Editor

Official Programme:
06 – 16 November 2008

14 Kilometros / 14 Kilometers
95 Min. by Gerardo Olivares, Spain
Only 14 kilometres short is the distance between North Africa and Spain. Yet, the real distance for African emigrants to get to Europe is unconceivable to European coevals. This moving film accompanies two young Africans on their way to Europe.
German Premiere

Amanecer de un sueño / Awaking from a Dream
96 Min. by Freddy Mas Franqueza, Spain
Marcel was left by his mother when he was eight years old. He grew up with his grandfather, Pasqual, who, in his new parent role, had to abdicate from his own needs. Today, Marcel is 21 years old and wants to leave his grandfather’s house. Just now, Pasqual is being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The roles are changing. Marcel has to decide whether he will tend to Pasqual and focus his life on his grandfather, just like the latter did to him.
European Premiere

The Baby Formula – OPENING FILM
81 Min. by Alison Reid, Canada
Athena and Lilith, two young women open for new experiments, are in love with each other and they wish to have a child, like most couples. However, they do not want to adopt one, and they do not want to use donated sperm either. They wish for a child of their own flesh and blood. Science helps them. Soon, they happily contemplate and compare their growing tummies. But the biggest challenge still needs to be faced: They have to confess the whole story to their parents...
International Premiere

Bioscope
94 Min. by K.M. Madhusudhanan, India
Every film from India is also a kind of meditation. Diwarakan dicovers cinema. In the 20s, it is still called „Bioscope“ – it is supposed to capture life. A film about cinema and the power of magic.
European Premiere


Borderline
110 Min. by Lyne Charlebois, Canada
Sex, drugs and alcohol have brought Kiki to the verge of a breakdown. Now, she is 30, and the long-term consequences of her lifestyle are affecting her. Kiki has to redefine her life in order to cross the border between despair and hope for a better life for real.
German Premiere

Du bruit dans la tête / The Noise in my Head
90 Min. by Vincent Pluss, Switzerland
After studying abroad, Laura returns to Geneva but she feels lost. Soon, the noise in Lauras head increases. The inner dialogue of the main character mixes words she says with words she wants to say. Phobias, fears, and the absurdity of life melt together into terrific-strange actions.
German Premiere

Half-Life
106 Min. by Jennifer Phang, USA
Pam is 19 years old and lives with her brother at her mother’s, after her father left them. Her mother denies the pain about the loss of her husband and has a new boyfriend, Wendell. Pam gets some rest from her chaotic family only when she spends time with her friend Scott who is obsessed with finding ways to come out. Frontiers are being crossed, long repressed mysteries come to the surface. This film tells about surviving in a difficult world with unclear identities and multi-cultural backgrounds.
European Premiere

Lluvia / Rain
110 Min. by Paula Hernández, Argentina
During heavy rain, Alma gets stuck in traffic in a Buenos Aires underbridge. She cannot move and is forced to „live“ in her car for an indefinite time. A symbolic situation. Suddenly, Roberto gets into her car. n the rain, in their coincidential encounter, dices are thrown which will lead their lives.
German Premiere

Luan qing chun / Beautiful Crazy
97 Min. by Chi Yuan Lee, Taiwan
Three young girls on their way to adulthood. Xiao-Bu fights over a cigarette with her friend Angel. Ah-Mi sleeps with Xiao-Bu’s boyfriend. He is very popular and lets Angel steal a kiss. Can it get any worse? Life with a depressive, alcoholic father, who can only stare out of the window, for example. Or is it actually worse when dove excrements ruin the new dress that was supposed to be worn on the date with a handsome guy?
International Premiere

Másik bolgyó / Another Planet
95 Min. by Ferenc Moldoványi, Hungary
As the film title already says, it’s a completely different planet on which children live outside the big cities. This impressing documentary has been shot on four continents and follows the stories of seven children who are being exploited as child soldiers, minor hard workers or child prostitutes living an undignified life in Cambodia, Ecuador and Congo.
German Premiere

Les murs porteurs / Cycles
92 Min. von Cyril Gelblat, France
A Jewish family representing three generations. this film narrates about the circle of time, about family as the most important form of social organisation and about ever-sparkling fantasy. Magical, human.
German Premiere

