"Rahi has seen it all: 36 countries on three continents - on his bicycle from India! Now, 89 years of age and a self-appointed Professor of the World, he sets out in a rented taxi on an intellectual tour de force across India. He plans to gatecrash universities all over India to give lectures to young people and sell his mystical books on the origins of language. Although inhibited by very limited funds Rahi finds himself experiencing the joyful life on the road once again. However, he soon realizes that the world has changed: people are not buying his books, and his theories are frowned upon. Suddenly his journey turns into a real struggle for survival. Beg, Borrow or Steal is a road movie about a man turning old in a world turned modern. It is an intimate study of old age and a universal story about the basic human need for recognition."

Andreas Koefoed (1979) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Andreas received a BA in sociology from Copenhagen University. Since 2000, he has worked as director and cinematographer of documentary films and television programmes. At present, he studies at the documentary department at The National Film School of Denmark.

Tim, 26, suffers from a childhood trauma. His father tried to kill the whole family when Tim was a little baby but he miraculously survived with a bullett in his head. Tim is behind in his development. His life has a peculiar, slow rhythm to it and he cannot distinguish between real life and his fantasy world. He imagines his father to be Captain on a big ship. When he meets Claudia they immediately connect. They are both living in the shadow of their fathers. But when Tim cannot protect Claudia from a violent attack by two men the trusting bond is broken. Tim must confront his childhood trauma to learn to live in reality.

"Thomas Stiller finished school in 1981.

Education as an actor and director in New York at the Actors - Studio und HB ? Studio.

Acted in many theatre plays and TV productions."

""A murder disguised as suicide? - Rainer, 21, is going on an annual trip with Georg, 43. Since father and son are strangers to each other, a long and smouldering conflict arouses in the isolation of the mountains. Rainer uses an accident on the glacier to make it look like he lost his life due to Georg's fault. Instead, he frees himself and thereby connects his disappearance to his revenge on his father."

Born in 1972 in Hilden (Rheinland). Read Photography at the International Center of Photography in New York under Nan Goldin and David Armstrong. Worked as photo editor, photographer and visual researcher for films like R.S.A. (Ridley Scott & Associates) and Columbia Tristar. Studies directing at dffb since 1997 .

"1997 ?Naked Pavement?

documentary, 45 mins

1998 ?WAXANDWANE? , short film, 15 mins

*Cannes Cinefondation,1999

2000 ?Lamsfeld?, feature, 60 mins"

In the past 70 years, Interdom, an elite boarding school in the former Soviet Union, educated children from all five continents in the communist ideology. They were children from conflict areas or children of political leaders. They all have one experience in common: the collapse of communism has altered the direction of their predetermined fates. After 14 years they meet again in Russia for the school?s 70th anniversary. The film reflects the events of world politics from a very personal perspective.

Nasir Al-Jezairi was born in 1971 in Iraq. In 1979 his family escapes Saddam Hussein to Lebanon. The war in Beirut in 1981 forces his parents to send him to a boarding school in the Soviet Union. In 1989 Gorbatchov?s Perestroika puts an end to his time there. Since then, Nasir lived, studied and worked in Munich, London and Berlin. Interdom is his first independent film after working on various TV and Film productions.

"Kristall creates a melodrama inside seemingly claustrophobic mirrored cabinets.

Like an anonymous viewer, the mirror observes scenes of intimacy. It creates an image within an image, providing a frame for the characters. At the same time it makes them appear disjointed and fragmented. This instrument for self-assurance and narcissistic presentation becomes a powerful opponent that increases the sense of fragility, doubt, and loss twofold."

"Christoph Girardet was born in 1966 in Langenhagen and studied in Braunschweig. Between Hanover and Rome, he has been working as a video, film and installation artist since 1987. A selection of his works includes: Schwertkampf (1991), Release (1997), Scratch (2001), Delay (2001), 7:48 (2001), Absence (2002), and Fiction Artists (with Volker Schreiner, 2004), among others.

Matthias M?ller was born in 1961 in Bielefeld and studied in Bielefeld and Braunschweig. He has been working as a filmmaker, video artist, photographer and independent curator since 1981. He is currently teaching at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne. A selection of his works include: Aus der Ferne ? The Memo Book (1989), Home Stories (1990), Sleepy Haven (1993), Alpsee (1994), Vacancy (1998), nebel (2000), and Album (2004), among others."

"Summer, sun, sandy beaches and sex ? everything you need to feel just like in paradise. And that's exactly what Elisa, Richie and Florian are looking for. They've left the cold and grey North behind them to have fun on a sunny island. Elisa: rich, spoiled and escaping her father's conservative concepts of morality. Richie: a loafer who knows that behind every woman there is a warm meal. Florian: sensitive, nice and helpful, the sort of men not only women feel attracted to.

