In his third feature film DEALER, part two of a trilogy, Thomas Arslan, a Berlin filmmaker, portrays the life of a young Turk incapable of quitting the drug scene in Berlin-Schöneberg and finding personal happiness. At times, the film's coherence and impressive formal rigour is reminiscent of Robert Bresson's work.

Berlin is also the focus of KILLER.BERLIN.DOC, an experimental feature film by Bettina Ellerkamp and Jörg Heitmann. Here, young citizens of the future capital engage in a mysterious 'game of murder' to counteract the effects of deadly boredom and the treadmill of everyday life.

Filmmaker Didi Danquart has made a film based on the play VIEHJUD LEVI by Thomas Strittmatter. The allegorical description of emerging national socialism in a Black Forest village, where ignorance, opportunism and cowardice drive out the previously popular cattle dealer Levi, features excellent actors such as Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Noethen and Eva Mattes.

The most recent film of renowned documentary filmmaker Volker Koepp, HERR ZWILLING UND FRAU ZUCKERMANN (Mr. Zwilling And Mrs. Zuckermann) is set in Galicia, in the city of Czernowitz in today's Ukraine, the centre of Jewish life before the Holocaust. The two and a half hour long documentary investigates the remnants of Jewish culture, explores its future while portraying people who have resisted persecution and preserved their unique characters.

SZENEN AUS DEM ABENDLAND (Scenes From The Occident) is Viola Stephan's portrait of her female friends, who are predominantly 'successful, independent and beautiful', pursuing their professional careers, sacrificing themselves for their children, enjoying personal luxuries and fighting against boredom. The film reflects, the filmmakers says, "the colorful result of thirty years of sexual and social emancipation, self-realization, autonomy and professionalism."

By now, Barbara und Winfried Junge have observed the 'Children of Golzow' for 37 years, having continued to do so after the end of DEFA. BRIGITTE UND MARCEL - GOLZOWER LEBENSWEGE (Brigitte And Marcel - Journey Through Life In Golzow) is one of the saddest, but perhaps also most moving chapters in this chronicle. Brigitte, the 'funny fatty with blond braids' died in 1984 at age 29 due to heart failure. The film also documents the passage into adulthood of her son Marcel who grew up under socialism and who, as a recruit, swore the oath on the Federal Republic of Germany.

January 8th, 1999