Kathrin Resetarits

Anna, 12, lives with her deaf mother in a loving bond, yet under humble conditions, that are a source of social shame when she begins high school. Staying close to its heroines, this refreshing debut blends solidarity, feminism and tons of melodies.

On December 24, in the middle of the supposedly quietest time of the year, anything is possible! And this is exactly what the episodic film "Schrille Nacht" tells in seven short stories.

Germany, as seen from the water. The landscape passes by in epic tranquillity as the audience immerses itself in the world of barge shipping. The top permitted speed for smaller watercraft is specified in the inland waterways regulations as a maximum of 15 km/h. A woman is along for the ride on Germany’s rivers and canals, with plenty of time to explore this little-known cosmos. In the end, the director dreams of a life on board and endeavours to find her place in the predominantly male domain. Welt an Bord is a hybrid of documentary and narrative film. The basic conditions are set by the limited space on the barge and the work that must be done. Kathrin Resetarits embodies the alter ego of director Eva Könnemann, while she herself takes charge of the cinematography. Together they accepted the captain’s invitation to join in this other life. What kind of life is it anyway? Resetarits/Könnemann listen and work their way through fiction and reality.

Armin, in his fourties, is a freelancer with lots of time and little money. He’s not really happy, but can’t picture living a different life. One morning the world looks the same as always, but mankind has disappeared.

Riding on their tuned-up bikes, Mati and her posse of male friends intimidate their neighborhood and harass the girls. In their village, they rule. But when her closest pal Sebastian falls in love with Mati and her enemy Carla unexpectedly turns into a friend, Mati is in danger of losing her standing among her male friends. Meanwhile Mati’s parents have a decision to make: What's more important, appearances or reality?

A teenager, Christina, loses her friends in the forest. Looking for them she finds the bodies of three drowned kids on the shore of a lagoon. On summer holiday, deep in the woods, three kids, cousins, are playing around a lake when they find a drowned young woman drifting in the water. Games, lies and rituals unfolding into a circular time in which death loses its ultimacy. What is real and what is a mirage? Who is dreaming and who is being dreamed?

Waves is inspired by a short novel of Robert Louis Stevenson, The Ebb-tide, written and published in 1894, the year of his untimely death (Stevenson was 44 years old).

Set in a sleepy Austrian mountain village, ex-detective Simon Brenner has grown weary of his job repossessing cars and embarks on an extended getaway to the countryside. But before long he becomes embroiled in the convoluted world of the locals of a supposedly quiet town.

Two yuppies play mean pranks on those around them until one joke has unexpected consequences.

Five former high school friends reunite for an evening of fun, remembrance and sadness in this Altmanesque portrait of female friendship. A look at how youthful idealism turns into adult pragmatism, and how one can fight such changes, from the director of Free Radicals.