But even in paradise there are dark places where the sun does not shine, where you can lose your bearings or fall in love without wanting to admit it... Places where you realise that you haven't left the cold and grey North because it is inside you...

Things get worse on the island for Elisa when her wealthy father cuts off her money supply and even sends out her younger sister Clara to take her home. She stubbornly decides to take charge of her life herself. But she already fails in finding a job. When she meets Richie, the tide turns at first. She falls in love with the charming barkeeper dreaming of making easy money with beach parties...

After a couple of painful attempts to do the right thing Elisa gets lost an emotional downward spiral turning endlessly. Florian and his village buddy Daniel get to the island with only little more than an old Audi 100 and without further ado they start seeking contact with the opposite sex. The reach their goal suprisingly quickly. But for Florian the sexual encounters take a catastrophical course. Only when he falls in love with the islander Marcel against his will he begins to understand... He takes his chance to flee from his old life to make a fresh start with Marcel."

Rolf S. Wolkenstein studied at the Deutschen Film- und Fernsehakademie from 1982 ? 1986. He lives and works in Berlin. Selections from his last films are ? Fernsehzauber? (documentary, 1999), Max Herre (documentary, 2004) and his feature debut ?Lauf der Dinge?, 2006.

"Bollywood goes Europe ? im Ma?anzug !

Isaar, the unique Indian tailor, sets off on an adventurous trip across Europe to his once faithful customers, in hope of new orders, the reunion with old friends and in hope of love.

Marco Wilms accompanies Issar on his trip through European cities, living rooms and mentalities.

This final journey is also Issar?s last chance to fulfill a secret wish: his first role as Bollywood star ? in Europe?s first Bollywood documentary!"

"This is how I met Issar 4 years ago:

It was in Thailand during the rainy season. I had a job interview, I was running late and had to take a motorbike taxi. On the highway it was raining the proverbial cats and dogs. When I eventually reached the address of where the interview was I was soaked to the skin. Right next to the place was a tailor?s shop. Issar, the Indian tailor, offered me tea and lent me one of the suits still waiting for collection for the interview. With this ? my first ever ? tailor-made suit I got the job. I found a new friend and have loved tailormade suits ever since.

Issar was leading a double life. The name on his business card said Mike. Supposedly because that made it easier for foreign customers to remember his name. In actual fact he had named himself after a rich, snobbish gangster from the film China Town. This criminal called Mike has a much more respectable twin brother ? a typical slightly nerdy Bollywood crooner. Both parts were played by Indian superstar Shammi Kapoor ? Issar?s idol. The film was a fable about the dark and light sides of the human soul. Or about how fate can mercilessly push people in one or the other direction. And why would the hardworking little tailor Issar choose to name himself after the gangster and womaniser Mike?? In Issar?s chest, too, there are two hearts beating.

When Issar, aka Mike, first told me about his unlived film star dream, this immediately made me think of the mythological Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler. The hero leaves his normal environment and sets out for strange and distant lands to try and find a special elixir which changes his life. Issar?s journey to distant Europe ultimately also becomes a journey to himself.

As we wanted to bring Issar?s Bollywood dreams to life in the best possible way ? creating scenes like the one in the film Sangam which was shot in the permanent snow of the Swiss mountains ? financing took slightly longer. During this period Issar had to undergo serious bypass surgery and at times it looked like he might not be able to realise his dream. Nonetheless, we set out on our big adventure in the summer of 2005. At times it felt like I had adopted the role of the son looking after his father. But maybe this is only because Issar reminded me of my own father, of the impermanence of the human body and of the fact that one has to live one?s dream while there is still time.

Marco Wilms"

"Born in 1966 in former East Berlin, German Democratic Republic (GDR)

Completed apprenticeships as toolmaker, graphic designer and model

1990 Student in STAGE DESIGN at the Academy of Fine Arts, East Berlin, GDR

1991 Student in PRODUCTION DESIGN at the Film and Television Academy,

Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany

1993 Scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

at Michigan State University, USA

1998-99 Scholarship as FILM DIRECTOR from the German Academic Exchange Service

(DAAD) at Film Department, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand

ACTING WORKSHOP by John Costopulus from Actors Studio New York, USA

2000 CREATIVE DIRECTOR, DIRECTOR Music Clips, Shorts Production Berlin

Germany

Scholarship for Young Journalists in Bangkok, Story ?Angel on the Highway to

Death?