Nereikalingi zmones / Loss
96 Min. by Maris Martinsons, Lithuania
In Ireland, a priest meets a woman from his native country, Lithuania. In a mysterious way, she is connected to his past. Valda fled from her homeland in a desperate search for a better life, but she left her son behind and gave him up for adoption. Eventually, she finds a proof of life from him among thousands of emigrants from the former Soviet Union who came to Ireland.
German Premiere

Nuits d’Arabie / Arabian Nights
110 Min. by Paul Kieffer, Luxembourg
Georges, a train conductor in Luxembourg, lives quite a dull life. Everything changes when he finds Yamina, hiding in his train. He falls in love with her, but she disappears. He sets off for Algeria in order to find her. A tune and the air of „Arabian nights“ are leading his way. German Premiere

One Shot
78 Min. by Linda Wendel, Denmark
Prostitute Sally pays a visit to her mother who lives on the countryside. She demands some answers from her and wants to know who her father is. But the trip to the past goes totally wrong from the very beginning. The film has been shot in one take but the camera finds ever new battlefields on the small grange. The ideology of self-realisation of the 1960s meets their children’s self-destroying powers of a lost generation.
German Premiere

Un poco de chocolate / A Bit of Chocolate
94 Min. by Aizol Aramaio, Spain
Lucas is an old man. He’s spent the last 40 days in the hospital, his sister Maria never leaving his side. He is mentally deranged and lives in his past thinking of himself as a young man. Marcos is a young accordion player, portrayed by Daniel Brühl, who is on the run from his parents’ house. Lucas gives him a warm welcome and invites him to stay. Together, they travel into the past.
German Premiere

Prognoza / Forecast
97 Min. by Zornitsa Sophia, Bulgaria
Margerita and her brother with some friends from different Balkan countries to Turkey. „Let’s speak English to better understand each other“, they decide. During some doldrums, they start drawing „national borders“ around their tents and re-enacting the several Balkan wars in a very satirical way. Then, Margetrita disappears while surfing.
International Premiere

Den siste revejakta / The Last Joint Venture
84 Min. by Ulrik Imtiaz Rolfsen, Norway
The hippie era is coming to an end, and with fast pace the 80s are approaching – even for Carl and Robert. They sell some weed and live their lives quite contemplatively. They have a big deal on the hook however: they want to fog Oslo with 45 kilogrammes of pure substance from Nepal. Carl drops into the scene, he is the personalised prototype of the next generation – the yuppie. A comedy about the change of an era.
International Premiere

Un roman policier / A Police Romance
97 Min. von Stéphanie Duvivier, France
Emilie Carange works as a police woman in a multicultural neighbourhood. As the only woman at the police station, it is not easy to stand up to all her male colleagues. When she meets her new, attractive colleague of Arabic origin, Jamil, she cannot control herself. Amidst violence and fear, in the middle of the dangerous daily life of a police station, a forbidden love affair begins.
World Premiere



Cenizas del cielo / Ashes from the Sky
96 Min. by José Antonio Quirós, Spain
A little calf is born, and farmers name it „Kyoto“ in order to express their deep hope for the closure of a coal-fired power plant. But thhere is a long road ahead until the closure in this environmental comedy.
German Premiere

Chelovek-veter / Wind Man
95 Min. by Khuat Akhmetov, Russia/Kazachstan
The little boy falls ill as soon as he sees the stranger with the big, white wings. Maybe he is the Angel of Death. He fell off the sky during a boisterous storm, right in the centre of the Kazakh steppe. Only a little boy knows what to do. A parable about fear and an off-key comment on the present and the dream world in between the times.
German Premiere

Cyrano Fernández
95 Min. by Alberto Avelo, Venezuela
Venezuelan director Alberto Avelo has moved the classical love triangle „Cyrano de Bergerac“ virtuosicly into the slums of Caracas, where a human’s life is worth very little. Just like in the play, Cyrano is a folk hero, but his ugly scare-face excludes him from love. German Premiere

Dikoe pole / Wild Field
104 Min. by Mikhail Kalatozishvili, Russia
A solitary house in the steppe. Mitja is a doctor, and he is waiting for his patients to arrive. Then, the „daughter of the steppe“ turns the doctor’s head, a real woman but phantas- magorical at the same time. Eroticism is a master from Russia. It is only in this kind of landscape such wild-poetic stories can emerge, stories that at the same time reflect the disorientation in modern Russian society.
German Premiere

