?THE DEAD BROTHERS ? Death Is Not The End?, is the intimate portrait of three musicians that couldn?t be any more different.

Alain Croubalian, son of an Armenian Immigrant and a Swiss nurse,

Pierre Omer, son of an Indian Historian and a Genevan mother, as well as Delaney Davidson, a New Zealand native Troubadour and world traveller are the core of one of the most idiosyncratic and unique bands of our time ? THE DEAD BROTHERS.

This film however is not merely a music documentary; it?s rather an exploration of their individual personalities and how their unique biographies have shaped their music.

Alain Croubalian explains what impact the Armenian genocide and the resulting Diaspora had on his family and ultimately on his personal development. He also describes how his life as an immigrant in N. American resulted in his die hard nonconformist stance.

Pierre Omer offers a melancholic and at times ironic insight into his creative process and his personal battle between irony and tragedy.

Delaney Davidson openly discusses his own mortality and which role humour plays in dealing with it.

The bands? music reflects their Babylonian biographies;

Blues meets Chanson, Gypsy Swing meets Vaudeville and Brecht & Weil go for a drink with Hank Williams somewhere in St. Pauli, New York or Marseille.

The bands? provocative yet cheerful performances have meanwhile achieved world wide cult status.

The film shows the band not only on stage at large clubs but also joins them at spontaneous street concerts and jam sessions.

To wrap it all up, we?d like to say we believe to have made a paradoxal film, a balancing act between melancholy and exuberance, as well as existential questions and black slapstick humour.

M.A. Littler

1979: Born in Frankfurt, Germany.

1980 - 1999 several mid- and long-term stays in N. America and Southern Africa.

1985 - 1997: Education.

1999: Mandatory service, followed by honourable discharge.

2000- 2002: Film school in Vancouver, Canada.

2002: Move to Berlin and beginning of "SLOWBOAT FILMS".

2003: Move to Frankfurt, Germany.

2005: Full time dedication to ?SLOWBOAT FILMS?.

"D Dear Miss Mistress, Dear Dear Miss Distress ? T turn me on and drag me underground?

A Song dedicated to the London Underground. A Video made of photographs and textanimations."

"Claire Walka

1997 - 1998 Art School P.ART, Stuttgart, Germany

1998 Studies at the Hochschule f?r Gestaltung Offenbach/Main Germany

since 2001 different practicals at advertising agencies, publisher, television (editorial department)

since 2003 Freelancer for Graphics and AV (Photography, Editing, Compositing?)

since 2001 Different Exhibitions of Graphic Works, Photographs and Installations

Sept. 2003 Foundationmember of ""Ex.For- Institute for Existance Research"" and the ""Zuchtfilmkollektiv"""

"Yonghi Yang is a second generation Korean who was born and raised in Japan.

She was raised by parents who dedicated all of their lives to their ?home country? as leaders of General Association of Korean Residents.

Her three brothers have ?returned? to North Korea more than thirty years ago. They still live in Pyongyang thus her family is dispersed.

Why did her father and mother who cherished family send their sons to their ?home country?? Why do they continue to dedicate all of their lives this much to the home country?

She who wouldn't hope to cast away ?choices of life on her own will? under the name of ?system? and ?allegiance to home country? cannot accept ?her parents' choices.?

Feeling a strong sense of rejection, finally, she starts to talk repeatedly with her parents. The parents and a daughter accept each other?s different styles of lives and seek for a new relationship. When confronting father's death, the father and the daughter start to develop a new strong bond."

"Yonghi Yang, Film maker. As second-generation Korean Resident so called ?Zainichi,? Yang was born and raised in Osaka, Japan.

Graduated from Department of Literature, Korea University in Tokyo. Obtained MA from the graduate school of New School University in New York. Formerly a teacher, an actress, and a radio DJ.

From 1995 she started to introduce mainly documentary works of hers as an auteur.

Obtained MA in Media Studies at New School University Graduate School in New York, U.S.

After having returned to Japan in 2003, she resumed her activity in Japan."

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."

In the style of silent films, but accompanied by narration, young lovers discover the conflict between ideals and reality in the light of an autumn forest. The man compares his love to the ideal of an Italian novella, but must conclude that such ideals are unattainable and therefore his love is in vain. Ultimately, however, the lovers retreat from ideals and focus once again on themselves, which allows the story to come to a happy ending.

