An 11-year-old girl who is carefree until she starts to experience horrifying physical changes to her body.
The art film To the Moon reinterprets the creative, experiential and cognitive journey of contemporary ink painting artist Liu Kuo-sung. Through the integration of historic film footage and experimental visual and acoustic presentation, the film traverses the span of time and the borders between nations to present the ever-present rootlessness in Liu's life. Holding a mirror up to the power of collective memory in the twentieth century, this film challenges its viewers to reexamine their values and perceptions of history and more importantly, begs the universal question of how individuals may regain their conceptions of home, belonging, loss and solitude. With To the Moon, CAMLab invites the audience to follow the cinematic narrative through war-induced trauma felt by Liu and the generation he embodies in his continuous search for belonging that flows into his ink-saturated creations.
Nora Walker is told that her British fighter pilot husband is missing in action and presumed killed in World War II. On VE. Day, Nora gives birth to their son, who she names Tommy. While Tommy is an adolescent, Nora marries Frank, a shifty camp counselor. Shortly thereafter, Tommy suffers an emotionally traumatic experience associated with his father and step-father, which, based on things told to him at that time, results in him becoming deaf, dumb and blind, a situation which several people exploit for their own pleasure. As Nora tries several things to bring Tommy out of his psychosomatic disabilities, Tommy, now a young man, happens upon pinball as a stimulus. Playing by intuition, Tommy becomes a pinball master, which in turn makes him, and by association Nora and Frank, rich and famous. Nora literally shatters Tommy to his awakening, which ultimately leads to both the family's rise and downfall as people initially try to emulate Tommy's path then rebel against it.
Winfried doesn't see much of his working daughter Ines. He pays her a surprise visit in Bucharest, where she's busy as a corporate strategist. The geographical change doesn't help them to see more eye to eye. Practical joker Winfried annoys his daughter with corny pranks and jabs at her routine lifestyle of meetings and paperwork. Father and daughter reach an impasse, and Winfried agrees to go home to Germany. Enter Toni Erdmann: Winfried's flashy alter ego. Disguised in a tacky suit, weird wig and fake teeth, Toni barges into Ines' work circle, claiming to be her CEO's life coach. As Toni, Winfried doesn't hold back, and Ines meets the challenge. The harder they push, the closer they become. In all the madness, Ines begins to see that her eccentric father deserves a place in her life.