Current Films

»I trav­elled to South Africa to find a white family on a des­o­late farm and film how they faced the new days of equal­i­ty after Apartheid, but I soon lost … read more

In the Taurus Moun­tains of south­west Turkey, peas­ants recall having been shep­herds in their child­hood. Their ances­tors, who had come from cen­tral Asia long ago, even­tu­al­ly set­tled in their summer pas­tures. Today, houses have replaced the shep­herds’ huts. This film tells how old musi­cians meet to rekin­dle the spirit of a van­ished pas­toral world.

Old Hayri Dev, out­stand­ing master of the oboe and the »üçtel­li« (a small, three-stringed lute) lives in Tasavlu (south­west Turkey). One morn­ing, he decides he will set off on a jour­ney across the Çameli moutains to visit a boy­hood friend, Mehmet Sakir Akku­lak, a rugged shep­herd and impetu­ous violin player, who lives one walk­ing day away.

Find­ing his friend in the moun­tains, Hayri con­vinces Mehmet to return to Tasavlu along with him in order to feast »yaren­lik.« A »yaren­lik« com­bines the giddy joy of danc­ing with an unquench­able musi­cal energy. The spirit of youth com­plete­ly alter­ates these old men, fond of total freedom.

»In my film, I wished to get behind the secrets I believed Hayri and Mehmet to pos­sess: unpre­dictable wisdom, free­dom of spirit, the absolute expres­sion of lib­er­ty. I wished to depict time itself float­ing, dis­tance, hori­zons to which I am very sen­si­tive because of my child­hood: hori­zons where I can find myself once more.« (Gulya Mirzoeva)

A por­trait of the Zapotec women of Juchitán in Oaxaca, Mexico. The films shows them in all their bright­ly coloured, opin­ion­at­ed glory as they run their own busi­ness­es, embroi­der their … read more

Three cat­tle­men from Mali and Burk­i­na Faso travel across Switzer­land and meet three dairy farm­ers and cheese-makers living in See­land and Berner Ober­land. Back in their own coun­tries, they relate … read more

In 1972 an earth­quake destroyed Man­agua, the cap­i­tal of Nicaragua. Many people died and even more lost their homes. The Cathe­dral of Man­agua only sur­vived as ruins; there was no … read more

Every year, thirty thou­sand Moroc­cans cross the Straits of Gibral­tar in small makeshift boats. Four­teen thou­sand of them are sent back. One thou­sand drown. About fif­teen thou­sand of them make … read more

The film begins with an angu­lar shot of the city at night lit by a thou­sand stars. A voice is heard singing incred­i­bly fast. We come back on earth at … read more

The Hadhra­maut region in the south­east of Yemen is well known for its mud brick archi­tec­ture. Through­out the cen­turies, the pop­u­la­tion has devel­oped very sophis­ti­cat­ed build­ing tech­niques and cre­at­ed a … read more

This film focus­es on the songs and dances of migrant Zulu work­ers in South Africa today. The film also fea­tures Beth­wel Mhlon­go, musi­cian and Zulu labor­er togeth­er with three mem­bers … read more

On the defor­est­ed plains of Cen­tral Brazil where once euca­lyp­tus trees grew, the prim­i­tive, round, char­coal ovens look like igloos. But instead of pro­tect­ing people from the cold, their heat … read more

Off the coast of Mada­gas­car, the Nosy-Lava Island prison which was built in 1911 still func­tions as an archa­ic pen­i­ten­tiary. The model system from the French colo­nial period has been … read more

THE INNER TOUR is an Israeli/Palestinian copro­duc­tion por­tray­ing a jour­ney by an organ­ised tour-group of Pales­tini­ans from the West Bank and Gaza, The tour-group travel through Israel, which for them … read more

In 1999, Alca­tel laid South­east Asia’s first opti­cal fibre cable. It cross­es Cam­bo­dia and links up with the cable coming from Europe. The instal­la­tion of this cable run­ning through their … read more

Ghini is the respect­ed leader of the Hulis, one of the seven hun­dred tribes living in Papua New Guinea. He is the oldest member of the tribe and vivid­ly remem­bers … read more