Hans-Erich Viet
It is a rainy day in the far-distant 1960s. A lone taxi stands outside a telephone booth at the bus station in the city of Frunze, waiting for passengers. The taxi pulls out only when full or if someone pays for the entire car. Everyone who approaches the taxi tries to place a call to a loved one, and thus we learn different stories. One passenger, Zoja, is escaping to her parents’ house, fleeing her husband who is cheating on her with a friend of hers. Two passengers who are in transit are debating about a classmate, Muhtar and his wife Mahabat – will he recognize them, welcome them into his house as late-night guests. The discussion blossoms into a true drama. The taxi driver makes a call home, too, to say good-bye to his wife and ask what to bring his newborn son from far-off Osh. During the night, we learn about the tragedies and joys of the passengers and phone booth users.
After being hit on the head, the eccentric gourmet critic, Gilles "Günni" Demmonget, loses both his sense of taste and smell, and now, of all times, he is due to appear in a public cooking duel with his wild young competitor, Paul Scheffke. Hoping for a speedy recovery, Gilles moves into a fasting hotel on the island of Sylt for a while, recommended to him by his friend Risto. The isolation and peace, combined with doing without solid food is supposed to sharpen his senses and help them return completely. On the island, he not only experiences a turbulent reunion with fasting instructor Marit Hansen - but his desirous ex-lover Diana moves into the adjacent room as well.
An inspiring and provoking road trip through Germany between 2006 and 2009.
Polizeiruf 110 is a long-running German language detective television series. The first episode was broadcast 27 June 1971 in the German Democratic Republic, and after the dissolution of Fernsehen der DDR the series was picked up by ARD. It was originally created as a counterpart to the West German series Tatort, and quickly became a public favorite. In contrast with other television crime series, in which killings are practically the primary focus, while Tatort handled homicide cases, the cases handled in the GDR TV's Polizeiruf were more often the more frequent, and less serious, crimes such as domestic violence, extortion, fraud, theft and juvenile delinquency, as well as alcoholism, child abuse and rape. Contrary to Tatort, which concentrated on the primary characters and their private lives, police procedure was the center of attention of Polizeiruf, especially in the earlier episodes. The scriptwriters attached particular importance to representation of the criminal and his state of mind, as well as the context of the crime. Many episodes aimed to teach and enlighten the audience about what does and what doesn't constitute appropriate behaviour and appropriate thought, rather than just to entertain. Polizeiruf was one of the few broadcasts by GDR media in which the real problems and difficulties of the supposedly more advanced socialist society could be displayed and discussed to some extent, albeit in a fictionalized and pedagogicalized environment.
Documentary feature about the village 'Rotfront' located in Kyrgyzstan, where half of the inhabitants have German roots. The feature depicts their history, their motivations to stay in Kyrgyzstan and their relationship to Germany.