This forty-minute documentary deals with the thoughts and feelings of teenage Albanian girls who live and go to school in Offenbach, Germany, but regularly return to their homeland, Kosovo, during vacations. The camera follows three sisters - Nagjije (15), Nazmije (16) und Bege (17) ? on one such summer vacation trip. Bege has reached marrying age, and although she?s not sure she?s ready yet, any future husband would have to be Albanian. But none of the girls would want to live in Kosovo permanently. The film masterfully illustrates the conflicts between maintaining one?s cultural roots and the pressure of conforming to the modern world.

?Die unertr?gliche Seichtigkeit? (?Unbearable Shallowness?) is a ?melan-comic? film about men and women, the amount of things and of course... CHER! Director Eva Becker?s five-minute short film successfully combines humor and depth.

Leila, a young East-European immigrant in New York City, wants to become a violinist. She is in search of the American Dream.

"Naples is a city with many crowded pour neighborhoods . Tucked into these areas are ?ricevitorie?, small gambling offices where people go daily to play the lottery.

Visitors do not pick their lotto numbers randomly, instead their numbers have personal associations with happy or tragic events they experienced; for them there is a direct link between the chosen numbers and their attempt to change destiny. All daily events seem to have meaning for the Neapolitans, and are transformed on to the lotto form. In Dreaming By Numbers, some regular visitors to a local gambling office are portrayed and tell their personal stories in wich faith is interwoven into the rest of their lives. The intimate images of the small office run by two sisters, Maria and Angela, is combined with vivid street scenes. The result is a balance between realism and magic.

The people portrayed in this film keep hunting for luck:: some of them play the same numbers during a lifetime, because of the special meaning for them. They all believe in numbers, and in their power to make their life change."

"My starting point is the Neapolitan belief in numbers.

Why do we believe in something? The belief in numbers first came into existence and was handed down in order to control fear. While waiting for some magic to happen the Neapolitans are surrounded by daily reality: life in a chaotic city, unemployment, personal tragedies. So the lotto is not a Fremdk?rper, something separate from everyday reality. On the contrary, it is an expression of the culture and of the spirit of the Neapolitans: the game of chance expresses the need for hope in a town devoid of hope. The numbers are woven with everyday life just like ordinary activities such as sleeping and eating."

"Anna Bucchetti was born in Milan in 1963 where she studied at the Film and Tv Academy (CFP) as lighting cameraman.

In 1992 she moved to Amsterdam where she started working on human interests items

for local ?multicultural?television. Between 1994 and 2003 she wrote and directed

several documentaires (for the youth serial ?YOY?, for VPRO and NPS Broadcast).

In 2004 she was chief editor for Educational television (Etv) in Amsterdam by Frontmedia. "

As el custodio, it?s Ruben?s duty to keep the Minister of Planning under constant surveillance.

If the Minister gets out of the car, Ruben gets out of the car. If the Minister turns left, Ruben turns left. If the Minister goes to the country club with his family for the weekend, Ruben must follow along. If the Minister decides to rest and have a nap, Ruben must keep watch over the sleeping man.

Although Ruben must always be present, he must also go completely unnoticed. A shadow, Ruben witnesses everything from the sidelines, as if life was passing by some meters away from him. Yet, despite his insider?s view, he never understands clearly what?s going on, what?s being talked about, nor where the characters come from or go to. Single Ruben is hardly even a protagonist of his own life.

A lonely life, involving a mentally unstable sister and a ditzy niece, the sale of illegal arms and cheap prostitutes. Plus the monotonous routine of being a bodyguard and the occasional humiliation from the Minister or his family? Some jobs result in almost replacing a life for another. Such pressure can ultimately explode. This is Ruben?s inevitable outcome.

EL CUSTODIO is Rodrigo Moreno?s first feature film. His original screenplay won the 2005 Sundance/NHK Award for Best Latin American Script.

Moreno collaborated as writer and director with Ulises Rosell and Andr?s Tambornino on the 2002 feature EL DESCANSO (Sweet Repose), an offbeat comedy which won Best Film at Canada?s Images du Monde Festival. Moreno also wrote and directed COMPA?EROS, the last segment of the 1998 episodic feature MALA EPOCA (Bad Times). Moreno had previously made several short films, his first being 1993?s NOSOTROS, which won Best Film at the Bilbao Festival (Spain), and which was also screened in the Berlin Festival Forum.

Moreno was born in Buenos Aires in 1972. He graduated from the directing program of the Argentinian capital?s Universidad del Cine, where he has been teaching screenwriting and directing since 1996.