SWR

Early morning in the Bavarian woods. Christoph, suffering from a severe hang-over, sits next to his mother on a high seat. While she is aiming at a deer, Christoph tries to make up his mind. He’s had the plan to come out to her, but this really doesn’t seem like the best time. He checks his breath, screws up his courage and tries to tell her – simultaneously she fires a shot. Everything goes wrong and if that wasn’t enough, his boyfriend is about to arrive.

In a fictitious world, a wall goes through a country and its city. Both sides face each other irreconcilably. The film tells the story of the 40 year old rocket scientist Paul who falls in love with a supposed woman. Who, like him, is not absorbed with the irreconcilable differences of both sides and do not want to decide for one side.

A Russian-Jewish teenager Dima gets into a school fight, and then breaks the fourth wall and passionately and ferociously talks about his views, and about the hypocritically tolerant way in which his world works.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli – a name that provokes almost a sense of awe and intimidation, even among his pianoplaying peers. It is a name that represents the highest degree of perfection, a quest for beauty that surpasses that of any other piano virtuoso. However Michelangeli also had a reputation for cancelling concerts at short notice and was consequently portrayed in the media as a somewhat neurotic artist. This documentary is the result of a 30-year search that has resulted in unusual interviews with those who knew him, and has also uncovered a wealth of new archive material: We get to experience Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli as he has never been seen before – and more importantly, as he has never been heard before. We also witness the maestro’s struggle back to his former perfection after suffering a devastating heart attack.

After his return from World War I, there is no more work for Fidelis in his parents' butcher shop in Swabia, Germany. To make a better life for himself and Eva, the former fiancée of a friend who fell in battle, he emigrates to Argus, a town in North Dakota, in the United States. The artist Delphine, in whom Eva will find a friend, also moves there. To relieve Eva's homesickness, Fidelis founds a singing club.

When terrorists try to seize control of a Berlin-Paris flight, a soft-spoken young American co-pilot struggles to save the lives of the passengers and crew while forging a surprising connection with one of the hijackers.

In 1979, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, revolution broke out in Iran and overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. This event marks the end of a two and a half thousand year old monarchy. This documentary retraces the lives of these two enemies who clashed for more than thirty years, from the Shah's rise to power in the 1940s until his fall.

Feeling neglected by her mother and sister on their holiday in Spain, 13-year-old Claire tries to help a young Senegalese beach vendor to escape his misery.

An account of the life and work of controversial German orchestra conductor Herbert von Karajan (1908-89), celebrated as one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century.

The Bra tells the story of the lonely and soon to be pensioned train driver Nurlan. On his last day of work his train hits a clothes line and snags a white bra with blue dots with it. Determined to find the owner, Nurlan leaves no stone unturned and embarks on a dazzling journey through the neighbourhoods of Baku, trying to convince as many women as possible to try on the lost bra.

In 1950s Germany, a farmer's children face an excruciating dilemma when the son resists expectations to take over the family farm.

Hatun Aynur Sürücü, a German woman of Kurdish origin, was shot dead by her brothers at a bus stop in 2005. The story of a woman who fought for her freedom and independence despite her family's objections, and whose life ended in a horrific murder.

Up on the Horse Pass, in the mist-shrouded mountains, a few cowboys are raided by the men of a notorious bandit named Black Wolf. The reckless Aaron ballsy routs the robbers – but the same night he pays for it with his life. His quiet, reserved brother Jonah swears revenge. It is his chance to step out of his brother’s shadow and finally show his manfulness to his father. But the Black Wolf seems to be one size too big…

Glocke had a simple plan to set the pimp Hermann's SUV on fire, become an internet star and impress Lena. Instead, he drops into a mobile toilette and becomes a webfail. He decides to follow the web call to hike and search for the drop-out Friedrich. Together with Judith, Steffi, Elias and Paule he heads of into the Harz. As access to internet and smartphones are not allowed the plan to start all over again works and the adventure brings the five together. But each teenager has a secret of their own and soon the hike leads the teens to face their past.

“The most important work doesn’t take place on stage, but everywhere else,” Teodor Currentzis is convinced. And that is precisely where this film portrait follows him. For eight months, German director Andreas Ammer accompanied the charismatic conductor. He observed him in rehearsals with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, which Currentzis leads as chief conductor since 2018. He has visited him at his former place of activity in Perm, where he led the opera house from 2011 to 2019 and launched his career through meticulous work with his ensemble musicAeterna. He accompanied Currentzis on guest performances and had numerous conversations with him. The result is a many-faceted portrait of the impressive musician, who sees his profession also as a spiritual mission.