Paul Scholten

Long ago, Geamăna was a Romanian village in the Apuseni Mountains, home to about 1000 people. Today, only the church spire rises from the poisonous mud of a neighbouring copper mine. Almost all the houses have sunk and their inhabitants fled. Only a few people held on to their home. On the edge of the past, Valeria Praţa strives for her present - and is threatened by the future.

Huge container ships represent the expansion of luxury in our globalized world. A luxury only made possible by a few seafarers. Many of them are from the Philippines. Being poorly paid and working around the clock, they belong to an exploitative system.

Life in Neuperlach, a Munich suburb, is quaint. It is a safe neighborhood, where people know and greet each other. Everybody has their own backyard; single car garages are lining the narrow footpaths and everything is groomed. But for some time now that peacefulness is troubled, because refugees are supposed to move in next door. As some of the residents are afraid of the noise to be expected, they are putting up a noise protection wall. Biotope shows the life of the locals and gets to the bottom of the reason for building that wall.

Long ago, Geamăna was a Romanian village in the Apuseni Mountains, home to about 1000 people. Today, only the church spire rises from the poisonous mud of a neighbouring copper mine. Almost all the houses have sunk and their inhabitants fled. Only a few people held on to their home. On the edge of the past, Valeria Praţa strives for her present - and is threatened by the future.

Huge container ships represent the expansion of luxury in our globalized world. A luxury only made possible by a few seafarers. Many of them are from the Philippines. Being poorly paid and working around the clock, they belong to an exploitative system.

Huge container ships represent the expansion of luxury in our globalized world. A luxury only made possible by a few seafarers. Many of them are from the Philippines. Being poorly paid and working around the clock, they belong to an exploitative system.

Huge container ships represent the expansion of luxury in our globalized world. A luxury only made possible by a few seafarers. Many of them are from the Philippines. Being poorly paid and working around the clock, they belong to an exploitative system.

Life in Neuperlach, a Munich suburb, is quaint. It is a safe neighborhood, where people know and greet each other. Everybody has their own backyard; single car garages are lining the narrow footpaths and everything is groomed. But for some time now that peacefulness is troubled, because refugees are supposed to move in next door. As some of the residents are afraid of the noise to be expected, they are putting up a noise protection wall. Biotope shows the life of the locals and gets to the bottom of the reason for building that wall.