Orphea

On July 19–21, 2001, over 200,000 people took to the streets of Genoa to protest against the ongoing G8 summit. Anti-globalization activists clashed with the police, with 23-year-old protester Carlo Giuliani shot dead after confronting a police vehicle. In the aftermath, the police organized a night raid on the Diaz high school, where around a hundred people between unarmed protesters—mostly students—and independent reporters who documented the police brutality during the protests had took shelter. What happened next was called by Amnesty International "the most serious breach of civil liberties in a democratic Western country since World War II."

It is the late 1950s. Flourishing under the economic miracle, Germany grows increasingly apathetic about confronting the horrors of its recent past. Nevertheless, Fritz Bauer doggedly devotes his energies to bringing the Third Reich to justice. One day Bauer receives a letter from Argentina, written by a man who is certain that his daughter is dating the son of Adolph Eichmann. Excited by the promising lead, and mistrustful of a corrupt judiciary system where Nazis still lurk, Bauer journeys to Jerusalem to seek alliance with Mossad, the Israeli secret service. To do so is treason — yet committing treason is the only way Bauer can serve his country.

Mother Lissy, father Gerd, son Tom and daughter Ellen: the members of the Lunies family are estranged. But confronted with death, they finally meet each other again.

Rome in 65 AD, Emperor Nero's tyrannical regime has reached its zenith, Nero's self-indulgence and excessiveness brings up the opposition against him, conspiracies threaten his power. By all means Nero tries to defend his despotic claim of sovereignty. The famous philosopher Seneca has been Nero's teacher, mentor and close advisor since childhood, he is significantly involved in his ascent. Nevertheless, Nero gets weary of Seneca and Nero uses a foiled attack on his life to falsely accuse Seneca of being an accomplice.

In the slums of Manila, 11-year-old Ginto dreams of gang life over scavenging, rejecting his sister Asia’s care as she turns to sex work to survive. As Ginto falls for another boy in the gang, he’s forced to confront his identity and desires amid violence and poverty. Meanwhile, Dutch tourist Michael, consumed by dark impulses, descends into the city’s red-light district. When their paths cross, Ginto faces an impossible choice that will shape both their fates in a world where innocence is currency and survival comes at a cost.

After a 13-year-old student disappears without a trace for a week and suddenly reappears, his mother and teachers are confronted with existential questions that change their whole view of life.

Andreas is a journalist covering a story on Larissa, a patient with tuberculosis. At the hospital he meets a nurse called Yvonne. The encounter with the two women moves Andreas more than he wishes to admit. A short film about luck and its inevitable slipping away.

Anna is 60 and her acting heyday is now behind her. She lives on her own but has a friend and confidant in her downstairs neighbour Michel, who is also single. Reluctantly, Anna accepts a job as a language coach for 17-year-old Adrian who has a speech impediment and is something of a misfit. She recognises him as the boy who recently snatched her handbag in the street.

Beate is an ambitious executive working at Europa, a mysterious corporation looking to expand into the Balkans region. Seemingly promoting philanthropy and investment in underdeveloped areas, Europa actually needs to buy off lands from locals in a remote valley in Southern Albania using Beate as the main negotiator for the ambiguous mission. But things don’t go as planned when she is challenged by Jetnor, a stubborn and spiritual farmer who refuses to leave the land of his ancestors.

A snack bar owner smokes with his Muslim neighbor in the stairwell of their apartment building at night. Her husband is his good friend. They draw closer to one another as the nights go on and look out over the city to the dark satellites, the brutalist concrete buildings on the outskirts of the city - relics of the GDR past. A security guard watches over Objekt 95, a satellite town with a residential complex which many foreigners call home. While on patrol at night, he gets to know a young Ukrainian woman who fled her home country when the war broke out. He wants to protect her, while his friend, the “old security guard”, radios to him from an abandoned Russian barrack night after night. A woman from the train cleaning service drinks in a train station bar after her night shift. There, she meets a hairdresser. The two of them become friends and spend many nights together in the station. Every night, her desire grows even greater for this woman who is exactly as lonely as she is.

1928: Lyovuschka, a Soviet worker, is cast in the role of Trotsky for Eisenstein‘s latest film, but quickly finds his dreams of an actor‘s life shattered when Trotsky falls into Stalin‘s disfavor. Exiled from his homeland, he poses as a wealthy baron and finds himself stuck in a glamorous seaside resort in Germany awaiting a barge that will take him to Hollywood. A summer romance kicks off when he meets the eccentric factory owner Octavia Flambow-Jansen - it's just too bad there are vampires around.

Even after burial Orphea wants to embrace her beloved Eurydike, deceased from food poisoning on January 22nd. She passionately descends into the apocalyptic underworld in a quest of nine extraordinary songs, but maybe the wandering Eurydike no longer needs any love?