Heidin / Small Mountain
96 Min. by Einar Thor, Iceland
Emil is a well-respected man, who was assigned to take a ballot box to the Icelandic capital. However, his private life slips out of control. Now, of all times, his son Albert wants to clean the air and find out why he grew up without a mother. Will the ballot-box survive all this? A frosty comedy where family ties are clarified quite sturdily.
German Premiere




I epistrofi / Homecoming
94 Min. by Vassilis Douvlis, Greece
After having spent his last 35 years in Germany, Ilias returns to his native Greek provincial town. Eleni got married to Ilias, who had been quite affluent in his youth, in order to escape poverty. Now, she sees her marriage as a mere cage. Things change when Ilias picks up a young illegal immigrant from Albania and saves him from police.
German Premiere


Kalandorok / Adventurers
100 Min. by Béla Paczolay, Hungary
Three men on the run from themselves, who do not want to realise that they shipwrecked their lives. The small and big problems „on the road“ serve as ultimate tests for the adventurers. The saying applies: the problems from which you are running from are always going to find their way into your carry-on luggage.
German Premiere

Kolekcionere / The Collectress
84 Min. by Kristina Buozyte, Lithuania
Gaile realises that, after a traumatising event in her life, she has lost the ability to have emotions. While she is preparing a video presentation, she notices that her emotions are indirectly starting to come back via the filmed picture – especially aggressions. She decides to take on a daring experiment. A world of voyeurism, obsessions and perversion is revealed.
German Premiere

De muze / The Muse
72 Min. by Ben van Lieshout, The Netherlands
At night, writer John wanders through the city in the hope for inspiring adventures. He finds them only in a cinema that shows Michelangelo Antonioni’s „Eclipse“ starring Monica Vitti. From this point on, his daydream life belongs to fantasies around this actress. His writing blockings increase. When he meets a young woman, a lookalike of the famous Italian actress, he starts to draw hope.
German Premiere

Nevando voy / Under the Snow
99 Min. by Candela Figueira und Maitena Muruzabal, Spain
Work is considered to be dead time. Yet, does it have to be like this? That is what the workers in a factory for snow chains ask themselves. In this “comedy of work“ alienation loses its scare. A jolly, little, lived utopia of the working world.
German Premiere

Nikto krome nas / Nobody But Us
108 Min. by Sergej Govorukhin, Russia
In 1991, Tajikistan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and immedietely fell into a civil war. By taking pictures of the front, Evngeni plans on showing the true face of the civil war, which has been trivialised and labelled as a „conflict“ by national media. He has to risk his new happiness with Natasha to go on a journey which might be his last.
World Premiere

Preludium
115 Min. by Johan Melin, Denmark
Five persons are filmed in real time and in only one take in Copenhagen at night-time. The plot follows again and again new characters who are once again accompanied by camera. These are the 113 most important minutes of their lives: love, treachery, passion, fear and murder in only one sequence shot.
German Premiere

Prince of Broadway
100 Min. by Sean Baker, USA
Lucky and Levon live on Broadway, but at the very low end of this New York district. One day, a lady with a stroller shows up and reveals Lucky that he became a father. Plenty of local colour and even more vibes, and soon it is going to be revealed: princes are everywhere.
German Premiere

Thomas
70 Min by Miika Soini, Finland
Thomas, a retiree, lives a simple and withdrawn life between his chess board, the radio and the last photograph of his wife. Time passes slowly. The life of Thomas has almost come to a halt when he realises that he still has one more opportunity to take action. A film in the laconic-Finnish tradition, full of touching moments, unexpected comedy and the silent dignity of age in the heart of the main character.
German Premiere



Geliebte Clara
107 Min. by Helma Sanders-Brahms, Germany
Clara Schumann was a pop star of the 19th century. At the age of 9 already she was a prodigy. With her teacher and later husband Robert Schumann and their children, she settles in Duesseldorf. Robert is supposed to direct the Orchestra which only happens because his wife helps him so much, him being absorbed by his compositions and self-pity. Clara give birth to eight children, she arbitrated between the maestro and the hardheaded orchestra, and she also composed music together with Robert. Johannes Brahms – 14 years younger than Clara, appears, he becomes Robert’s protégé and falls in love with Clara. This film by director Helma Sanders-Brahms concentrates on Clara Schumann and her balancing act between art and life.
Pre-Premiere

Fados
93 Min. by Carlos Saura, Spain
With Fados, Carlos Saura directed a film focusing on the Portuguese music and dance style containing African and Brazilian influences and highlighting life in the colonies and suburbs of Portugal.. but fado is not only a traditional music style, it also evolves and produces new modern developments, like Rap versions. A film to be heard as well as seen.












