OCEANS #searchforhope

We’ll take you beneath the surface—from the warm waters of the tropics to the cold currents of the North Atlantic and the lakes right on your doorstep. We’ll meet the people who live with the water and are committed to protecting it, as well as the creatures that call it home.

OCEANS #searchforhope takes the audience on a fascinating journey through endangered oceans and to the people who are actively working to protect them.

From Petra and Berti, who are witnessing the changes in the Mediterranean firsthand on their homemade catamaran, to Brad Robertson of the Save the Med Foundation, who advocates for the establishment of marine protected areas, to the coral reef restoration efforts of the NGO Coralive in the Seychelles and Konstantinus Saleo, who is dedicated to preserving his homeland in Raja Ampat: These encounters inspire us to take action—not tomorrow, but now.

One evening. Two unreleased films.

For the first time, they also turn their attention to waters that are closer to us than we realize. In “Mystical Giants – The Hidden Wilderness of the North Atlantic,” they venture into the cold waters off Ireland’s west coast in search of the basking shark: once hunted, now protected, this gentle sea monster becomes the central thread of a journey marked by encounters with former whalers, scientists, rough seas, and hidden underwater worlds—revealing just how much wilderness, mystery, and hope even the northern seas of Europe hold.

And in “From Quarry to Biotope,” they dive even deeper: into the quarry lakes of the Freiburg region, which many know from swimming, walking, or from their childhood—without realizing how they were once created by gravel extraction and what lives beneath their surface today. The films open the doors to our lakes, the oceans, and to inspiring people and projects—from the basking shark off the coast of Ireland to the quarry lake right on our doorstep—and show how change for the protection of our planet can succeed, whether on the other side of the world or right here at home.