Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

Presented as a forbidden TV broadcast, this horror anthology revives unsettling short films from the world.

Four years after the end of the German Democratic Republic, Katarina Witt, two-time Olympic champion, is planning her comeback to prove to herself and to a united Germany that she still has what it takes. To do this, she has to team up with her former coach Jutta Müller and complete the toughest training of her life.

Once again, 16-year-old Jonas starts at a new school and, as always, he has no intention of being anybody’s darling. Jonas has muscular dystrophy, is confined to a wheelchair and knows that he will die sooner rather than later from this incurable and progressive disease. His mother Alma, who raises Jonas alone and would rather take a second job than forego therapy for him, is determined to delay his deterioration. She has placed Jonas with Dr. Wildenhahn, an authority on Duchenne disease. The doctor manages to be taken seriously by Jonas, that is until he gets to know Emily, Marianne Wildenhahn's daughter, who goes to his class. Emily has a massively low academic grade, which she hides from her mother because of the doctor’s high standards. Emily falls in love with Jonas, and her sincere affection gives him the courage to love her back. Emily and Jonas become a couple, overcoming all obstacles.

A young journalist researches the life of his father which leads him to path of contradictions until he uncovers a gruelling truth.

Sissi and Theo are different, as one can hardly be more different. Theo, an intolerant, purposeful businessman who keeps people at bay, and Sissi, a young woman who has not yet found her way and still lives with her mother, would probably never have met if Theo did not go blind. Sissi is in rehearsal as a rehab trainer for the blind and Theo her first student.

Kummerow, a village in North East Germany, around 1900: Mean-spirited miller Düker wants to drive cowherd Krischan out of the village. Being popular with the local children, Krischan can rely on the help of schoolboys Martin and Johannes and their friends, who try to prevent the miller's plans by playing pranks on him.

This scenic documentary attempts to reconstruct the last days of Jesus Christ - from his arrival in Jerusalem to his death on the cross. But what is faith and what is historical? The narrative begins with the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem with a small group of followers, continues with the scandal in the temple, the provocation of the Jewish rulers, the trial before the Roman prefect and the execution of the sentence.

Silvia, a successful architect and single mother of nine-year-old Marc, is about to marry her colleague Rolf. Just now, after years of silence, Marc's father Ricardo, a rich South American entrepreneur's son, shows up.

Documentary reports on the annual icing of the Oder in the 160-kilometer border area between the GDR and the People's Republic of Poland. Icebreakers from both countries with experienced skippers join forces to make the international waterway between Frankfurt and Szczecin navigable again. Everyone works hard as a team and even a broken-down ship cannot stop them from achieving their goal. A look back at the winter of 1947 with its flooding shows what the freezing of the river and the subsequent thaw can do if the ice floes are not drained into the Baltic Sea via Lake Dammsch in good time. The skippers from both countries have known each other for years and trust each other; the camaraderie that has developed on the Oder unites the people, they control the river in winter for the common benefit of all.

Unfortunately, Fanny can only enjoy her unexpected wealth for a short time. The tax office asks her to pay a hefty inheritance tax. Because of the valuable property, she has to pay far more than she was bequeathed in cash. Debts again - and her "crazy" half-brother Elias on top of that? She would like to get rid of him as quickly as possible.

April 1945. In a dramatic operation the SS transports 139 special prisoners, and kin of the prisoners, into the Alps. The plan: to use the prisoners as bargaining chips in possible negotiations with the Allies. During the journey a number of prisoners plan their escape and experience six days between liberty and death, their fates in the hands of ruthless and increasingly nervous criminals. But the hostages band together and turn the tables with a clever ploy: they call in the Wehrmacht to aid them…

Relations between middle-aged businessman Arthur Dahlberg and his young wife Anja are not at their best. So it occurred to them to leave their Hamburg home and go on vacation to the Côte d'Azur to revitalize their relationship. But Arthur Dahlberg, even on vacation, is obsessed with running his business. Meanwhile, Anya meets the young writer Roy Benter.

