope for a better future, despite the protagonists’ harsh living conditions.

Karo (28) is newly separated and is struggling with her non-existent relationship with her father. When her mother Michaela (50) wants to take her on holiday to Rügen, Karo suspects another failed male affair. What begins as a spontaneous trip soon turns out to be a journey into the past of two women who couldn’t be more different: Michaela wants a distraction, Karo wants peace and quiet. When they arrive at the hotel, they meet the newly divorced Jochen (60) and his teenage daughter Marie (16). For Michaela, Jochen is a holiday flirt and for Karo he could be the answer to all her questions and longings, while Marie is the mirror of a youth that Karo never had.

Mother and daughter quickly realise that their absent father has left a void that is bigger and more painful than they thought. Old wounds are torn open and both try to heal in their own way and free themselves from their entrenched roles.

The successful author, Sorel Malkow (Simone Geißler), retreats to the Lüneburg Heath to write her new novel in a remote estate. Sorel draws the structure of her crime novel with the help of index cards. The more the novel develops, the more strange and unsettling the events become. It becomes clear that she is being stalked by a man. The intruder seems to know her memories and slowly drives her to the edge of her sanity. Neither meeting the village mechanic, Marius Moos (Aaron Thiesse), nor a surprise visit from her friend, Laura Anders (Cosma Dujat), gives her any respite.

As the line between reality and nightmare blurs, Sorel is faced with a decision: should she face up to the threat and take the risk of plunging even deeper into the abyss of her fear, or flee?

A gigantic hurricane that has caught a school of sharks off the Californian coast and blown them up with it is heading for Los Angeles. Fin (Ian Ziering), the owner of a surf bar on Long Beach, watches in horror as the storm and an almost incessant rain of gigantic sharks destroy his lifelong dream. Together with his best friend Baz (Jaason Simmons), his girlfriend (Cassie Scerbo) and the old drunk George (John Heard), he sets out armed with chainsaws and shotguns to protect his ex-wife April (Tara Reid) and his two children from these flying eating machines. But this is a hopeless endeavour, as the storm has also pushed the seawater into the city and the group must now also protect themselves from the sharks swimming through the flooded streets.

He’s back! Probably the most successful trash film of the last decade in a remastered, optimised version for the first time in 4K: More Sharks, More ‘Nado!

The shared journey of visionaries, artists and entrepreneurs Stefan and Jenny, Patrick and Johanna and Maik and Dunja repeatedly reveals major hurdles and setbacks that have to be overcome – such as the balancing act between family life, partnership, gender roles and professional projects as well as creative individual fulfilment. The film also explores the protagonists’ inner conflict between social expectations and the pressure to earn money, as well as the desire for a free-flowing life without boundaries. The film “Soultribes” portrays the authentic story of how the three young families got to know each other and their shared and individual hero’s journey as they inspire, support and lift each other to their potential. The film also shows the power of individual expression, joy and community and inspires the viewer to follow their own path in life.

The film touches the viewer with genuine, authentic actors who openly present their inner and outer development stories with all their doubts, setbacks and at the same time the courage to take unknown steps..

Samir is part of a social circle of friends. One evening, his friend Basil suddenly leaves the group and doesn’t return. Shortly afterwards, Samir’s night shift begins, he gets into a taxi and we follow him for 24 hours: he sets off on a road trip through Berlin at night, one eye always on his smartphone to show him the way. The next day, while searching for Basil, Samir meets people who make him increasingly aware of his dwindling existence. When he realises that he can’t get anywhere on his own, the mysterious Henry appears and offers him a solution that requires sacrifice.

Monolith is an “essayistic film noir” (according to director and author Julius Schultheiß) told with the means of a police thriller, which takes the viewer on an oppressive journey into the protagonist’s inner world. The film succeeds in telling the story of the protagonist’s seemingly deliberate annihilation of his own existence in impressive and powerful images.

Between Berlin’s past and a dystopian future, Juri Padel’s pulsating trip finds cinematic access to the fourth dimension. An inexplicable rift runs through Berlin that seems to split the city in two. When the artificial intelligence “Billie” disappears between these worlds, her friend Marion, with the help of former activist and hacker Blue, tries to follow her digital trail, which gets lost somewhere in the rift. But the closer they get to Billie, the deeper they penetrate into the marginal deviation of reality.

The crack not only fragments the film’s narrative, but also takes us viewers into a world where the boundaries between reality and virtual manipulation have been lost in the digital background noise. Junk Space Berlin, in parts AI-based, is “mindfuck at it’s best”. Suggestive and full of subversive energy. Trainspotting meets Shakespeare in a Berlin whose division only exists in people’s minds and is therefore all the more present.

The film tells the story of Wanja, who is transformed from an outsider into an adult by the “algorithm” that ubiquitously dominates the near future. She leaves her exciting youthful life as a good-for-nothing behind and finds the recognition she thought was long missing in her newfound dream job as an architect. From now on, Vanya’s best friends have to go around the houses without her to have a good time and make a ruckus. They are the only and most precious remnant of Vanya’s former life. But without her friends, the only and most precious remnant of her past as a teenager, Wanja is terribly lonely and alone. If Vanya wants to continue climbing the career ladder, she has to make a serious decision.

“Youth Topia” is a portrait of a young generation that is beginning to understand that with the privilege of self-realisation comes a lonely path. A generation that misses a community under the pressure to succeed that it has created itself, a generation that feels that simply being in the world is the highest form of happiness.

It is supposed to be more than just an excursion. Once a year, the village youth group goes away for a few days to experience fellowship and leisure away from home. But this time it is to be more than just fun and recreation. Much more. After a serious fire, the meeting place of six youths, a small hut, is completely destroyed, revealing a casket hidden under the floorboards. The mysterious contents call the group around Lydia to South Tyrol in the mountains. For Theo in his wheelchair, the tour is unthinkable. But he, of all people, is enthusiastic about the idea. He loves the mountains, for him the trip would be a dream. After initial scepticism, Sarah, Johanna, Finn and Luca agree. The journey begins. The destination is a cave near the summit.

Not only the encounter with the transgender punk Ninja causes tensions in the group, but also the hike with the experienced mountain guide Peter brings up fears and self-doubt among the young people. The repercussions tug at the cohesion of the teens among themselves. Can they reach their goal despite the difficulties? And what will await them when they solve the riddle of the mysterious find from the silver capsule?

The documentary tells the story of two teenage girls on different continents who are connected by their screens and their passion for gymnastics. Amidst the dazzling world of social media, they begin to figure out who they are and what they want out of life.

Whitney Bjerken from the USA is a world-famous YouTuber and gifted singer-songwriter. The quiet but sensitive Yara from Germany is one of her biggest fans. Connected by the glittering world of social media and their passion for gymnastics, they begin to find out who they are and what they want from life. A coming-of-age film about success and loneliness, friendship and first love, queer coming out and the courage to find your own voice.

Director Joya Thome’s first feature-length documentary has become a poetic psychogram of the social media generation. The film tells the story of two girls – fan and idol – who vacillate between vulnerability and strength, between the external image and their inner truth.