Abenteuer in Togoland

October 8, 2005. Togo, one of Africa's poorest countries, qualifies for the World Cup for the first time in its history. The achievement is not only historic; it also hastens the end of the bloody civil war that has been ravaging the country for several months. On the eve of the World Cup opening in Germany, hopes are high in Lomé, the capital of Togo, that the national team will restore pride and prosperity to an entire people. However, disillusionment quickly sets in. The team had not even entered the competition when it was already beset by endless internal problems. What if soccer, in the end, was nothing more than a reflection of the deep-seated problems that have been plaguing Africa for years?

When Lena and Ulli start the engine of their old Land Rover, Lady Terés, they have a plan: to drive from Hamburg to South Africa in six months. What they don't know yet is that they won't ever get there. Two totally different characters, jammed together in two square meters of space for almost two years, they experience what it really means to travel: leaving your comfort zone for good.

In the 1960s, a white couple living in East Germany tells their dark-skinned child that her skin color is merely a coincidence. As a teenager, she accidentally discovers the truth. Years before, a group of African men came to study in a village nearby. Sigrid, an East German woman, fell in love with Lucien from Togo and became pregnant. But she was already married to Armin. The child is Togolese-East German filmmaker Ines Johnson-Spain. In interviews with Armin and others from her childhood years, she tracks the astonishing strategies of denial her parents, striving for normality, developed following her birth. What sounds like fieldwork about social dislocation becomes an autobiographical essay film and a reflection on themes such as identity, social norms and family ties, viewed from a very personal perspective.

Voodoo tradition is too often victim of misperceptions and stereotypes in the Western imagination. In Togo, Voodoo is revealed in all its splendour and complexity. Through spectacular ceremonies, consultations and rites, an intimate connection is revealed that unites the visible world with that of invisible forces. By giving a voice to those who live and practise Voodoo, an authentic and nuanced perspective emerges, revealing the richness of this mysterious spirituality. It's a genuine burst of curiosity about a living heritage and the sumptuousness of its traditions.

Six Scouts and Guides from France are heading to Togo, where they are joining forces with Togolese scouts to build a classroom. This documentary captures their human adventure and the cultural exchange that emerges at the heart of this solidarity project. Through the challenges of construction, a story of friendship, cooperation, and discovery unfolds between young people from two continents.

Nana Benz is the story of the legendary queens of the West African mercer, self-made women, coming out of nowhere, building empires. These women were heroes to the people, Mercedes driver at the West African coast. They influenced the history of Togo and were witnesses of the fights for independence, the dictatorship till the globalization nowadays. Thomas Böltken manages to establish closure to the protagonists by letting their heirs - grandchildren, widows, lovers - speak.

A friendly football match between Bahrein and Togo in 2010, turns out to be rigged, as the team representing Togo is a fake team set up by international gamblers. The bad guys turn out to be victims, the good guy is revealed as the international gambling criminal while the top crooks stay out of sight since they have the power to determine who’ll be convicted. A revealing peek into a hidden world.

In 1925, a group of brave mushers travel 700 miles to save the small children of Nome, Alaska from a deadly epidemic.

In our current world, where worth is often gauged by online popularity, an economy has developed for paying for followers and likes. Through access inside the “click-farms” of Bangladesh, Like explores the multi-million dollar industry that grows social media followings for celebrities and brands alike.

Jørgen Leth's personal, pleasurable distillation of Danish literature covers seven poets alive at the time of production and twenty classical poets. A handful of actors share readings of the classical texts in semi close ups against a dark background; the living poets read their own works.

The true, detailed lives of the girls of the Russian pop duo t.A.T.u. as they break through in their promotional tour in America.

On a talkshow, actor and German TV ikon Joachim Fuchsberger recalls how the games for his show "Nur nicht nervös werden" (Don't Get Nervous), first broadcast on West German TV in 1960, were developed along the lines of American psychiatry. Asked "So how many crazy people watched you?", he responded: "A whole crazy, psychologically disturbed nation". Why were the Germans or to be more precise, the West Germans, a psychologically disturbed nation at that time? This is a film about cheerful and serious games, therapies for re-education and self-imposed re-education, as well as the history of the idea of permanent revolution. Those appearing include directors and producers of gameshows, psychiatrists, anthropologists, and the diversely paranoid.

Following his award-winning Mansfeld trilogy, Mario Schneider returns to Leipzig with a film that is simply astonishing. The basic idea is captivating: on one level, the film tells the story of three people who pose nude at the local art academy. This creates a point of intersection from which the film credibly enters and exits the world of its protagonists. At the same time, it connects the work of art with that of life, while the moment of posing nude invites viewers to contemplate the human body.

Winning is never a slam dunk. They were the most popular fraternity on the campus of college basketball in the early 1980's. Led by a Nigerian soccer player named Hakeem Olajuwon and a lightly recruited hometown kid named Clyde Drexler, the University of Houston Cougars not only electrified the NCAA Final Four with three straight appearances (1982-84), but they also helped transform the game itself. Director Chip Rives brings back the high-flying circus act under ringmaster Guy V. Lewis and spins a tale of true greatness and crushing heartbreak.

Golo & Ritchie

Surrounded by barren cities, sterile concrete or over maintained, uniform patches of green, more and more animals are losing their last places of retreat. The city continues to grow inexorably but, where humans fail to impose their order, nature sprouts and crawls out of the tiny cracks in the asphalt and concrete and re-conquers its territory.

A documentary based on the set of K-Fee commercials and how one of them lead to the infamous ghost car video

Accent on the Offbeat is a cinema vérité film about the creation and premiere of the ballet Jazz (Six Syncopated Movements), composed by trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis and choreographed by Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins of the New York City Ballet. A focus of the film is the remarkable contrast - in background, temperament, style and creative approach - between Martins and Marsalis as they unite the disparate worlds of ballet and jazz.

A year in the life of one of America's most innovative classrooms where students design & build to transform their hometown community. The film follows Emily Pilloton and Matt Miller as they teach the fundamentals of design, architecture and construction to a class of high school juniors in rural North Carolina.

Louis visits one of America’s most crime-ridden cities in this installment of Law and Disorder.