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To mark German Unity Day on Saturday, 3 October, the feature film debut "Vatersland" by renowned documentary film director Petra Seeger celebrated its festival premiere at the Film Festival Cologne 2020, where she personally presented the film with her actors Margarita Broich, Felizia Trube, Momo Beier, Stella Holzapfel, Bernhard Schütz and Matti Schmidt-Schaller. Other guests included producers Christine Kiauk and Herbert Schwering (Coin Film), distributor Stephan Winkler (W-film) and Christina Bentlage from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, which after the production will also support the film's theatrical release in spring 2021 distributed by W-film.

After her award-winning documentary "In Search of Memory" about Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel, Petra Seeger's first feature film deals with her own past as a growing girl in a post-war society dominated by men. She artfully interweaves the play scenes with wonderfully nostalgic family photos and 16mm film footage from her private archive. Major remembrance cinema about the trauma of an entire generation. Perceptive, feminist and at the same time incredibly entertaining and humorous!

From left: Felizia Trube, Momo Beier, Stella Holzapfel and Margarita Broich, the actresses of the main character Marie from "Vatersland" at different ages, as well as director Petra Seeger at the festival premiere in Cologne © Juliane Guder / Film

The documentary "Our Soil is Our Heritage" celebrated its German premiere with great success in the Babylon cinema in Berlin on 1 October. Director Marc Uhlig, TV cook and film patron Sarah Wiener as well as organic gardener David Steyer from Solidarische Landwirtschaft, both also protagonists, presented the film personally. Under the moderation of soil expert Bernward Geier, they discussed the documentary in the following film talk: it shows not only the importance but also the extreme threat to our livelihood, the soil. We use it as if it were inexhaustible. But our planet needs 2000 years to form ten centimetres of fertile soil. But each and every one of us can contribute to the preservation of this precious resource, whether as a farmer, gardener or supermarket consumer! Among the audience was Oscar winner Volker Schlöndorff, who was very enthusiastic: "The soil is like a skin on our planet. How the film depicts this is simply breathtaking!"

From left: Organic gardener David Steyer (SoLaWi Ravensburg), TV cook and film patron Sarah Wiener and director Marc Uhlig at the German premiere of "Our Soil is Our Heritage" in Berlin's Babylon © W-film / Sebastian Semmer

In commemoration of the end of the Second World War 75 years ago, the documentary "Germans & Jews" will be released on August 21 as VOD and DVD in stores! A valuable plea for open dialogue between non-Jewish Germans and Jews living in Germany. Film lovers can support the distribution company W-film directly even during the crisis by purchasing the film from W-film on Demand at http://vod.wfilm.de.

The documentary film "Our Soil is Our Heritage" shows how important and at the same time extremely threatened our soil is, which is our livelihood. W-film will bring the committed plea for future-oriented agriculture and sustainable nutrition to cinemas across Germany on 8 October 2020, just in time for the harvest festival. Director Marc Uhlig, together with protagonists and experts, will take the audience on a cinema tour to personally explain to them why this precious resource deserves our greatest appreciation. Because we can all contribute to the preservation of soil fertility, whether as farmers, gardeners or supermarket consumers. The events will be held in compliance with the applicable corona hygiene regulations.