2008 film by Hannes Stöhr

2015-18 German miniseries

Though legendary lyricist Howard Ashman died far too young, his impact on Broadway, movies, and the culture at large were incalculable. Told entirely through rare archival footage and interviews with Ashman’s family, friends, associates, and longtime partner Bill Lauch, Howard is an intimate tribute to a once-in-a-generation talent and a rousing celebration of musical storytelling itself.

Not so long ago, Martin was a gifted mathematician with a career and a steady girlfriend. But after a spell in psychiatric care, he is released with no job and no way of supporting himself, labelled as mentally ill. Viktor is a young Ukrainian boy recently orphaned following his mother's OD. When the two meet, Martin takes Victor under his wing, and fleeing the city, they escape to a forest where they manage to build a hut robust enough to live in. Though not easy, their back-to-nature subsistence life is idyllic by comparison to what they have left behind, and the pair become firm friends. Martin even meets a sympathetic young woman, Lena, who he encourages to live in a more idealistic way. But just as Martin has started to find happiness, harsh reality intervenesÖ Director Hans Weingartner is best known here for his second film, The Edukators, but his new film is closer to his debut feature, The White Noise (LFF 2000). In common with that film, Hut in the Woods takes a progressive view of mental illness, creating believable and likeable characters and telling their story with empathy and an enviable lightness of touch.
Sandra Hebron
London Film Festival

Three people rob a bank to help a day care center that's in debt. Wolf is captured, Werner identified, police suspect Christa is the third. She and Werner ask Hans, a clergyman, to launder the money and give it to the kindergarten. He refuses. They try Ingrid, Christa's friend, who tries to help, but the school rejects the money. When tragedy strikes Werner, Hans helps Christa bolt to a collective in Portugal. Ingrid visits her; their relationship makes the collective nervous, so she returns to Germany and ceases living in hiding. The police are still looking for her and so is a witness to the robbery, Lena, a bank clerk. Lena's interest brings Christa's second awakening.

Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin staged in 1987 by Werner Herzog in Bayreuth.