In PATHS OF LIFE, four people tell their stories of how - triggered by crises - they left the familiar, entered unknown territories and what they found on their way.

The four protagonists in Thomas Lüchinger's new documentary stand for change. In their world, where they were torn out of their familiar surroundings by personal tragedies, they were forced to explore unknown territories and learned that the confrontation with crises offers potential, from which change becomes self-evident and possible. There is an Austrian who – after being forced to leave his village in the Salzkammergut as a young man – lost not only his family but also his homeland. Today he uses his knowledge about the correlations of nature as a permaculture teacher to promote the respectful treatment of nature in sustainable agriculture and to transform a neglected farm in Switzerland into a flourishing paradise.

There is an Icelandic woman, mother of two young sons, who worked as an internationally successful model in London and Milan, whose modeling career came to an abrupt end due to a tragic event in her family. After being forced to face her paralyzing trauma, she now guides people away from restrictive self-images and helps them to allow transformation.

An 80 year old 'Artmedicine-woman' from Arizona discovered - after she was abandoned by her husband as a young mother with three small children - how she could find the 'gold in her wound' using the 'painting from the source' method she had invented. In her small house in Arizona she encourages people today to go on their 'hero journey' and to trust their creativity from the interaction with the unknown.

And finally, there is a German philosopher, artist and therapist who shows young drug patients in a clinic close to Lake Constance with examples from art and literature how crises can be overcome and ways out of the supposed failure can be found to come back into resonance with themselves and the world.