Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

Sonja is struggling to deal with her parent separation, and find her feelings for her best friend might not just be a phase.

Jenny, an employee in a mail-order company for plants, is completely at peace with herself, her figure and a few extra pounds. Jenny enjoys life and is passionate about dancing. After an accident while dancing, she has to go to rehab and meets the well-known fitness influencer Timo Neuwirth. He falls head over heels in love with the patient. But painful and exhausting hurdles stand in the way of their happiness together - partly under the scrutiny of millions of users on the Internet.

In the Greenland ice sheet we can see our future. The film travels with three pioneering glaciologist on their expeditions INTO the inland ice of Greenland. Top-notch science meets breathtaking visuals when one of them descends into a 200 meter deep moulin hole to find out about the bottom of the ice sheet. What they find may sound the alarm for our planet's climate and is a clear call to act now.

Two friends drive through the Balkans in two American cars to sell them in Cairo. At times, their friendship is put to the test when a woman they have taken with them tries to exploit them for her own "business" purposes.

At his uncle’s behest, the young Karl-Heinrich, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Karlsburg, is sent to Heidelberg to study for a year. After a joyless youth in the gloomy, stately Karlsburg Castle, the prince embarks on the most carefree period of his life. He falls hopelessly in love with Käthi, the charming daughter of his landlords. But duty calls: the prince is gravely ill, and Karl-Heinrich must return to assume his duties as heir apparent and future ruler.

In WWII Munich, Anna works for a Nazi family as a nanny but secretly steals food and cigarettes and bring those to a Jewish family, who hides from the Nazis. One day, the family is discovered and only by chance can Anna save the family's only daughter, Franziska. Together they escape to Anna's native village where Anna tells everybody that Franziska is her daughter...

Rainer Berg is a frozen food delivery man who has been let down by life. He has withdrawn from the world in order to avoid emotional trauma. His outlook on life is shaken when he is assigned a new colleague, ex-hairdresser Moerer, who turns out to be a pain in the neck. "This van is too small for two!" But it's no use, Berg can only get rid of his annoying co-driver once he has turned him into a good salesman, according to the new boss. Team spirit is suddenly required from the cold-ass misanthrope Berg.

A nearly illiterate woman becomes one of the founders of Poland's Solidarity union.

A Bremen production of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Torquato Tasso". The theme of the drama is—in addition to the love of the young Tasso for the Princess of Este, the Duke's sister—the role of the poet in courtly society.

In this documentary, 6 protagonists tell their personal experiences of abortion and sterilization, from unplanned pregnancy to a happy mother and vice versa from the wanted child to regretting motherhood.

A series of bizarre deaths keeps an English village in suspense. Scotland Yard's best man is soon convinced: there's a killer at work! In Ashdown Dean - a village where no murder ever happens - Lady Agatha Ardry suddenly discovers one body after another.

Former revolutionary Pat and sex worker Meg run a brothel in 1950s Dublin. In addition to five girls and two gay men, the old IRA general Musjö and Mr. Muleady also live in their establishment. One evening, two IRA fighters drag in a prisoner. The hostage is Leslie Williams, a young British soldier who was captured in Northern Ireland and is now to be exchanged for an IRA member...

This documentary recounts the life and work of one of most famous, and yet reviled, German film directors in history, Leni Riefenstahl. The film recounts the rise of her career from a dancer, to a movie actor to the most important film director in Nazi Germany who directed such famous propaganda films as Triumph of the Will and Olympiad. The film also explores her later activities after Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945 and her disgrace for being so associated with it which includes her amazingly active life over the age of 90.

A female teenager witnesses a murder in a desolate high density housing area on the outskirts of Berlin and is henceforth in danger.

It was one of the great crimes of the Second World War: from 1941 to 1944, a total of 872 days, the siege and starvation of Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht on Hitler's orders lasted. Over a million people fell victim to the blockade, most of them dying of hunger. Countless of these starving people wrote diaries with the last of their strength, and cameramen filmed in the paralyzed city. Evidence from the hell of the siege, many of the film recordings, but above all the written memories on which this documentary on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation is based, remained under lock and key after the war. The voices of those who had suffered through this terrible time should not be heard by anyone, because they did not fit the pathos of the Leningrad heroic song that was officially sung. Most of the recordings come from women. The writers feared neither the enemy nor the Communist Party or Stalin, who often proved incompetent in providing for the population.

Sister Angelika has the power of life or death over her former tormentor, now sick and placed in her care.

The moral is simple: keep your mouth shut, especially when you're working during the wartime in a factory, which produces racing cars only, or someone can (or even must) get murdered. Not a good movie, not a bad either. The ending is abrupt and artificial, which seems to be a common plague of Third Reich's crime movies. Gustav Fröhlich could never get rid of his silent era mannerisms and overacting. But on the other side, this film is not boring and has to offer some decent plot turns and acting.

