Elfi Mikesch

Wanda, a dominatrix who runs an S&M gallery on the Hamburg waterfront, must choose between her lesbian lover and an American trainee.

This story is told by the boy's father: "My father wrote letters from the front. He didn't come back from the war. In my dream, I saw a hundred thousand letters falling from the sky." The letters are memories and trauma. No one talks about them. The boy knows nothing yet about the legacy of all wars. The setting for this story is a former military airfield and its surroundings.

Max Taurus, a sort of amateur detective, pursues the traces of general omni-present crime back to a partially demolished house. There, the remaining tenants try to gain pleasure and power from progressive abandonment in order to tear down their own conventionalities.

Werner Schroeter was one of the most significant proponents of New German Cinema. Schroeter was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. In her film, Elfi Mikesch, who photographed a number of Schroeter’s films and who collaborated closely with him to create his vision, provides us with an intimate insight into Schroeter’s artistic output during the remaining four years of his life.

A young woman is fed up with the usual consumer's television and begins to make her own television, or more correctly, closevision. She is now a reporter who wanders around Berlin with her camera and 'telecasting apparatus' on her back. Her livingroom has been transformed into a studio and here the different programs are assembled and aired: statements, interviews, realistic and phantastic programs.

A woman reflects on her romantic relationship with a young Moroccan years ago. Her daughter travels to Morocco, attempting to relive her mother's past.

Wanda, a dominatrix who runs an S&M gallery on the Hamburg waterfront, must choose between her lesbian lover and an American trainee.

Wanda, a dominatrix who runs an S&M gallery on the Hamburg waterfront, must choose between her lesbian lover and an American trainee.

Wanda, a dominatrix who runs an S&M gallery on the Hamburg waterfront, must choose between her lesbian lover and an American trainee.

This story is told by the boy's father: "My father wrote letters from the front. He didn't come back from the war. In my dream, I saw a hundred thousand letters falling from the sky." The letters are memories and trauma. No one talks about them. The boy knows nothing yet about the legacy of all wars. The setting for this story is a former military airfield and its surroundings.

This story is told by the boy's father: "My father wrote letters from the front. He didn't come back from the war. In my dream, I saw a hundred thousand letters falling from the sky." The letters are memories and trauma. No one talks about them. The boy knows nothing yet about the legacy of all wars. The setting for this story is a former military airfield and its surroundings.

Max Taurus, a sort of amateur detective, pursues the traces of general omni-present crime back to a partially demolished house. There, the remaining tenants try to gain pleasure and power from progressive abandonment in order to tear down their own conventionalities.

Max Taurus, a sort of amateur detective, pursues the traces of general omni-present crime back to a partially demolished house. There, the remaining tenants try to gain pleasure and power from progressive abandonment in order to tear down their own conventionalities.

Max Taurus, a sort of amateur detective, pursues the traces of general omni-present crime back to a partially demolished house. There, the remaining tenants try to gain pleasure and power from progressive abandonment in order to tear down their own conventionalities.

Werner Schroeter was one of the most significant proponents of New German Cinema. Schroeter was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. In her film, Elfi Mikesch, who photographed a number of Schroeter’s films and who collaborated closely with him to create his vision, provides us with an intimate insight into Schroeter’s artistic output during the remaining four years of his life.

Werner Schroeter was one of the most significant proponents of New German Cinema. Schroeter was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. In her film, Elfi Mikesch, who photographed a number of Schroeter’s films and who collaborated closely with him to create his vision, provides us with an intimate insight into Schroeter’s artistic output during the remaining four years of his life.

A woman reflects on her romantic relationship with a young Moroccan years ago. Her daughter travels to Morocco, attempting to relive her mother's past.

A woman reflects on her romantic relationship with a young Moroccan years ago. Her daughter travels to Morocco, attempting to relive her mother's past.

Portrait made for the 70th birthday of Rosa von Praunheim by his close collaborator.

Portrait made for the 70th birthday of Rosa von Praunheim by his close collaborator.

This film is in effect a slideshow of exquisite single photographic images in sparkling black and white, representing Mikesch’s own version of Mary Stuart. “The drama of a woman who attempted a kind of liberal emancipation in a time of upheaval, but got caught in the snares of men,” in her words. Confronted with layers and layers of conflicting information about “how it really was” Mikesch decided not to try to be a historian, but to radicalise the narrative and condense it into striking images of passion, power, love, pain and death.

This film is in effect a slideshow of exquisite single photographic images in sparkling black and white, representing Mikesch’s own version of Mary Stuart. “The drama of a woman who attempted a kind of liberal emancipation in a time of upheaval, but got caught in the snares of men,” in her words. Confronted with layers and layers of conflicting information about “how it really was” Mikesch decided not to try to be a historian, but to radicalise the narrative and condense it into striking images of passion, power, love, pain and death.

This film is in effect a slideshow of exquisite single photographic images in sparkling black and white, representing Mikesch’s own version of Mary Stuart. “The drama of a woman who attempted a kind of liberal emancipation in a time of upheaval, but got caught in the snares of men,” in her words. Confronted with layers and layers of conflicting information about “how it really was” Mikesch decided not to try to be a historian, but to radicalise the narrative and condense it into striking images of passion, power, love, pain and death.

A German woman travels to San Francisco to find her mother, but winds up distracted by the sexually flamboyant culture of the city.