Films from the Festival of German Cinema 2008

La Paloma. Sehnsucht. Weltweit.
93 Min. by Sigrid Faltin
It is the most played song in the world. In Zanzibar, it is played at the end of a wedding, in Romania, at the end of a funeral, in Mexico, it is the anthem of the newly-elected president. La Paloma is the favourite song of the Germans and it is the epitome of the North, especially when it’s sung by Hans Albers. All over the world, the song has different lyrics, rhythms and instrumentation. Yet, La Paloma’s melody is always the same. This film follows the song on its journey around the world.

Ulzhan – das vergessene Licht
105 Min. by Volker Schlöndorff
Kazahstan’s vastness. Endless. This is where Frenchman Charles strands, escaping from his past life after a family tragedy occurred and making an end to everything that lies behind. His goal ist he sacred Mountain Khan tengri where once the Shamans withdrew to encounter death. The stranger crosses a radically changing country by plane, car and walking, roaming thousands of kilometres. One day, he meets a mysterious man, a Shaman who trades with rare words. By chance Charles gets to a village where he meets Ulzhan, a young nomad who sells him a horse to continue his way. Against his wish, the young woman follows him...

Nur ein Sommer
94 Min. by Tamara Staudt
We always wish for what we do not have. People living on the countryside long for the busy city. People in the city for the peaceful countryside. Unemployed people for employment. 35-years-old Eva is fed up with her sad life in the suburbs of a small town in Eastern Germany. When she loses her job as a vendor and the likelihood to get a new job is quite small she does not hesitate very long and seizes an unusual opportunity: She accepts a job offer as a milker in the Swiss mountains.

Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald
86 Min. by Nicolette Krebitz
Thomas’s family is sitting at the breakfast table. Thomas’s family, that’s his wife Marie and their two children at their peaceful terraced house. Then, the musician goes to work. He forgets his violin, Marie follows her husband, and by chance she discovers his dark secret: In Thomas’s life, there is another woman, a son and a house which is almost identical to her own family home. Marie follows Thomas secretly to a mysterious mask ball on a derelict castle where she is immersed into a surreal dream world which is very evocative of Stanley Kubricks Schnitzler’s adaption: “Eyes Wide Shut“

Finnischer Tango
90 Min. by Buket Alakus
Alex is an egocentric person. When it comes to his advantage, he is unscrupulous. He tours the cabarets in Germany with his accordeon, which he loves more than other human beings or his friends, in order to promote the “Finnish Tango“ - without any success. When the rival heavy metal band steal his instruments and one of his bandmembers dies, Alex finds himself alone. In this misery, he turns to a small theatre group looking for new members. The condition is: an at least light physical handicap. Alex easily slips into this new role, but then, everything changes for Alex.





Intense Times – Starke Zeiten

Blow Up
111 Min. by Michelangelo Antonioni, Great Britain 1966
When enlarging a photography, a young star photographer discovers that he probably witnessed a murder. An outstanding film by Antonioni with masterful dramaturgy, photography and performance which tries to capture the fascination of images as depiction of real or alleged reality, the possibilities of manipulation and a portray of the beat generation.
When attending a concert of the Yardbirds David Hemmings loots Jeff Beck's broken guitar in pieces which he carelessly abandons some minutes later. A cult scene of 70s hedonism many scenes from the Italian film author Antonionis stand for.

Hair
119 Min. by Milos Forman, USA 1979
The cinematographic adaptation of the rock musical "Hair" about the flower power generation of the 60s with great dancing and song numbers. The texts and sketches around the conscription of a young soldier to Vietnam evokes the attitude towards life of the hippies and their resistance against the ruling powers. Also, the film reflects the questions about the conflicts with the parent generation, the worldwide student uprisings and the escape into dreams through drugs. A film fairy tale from a time when hoping was helpful and long hair was a sign of protest.

