Over five days, the Nordic Film Days Lübeck will show over 130 films in 270 screenings, a selection of which will also be available as an online stream. This year's festival venues include the cinemas CineStar Lübeck - Filmpalast Stadthalle, Filmhaus Lübeck, Kommunales Kino Lübeck, Kolosseum Lübeck and the special venue St.-Jakobi-Kirche Lübeck. Mark directly in the calendar: TheAdvance booking begins on Saturday, 30 October.

A total of 18 productions supported by the MOIN Film Fund will be screened in Lübeck. The film "The Gravedigger's Wife" by Finnish filmmaker Khadar Ahmed, which had its world premiere in Cannes this year and will be in the Oscar race for Somalia in 2022, will start in the "Competition Feature Films" section. The drama was edited in Hamburg by Sébastian Thümler, with colour grading also taking place in Hamburg at The Post Republic. The film is set in Djibouti and focuses on gravedigger Guled, who urgently needs money for his sick wife's operation.

This year's "Filmforum" section will once again focus on films from Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein - here you can look forward to 17 subsidised film gems. With "No One's with the Calves", the festival is showing a true North German production. Sabrina Sarabi's drama about rural exodus was shot in Schleswig-Holstein for 16 days and was produced by Hamburg-based Weydemann Bros, which has already won numerous awards with "Systemsprenger" in 2020. Lead actress Saskia Rosendahl was honoured in Locarno as best actress in the young talent section for her role as a 24-year-old Christian who finally wants to break out of the rural dreariness.

Another tip for your watchlist: "The Human Factors" by Ronny Trocker. The German-Italian-Danish co-production has already screened at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was largely shot in Hamburg. The film starring Mark Waschke and Sabine Timoteo focuses on a modern, cosmopolitan family and questions the reliability of the individual perspective from various angles.

With filmmaker Hille Norden, you can look forward to a true Nordlichter: the Schleswig-Holstein native celebrated the premiere of her documentary "Heimat sucht Seele" at this year's Dokfest Munich and was recently awarded the "Norderneyer Engel" integration prize at the International Film Festival Emden-Norderney. The film shows the consequences of involuntary separation and uprooting and lovingly discusses the possibilities and limits of integration in the context of an intimate family portrait.

The short film "Tischrebellen" by Directors Merlin Slamanig and Johann Schultz was shot entirely in Preetz. The script about a visit from a grandmother at Christmas time was written by siblings Linn and Luca Peltzer, who won the Audience Award at the 2019 Schleswig-Holstein Screenplay Prize.

Things get a little bloodier in Julian Radlmaier's vampire comedy "Bloodsuckers", which premiered at this year's Berlinale and was also shown at Filmfest Hamburg. The Director and Script Writer from Berlin searched for suitable locations on the Baltic coast in the footsteps of Nosferatu and ended up spending 25 days filming in Schleswig-Holstein.

A fictional feature film debut that we can highly recommend to you is "Ein großes Versprechen" by Hamburg-based Director and HFBK graduate Wendla Nölle. The film centres on a couple in the last third of their lives who struggle with the question of how much freedom they should allow each other. The film was produced by the Hamburg-based company Tamtam Film and is part of the "Nordlichter" programme for young filmmakers run by NDR, MOIN Film Fund and nordmedia.

Here is an overview of all 18 funded films:

• ALLES, WAS MAN BRAUCHT – Antje Hubert (mairafilm)

• BAB7 – Nizan Kasper (HFBK)

• BLUTSAUGER – Julian Radlmaier (Faktura Film)

• THE GRAVEDIGGER'S WIFE - Khadar Ayderus Ahmed (TWENTY TWENTY VISION Filmproduktion, Berlin)

• EIN GROSSES VERSPRECHEN – Wendla Nölle (Tamtam Film)

• FIRST TIME – Nicolaas Schmidt

• FÜR NICHTS UND WIEDER NICHTS – Gisela Tuchtenhagen und Margot Neubert-Maric (Utbüxen Filmproduktion)

• GEBOREN IN RAVENSBRÜCK – Jule von Hertell

• HASEN IN EINER WIESE – Leonie Kellein (HFBK)

• HEIMAT SUCHT SEELE – Hille Norden

• I AM – Jerry Hoffmann (Hamburg Media School)

• MEMORY BERLINER ZIMMER – Jörn Staeger

• DER MENSCHLICHE FAKTOR – Ronny Trocker (Zischlermann Filmproduktion, Lübeck)

• MONOBLOC – Hauke Wendler (Pier 53)

• NIEMAND IST BEI DEN KÄLBERN – Sabrina Sarabi (Weydemann Bros)

• DAS STARKE GESCHLECHT – Jonas Rothlaender (StickUp Filmproduktion)

• TICS – Thomas Oswald (Rainville & Oswald)

• TISCHREBELLEN – Johann Schultz, Merlin Slamanig (Rebellen Filmproduktion)