A gambling-drama based on Dostoevsky’s works: The retired General Kirileff is addicted to gambling and also has a costly affair. He takes out a loan from the greedy imposter Vincent, for which he is to pay an exorbitant interest rate. Vincent, for his part, wants to get closer to Kirileff’s daughter Nina, who is to inherit her grandmother’s fortune one day. Nina tries to help her father and goes to the gambling tables, only to lose a lot of money. She asks Alexej, her father’s secretary, to play for her. Alexej is in love with Nina and would do anything for her. He plays; at first loses; then asks Nina to get Vincent out of there. Once that happens, he wins a large amount of money, becomes overbearing and treats Nina like a prostitute.

Puck and Jasko explore their bodies for the first time. Sexworker Jorge feels shy towards porn performer Bishop. Kate & Adrienne end their poly-relationship & dive into a bittersweet sexual en-counter. The film offers an intimate perspective in the discourse about gender diversity and sex-positivity.

Though originally slated for a 1960 release, the full original film was only released in 1988. A heavily altered version with a different directors was released under the title Die Nacht am See in 1963.

What do parents think first when the room of a 15-year-old is empty on Sunday morning? The fact that he secretly goes to church, brings his otherwise open-minded patchwork family together: what's going on in the child's head? While Ulrike C. Tscharre wants to be the indignant mother of the pastor, Ben Braun proposes in the role of the casual stepfather before a self-experience trip in the distance.

Elisabeth von Holbach is what you would call a tough top lawyer who knows all the tricks of the trade. So at first it seems like child's play when she is commissioned by a financially strong client to persuade the farmer Karl Lindner to sell his farm. She uses an excuse to make the acquaintance of the headstrong Karl and does everything she can to put him under financial pressure. But then something happens that nobody expected, least of all Elisabeth herself...

Doro is young, beautiful and a trained opera singer that gets by with occasional jobs. Her neighbour, a former criminal detective, is dying and she cares for him in his last moments. His dying wish is to see his son Michael. Doro fulfills the old man's wish and they meet for the first time since twenty years.

Based on a true story of inmates at KZ Buchenwald that risked their lives to hide a small Jewish boy shortly before the liberation of the camp.

Franziska Wellmer has been happily married for several years and has a teenage daughter. At a class reunion, she celebrates 20 years of graduation with seven former schoolmates, but is drugged and raped. When she wakes up the next morning, she no longer knows what happened, only that something terrible has happened. When the police fail to make any progress in their investigation, Franziska investigates on her own and sets her sights on her seven classmates. One of them must be brought to justice.

Anna went to an open audition for a TV show, hoping for her big break. Shortly after the audition has started, the film assistant discovers that the camera is not only showing the ongoing casting but show also some brutal & gruesome film snippets of murder, raping & slaying. All hell break lose when the film crew find out about the origins of this material. Will Anna survive this casting of death?

Two boys are helping the border guards to find a mysterious moor hound used by spies to transfer messages across the border.

Frank Schuster has built a life of prosperity for his family, but his workaholism made to pass some time with her. Only after a car accident will be able to reconsider

Felix, now in his late twenties, always knew that he would get married at some point. Now he is convinced that he has found the woman for life in his long-time girlfriend Fabienne. But no sooner has he persuaded Fabienne not only to marry him, but also to have a romantic wedding with all the trimmings, than the preparations for the big event turn out to be an explosive minefield. Surrounded by to-do lists and discussions about family names, the inevitability of events sends Felix into a panic. Suddenly all the women seem to be smiling at him invitingly, and when the fascinating Johanna reappears in his life, Felix cannot resist the temptation. He wonders whether it's really just a guilty conscience that drives him to tell Fabienne about his infidelity between the registry office and the altar.

Criminal investigator Philip Nabrow is tasked with solving the murder of two police officers. When the case starts to focus on a boxing club, his daughter Elisa, who works in the drug squad, also becomes involved. Cooperation between father and daughter proves difficult, as Nabrow has a secret that he wants to hide, and not just from Elisa.

A resourceful landlady rents the same room to two men: the commercial clerk Zimt, who is at work during the day, and the conductor of a café orchestra Zucker, who has to work all night. After all kinds of turbulence, the trick comes to light and the two bitter enemies Zucker and Zimt eventually become good friends.

A former bank clerk conceives a one-man robbery at the bank he works. He had before established an alibi for himself pretending and declaring him legally dead. Further complications ensue when he rejoins his estranged wife.

A singer tired of the stage retreats to a hotel in the country. There, she finds love and a way back into show business.