Deutschland im Herbst / Germany in Autumn
123 Min. by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alexander Kluge, Katja Rupé, Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus, Hans Peter Cloos, Edgar Reitz, Alf Brustellin, Peter Schubert, Volker Schlöndorff, Maximiliane Mainka, Bernhard Sinkel, Germany 1977/1978
Eleven directors attempt to illustrate the situation and atmosphere in the Federal Republic of Germany after the abduction of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and the collective suicide of the arrested terrorists in Stammheim in the autumn of 1977. It is a broad range of disparate approaches which differ in their quality and methodology: from a social-critical comedy of manners to the antagonism of art and politics (Böll/Schlöndorff), from a dialectic montage of documentary images (Kluge) to the merciless physical and mental self-exposure (Fassbinder). All in all, the film is, especially due to its inconsistencies and weaknesses, an authentic reflection on German mental disposition in a crisis.

In Gefahr und größter Not bringt der Mittelweg den Tod / In Danger and Dire Distress the Middle of the Road Leads to Death
90 Min. by Edgar Reitz, Alexander Kluge, Germany 1974
The fictional stories of a "sexual intercourse thief" and an agent of the German Democratic Republic are confronted with real events like the squatting in Frankfurt and the street carnival in the spring of 1974. Strange encounters happen when the Hessian carnevalists and the protesting squatters meet or when the manager of a department store has the demonstrants removed from his house by police. It is in particular the enactment of "the public events’ manner of speaking", how Kluge puts it, that makes this film a remarkable piece of satirical acuity. The film title originates from a graffiti in the basement of a squattered house.




Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit / Redupers, The all around reduced personality - outtakes
98 Min. by Heike Sander, Germany 1977
A freelance press photographer has been officially assigned to make a documentary on the city of Berlin and tries to use this opportunity to show neglected aspects. Soon she reaches the personal and political limits of her engagement though. first feature film by Helge Sanders, a combination of fiction and documentary, reminding of the argumentative style of Alexander Kluge - amplified by a feminist perspective.

Alice’s Restaurant
111 Min. by Arthur Penn, USA 1969
Adaptation of a ballad in which folk singer Arlo Guthrie tells about his own experiences: The story of Alice’s restaurant, a hippie community, and the events around his conscription and the order to go to Vietnam. A tragicmedy about the protest movements of the 60s, their slow decay and their multilayered conflicts with the authorities. Arthur Penn’s film is an authentic portray of the flower power generation and a melancholic tale of failure at the same time. Fights, jealousy and drug problems make the community fall apart.

Baisers volés / Stolen Kisses
87 Min. by François Truffaut, France 1968
The efforts of a young French man dismissed from the army, to cope with private and professional life thereby rediscovering an almost overlooked personal friendship and love.
François Truffaut’s believable description combines melacholic-blithe forms of an exemplary detective story and dreamlike memories with a poetic testimonial of traditional and modern French film art.

Die dritte Generation / Third Generation
110 Min. by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany 1978
A group of bored young people in Berlin exercise themselves in terrorism without noticing that they are being manipulated by an industrial (Eddie Constantine). A black comedy where Fassbinder describes the mental state of the third generation of RAF terrorist, one year after the abduction of Hanns-Martin Schleyer. Politics as a happenig. A "comical opera" about the German tragedy of terrorism, which received much misunderstanding at its premiere but in the meantime is considered to be the best film on the "German Autumn".

Ich bin ein Elefant, Madame / I’m an Elephant, Madame
100 Min. by Peter Zadeck, Germany 1969
Students protesting at a High School in Bremen. In the middle of the radical social changes and democratisation of authoritative structres, Krum incorporates resistance in its most radical form – with his actions and provocations he represents the antithesis of establishment. Zadek is not primarily interested in a cool analysis of repressive conditions however and neither is he interested in showing the descrepancies between revolutionary claim and restrictive reality is characters are confronted with. Instead, we hear "The Velvet Uderground" on the soundtrack and Zadek glorifies uprising as an end in itself. One of the most important films of the 1968 protests.

