Georg Paluza

After a night of drinking, Paul wakes up with a severe hangover and can’t remember what happened. His T-shirt is covered in blood, and a body has been found — that of his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend. Did Paul kill him in a drunken stupor? Inspector Anita Wild investigates, even though she’d rather avoid the village where she grew up.

Theo, the lead singer of a Nazi band, is about to play the most important concert of his career. But then he is involved in a serious car accident. The driver of the car is Mahmoud, who is about to be naturalized. Mahmoud panics and, fearing the possible consequences, commits a hit-and-run. In hospital, Theo is diagnosed with a particularly severe form of "foreign language accent syndrome"; he is suddenly only able to speak Arabic. Ironically, Mahmoud becomes his attending physician. Theo tries to blackmail Mahmoud into teaching him German. Otherwise, Theo threatens to report Mahmoud to the police, which would jeopardize his naturalization. Suddenly Theo's band turns up at the hospital and the situation spirals out of control. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Sex is power, and Waseem, a Syrian gay-for-pay hustler seeking asylum in Cologne, wields it like a shield. Keeping his johns at an emotional arm’s length while satisfying their most carnal desires in order to eke out a living, he meets his match in Lars: a kind, affluent professional with a growing personal interest in Waseem. This gripping tale of transactional identity explores the tactical exchange of trust and intimacy in a partnership, and the divisions between immigrants and their host countries in contemporary Europe.

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