Kati leaves her hometown - a small provincetown in northwestern Germany - to live in the city of Hamburg. Being about 18 years old she has just finished school and seeks her freedom away from home. She knows she loves women but never dared to live accordingly. In Hamburg she soon finds a lover and a good friend, too, and the strength to face the narrow-minded people at home. After struggling with it for some time she returns for a visit to tell at least her mother and best friend.

Follows the lives of students and their teachers based on the director's childhood memories. The events of the film take places in the actual boarding school called "Gymnasium Canisianum", founded in 1946 by a German catholic priest.

The shady businessman Klaus Mandel (Christopher Waltz) spends time in Belgium prison for allegedly having set fire to a building in an insurance scam, that cost the live of an accountant. In order to get time off, Mandel offers to testify against his former partner and best friend Krieger (Matthias Redlhammer). Retired Cop Schimanski (Götz George), now living on a houseboat in Belgium, is asked to transport Mandel across the border to Germany and hand him over to the authorities there. Schimanski agrees reluctantly, but the pair – snobbish Mandel and proletarian Schimanski, who once attempted to book Mandel – make uneven travel-companions. The journey is interrupted when a pair of Romanian hit men tries to kill Mandel. Now tied together by handcuffs, Schimanski and Mandel have to find their way to safety via car, train or on foot.

During her internship in a remote clinic in the Allgäu region, the young psychology student Lea immerses herself in a mysterious world of unorthodox therapy methods and demonic traditions.

Franziska's decision between career and family is made easier when her childhood friend Marie, an ambitious fashion designer, moves in with her to take care of the chaotic children together with her lively, lively mother-in-law Alma. When it turns out that Franziska and Marie are expecting a child by the same man, the women's relationship is put to the test.

A Swedish village in the 18th Century: the seemingly idyll is disturbed by a group of soldiers they appear to beware their heavily injured comrade from death. Despite of first hospitality the arrivals notice that the villagers are not only devout, it seems that they hide a dark secret. As the mysterious events become more frequent, the suspicion stays inevitable: some villagers seem to believe in another God.

The famous Hamburg psychiatrist Dr. Magnus Sorel is in a deep crisis. Not only that his Serbo-Croatian patient Masha has reported him for sexual assault. Magnus is also struggling with blackmail: a stranger has stolen his diaries, which reveal his innermost desires and abysses. The well-known psychotherapist is an obsessional neurotic who can only with difficulty hide his disgust from his fellow man. After a failed appearance on "Günther Jauch", Magnus tried to use force to bring the stolen diaries back into his possession. But he has to rethink in order to solve his problems.

A police woman goes undercover and enters a kamasutra retreat whose leader has been murdered by an ancient Indian dagger. As she makes new friends, she finds herself entagled in a web of intrigues.

The inconspicuous greengrocer's daughter Maria had to watch as the adored Italian Pietro broke her best friend's heart. Dressed up as a vamp, the vengeful Maria now sets a cunning trap for the attractive Papagallo. Maria is the daughter of a small German fruit and vegetable dealer, Pietro is the son of a large Italian fruit and vegetable dealer. Both live in Munich and both meet every morning at six o'clock in the Grossmarkthalle. Maria looks inconspicuous, while Pietro looks extremely attractive. Maria is hardly interested in men, whereas Pietro is interested in all girls. Maria doesn't care until Pietro first seduces Maria's best friend and then leaves her unhappy. Now Maria starts a campaign of revenge against the light-footed Casanova, in the name of her best friend and in the name of all the girls who have been seduced by Pietro. Maria lures Pietro, who is now madly in love with her, to his native Italy, where Pietro, blinded by love and jealousy, proposes to Maria.

Freelance journalist Jan Schulte hopes for a job at the online portal of Berlin newspaper “Die Republik” when he discovers a potential scandal. Federal minister of health Elisabeth Stade apparently helped her brother’s search for a heart transplant by moving him up the waiting list illegally. But then Schulte’s colleague Britta claims the compromising material is a fake. Editor-in-chief Weishaupt and publisher Winter refuse to run the article. As Jan keeps on digging into the scandal, investigating state secretary Katharina Pflüger and political advisor Frank Gruber, his evidence is suddenly stolen from the newspaper office, and soon a competing tabloid breaks the story...

