IFS Internationale Filmschule Köln GmbH

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.

Berlin, 1934. Many men are forced to live their hidden homosexuality. Erich, a photographer, has an appointment in his photo studio with Wolfgang, a Nazi soldier, with whom he shares a loving, tumultuous, and passionate relationship. For both of them, this should not be a problem, but appearances deceive.

True love never dies, the loving heart never stops beating ... for Kerstin’s ex Thomas, who she still hopes will come back some day. Instead of Thomas, her mother Charlotte shows up at her door, mid-50s and freshly single again, too. Charlotte moves in with Kerstin and her flatmates, one of who shows her how to use a modern dating app to meet new men. As mom starts dating again, her daughter refuses to let digital reality intrude on her romantic daydreams.

Thursday morning, Jerusalem. Nira goes to work. Ahmad in London does the same, Ralf in Cologne and a priest in Prague too. Matija, Croat, goes to work as well. Ok, he doesn't, but he acts as if he does. Ahmad is taking his routine red bus journey. Out-of-breath young man comes in and interrupts it. Schoolteacher Nira is also interrupted - her pupil jumps out and performs a love rap song he wrote for her. The priest in Prague doesn't feel like singing today, he is in the mood for (over)sleeping instead. Someone falls asleep, someone else - Ralf - falls in love. All five mentioned above are listening to the top-news about the disappearance of bees. And trying their best, each one of them in his or her own 'hive': Zagreb, Jerusalem, London, Cologne, Prague...

This anti-coming-of-age film follows Generation Y characters as they chase the desire for radical self-realisation.

A short documentary about the estrangement between mother and son caused by a tragic loss 20 years ago.

Rebecca has recently split up with Ben. She now lives in the shared flat of her best friend sleeping on the sofa in a walk-through room. Rebecca is restless, walking through the streets of the big city, drifting. Rebecca goes to see her father in a nursing home almost every day. She meets Philipp but she does not really know herself what is going on between the two of them.

In 1938 an airfield was built at the northeastern-most end of America, the descent went slowly but incessantly through the Cold War. This is the story of how its inhabitants gradually moved away from the great world stage and had to reinvent themselves as well as their home town.

At a Babelsberg studio, two German actors try to outdo each other with their Hollywood experiences. At a chic Düsseldorf café, two expatriate French women envy each other’s respective life. At a construction site somewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia, a foreman informs the supervising archaeologist that he as ordered the concrete without her approval. In a trendy Café in Ehrenfeld, Cologne, a recently departed meets a friend of his ex to obtain a box with things he’d left behind. A Dutch business consultant desperately tries to sell his inflated services to a Bulgarian arms contractor at Brussels Airport. On a rooftop in the Belgian Eifel, the owner and the future heir of a family workshop quietly discuss the recent passing of the family’s grandfather.

How does mobility reflect social status and racism? A story of two African American women working to provide and improve mobility in their community, as they tell the history of the Safe Bus - formerly the biggest black-owned transportation system in the world.

The animated documentary - a mix of live-action footage and animation - tells of the brutal everyday life in the orphanages of the 60s / 70s. Often led by Christian orders, more than one million children were physically and physically abused here. The anonymous protagonist tells of her childhood and her very personal struggle against the nuns' arbitrariness and their ruthless authority.

The old farmer Ammi tries to understand the traumatic loss of his friend, who died in a mysterious way. We follow him as he gets confronted by the demons of his past and he tries to overcome his fear.

Germany, 1969: Retreating to his change room after a rather fabulous gig, British guitar- and song-writing-god Diesel Wilmington encounters Helmuth: Diesel-fan by trade. The unlikely pair - despite the barrier of language - engages in a rather odd conversation about the proper reading and origin of Diesel’s ingenious lines. It begins to dawn on Helmuth that his imaginations may have been somewhat highly-strung, as a stranger walks in; exposing the original mastermind as an overambitious double. What does this make of the autograph Helmuth was so eager to get?

During her internship in a remote clinic in the Allgäu region, the young psychology student Lea immerses herself in a mysterious world of unorthodox therapy methods and demonic traditions.