Squatters and fare dodgers, super jams and Chinese in Bavaria, crime thrillers without dead bodies and, time and again, whimsical comedies: the film oeuvre of Manfred Stelzer (1944-2020) is as extensive as it is varied and shows how a politically committed documentary filmmaker of the turbulent seventies managed to remain true to himself and his aspirations even as a busy feature film director in television - whether 'Balko', 'Tatort' from Münster or 'Polizeiruf 110' from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This first comprehensive book about the director and screenwriter and his one hundred films from more than four decades brings together images and texts from his large film family as well as from a film studies perspective. All texts are included in German and English. With contributions by: Susanne Beyeler, Kurt Böwe, Jennifer Borrmann, Gerd Conradt, Matthias Dell, Andreas Döhler, Doris Dörrie, Harun Farocki, Robert Fischer, Jan Gympel, Doja Hacker, Gabriele Heberling, Irm Hermann, Lutz Kerschowski, Horst Königstein, Gert C. Möbius, Jakobine Motz, Ludger Pistor, Axel Prahl, Hans Helmut Prinzler, Monika Schmid, Elke Sommer, Beatrice E. Stammer, Gesine Strempel, Sigi Zimmerschied and many others. With greetings from Claudia Roth and Dr. Klaus Lederer.