Judith Hofmann

Angela Merkel's decision in autumn 2015 to open the borders for refugees split the country - some praised the moral stance, others criticized the surrender of sovereignty. Yet what would appear to be well-planned activity is in reality a policy of muddling along, chance, trial and error. The Driven Ones is a chronicle of the refugee crisis which shows that the political actors are being driven along, crushed between self-imposed constraints and events that have spun out of control.

Ruth loves Jesus and works in cutting-edge neuroscience. When her past lover reappears after twenty years in prison her fragile reality comes undone.

A family drama about a German teenager who leaves home totally unexpectedly to join the ranks of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in its armed struggle. When the boy's father and older brother set off on an adventurous journey to the Syrian border, they manage to find him and bring him back to Germany. However, back home, questions start being asked: did he return of his own free will, has he disassociated himself from the IS ideology, or is he in fact a 'sleeper' agent awaiting orders?

Lorenz Meran, (40) a successful gay author suffering acute writers' block, has to leave Berlin and return to eastern Switzerland to provide care for his aged mother, Rosie. When he finds himself confronted with the fact that fun-loving Rosie refuses both outside assistance and a care home, he discovers that he is stuck fast in his small home town of Altstätten. But it is not only his mother's battle against being dictated to and losing her dignity that he is struggling with. It's also his own midlife crisis. And when long-kept secrets are suddenly revealed under the tensions of family dynamics, Lorenz almost fails to notice that love is knocking on the front door of his parent's house...