PS Film GmBH

Documentary about the ethnically diverse young girls of a female soccer team in the Bethlehem quarter of Bern, Switzerland's capital city.

It all started with a small exercise book. Its page were checkered with the courageous testimonies of 300 Central African women, girls and men. They reveal what Congolese mercenaries did to them. On their own initiative, they gathered together their testimonies in this book.

A pain management specialist in a Berlin hospital laments how difficult it is to see if black skin has turned blue. The patient, 15­year­ old Arlette, doesn’t understand German. Her knee was injured in the war, and unknown wealthy Germans have helped pay for her trip to have surgery in Europe. The camera follows Arlette on her journey, from her worried family in Central African Republic to the desolate rooms of the hospital and the rehabilitation centre. The girl’s gaze is captivating but impenetrable, and the easily bored teenager surrounded by adult strangers is only cheered up by an interpreter who knows her mother tongue. The story takes a gloomier turn when it transpires that rebel forces have taken up arms in Arlette’s home country.

In her multi-layered documentary, Grimme Award winner and director Heidi Specogna unfolds a sensitive portrait of the life and work of renowned photographer Claudia Andujar. From her escape from the Holocaust to her deep connection with the Yanomami people in the Brazilian Amazon – the film takes us through formative childhood events, humanistic commitment to the rights of indigenous peoples and the fight to protect their habitat. The film team follows in the footsteps of Andujar's political and poetic photographs, explores the rainforest region, which is now more threatened than ever, and introduces a self-confident, young Yanomami generation who are making their voices heard among the population and in politics with self-made films.