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Minako Seki, Sayoko Onishi and Yumiko Yoshioka belong to the tatoeba - Théâtre Danse Grotesque. Their expressive performance contains elements of contemporary Butoh dance but is also a parable on the Asian world of sensibility and irrationality and the way modern Japanese women see themselves. The central idea for this experimental Butoh dance film are life's metamorphoses. A method of filming was developed which draws the camera right into the intensity of the dance movements. This heightened sensual concentration allows the viewer to correspond intensely with the dance itself. "JU-NI HITOE" is a symbol of ancient Japanese Culture dating back to the 9th century. "JU-NI HITOE" means "the twelve-layered robe" and refers to twelve kimonos worn on top of each other in descending colours, each with gold embroidery. Today these are worn as state garments by the Japanese Emperor and his family on special occasions. For many Japanese women this clothing represents not only the dignity of tradition but also serves as a reminder of the social restrictions of their traditional role. Metres of long trains of material only allow a small, carefully marked sphere of ritualised movement and prevent any form of spontaneity. The garments can be seen as a symbol for a hard exterior protecting a soft centre, but also represent the thick walls and psychological barriers which bind and imprison one's innermost being. The decisive starting point for our film was the desire to make the creation and execution of the dance movements both visible and tangible. The film concentrates, therefore, on the completely different emotions of the three female dancers; it is an intense examination of the human body's capacity for expression, the sensual power of which we sought to emphasise by filming in sparce, unusual locations. The film focuses on the vocabulary of Butoh. The language of this dance is direct, immediate.

Former prisoners of the German concentration camps "Langenstein" and "Dora", which were built for the war industry factories to produce the V-2 - rocket for the "total war" offensive of 1943/44, return to the sites of their sufferings. Their memories lay bare the barbarity of the "Dora principle", which meant the destruction of prisoners by forced labour. The film presents his subject in an experimental dramaturgy presenting a young foreign woman searching for the roots of the camps and rocket factories, using very special black & white photography following her subjective view and personal experience. Film shots from the hidden underground tunnel systems of the weapon factory of Dora are confronted with the testimonies of former prisoners who survived the Dora system.

Guadeloupe is one of the small islands of the West Indies in the Caribbean, 7,000 km from France. Christopher Columbus discovered the island in 1493, and in 1635 Cardinal Richelieu gave orders for a French expedition to colonise Guadeloupe. The sugar cane planted by the colonists became the most important export product to the French "motherland" for more than 300 years. Until the 19th century the white masters employed slaves, deported from Africa to do the work on their plantations. The colonists had forbidden the slaves to speak their own languages, to play their music and to perform African dances. In 1946 the colony of Guadeloupe was declared an Overseas Department; the Guadeloupe people were given French nationality. Today the modern quarters of the capital Pointe-à-Pitre are built like the suburbs of Paris, the supermarkets are full of imported French goods, and social activities in the evening have been replaced by television. Meanwhile the overseas department has become an artificially created market for the economy of Metropolitan France. Collectively farm workers and farmers fight against the destruction of agriculture and of the sugar industry. They occupy fallow land and plant their own products for their own sustenance. They call them products of resistance. This agriculture of resistance is not only important for food, but also for the conscious effort of growing things: not to be a consumer of imported goods which they pay for with their government assistance.

SACY PERERE is the name of a group of Brazilian musicians, emigrants who met in Paris. Through their music the four musicians and a singer slough off all European influences and focus on the tradition of Brazilian music, especially the Samba, the roots of which can be found in Africa. Improvising and blending together traditional and modern music, the group explore and question their own history, development and identity. Through their songs we learn that it is not only poverty, hunger and disease that subjects the majority of this vast country to lives of suffering and despair, it is also cultural aggression, educational colonization and the massive, even brutal attempts to kill off all forms of popular culture. The rage and eloquence are plain but so is the hope and the excitement. "All of us left Brazil for personal reasons, but especially to evade the social and cultural control - censorship. We wanted to escape the destruction which is taking place, subconsciously, through catholicism, Europeanization and the lack of schools. To be black is dirty, it is necessary to have a 'white' soul. Our life style has been transformed and we are trying to find ourselves again through this music. Music is an examination of ourselves".

The Silent War - Impressions of a War in Southern Nicaragua - The Nueva Guinea region in the South of Nicaragua is inhabited by farmers who settled there during the Somoza government. Here, on the edge of the tropical rain forest, using the simplest methods of cultivation, these people are barely able to subsist. They have no streets, no radio and hardly any contact with their neighbours. In this secluded area, the farmers formed cooperatives and, under pressure from the Sandinista movement, they share both the work load and the profits from the yield. With state support, they planted new products such as cocoa. These cooperatives became significant targets for attack by the Contras. Contra assaults on settlements and plantations have forced the farmers to defend themselves on a permanent basis. The deliberate and strategic assassination of agriculturalists, teachers and nurses have caused widespread fear and terror. These tactics of attrition and exhaustion destroy the farmers efforts again and again; this not only has catastrophic consequences on their agricultural production, but they can barely provide for their own families. In addition, there are the problems of those who are forced by the military clashes with the Contra to leave their farms and who now live together in cramped conditions in provisional camps. This is the everyday reality of an economic war which aims to prove to the population that an improvement in living conditions and progress is impossible under a Sandinista government. This is how the inhabitants of this remote area of Nicaragua are 1988 confronted with the USA's Central American policy of "Low Intensity Warfare". The film reflects the drama of this new, as yet unknown war.

A story about two Haitian women, and their interaction with each other. One sells pre-cooked food in front of a factory and the other woman is a factory worker. The film depicts the important role of Haitian women in the Haitian economy.