The drama is reflected in geological dimensions, in primeval depths. Where does mankind’s desire to learn how the world was created come from? Where do we come from? There is stardust, the primary matter, the answer to the question, in the rocks at the bottom of the ocean. The origin of all life can be studied, but not necessarily the origin of an individual life.

Martin Prinoth took his film to the bottom of the sea – where the primary stone is found. And where his cousin Georg’s body sank when he was killed in a plane crash over the Atlantic in 2009. Georg was adopted, like his brother Markus. They were born in Brazil and moved into a village in the Dolomites when they were small children, with no knowledge of their origin and who were or are their biological mothers. “The Fifth Point of the Compass” goes on an exceptionally sensitive and attentive quest for the roots and identities of its protagonists – from South Tyrol to Brazilia and finally to the bottom of the ocean.

Lukas Stern

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Nominated for Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize

Losing senses is often the path to finding meaning. Drug paraphernalia in the tiny dirty train toilet. Cut. A belt around a thin upper arm. Fade to black. A needle hanging from a vein. Fade to black. A trickle of blood on the arm. Can you use the water here to wash yourself? Better not. We meet Vash and Felce between Bresso, Sesto San Giovanni and Milan. Vash is younger than Felce, cheerful, with his hair in something that makes him look “like a mushroom”. Felce used to study architecture. They make music, party and take drugs.

Alessandro Redaelli used to shoot juice commercials featuring colourfully dressed and laughing young people. But in this film there are no colours. Some laughing though – and crying. Everything races past and we don’t know where. This “suburban portrait” deals with vanities and fashion, provocation and the right timing. Redaelli insists that his film is not about heroin and definitely not an educational film about the consequences of addiction. To him it’s a film about two friends looking for a meaning in life.

Carolin Weidner

Dissolving bodies spinning through dystopian worlds, seemingly randomly. But the chaos follows disturbing rules of mutation and mitosis.

Franziska Bruckner

After twenty years, the failed musician Diego returns to his Sicilian hometown of Augusta with no money, job or perspectives. In a dream he has a vision of a Jew’s harp, called Marranzano in Italian. The half vibrant, half buzzing sound of this small musical instrument echoes in the chant of the omnipresent cicadas – and in the sound of an electric shaver. After some initial research at the local souvenir shop, Diego soon finds himself in freezing Yakutia, where the Jew’s harp is called Khomus and considered a lucky charm. In Siberia Diego also meets the most famous Khomus player in the world, a generally respected blacksmith with a striking resemblance to the master from “The Karate Kid”, and learns about the rich mythology of the instrument. People say, for example, that one of the best Marranzani flew into space one night to be played by a Russian cosmonaut. Diego’s research on the universal history of the Jew’s harp merges with the story of his personal pursuit of happiness, while his journey is driven in equal measure by self-questioning, ethnographical interest and associative enthusiasm.

Esther Buss

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Honorary Mention Next Masters Competition;
Nominated for Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize