Artificial Paradises

The Middle of Nowhere(fr)

A remote village in the Finistère countryside. A man is suspected of carrying the Ebola virus. He is black. His name is Maurice. His best friend, Michel, an ambulance driver, travels across the region with his intern Rémi to find him and check on him.

Human Traffic(en)

For Jip, Lulu, Koop, Nina and Moff, the dead-end jobs they endure during the week just kill the time until Friday night. That's when they cut very loose and get on the rollercoaster ride that takes them right through to Monday morning.

Sirāt(es)

A man and his son arrive at a rave lost in the mountains of Morocco. They are looking for Marina, their daughter and sister, who disappeared months ago at another rave. Driven by fate, they decide to follow a group of ravers in search of one last party, in hopes Marina will be there.

Trainspotting(en)

Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind as Begbie and Sick Boy come knocking.

The Young Americans(en)

Experienced New York Police Detective John Harris is sent to London to help a local task force investigate a series of gangster killings organized by a new player in town, an American. With the help of a young teen wronged by gangsters, Harris navigates London's seedy, drug-fuelled underworld in order to take down its new criminal empire.

How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World(de)

Fresh out of a psychiatric hospital, Pia moves back in with her parents to get her life together. Torn between a new job, lovesickness, psychotropic drugs and social stigmatization, she emerges into a world where everything seems out of control.

Ciao! Manhattan(en)

Fiction and documentary mingle in a freewheeling portrait of Susan Superstar, a New York celebrity on a drug-fueled downward slide that mirrors Edie Sedgwick’s own self-destructive spiral.

Once Upon a Time in Indian Country(de)

A wild genre mix between a boxer film, urban western, road movie and music video, set at end of the summer holidays in a drab neighborhood in the outskirts of Hamburg suburbia. Young boxing talent Mauser is preparing for a pivotal competition when his father kills his step-mother and flees. Trying to find his father, Mauser embarks on a journey through the world of music, psychedelia, violence, love and a biblical thunderstorm. And what is with the Native American? "Once upon a time in Indian country" is a story that radiates both, heat and poetry.

Asthma(en)

A young musician takes a beautiful tattoo artist on a ride in a stolen classic car.

Wallflower(en)

A man planning to commit a mass shooting at a rave is befriended by an eccentric group of partiers and finds himself conflicted about his intentions. Based on the real-life 2006 Capitol Hill Massacre in Seattle.

A Trip Elsewhere(en)

During the Covid-19 pandemic, four anxious strangers take a record-breaking dose of LSD, catapulting them into a shared psychedelic dream where they must find solace and redemption before they can return to the real world.

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An unknown girl breaks out of her daily grind by undergoing an intense audio-visual trip.

Loved Up(en)

Tells the story of a girl who, while working in a London cafe, meets a "raver" who introduces her to the drug Ecstasy and the whole British drugs scene. The girl falls in love with the raver, played splendidly by Ian Hart, but - when fired from her cafe job - she becomes involved with the seedier world of dealing.

Desire in You(sl)

Two young female friends are spending summer days together while one of them is going through personal changes. In the course of their everyday conversations, deeper layers of yearning are slowly revealed to us.

A Crime(hu)

A murder takes place in a suburban high school. A mentally defective detective Delgado Rodriguez and his partner, the German ex-soldier-veteran Stilenacht, begin a wide-ranging investigation. The comically hapless duo go undercover, roaming the halls among the students, looking for clues. They have no idea what they're getting themselves into. Nothing is certain in this case. The film is full of pop-culture references and allusions, relentlessly peppered with corny puns that sometimes become an integral part of the plot and story. The film takes a similar approach to the mixing of genres; the crime film premise crosses into the realms of fantasy and horror in the course of a plot that is often self-contradictory.

Sample People(en)

Sample People is an upbeat dramatic thriller that follows four groups of Sydney-siders as they seek escape routes over one sweltering weekend. 'Len the dreamer' who stutters shyly just wants the gorgeous DJ Lush Puppy. Sem is a funky musician who has a premonition warning him that his girlfriend, Cleo, is in danger. He just wants to get them both out of their inner-city world. Andy is the charismatic drifter who's conned his way through life and stolen money from his boss, TT. He just wants to head up the coast with TT's girlfriend, Jess, but seems to be falling deeper into a love triangle of drugs and delusion. Finally, there's Joey, a TV affected homeboy, who reveals to his best friend Gus that he's got a gun and will use it sooner or later. The inevitable moment will arrive whin his violent gangster fantisies become reality. As the lives of our heroes become dramatically entwined, the consequences of their actions ricochet off each other.

Chernobyl: The Last Habitant(sv)

Beats(en)

Summer 1994, Scotland. Johnno and Spanner are best mates, but Johnno’s family are moving him to a new town and a better life, leaving Spanner behind to face a precarious future. In pursuit of adventure and escape they head out on one last night to an illegal rave before parting ways indefinitely.

