'Sugar Dollies' & 'After The Rain' - Klaus Chatten

Sugar Dollies by Klaus Chatten (Germany)
Dressed as Batman and Robin, Babette and her overweight daughter, Tabea enter the ratings-topping blind date TV show - Sugar Dollies. At the auditions they meet fellow hopefuls for a show that promises to bring light into meaningless lives for at least half an hour.

After the Rain by Sergei Belbel (Spain)
No rain for two years and smoking is banned. On the roof of a corporate building in an unnamed city, employers, employees and secretaries meet for an illicit cigarette. Slowly the roof top scene develops into a whole new world of changing relationshps, blossoming love and imminent catastrophe.

"The whole country is in community care" Klaus Chatten's flickering images of East and West depict the edgy reality of a reunited Germany in memorable figures whose lives alternate between tragedy and hysterical farce.

Sergi Belbel's bittersweet comedy combines surreal humour (four secretaries identical, except for their different shades of hair) and human sentiment (the discovery of love in a tea-break).