Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

To regain her sense of smell and get back her lover, a detective joins forces with a perfume maker who uses deadly methods to create the perfect scent.

A couple is reunited years after tragedy drove them apart. Their brief but intense meeting will bring simmering pain and resentments to the surface but will be a reminder too of cherished intimacies and the love they once shared.

Frank Faust is a born loser. At some point it even becomes too much for his great love, Jennifer, who leaves him and flees to Munich. Frank's desperation is the best reason for Mephisto to show up and offer a suitable pact: reconciliation with Jennifer in exchange for Frank's soul. Shaken by his predicament, Frank finds it easy to agree to the hellish proposal. In order to win back his renegade lover, Mephisto transforms himself into a wide variety of prominent contemporaries who appear at Frank's side and publicly praise his qualities - especially for Jennifer to hear. The plan seems to be working perfectly, unless Mephisto suddenly reveals a completely new side to his personality...

The future is here: via so-called ports—USB-like connections on the head—human brains can be directly connected to computers. This enables things like upgrades (foreign languages! expert knowledge!), virtual buzz experiences, and even the networking of multiple brains. A group of neurohackers tries out everything and even develops their own apps. Only Mona is decidedly against this technology; the danger of external control just seems too great.

Outlaws disguised as Indians commit crimes against settlers but Winnetou and Old Surehand are determined to unmask the bandits and keep the peace.

Four Bavarians with no sailing experience decide to conquer the world's oceans. They are confronted with the untamed power of the sea, unexpected meetings and new challenges.

North Friesland today: After the death of his father-in-law, Hauke Haien takes on two important roles in coastal protection - dyke count and director of coastal protection. Professionally, Hauke is the best man for the job; he is a visionary who lives and thinks in harmony with nature. Only people are not his cup of tea. As a loner, Hauke hardly knows how to inspire an audience and win over fellow campaigners. His warnings about the effects of climate change are dismissed as hysteria in the village, even though the coastal inhabitants know that a drastic change of course in climate policy is unavoidable. Fortunately for Hauke, his wife Elke supports him. She manages to make him heard. But Hauke does not enjoy his success for long, because when it becomes known that his plans are much more radical, he is met with incomprehension and anger. Resistance and pressure wear on him. Disaster can no longer be averted.

The story of a German singer named Willie, who while working in Switzerland, falls in love with a Jewish composer named Robert, whose family is helping people to flee from the Nazis. Robert’s family is skeptical of Willie, thinking she could be a Nazi as she becomes famous for singing the song “Lili Marleen”.

The life story of Italian violinist and composer, Niccolò Paganini, who rose to fame as a virtuoso in the early 19th Century.

This fully archival journey through the 35 years of Alfredo Stroessner’s regime in Paraguay reveals unseen footage and explores one of the longest-running dictatorships in history, whose effects still resonate today.

In Northern Norway during the 1860s, a little girl named Dina accidentally causes her mother's death. Overcome with grief, her father refuses to raise her, leaving her in the care of the household servants. Dina grows up wild and unmanageable, with her only friend being the stable boy, Tomas. She summons her mother's ghost and develops a strange fascination with death as well as a passion for living.

Motel Destino, a sex hotel in Northern Brazil, is run by the hot-headed Elias and his restless wife, Dayana. When a young gang member on the run named Heraldo stays at the motel, Dayana becomes intrigued with him. As the two navigate a dance of power and desire, a dangerous plan for freedom emerges.

One of the most spectacular and renowned conductors of the 1930s, Wilhelm Furtwangler's reputation rivaled that of Toscanini's. After the war, he was investigated as part of the Allies' de-Nazification programme. In the bombed-out Berlin of the immediate post-war period, the Allies slowly bring law and order to bear on an occupied Germany. An American major is given the Furtwangler file, and is told to find everything he can and to prosecute the man ruthlessly. Tough and hard-nosed, Major Steve Arnold sets out to investigate a world of which he knows nothing.

Suzanne Simonin describes her life of suffering in letters. As a young woman she is sent to a convent against her will. Since her parents cannot afford the dowry required for a marriage befitting her rank they decide she must instead become a nun. Although a kind and understanding Mother Superior helps her to learn the convent’s daily routine, Suzanne’s desire for freedom remains unabated. When the Mother Superior dies, Suzanne finds herself faced with reprisals, humiliation and harassment at the hands of the new Abbess and the other Sisters. For many years, Suzanne is subjected to bigotry and religious fanaticism. (Berlinale.de)

An "adults only" retelling of the legend of the Three Musketeers.

The global war on terror rages on. When a government official goes missing, Lance, a man with an impressive record of service to his country, finds himself protecting the man who embodies everything he has dedicated his life to fight against.