Arutinae(en)

Melding dream-logic and wry mystery, Arutinae melts the seams between sleeping and waking worlds. We follow up-and-coming indie musician Billie Christie on a pilgrimage to the former home of her musical idol, Inge Shielke, in the lakeside village of Matlock. Here, Billie meets the matriarch of an eccentric local family who presides over the lake's secrets—a polluted portal to the parallel world of Arutinae.

Dustin(fr)

In an abandoned warehouse, a crowd is dancing as one on 145 BPM techno music. Among them is Dustin, a young transgender woman and crew: Felix, Raya and Juan. As the night draws on, collective hysteria morphs into sweet melancholy, and euphoria into yearning for tenderness.

Human Traffic(en)

For Jip, Lulu, Koop, Nina and Moff, the dead-end jobs they endure during the week just kill the time until Friday night. That's when they cut very loose and get on the rollercoaster ride that takes them right through to Monday morning.

Kids(en)

A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.

Liquid Sky(en)

An alien creature invades New York's punk subculture in its search for an opiate released by the brain during an orgasm.

Looking for Mr. Goodbar(en)

A short, unhappy affair with a married man leads a dedicated schoolteacher into the alcohol-and-drug fueled underworld of singles’ bars, where she begins to engage in a pattern of dangerous sexual activity.

XOXO(en)

XOXO follows six strangers whose lives collide in one frenetic, dream-chasing, hopelessly romantic night.

Nowhere(en)

In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.

Beats(en)

Summer 1994, Scotland. Johnno and Spanner are best mates, but Johnno’s family are moving him to a new town and a better life, leaving Spanner behind to face a precarious future. In pursuit of adventure and escape they head out on one last night to an illegal rave before parting ways indefinitely.

Spike Island(en)

Teenage musicians travel to England's Spike Island in the hope of attending an outdoor performance by their favorite band, the Stone Roses.

Party Girl(en)

Although Mary has little income, she still finds ways to spend her nights at clubs. After being arrested for throwing an illegal rave, she asks her aunt Judy for bail money. Judy then finds Mary a job at her library so that Mary can repay her. Initially, Mary finds the job as a clerk boring and stifling, and prefers to get to know a street food vendor whom she likes. However, Mary must refocus her life once she loses her job and apartment.

The Doom Generation(en)

Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embarks on a sex- and violence-filled journey through a United States of psychos and quickie marts.

Groove(en)

An inside look into one night in the San Francisco underground rave scene.

Enter the Void(en)

This psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of Oscar, a young American drug dealer and addict living in Tokyo with his prostitute sister, Linda. When Oscar is killed by police during a bust gone bad, his spirit journeys from the past -- where he sees his parents before their deaths -- to the present -- where he witnesses his own autopsy -- and then to the future, where he looks out for his sister from beyond the grave.

Big Time Adolescence(en)

A seemingly bright and mostly innocent 16-year-old named Mo attempts to navigate high school under the guidance of his best friend Zeke, an unmotivated-yet-charismatic college dropout. Although Zeke genuinely cares about Mo, things start to go awry as he teaches Mo nontraditional life lessons in drug dealing, partying, and dating. Meanwhile, Mo’s well-meaning dad tries to step in and take back the reins of his son’s upbringing.

Spun(en)

Over the course of three days Ross, a college dropout addicted to crystal-meth, encounters a variety of oddball folks - including a stripper named Nikki and her boyfriend, the local meth producer, The Cook - but all he really wants to do is hook up with his old girlfriend, Amy.

Friday(en)

Craig and Smokey are two guys in Los Angeles hanging out on their porch on a Friday afternoon, smoking and drinking, looking for something to do.

Fritz the Cat(en)

In late 1960s New York City, fed up with monotonous college life and police repression, free-spirited Fritz, an impenitent seducer and unrestrained party-animal, decides to explore the world. And just like that, as he flees NYC, heading to San Francisco, Fritz embarks on an endless adventure of illumination. Immersed in a world surrounded by drugs and sex, Fritz participates in mad orgies, brings about a revolution, incites mass urban riots, and crosses paths with drug-addled Nazi bikers.

The Wackness(en)

Set in New York City in the sweltering summer, The Wackness tells the story of a troubled teenage drug dealer, who trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist. Things get more complicated when he falls for one of his classmates, who just happens to be the doctor's daughter. This is a coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, music and what it takes to be a man.

Kicks(en)

When his hard-earned kicks get snatched by a local hood, fifteen-year old Brandon and his two best friends go on an ill-advised mission across the Bay Area to retrieve the stolen sneakers.

Almost Famous(en)

In 1973, 15-year-old William Miller's unabashed love of music and aspiration to become a rock journalist lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and tour with the up-and-coming band, Stillwater.

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody(en)

The joyous, emotional, heartbreaking celebration of the life and music of Whitney Houston, the greatest female R&B pop vocalist of all time. Tracking her journey from obscurity to musical superstardom.