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What's it like in the afterlife? Probably you wait. And watch the relatives. Until those whom one still knew in this world die slowly. and then it gets really boring. In Almodovar's Volver, so often underestimated by our video store customers, the deceased matriarch is called Irene (Carmen Maura). She comes from a colourful Almodovar town in the Spanish hinterland. In this colourful city the men die early and the women happily take care of their graves. From here we travel with the camera into the past to understand it as part of the present. In the present we meet Irene's daughters Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Duenas). There is also a beer drinking, staggering husband. But of course he doesn't play a role in Almodovar's world. He is only capable of disturbing peace through his presence as a stabbed corpse. Paco is the name of Raimunda's husband, who is now lying dead on the floor. And the spirit of Irene? He wanders where he is most needed: To Raimunda. This mix of black comedy and reincarnation drama works so elegantly. And actually, Raimunda's plan to found a restaurant is also in the centre of attention. Almodovar is, as we know, a women's director. He loves women, young and old! With Carmen Maura's performance, the woman who once discovered and promoted him returns to his work. In this paradise of women, there is a random solution to every problem. In addition, we get to know everyday life in the village. It certainly resembles the village where Almodovar was born! Volver means "to return" in many ways. Irene returns to Raimundas life, Carmen Maura to Almodovar's work and Almodovar to his village. Almodovar obviously loves the Hollywood melodramas of the 50s with their bright candy colors and naive optimism. In Volver everything is red. Blood red. For all those who expect something like a metaphysical film: Volver is not metaphysical at all. On the contrary, the protagonists approach all challenges with common sense. A dead woman appears as a ghost and is immediately involved in very practical family problems. Volver deals with daily life, even if murder is included. And who knows, perhaps Almodovar felt like a ghost himself as a young gay country man in the past Spain of the Franco regime?

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Haifaa Al-Mansour is the first director from Saudi Arabia, the first to break through the wall of silence. Her film, a darling of the audience! It is a work about freedom, but also about winning! But how will Wadjda arrive with all his insider jokes? The story is charming. A girl who wants to buy a bike. She has to submit to the law, hide more or less. Wajdja is not a pure comedy. The film is about how women live in Saudi Arabia. Depicted as drama, but also as satire. Again and again there are these moments, which are brutal on the one hand, but also heartwarming! At the end we see a fairy tale of hope: A little princess from the suburbs of Riyadh. Wadjda is so complex and profound that you can see him several times and yet discover something new. The great difference between private and public space, the clash of civil society with tribal rites, life in pre-modern times. Basically, the girl Wadjda is restricted from all directions. She is never free to do what she wants. Even her best friend, he blocks her path. When you read about Wajdja, you read above all about the conditions of production. Yes, there is no cinema in Saudi Arabia, Sharia instead. It is ruled by a conservative king who sees art only as a means to an end to honour the Prophet. But let's just look at the film: it doesn't bend over itself, it simply shows the lives of women. He doesn't seem indignant, although Wdjda provokes them with her colorful sneakers. She wants to buy her bike with the money she wins in a Koran competition. We are basically experiencing a rebel here! Who knows, maybe women in Saudi Arabia will even be allowed to ride their own bikes in the future?

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Luc Besson’s *The Big Blue* is, at its heart, the simple story of two men who dive for depth records, driven by their love of the sea. It was filmed in various locations – Corsica, Greece and even Peru – which lends this romantic tale an epic feel. Rosanna Arquette plays Joana, a quirky insurance saleswoman from Manhattan. Somehow she ends up in the north, where she is fascinated by a young man called Jacques (Jean-Marc Barr), who dives deep into the icy sea. We then meet Enzo (Jean Reno), Jacques’ lifelong friend and rival. Joana falls in love with Jacques, which isn’t easy because he’d rather swim with dolphins than kiss a woman. Now, some might claim that neither Joana nor the two divers are vivid, ‘real’ characters. But that’s not the point. It’s about the imagery, the music – in short, the surface. It’s about the style, not the content, and in that respect, *The Big Blue* is uncompromising.

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German cinema is booming, and rarely have themes such as identity and German history been explored so frequently! And it is above all female filmmakers such as Valeska Grisebach, Jenny Erpenbeck and Mascha Schilinski who have been instrumental in the success of recent years.

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There are backwoods sheriffs, mechanics, remote cabins and - most importantly! - cars. The characters, of course, serve neither purpose nor meaning in U-Turn. Take Sean Penn's Bobby, who is missing two fingers and is dogged by bad luck. When he leads his Mustang into town from Ariz, he meets the loathsome Darrell (Billy Bob Thornton). A mechanic from the backwoods. Full of inbreeding, of course. And while the vile Darrell is wrenching on the Mustang, Bobby goes to town, where everyone is evil and cruel. and narrow-minded and hateful and over-sexualized. In short, the city is hell. He quickly meets the feisty Grace (Jennifer Lopez), who invites him home (so he can fix her curtains). Already, husband Jake (Nick Nolte) storms in with bloodshot eyes. The obligatory argument ensues before Jake asks Bobby to do a contract killing on Grace.... U-Turn spins on and on, offering great actors and mannered images popular in the 90s. As befits a good B-movie, we quickly discover that the characters are not driven by their character, but serve the plot alone. U-Turn is a comic in this sense.

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British humour is baffling to us, yet it works with compelling logic: you put a few characters in a series of situations and ask yourself: how might they really have reacted? Take *Life of Brian*: what would have happened during a typical pre-Christian stoning? What if Pontius Pilate had had a lisp?

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Where are the limits of the good or on New-German of the do-gooder? That's the test arrangement of Anders Thomas Jensen's Adam's Apples (which, by the way, ranks third in our list of the most rented DVDs in our video store!!!). At least on the surface. Performance by the neo-Nazi Adam (Ulrich Thomsen), who just got out of prison and was assigned to the local priest for his rehabilitation. You can't expect much from Adam, who exchanges the crucifix in his sleeping chamber for a portrait of Adolf Hitler. In his file he is described as EVIL in capital letters. But I don't think that the priest Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen) even accepts this term EVIL. In Ivan's world there is only GOOD. A pathological optimist. For the priest it is clear that Adam needs a goal in life. That's why he gives him the first task: Adam is to bake an apple pie and pick the apples from the tree in front of the church. But this apple tree is first attacked by crows, then gnawed up by worms and finally struck by lightning. A sign from God?