It’s the early 1950s and little Franzi is growing up in the small Austrian town of Judenburg. Her oppressive family home is dominated by her feverish and mentally ill father, who is rigid and unpredictable. Her father, who regularly delivers halves of pork for the butcher, spent several years in the French Foreign Legion in Morocco, Algeria and Syria – a period which he partly glorifies but which still also haunts him. Franzi immerses herself in this world by looking at an abundance of beguiling yet disturbing photographs taken at the time by her father. Her own childish fantasy realm of fairy tales and picture books soon intermingle with nightmares as reality merges with imagination, war, horror and beauty.

It’s the early 1950s and little Franzi is growing up in the small Austrian town of Judenburg. Her oppressive family home is dominated by her feverish and mentally ill father, who is rigid and unpredictable. Her father, who regularly delivers halves of pork for the butcher, spent several years in the French Foreign Legion in Morocco, Algeria and Syria – a period which he partly glorifies but which still also haunts him. Franzi immerses herself in this world by looking at an abundance of beguiling yet disturbing photographs taken at the time by her father. Her own childish fantasy realm of fairy tales and picture books soon intermingle with nightmares as reality merges with imagination, war, horror and beauty.

24-hour television documentary about Berlin and its inhabitants, reporting in real time on the everyday lives of more than 50 protagonists from a wide range of professions, social classes, religions and ethnicities.

Semi-documentary film about the everyday life of a 16-year-old schoolgirl in Berlin who lives with her single mother on the outskirts of West Berlin. Her father, a soldier from Puerto Rico, has left the family. With the help of the Hawaiian postcards and records he left behind, the young woman repeatedly dreams herself into an idyllic fantasy world while performing her monotonous household chores. Director Elfie Mikesch visualizes these dream states using stylistic devices reminiscent of advertising films.

Semi-documentary film about the everyday life of a 16-year-old schoolgirl in Berlin who lives with her single mother on the outskirts of West Berlin. Her father, a soldier from Puerto Rico, has left the family. With the help of the Hawaiian postcards and records he left behind, the young woman repeatedly dreams herself into an idyllic fantasy world while performing her monotonous household chores. Director Elfie Mikesch visualizes these dream states using stylistic devices reminiscent of advertising films.

Semi-documentary film about the everyday life of a 16-year-old schoolgirl in Berlin who lives with her single mother on the outskirts of West Berlin. Her father, a soldier from Puerto Rico, has left the family. With the help of the Hawaiian postcards and records he left behind, the young woman repeatedly dreams herself into an idyllic fantasy world while performing her monotonous household chores. Director Elfie Mikesch visualizes these dream states using stylistic devices reminiscent of advertising films.

Documentary about Austrian city Judenburg and its art scene.

Documentary about Austrian city Judenburg and its art scene.

Elfi Mikesch accompanies Werner Schroeter in staging a tribute to Lautréamont in Berlin.

A portrait of five St. Petersburgians and their connection to The Hermitage.

A portrait of five St. Petersburgians and their connection to The Hermitage.

This film tells the story of Markus Anatol Weisse, who, astonishingly enough, became an artist, in spite of being only very partially sighted. Markus also builds strange machine-like beings and wishes that he himself were a biological robot, or cyborg.

Torsten Ricardo Engelholz, 31 years old, was locked in a dark room by his parents for most of his childhood and then placed in a psychiatric ward. Torsten Ricardo loves riding the subway and spends every free minute doing so. In addition to this passion, he is a talented painter and actor in the professional theater group Thikwa in Berlin. He is very interested in German history. This film explores the universe of a very special person in a sensual way and deals with fundamental questions of life: Torsten Ricardo holds up a mirror to us. "The others are disabled, knowledge-disabled, because they don't recognize what abilities you have," says Torsten Ricardo Engelholz in his poetic, clear-sighted language. This includes the abysses of his own existence as well as his great desires.

A woman on a train.

A woman on a train.

Perhaps her name is Maria: A woman with blonde curls listens to a caller in her New York apartment, moving between the couch and the kitchen floor, getting deeper and deeper into her surreal fantasies, in which she lustfully tries out different roles.

Perhaps her name is Maria: A woman with blonde curls listens to a caller in her New York apartment, moving between the couch and the kitchen floor, getting deeper and deeper into her surreal fantasies, in which she lustfully tries out different roles.

A documentary film showing life in one of Hamburg’s homes for seniors. Over the course of six months, Elfi Mikesch interviewed and filmed the inhabitants, concentrating on a female couple who are spending the rest of their lives together in a close and intimate relationship.

A documentary film showing life in one of Hamburg’s homes for seniors. Over the course of six months, Elfi Mikesch interviewed and filmed the inhabitants, concentrating on a female couple who are spending the rest of their lives together in a close and intimate relationship.

No synopsis available yet.

Wünsdorf in Brandenburg was a military base for decades: first for the Prussians, then for the Wehrmacht and finally for the Red Army. At the center of Elfi Mikesch's multifaceted essay is the pioneer of ecological urban development Ekhart Hahn, who, together with artists, is committed to a new, sustainable use of the site - above all in the interests of peace. Is a catharsis possible after the catastrophe?

Wünsdorf in Brandenburg was a military base for decades: first for the Prussians, then for the Wehrmacht and finally for the Red Army. At the center of Elfi Mikesch's multifaceted essay is the pioneer of ecological urban development Ekhart Hahn, who, together with artists, is committed to a new, sustainable use of the site - above all in the interests of peace. Is a catharsis possible after the catastrophe?