A multi-episode movie based on the skit TV show "bullyparade".

Nightclub owner and erotic dancer Rita Blue uses her place as a front for working undercover as a spy. Motivated by her vehement hatred of men that stems from having been sexually abused as a child, Rita and her seductive female cohorts not only gleefully torture guys as a means to obtain vital information, but also manhandle wealthy men in order to make them hand over their fortunes to them.

Götz Kubitschek is right-wing conservative, he says. Right-wing extremist, say others. He is an author, publisher and thought leader of the New Right. And above all one thing: German.

In Hamburg, German-Greek chef Zinos unknowingly disturbs the peace in his locals-only restaurant by hiring a more talented chef.

A documentary about Roland Emmerich, the most commercially successful German director in Hollywood, released on the occasion of his 70th birthday. It offers rare insights into his professional career and private life, covering his rise as a blockbuster filmmaker, his personal relationships, family background, and life in the US and Europe. The film also looks back at his early work, including his 1984 directorial debut The Noah’s Ark Principle, and reflects on themes such as dreams, identity, politics, and the rules of the film industry.

When odd reports are received through official channels stating that the President of the United States is being held captive on a secret international moon base called Vegan and that he has been replaced on Earth by a clone, the US Marshall Service immediately sends their 'best' man, Dix, on the mission.

A German stage actor finds unexpected success and mixed blessings in the popularity of his performance in a Faustian play as the Nazis take power in pre-WWII Germany. As his associates and friends flee or are ground under by the Nazi terror, the popularity of his character supercedes his own existence until he finds that his best performance is keeping up appearances for his Nazi patrons.

A young man upsets his Punjabi family when he falls in love with an Irish schoolteacher.

White crosses, taped over mouths, screaming protesters. Since the death of her father, teenager Marie is regularly taken to anti-abortion protests by her dogmatic mother. Then Marie accidentally becomes pregnant herself. In the midst of a family still overshadowed by trauma, Marie struggles with the decision for or against an abortion. Together with her sister Lola, she fights to find her own voice.

A woman lives in a small village in Russia. One day she receives the parcel she sent to her husband, serving a sentence in prison. Confused and angered, she sets out to find why her package was returned to sender.

In their third cinema adventure the Famous Five are searching for a pirate treasure...

A mysterious serial killer is shocking the underworld. Scotland Yard is investigating the case. Clues lead the detectives to Blackwhite Castle.

A semi-documentary experimental 1930 German silent film created by amateurs with a small budget. With authentic scenes of the metropolis city of Berlin, it's the first film from the later famous screenwriters/directors Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann.

After dealing with the Shut in the Balkans, Kara Ben-Nemsi ('Karl the German') receives a firman (precious passport) from the padishah (Ottoman sultan) before he continues his travels through Kurdistan. Achmed El Corda, the son of Halef's Hadedhin Beduin tribe's sheik Mohammed Emin, has been captured by the machredsh (Turkish governor) of Mossul for resisting water seizure by his Turkish troops. Kara takes charge of the rescue.

Can Cleo turn back time? It seems that misfortune has been haunting her loved ones since she was born. A legendary treasure sounds like the solution to her problems, but Cleo will have to let go of the past.

11-year-old Rocca, a clever, creative and brave girl who lives all by herself in defiance of her teachers and the authorities has to fight to keep her independence and prove to everyone that a child also has the power to change the world.

After aspiring poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe fails his law exams, he's sent to a sleepy provincial court to reform. Instead, he falls for Lotte, a young woman who is promised to another man.

This is the last of the infamous German "Schoolgirl Report" movies. The story involves a bunch of teenagers and their teacher rehearsing "Romeo and Juliet" and discussing tales of modern love.

A serial killer whose mother was a prostitute starts killing streetwalkers as a way of paying back his mother for her abuse.

Michael Lynch is a notorious criminal with two wives and a flair for showmanship. He's also a huge embarrassment to the local police, who are determined to bring him down once and for all.

Taking his kids to school with the car, Berlin real estate developer Karl gets a call from a blackmailer: If he doesn’t pay up, the car will blow up. A deadly race against time begins.

Tis is the 8th part of series. Another story based on what real-life German teenagers schoolgirls of the day were up to...

A fearsome 19th century bandit, Cobra Verde cuts a swath through Brazil until he arrives at the sugar plantation of Don Octávio Countinho. Not knowing that his new guest is the notorious bandit and impressed by his ruthless ways, Don Octávio hires Cobra Verde to oversee his slaves. But when Cobra Verde impregnates Don Octávio’s three daughters, the incensed plantation owner exiles the outlaw to Africa where he is expected to reopen the slave trade. Following his trans-Atlantic journey, Cobra Verde exploits tribal conflicts to commandeer an abandoned fortress and whips an army of naked warriors into a frenzied bloodlust as he vies for survival.