Lina Braake
85 Min. by Bernhard Sinkel, 1975
Lina Braake, 82 years old, loses her flat to a bank corporation. The house will be detsroyed and Lina Braake is sent to an old people’s home in the suburbs against her will. The new environment and the shock put her in a catatonic state. Some of the occupants however take car eof her, in particular Gustav Härtlein, 84. He knows how to re-awaken her will to live. She seeks for revenge. Gustav, keen on helping Lina and to score off those outside, is an ethusistic assistant. The financial fraud is successful. Lina leaves the home and travels to Sardinia. After a while the German authorities get hold of her however and she is re-sent to the home where Gustav is already waiting for her – and they have a new plan...




Children’s films

Fia!
95 Min by Elsa Kvamme, Norway 2004
Recommended age: 8 years+
Fia, an 8-year-old girl, lives according to the motto „Mum shall not be sad“. Thereby, she herself takes on the mother role. She’s the one who has to earn a living. Thus, she has to steal and thereby, undertakes adventurous climbing sessions. Soon, the youth welfare office is alarmed and Fia is brought to a foster family. The girl’s life changes radically, and she is torn between the feelings for her foster family and her mother.

Gilles
90 Min by Jan Verheyen, Belgium 2006
Recommended age: 8 years+
Tell me about these nervous football Dads, who see any decision of the reveree as a decision against their children and start railing about them. Bert is like them. When he was a child, he wanted to become a football star himself. An injury destroyed this dream. Now, he is training his son Gilles, a talented and passionate football player, who dreams about becoming a member of the Belgian National Football Team. Very unexpectedly, Gilles father and trainer dies – hard times for Gilles. The idea of his father being with him helps Gilles cope also with his training. But Gilles has to learn to say good-bye and to trust himself.

Ich, Caesar. 10 ½ Jahre alt, 1, 39 Meter groß
88 Min. by Richard Berry, France 2004
Recommended age: 9 years+
Caesar Klein is 10 1⁄2 years old and 1,39 meters tall. He is shy and not very popular at school. Morgan, his best friend, is tall and courageous. Both friends are in love with Sarah, the most beautiful girl in the entire school, but Caesar has no chance. One day, policemen show up at Caesar’s parent’s house and ask his father about his deceased business partner. Afterwards, his father goes on a journey. Caesar thinks that he has to go to jail, and he tells everybody at schoool about this. Now, the other kids think that Caesar is cool. This period does not last long, however, as Caesar’s father returns and the misunderstanding gets solved. When Morgan goes on a quest for his father, Caesar can prove how brave he really is.

Karo und der Liebe Gott
94 Min by Danielle Proskar, Austria 2007
Recommended age: 7 years+
This film tells the story of Karo, an 8-year-old girl who believes that only God can bring her parents back together after they got divorced. Karo chooses a lonely and bedraggled neighbour to fit in this role. The man with the boozy breath, who is done with the world, now has to explain it and valorise it for Karo. A strange friendship evolves between them. A film for children that teaches not only children but also adults.

Prop und Berta
76 Min. by Per Fly and Jannis Cimmermanis, Denmark, Norway, Sweden 2001
Recommended age: 5years+
Short, chuffy Mr. Prop inherits a ramshackle hut in the outskirts of a small town. However, he soon discovers, it is not always good fortune to inherit something. Mr. Prop’s new neighbour turns out to be a mean, deceitful witch who considers the woods that separate their two houses as her own. She threatens all citizens of the town to use her magical powers against them if they will not prevent Mr. Props from moving into his house. His friend, a talking and singing cow named Berta, helps Mr. Props. Together, they resist the mean neighbour. „Prop and Berta“ are known in Denmark by the homonymous cartoon series, Now, their adventures are being put on film. Its fondly created dolls will charm both young and grown up fans of fairy tales.

Valo
80 Min by Kaija Juurikkala, Finland 2006
Recommended age: 9 years+
Nine-year-old Valo lives with his father in the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was a part of the Russian Tsar Empire in the beginning of the 20th century. Most of the people live in poverty and under permanent supervision. One day, a teacher arrives in the village, and Valo is happy that he can finally attend school. But when his teacher intends to read „David Copperfield“ in Finish language she gets deported, as the official language in Finland back then was Russian. Secretly, Valo and his friend Ville set up their own school where they the other children how to read and write – in Finish. Soon, their school gets discovered by the authorities and Valo is imprisoned. The other children will have to fight for their rights and for Valo.