Judith Hofmann

Lorenz Meran, a successful gay author suffering acute writers' block, has to leave Berlin and return to eastern Switzerland to provide care for his aged mother, Rosie. But it is not only his mother's battle against being dictated to and losing her dignity that he is struggling with. It's also his own midlife crisis.

Studers erster Fall

Schönes Wochenende

Ruth loves Jesus and works in cutting-edge neuroscience. When her past lover reappears after twenty years in prison her fragile reality comes undone.

A family drama about a German teenager who leaves home totally unexpectedly to join the ranks of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in its armed struggle. When the boy's father and older brother set off on an adventurous journey to the Syrian border, they manage to find him and bring him back to Germany. However, back home, questions start being asked: did he return of his own free will, has he disassociated himself from the IS ideology, or is he in fact a 'sleeper' agent awaiting orders?

Kursverlust

On a Berlin construction site, the former editor-in-chief Karin and her journalist Rommy happens to witness a fatal accident. From Taras, the accident victim's brother, they learn that this is not an isolated coincidence: The Eastern European workers who toil on the construction site for cheap wages have to do their day's work under the most precarious conditions and beyond give a large part of their wages to shady "intermediaries".

Angela Merkel's decision in autumn 2015 to open the borders for refugees split the country - some praised the moral stance, others criticized the surrender of sovereignty. Yet what would appear to be well-planned activity is in reality a policy of muddling along, chance, trial and error. The Driven Ones is a chronicle of the refugee crisis which shows that the political actors are being driven along, crushed between self-imposed constraints and events that have spun out of control.

Kein Zurück - Studers neuster Fall

Based on a provocative autobiography, this story — set in a largely Muslim neighborhood in Berlin — follows a teenage gang member who is caught between hiding his Jewish identity and saving his life.

Clara is studying for a Ph.D in philosophy in Berlin. In this middle-class male academic environment, she feels pushed to one side. She returns to her childhood village in former East Germany for her mother's birthday, and becomes aware that a distance has grown between her and her family.

Im Nordwind

After losing part of her memory, Maret, 44, sets out to find out who she used to be. She learns about the many different life paths she followed, in none of which anything was ever really achieved. A profoundly unhappy person in a never-ending, headlong rush. A doctor on the island of Lanzarote offers to put this restlessness to an end through brain surgery. A promise of peace and satisfaction. Will Maret proceed with the surgery that would take away part of her being - or not?

Der Menschenfeind

A detective leaves the force to take over the family business as an undertaker at the same time as he is being investigated for murder. His close encounters with corpses and his earlier police training lead him to see things some of his ex-colleagues miss and he investigates the crimes he encounters in an unofficial capacity often to the dismay of the official police.