This Lost World is a splendid BBC TV dramatisation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous adventure story. Bob Hoskins makes an unusually genial Professor Challenger, far less of a bully than Doyle's character, but his slightly stereotyped companions are nicely filled out by a solid cast. James Fox is Challenger's more timid but still covertly adventurous rival, Tom Ward is the moustachioed big game hunter who faces an Allosaurus with an elephant gun, and Matthew Rhys plays the tagalong reporter hoping to impress his faithless fiancée.

When a shipment of heroin disappears between Italy and New York, a small-time pimp in Milan is framed for the theft. Two professional hitmen are dispatched from New York to find him, but the real thieves want to get rid of him before the New York killers get to him to eliminate any chance of them finding out he's the wrong man.

The young wife Silvia is neglected by her husband Kurt. She dreams during the flight to a psychoanalyst Congress similarly Jong's heroine Isadora while reading a novel called emancipatory joy of flying in a world of its own. Then she has an affair with the businessman Jörg. It recognizes that the total of all sexual acting out day and night dreams anyone yet alone makes to a free people.

Comic artist Brösel trades a magic pen that helps him come up with funny stories for the promise to fulfill one of Rumpelstiltskin's wishes. The resulting animated films show episodes of the life of Werner, a plumber apprentice and motorbike enthusiast and his friends. They are interspersed with the live-action portions.

Expelled student Mia and her pet rat Quentin arrive at Rotwood Academy, where she's the only human among monster classmates. With Principal Van Vlad's hatred of humans, she must team up with monsters to thwart his schemes.

Wim Wenders' homage to Lisbon and films. A sound engineer obtains a mysterious postcard from a friend who at the moment is filming a film in Lisbon. He sets out across Europe to find him and help him.

Wherever 9-year-old Benni ends up, she is expelled. She has become what child protection services call a “system crasher.” But she is not looking to change her ways, and has one goal: go back home to her mother. When anger management trainer Micha is hired to help, suddenly there is hope.

Paralysed by fear of the future, a middle aged French bureaucrat escapes to Brazil where a destructive affair with a boy forces her to learn to live in the present.

Seven more first-hand accounts of sexual awakening amongst school girls in the early Seventies.

German director Wim Wenders tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu and finds a very different city.

With exclusive behind-the-scenes access into Herzog’s everyday life, rare archive material and in-depth interviews with celebrated collaborators – including Christian Bale, Nicole Kidman, and Robert Pattinson, we are given an exciting glimpse into the work and personal life of the iconic artist.

To be able to travel to Europe and find the love of his life, Sam Ali, a Syrian refugee, accepts to have his back tattooed by one of the most sulfurous contemporary artist; becoming that way a precious work of art.

What a man is a comedy that tells the story of a young professor, Alex (Matthias Schweighofer), who after being left by his girlfriend Caroline (Mavie Hörbiger), begins a journey to know himself. But how do you overcome the difficulties of a man today? Or rather what is it that makes a man a man?

16-year-old Maria is forced into Serra D'Aires convent, secretly run by Satanists.

An aggressive race of aliens took over Planet Earth and humanity's at its end, living in giant bunkers below ground. Young Military rookie S.U.M.1 (Iwan Rheon) is sent to the surface to save a group of unprotected survivors.

Seven friends - three women and four men - meet for dinner. Everyone should put their cell phone on the table. No matter what message comes in - anyone can read it and listen to the phone calls. However, this leads to a lot of chaos.

Following her parents' death, Vanessa was raised in a convent. Due to an inheritance, she travels to Hong Kong to learn that she inherited a chain of bordellos. Soon, Vanessa has trouble coping as she's thrust into her new world of carnal delights.

The hobby detectives “The Three Investigators” want to take a little break. So they take advantage of an offer from Peter's father, who has accepted a job in South Africa and wants to take the detectives there. But Jupiter, Peter and Bob wouldn't be the three investigators marks feared by the criminal world if they just lounged around in the sun on their vacation. So it's no wonder that the clever boys soon have their next case to solve...

The Alps, late 19th century. Greider, a mysterious lone rider who claims to be a photographer, arrives at an isolated lumber village, despotically ruled by a family clan, asking for winter accommodation.

Three women head home to collect their inheritance, but they stumble upon a group of witches trying to bring their vampire leader back to life.

Maria marries a young soldier in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. She must rely on her beauty and ambition to navigate the difficult post-war years alone.