A humorous and satirical comedy, which places a man from the year 2222 one day in the (then) present day life in GDR, East Germany under Communist regime. Using a crystal for mind reading he uncovers some improprieties and moral weaknesses in the "Beautiful future" professed by VEB ("Volkseigener Betrieb" – "State Owned Holdings").

About a civilian who is press-ganged into a machine-gunner's squadron and transformed into the perfect soldier.

Patient No. 7, a man who has been wrongly committed to a psychiatric hospital for years, escapes and embarks on a chaotic journey through the outside world. Disguised as a painter, he causes uproar with his innocent yet eccentric behavior, disrupting the lives of strangers. Along the way, he befriends Marlene, a young woman fascinated by his unconventional charm, much to her jealous husband's frustration. As the line between sanity and madness blurs, the film humorously explores the absurdity of societal norms. Featuring a memorable cameo by Loriot, this quirky satire questions who’s truly "crazy."

The wealthy plantation owner Pinaud is brutally murdered in Ceylon. His attractive German wife Anne is suspected of the crime and arrested by Inspector Cerdan. He is ordered to take her to Colombo. But the plane on the way there gets caught in a heavy storm and crashes shortly afterwards. Anne Pinaud and Cerdan are the only survivors of the crew and save themselves on a desert island. There they come across Werner Becker, who has been shipwrecked with his yacht and is also stranded here. While Cerdan continues to believe Anne is guilty of the crime, Werner believes she is innocent. Soon the tension between the two men builds up and they become rivals for Anne's favor.

After his return from World War I, there is no more work for Fidelis in his parents' butcher shop in Swabia, Germany. To make a better life for himself and Eva, the former fiancée of a friend who fell in battle, he emigrates to Argus, a town in North Dakota, in the United States. The artist Delphine, in whom Eva will find a friend, also moves there. To relieve Eva's homesickness, Fidelis founds a singing club.

TV drama about a young girl who is sexually abused inside her own family

Divorced, widowed or long-term single: The participants of Flirtkurs 50plus the adult education center feel not yet old, but lonely. From the course, they hope for professional support for their attempts to find a new partner. But what trainer Jan trains with Julia, Frieda, Gila, and Britta, Friedrich, Heinz, and Ulf turns out to be far too mechanical for the individual needs and stories of the students. The course threatens to fail. But then the participants fire the coach and take the initiative themselves.

A short vacation should let the 17-year-old, deaf-mute Veronika forget the death of her beloved father, so the plan of her mother Christina. The place of recreation, however, is not chosen happily, due to lack of money: Gut Vorwald in the Sauerland region belongs to the mature nobleman Benno von Caldern, to whom Christina once pledged herself in her youth before meeting her future husband and renouncing Benno. Under the golden roof of autumnal oak crowns, the feelings of the past return, not without dramatic consequences.

Four nerve-wracking psychological thrillers in short film format. Cruel games with drastic endings. Each time a woman is involved, a knife, a murder...

Gibbi Westgermany is the name of a former sailor with a Mick Jagger look—leather jacket over the bare chest—who roams the Hamburg neighborhood St. Pauli homeless. His destination is a snack bar in St. Pauli run by his mother. But it is not the safe haven he is looking for.

Young Italian stud Franco comes to Munich to earn some money for his family in Italy. But soon he explores the local women, and besides his affairs he finds a new friend, George, a sex film producer.

In the 22nd Century, antiquities command huge prices. A woman uses a time machine to travel back the the 19th Century in order to buy paintings from Vincent Van Gogh before he was famous. Will she be wealthy upon her return?

She stood up to Alien: Sigourney Weaver has shown that women can put up a powerful fight. She became the mother of the modern action heroine in cinema. And a style icon. How did she achieve this?

Finally, vacation! Marianne, Franziska, and Bernhard Kleinschmidt are spending their holidays together with their friends Oliver and Petra Martens at their parents' vacation home. The young people have every reason to be in a good mood, but something is gnawing at the two young men—Oliver and Bernhard are in love.

It is set in a dreary village in the Schwabian-Frankish Forest where the seemingly reserved Lena lives with her tyrant of a husband, Johannes, in a loveless marriage. Johannes is the village's spiritual leader and Lena is his faithful, ever-ready-to-serve wife. Lena's daily life is characterized by grinding monotony, a life narrowly circumscribed by nursing, organ playing and the duties of the marriage bed. The mysterious murder of a village girl suddenly knocks this humdrum existence off its tracks. In the wake of these events Lena discovers the affection and tenderness for which she has always longed in Paul, the village mechanic. This encounter is the start of an emancipation that leads her not to reveal Paul's secret regarding the girl's murder, for fear of losing her newly won piece of happiness. In turn it means she has to remain silent, as she has always done in her many years of marriage. So it is that this love ultimately turns Lena herself into a fallen angel.