As in “Chthonic City”, the painter Anita Müller gives wings to her filmed material in the catacombs of Odessa: statements re-connote documentary images, additions visualise dreams or thoughts. She takes associative liberties that suggest comparisons with jazz. The invisible protagonist who lost his way on a spiritual search of the underworld and disappeared without a trace may have felt as ephemeral and fluctuating as her visual creations.

Cornelia Klauß

Many a GDR childhood was shaped by trips to the Baltic Sea – long drives on bad motorways in an overstuffed car, transit trucks and looking forward to the sea. But this is more than a nostalgic reworking of holiday memories. From the innocent perspective of a seven-year-old boy the journey may seem like a big adventure, but the subtext of the reduced rotoscoped images exposes the absurdity of a life lived within narrow boundaries – one of which was the beach.

Annegret Richter

In the age of global economic and banking crises, management culture gives rise to countless questions. The seemingly aloof parallel world of countless bosses and the behaviour of many managers – illustrated by animated sequences in this film – make us think. On this visual level of reflection there is one dominant element in addition to monitors and retractable arms: the triangle as the so-called dark triad of Machiavellism, narcissism and psychopathy. An analytical look at individuals in high positions and the system highlights the difference between managers and leaders as well as the character traits required to be successful as a natural leader in our current system. But what is to be or can be regarded as success?

The collected answers of the seven psychology, management, sociology and consulting experts interviewed here suggest that we are not only facing a crisis of economic growth but also a crisis of values, ethics and morals.

Nadja Rademacher

In the summer of 2011, Daniel dived head first into the water. This dive turned his life inside out forever. He has been a paraplegic ever since. Conjuring up a tempest of real and animated images, the filmmaker portrays his life with this extreme experience. Because Daniel may have a broken neck, but his will to live is unbreakable. And the wheelchair he’s in may seem like an all-powerful signal of personality, but it transports very little of who Daniel really is.

Ralph Eue

The clever montage of fragments from the medical files of female patients from the psychiatric hospital of the University of Heidelberg, paints a painful collective portrait of artists who were confined as being mentally “ill”. The intimate narration, the waterphone soundtrack and the use of historical Laterna Magica films create a nightmarish atmosphere for this found footage animadoc.

Victor Orozco

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Golden Dove International Competition Animated Documentary 2015