Kessler's Lab

Electric Shadows

April 2005 •Chinese

For no apparent reason, a mute young woman assaults a youth who delivers water on his bicycle, injuring him and ruining his bike. Surprisingly, she asks him to feed her fish while she is in custody. Her tiny apartment, he discovers, is a shrine to his favorite escape, the movies.

The Doctor

July 1991 •English

Jack McKee is a doctor with it all: he's successful, he's rich, and he has no problems.... until he is diagnosed with throat cancer. Now that he has seen medicine, hospitals, and doctors from a patient's perspective, he realises that there is more to being a doctor than surgery and prescriptions.

Horns and Halos

March 2002 •English

"What if someone wrote your biography? Would there be horns and halos involved?"

The Anniversary Party

June 2001 •English

While celebrating their reconciliation and six years of marriage, American actress Sally Nash and British novelist Joe Therrian receive their close friends, some colleagues and their next door neighbors in a party. Under the effect of Ecstasy, revelations are disclosed and relationships deteriorate among the group.

Prison Song

April 2001 •English

Elijah has been bounced from group home to group home throughout his turbulent young life. What has sustained him is his art. After a promised scholarship is taken away, Elijah ends up in a fight that result in the death of another boy. Now, sentenced to a minimum of fifteen years, the young man must find a way to keep his soul alive behind bars or turn into a hardened bitter criminal.

Effi Briest

February 2009 •German

Following her parents' wishes, spirited seventeen-year-old Effi Briest marries Baron von Innstetten – a former admirer of her mother – who is twenty years Effi's senior. This marriage of prudence heralds the beginning of a humdrum life, far from home, for Effi. Innstetten devotes himself entirely to his political career, and the sleepy small town of Kessin has very little to offer in terms of variety. But then, one day, Innstetten's old regimental comrade, Major Crampas – a charming womanizer – arrives on the scene.

Old Joy

March 2006 •English

Soon to be a father, Mark feels the pressure of domestic responsibility closing in, so he is more than happy to accept when his old friend Kurt proposes a camping trip in the Oregon wilderness. During their time together, the men come to grips with the changes in their lives and the effect on their relationship.

The Tesseract

May 2003 •English

A psychologist, an Englishman, a bellboy and a wounded female assasin have their fates crossed at a sleazy Bangkok hotel.

Parallel Lives

August 1994 •English

A college reunion turns into a tangled web of passion, romance and intrigue as old friends and enemies catch up with each other's lives. Includes a long list of stars.

Alma's Rainbow

June 1994 •English

The teenage daughter of a Brooklyn beauty-parlor owner blossoms under the influence of her recently-returned show-biz aunt.

Welcome to São Paulo

July 2004 •Portuguese

All the feature is given prestige to by the narration in Caetano Veloso's voice, that also signs one of the segments of the project. São Paulo is the largest city of the Southern Hemisphere, with an incessant dynamics of cultural mixtures, with immigrants of all the world and migrants of all parts of Brazil. The gathering of these peculiarities are seen through the 13 film directors's sensibilities and their segments.

Barcelona 1714

September 2014 •Catalan

These Vagabond Shoes

July 2009 •English

A man travels across New York City to get a Nathan's Famous hot dog.

Summer Crossing

Invalid date •English

The young daughter of a wealthy New York family falls for a parking attendant.

Bad Behavior

October 2013 •English

Trapped overnight by an unknown assailant, a babysitter struggles to stay safe. As the hours tick by, she realizes that the greatest threat might be from the very children she's trying to protect.

Alistair1918

July 2015 •English

A social work grad student’s film project on L.A. homelessness becomes something quite other when she and her friends encounter a man claiming to be from another time and place.

Showing Up

April 2023 •English

In the days leading up to a possibly career-changing exhibition, a sculptor navigates her relationships with family, friends, and colleagues.

Aquaplaning

May 1987 •German

A somewhat impressionist, at times even slightly surreal miniature about a student (Werner Stocker in a splendid performance) who, out of financial difficulties, starts out as pool attendant at an open air swimming pool in Berlin's district of Neukölln. Escaping from his unpleasant landlord and his lover Patrizia (a very young Martina Gedeck), he soon starts to live at the baths, and as swimmers disappear and the baths are closed for the winter, he turns the grounds into his own, perfect refuge from civilisation and social pressure, becoming increasingly detached from reality. What may sound like an annoyingly gimmicky premise is executed here playfully, yet with admirable simplicity and a subtle, unpretentious poetic sensibility that one would wish for more often in contemporary German cinema.

Anywhere Else

February 2014 •German

You left your home to move far away. You were struck by a wind of change and were unfaithful to yourself. You reinvented yourself and you are now feeling free. But suddenly pressure arises in you.

Proyecto Dos

April 2008 •Spanish

When a man of identical appearance to him is killed in the street, scientist Diego Durand realises that the flashes of déjà vu that torment him are part of a sinister secret past that he must uncover.