GENRE
  documentary
TOPICS
 digital nomads
STATUS
  in production
LENGTH
  60 minutes
LANGUAGE
  english, german
  with german dubbing
  and english and german subtitles
COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION 
  Germany

In an abandoned post-Soviet hotel, located in the forests of Bulgaria, digital nomads search for a new work-life balance.

DIRECTOR
   Julia Groteclaes
 DOP
   Sina Diehl  

PRODUCTION
  Paradoks Filmproduktion
COMISSIONING EDITOR
  Marcus Vetter
TV EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
  SWR
LINE PRODUCER

  Frank Carsten Walter 

ASSISTANT LINE PRODUCER

  Hannah Buhr 

FUNDING
  MFG Filmfund Baden-Württemberg, 
  SWR German Broadcaster
  Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg "Junger Dokumentarfilm"

GENRE
  documentary
TOPICS
 farming, generation conflict, heritage, ecology
STATUS
  in development and financing
LENGTH
90 minutes
LANGUAGE
  turkish
  with german and english
  subtitles
COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION 
  Germany

In northeastern Turkey, a farming couple — who are still keeping a 1,500-year-old ancestral seed alive — face the fact that they cannot leave the fate of the seed in the hands of their children.

DIRECTOR
   Erhan Arik
 DOP
   Meryem Yavuz 

PRODUCTION
  Paradoks Filmproduktion
Co-PRODUCTION
  Horovel Film
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
  Meryem Vavuz, Manuel Rees and Frank Carsten Walter

FUNDING
  MFG Filmfund Baden-Württemberg, 
  Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program,
  Redford Center,
  IDFA Bertha Classic Fund,
  EZEF

GENRE
  documentary
TOPICS
 reality, tourism, existentialism
STATUS
  in development
LENGTH
90 minutes
LANGUAGE
  Arabic, English, German
  with German and English
  subtitles
COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION 
  Germany

The documentary film PARADOX PARADISE is a poetic journey through artificial spaces and artificial paradises. In a post-factual age, the film embarks on a search for what could be reality. It tries to trace the desire for escapism and illusions of people who do not want to be satisfied with everyday reality,
but always strive towards the ultimate human reality: Paradise.

PRODUCTION
  Paradoks Filmproduktion
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
  Manuel Rees & Frank Carsten Walter
DIRECTOR
 Esra Laske

RESEARCH FUNDING
  MFG Medien und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg

Festivals
  2024 - Black Star Film Festival (USA) - Official Selection 

GENRE
  short anima-dok
TOPICS
 emancipation, society, revolution,
 war, women in the Arab world
STATUS
  in distribution
LENGTH
29:11 minutes
LANGUAGE
  Arabic, English
  with German and English
  subtitles
COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION 
  Germany and Lebanon

The film is a patchwork of the colorful personal life of Alia, a Lebanese woman. Being raised through war and displacement, searching for freedom - she forms a friendship with a madman on the shore of Beirut called Abu Samra. Together they survive by finding comfort in the insanity that the city has sown in them.  When the Lebanese revolution starts on 17 October 2019 they realize they are not alone. 

There was lots of shelling, though Alia never used to be scared. Being born during a war is different for a child, makes it seem normal. When the flare bombs rained over the south of Lebanon at night her father would tell her these were falling stars finding their way to earth. When the war intensified, they headed to Beirut, later escaping to another country. This film will tell the story of Alia, a Lebanese girl that flees her country as a child because of war. At 18, Alia comes back to live in Beirut, to study Art, discovering the complicated socio-political jungle of her war-torn country and people. She recognizes the difficulty and complications of life in Beirut, which clash with her ideas and illusions of the homeland she yearned for. Unable to pursue Art as her career, seeing all the harsh reality surrounding her, she shifts into visual journalism to try to document the injustice. She works at Reuters for five years documenting Lebanon and the Syrian war. The pictures crossing her desk eat at her. The injustice, the corruption pile stones over her heart. The pressure builds. Many friends leave the country, some start families and fall in line with the silent norm, and three of her friends commit suicide.

 Alia can't accept these options for herself and starts looking for another. She visits Beirut’s seaside, the only place for her tears, seeking temporary refuge from the pressure. There she meets Abu Samra, a madman that visits the store every day to train to become the Lebanese superhero. She is infatuated with what he is and tries to discover his world. A world the sane fear, the world of the mad.

Abu Samra changes Alia’s life, and through the madness, she finds sanity in him and how he deals with the pressures of the city. She quits her job, leaves her partner, and starts working on what she loves, storytelling and documentary filmmaking. But the pressure continues to build. A revolution sparks. For the first time, Alia’s madness over the injustice is justified. Why are those who accept the status quo considered sane? The mad of the city rise in hope for a future. Alia puts down her camera, picks up her drum and becomes part of the Lebanese revolution.

DIRECTOR
  Alia Haju
CO-AUTHOR
   Lea Najjar 

PRODUCTION
  Paradoks Filmproduktion
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
  Manuel Rees & Frank Carsten Walter 

RESEARCH FUNDING
  MFG Medien und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg
PRODUCTION FUNDING
  Doha Film Institute
  AFAC - Arab Fund For Arts And Culture 
  Kuratorium junger deutscher Film
  MFG Medien und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg 

GENRE
  sci-fi documentary mini series
TOPICS
  science, society, future, medicine
STATUS  
  in postproduction
LENGTH
  3x 40 min
LANGUAGE
  german, english, russian
  with english subtitles
COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION
  Germany 

When the heart stops beating, you can have it replaced by an artificial heart. If you fall into a severe depression, electrodes can be inserted into your brain to make you happy again.

We are accompanying two people who want to find their way back to life and for this purpose are technically expanding their bodies. Based on their stories, we will give a glimpse into a near future in which human body parts are bred in animals and human thoughts are controlled by computers. 

PRODUCTION 
  Paradoks Filmproduktion
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
  Frank Carsten Walter
LINE PRODUCER
  Suzan Anasal
DIRECTOR
  Manuel Rees
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
  Manuel Meinhardt
EDITOR
  Felix Karte

RESEARCH
Paradoks Filmproduktion
DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION
tomorrow unlocked