The life of Persian-American New Yorker Leila is ruled by her mother Shireen. She neither accepts her daughter's homosexuality nor the fact that she is pregnant by a drag artist. The gulf between the two seems insurmountable. Or are they even more alike than they think? Director Maryam Kesharvarz digs deep into the family history. Animation, dance, time jumps, turbulent comedy and quiet tragedy make "The Persian Version" an untidy, rebellious declaration of love to the mother-daughter conflict.

Maryam Keshavarz
Like her protagonist Leila, Maryam Keshavarz always wanted to be an Iranian-American Martin Scorsese. In a way, she has succeeded, because like her great role model, she draws inspiration from her own biography and the local environment. However, Keshavarz grew up at a different time (1975) in a different neighbourhood (Brooklyn) and in a different cultural environment. While she sketches her life in New York in "Persian Version", she plunged into the gay and lesbian underground in Tehran for her first film "Circumstance" in 2011.

Biology professor Paul Matthews is no longer under any illusions: his marriage is stale, his students lack motivation and his yet-to-be-written bestseller will never be written. And then Paul suddenly appears in the dreams of complete strangers. No one is more surprised than he is, especially when it turns into mass hysteria.
Norwegian author and director Kristoffer Borgli has turned this absurd but true story into a blackly humorous mixture of psychological thriller and cancelled culture allegory.

Nicolas Cage
Be it "Moonstruck" (1987) or "Wild at Heart" (1990), in both Nicolas Cage moulded the image of romance for an entire generation. In the early 90s, quite a few people dreamed of the 1964-born scion of the Coppola clan, and nobody thought it was strange. Over the course of the decade, Cage's image became more action-packed, for example with "The Rock" (1996) and "Face/Off" (1997), and from 2002 onwards, with "Adaptation", more offbeat. He now owes his self-irony a magnificent comeback, via "Pig" (2021), "Massive Talent" (2022), "Renfield" (2023) and now also "Dream Scenario".

in 2039, a deadly smallpox virus keeps the world at bay. On Heligoland, 513 people have entrenched themselves and are trying to get through everyday life as normally as possible. There are tough rules to survive, including a social points system as well as a strict ban on more than 513 inhabitants. With the unexpected birth of twins, however, the number becomes 514.
The idea for this science and social fiction series came from Robert Schwentke ("The Captain" 2017, "Flightplan" 2005), among others, who also directed all seven parts. He keeps classic end-time dramas à la "Mad Max" in mind as well as the real developments during the Covid19 pandemic.

in 1988, Venba emigrated to Canada with her husband. The most valuable thing she takes with her from her Indian homeland is her mother's cookery book. However, by the time Venba's son is old enough to learn to cook, some of the pages have disintegrated. So the challenge is to find the right ingredients. "Venba" boasts two unusual features: an exciting storyline that tells of first and second generation migration and recipes that invite you to recreate them in real life once they have been digitally restored. And that's quite tricky.