2001 Masterdegree as FILM DIRECTOR at the Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen

?Konrad Wolf? Potsdam Babelsberg, Germany

2002 Scholarship as FILM DIRECTOR from Stiftung Kulturfonds, Berlin Germany

2003 Scholarship as FILM DIRECTOR in Thailand from the German Academic

Exchange Service (DAAD); LECTURER at Filmdepartment

Thammasat University

TEACHER Documentary Workshop for DAAD in Saigon, Vietnam

2004 DISCOVERY CAMPUS MASTERSCHOOL

2005 Scholarship as FILM DIRECTOR from DEFA, Berlin, Germany"

"2000 NAAM DJAI ? THE RIVER OF THE HEART (61min)

documentary

2003 BERLIN VORTEX (82min) (German title: MITTENDRIN)

theatrical documentary for ZDF, Das Kleine Fernsehspiel

2005 TAILOR-MADE DREAMS (52 / 87min, 35mm)

(German title: MASSGESCHNEIDERTE TR?UME)

theatrical Bollywood documentary about a singing Indian made-to-order tailor who travels to Europe the first time and meet his old customers"

"Bernhard Kimmel, head of the infamous Al Capone gang, did not choose which place to burglarize next. He had to figure out which places he had not yet hit. Cracking up to three safes at different locations in the course of one night, Kimmel and his colleagues made fools out of the authorities in post-war Rhineland-Palatinate for years ? living nearly perfect double-lives as god-fearing citizens and productive weavers during the day. When they were finally arrested, it was not for their unparalleled prowess as burglars, but because of an unfortunate, drunken accident that left one innocent man dead.

Director Peter Fleischmann met Bernhard Kimmel just after his release from prison in 1970. He interviewed the newly reformed criminal and struck up a friendship that would be put to the test in 1982, when Kimmel was again arrested: this time for killing a police officer while fleeing the scene of another crime. Fleischmann, who had started out his conversations with Kimmel wanting to know the man behind the local legend, saw his friend sentenced to life-imprisonment.

When Kimmel was paroled after 22 years in prison, the director was finally able to finish the intimate portrait of a man who had spent most of his life behind bars ? clinging to the legend of who he once was and trying to find out how to fit into a world that passed him by.

The result is ?My friend the murderer? ? an astounding and astute meditation on guilt, punishment and friendship."

"They'll smack your face if they don't like it. Tomorrow is a bad day: Yvonne is

going to prison...

The story takes place during the doldrums between Christmas and New Year?s Eve in a typical West German suburb. Christmas lights still adorn the dull apartment blocks, cheap motels and discount markets as premature fireworks echo throughout the industrial wasteland. Eighteen-year-old Katharina, who has resettled from Russia to Germany, spends her time with Yvonne and the rest of the gang. The girls roam through their territory in search of something. They don?t know what for. But it must be something that will change their lives irrevocably."

?The place is some West German suburb: everything is clean and monotone. It is a place to escape from. But where to? My protagonists look for ways by rebelling with force against the desolation and despair that surrounds them. At heart they are romantics; as little girls they knew they wanted to grow up to be a princess. But they are no longer little girls.? Birgit Grosskopf

Born 1972 in Cologne, Germany. A-levels in 1990. While studying archeology for one year, she also performed at the college theatre. From 1993-96 film and drama studies at Reading University, England. Graduation in 1996: BA (Hons). Work as German teacher at a language school in London. From 1996 on, as a graduate student of film directing and screenwriting at the German Film- and Television Academy Berlin, she shot her first shorts. Work as reader and translator for some prestigious German film companies. ?Princess? is her first feature film.

"Babies in Pockets

(10 min., 16mm, 1998)

The Pilot

(10 min., 16mm, 2000)

Live Boys

(12 min., 35mm, 2001)

Tabula Rasa

(15 min., super 16mmm, 2003,

script with Martina Klein)

Princess

(81 min., 35mm, 2006,

script with Daniela Hilchenbach)"

"Slow Space takes the viewer on a visual trip through places of glass architecture in Chicago. Filmed entirely within the urban constructed environment that makes up this contemporary North American city, Slow Space is a visually arresting investigation into how space is described, defined and ultimately experienced. Berlin filmmaker Klaus W. Eisenlohr commutes this relationship with the outside ?world? via an array of constructed transparencies in the glass domes and atriums that formed so much of architecture?s modernist preoccupation for a constructed inside/outside dialectic. Descriptions and ultimately opinions on the status of public space in Chicago form part of the film?s identity via a series of interviews conducted from the participant?s private domains. Street scenes with performers complement this film essay.

With his project in Chicago, the artist Klaus W. Eisenlohr has investigated the relationship between the body and the urban architectural environment over the time period of three years."

Klaus W. Eisenlohr was born in Tuttlingen and has been living in Berlin since 1989. He studied in Berlin and Chicago. The main focus of his works, many of which have received prizes at exhibitions in Germany, France and the USA, is with photography, experimental film and media art.

"Stadtrandzone Mitte ? Center of Urban Periphery 43min 2005

Slow Space 72min 2006

lesson one Die Allm?hliche Verfertigung des Bildes beim Malen ? The Continuous Process of Image Making through Painting 38min 2002 (collaboration with Johann Zeitler)

Slow Space - The Interviews 27min 2001"