Two twin brothers working in a Vienna fair and who are both gifted for singing meet different luck both in love and their careers.

A man travels to Berlin because his ex girlfriend is in a coma. He takes their son, Manuel. The father goes to the clinic often and Manuel feels out of place, so he prefers to ride his skateboard through the city in winter. The speechless and motionless body of the woman disturbs father and son, each one in his own way. The son faces the libidinous turbulences of becoming an adult, while the father suffers the physical discomforts of his age. A confrontation of different body images within an environment of emotional distance and the coldness of the city.

Like every year, Maike and her husband Sören invite family and friends over for New Year's Eve. This time, however, the raclette dinner turns out differently than the meticulously planned Maike had hoped: In addition to the cheese, all three couples sitting at the table reveal hard-to-digest truths and intimate secrets.

London at the time of the War of the Spanish Succession. Queen Anne's followers are divided into two factions: one side, led by Lord Bolingbroke, is pushing for peace talks and a quick reconciliation with France; the other side, led by the influential Duchess of Marlborough, is in favor of continuing the war. Queen Anne herself is still undecided, and so a game of intrigue unfolds at court between Bolingbroke and Marlborough, each trying to win the queen over to his side.

Daniel, a young man from the provinces come to the city and moves from one gay subculture to the next. His adventures begin on the streets of Berlin, where the shy brunette Daniel meets the blonde Clemens, who invites him home for coffee and offers him a place to stay. Soon Daniel is living with Clemens and believes he has found the love of his life. The two try to imitate a bourgeois marriage and its lifestyle. But after four months of tedium, Daniel is cruised by a rich older man who entices him to move into his villa, where he encounters a group of older gays, pretentious in their appreciations of fine art and classical music, who fawn over him.

A teenage girl helps an escaped fugitive flee Germany into France, after extracting a promise that he will help her commit suicide.

After a small sample of fabric, the eternal student and occasional dealer Paul ends up in the emergency room. Enraged, father Willi takes his offspring back to his sleepy Westphalian home, where foxes and rabbits still say goodnight to each other. He locks him up in the dog kennel on his farm and makes him memorize a doctor's novel to get him out of his head and teach him about real life. But not only Paul's girlfriend Lena, but also two dealers miss Paul and set off in search of him...

Augustus is reputed to have been a violent, adventurous, power-hungry and unscrupulous warlord. Yet as founder of the Roman Empire, he ushered in a period of peace and prosperity. Drawing on the analysis of several historians, this documentary traces an extraordinary destiny: posthumously adopted by his great-uncle Julius Caesar, Octavian, the future Augustus, accepted an inheritance fraught with consequences. Having made his own empire prosper, he wrote his political will at the age of 76, without naming an heir. How was the succession of this childless strategist organized?

Tokyo, the largest city in the world, wants to create a new urban culture. It is returning to the urban traditions and building techniques of the small town. The aim is to create a new balance between megacity and small-scale garden city. Tokyo's architects are the driving force. They want to create a new urban culture with revolutionary ideas.

Nina and Paul's marriage is over, they are just waiting for an opportunity to teach it their son Tim. During a chance encounter, Nina flirts with Viktor, her son's hockey coach, and goes with him to his house. A decision with serious consequences because Nina is nearly raped, defends herself and kills Viktor in the process. Paul followed the two and witnesses the misfortune, what makes a self-defense situation implausible for others. Agitated, the two drive home without notifying the police. While the investigations begin in the background and there is hardly any other topic in the circle of acquaintances of the other hockey parents, Nina and Paul have to stick together and assort new. Through the confrontation with the events and the solidarity as a "couple of crime" they find each other again in the course of the story. But can they also live with this guilt?

A man who receives a treasure map by accident is now looking for the treasure. Whilst searching he has to deal with gangsters, a devious widow, a corrupt policeman and a pretty policewoman - no, she doesn't matter.

In an apartment building in Nuremberg, Germany, a night amongst four young adults has just begun. Talk, laughter, and a few intravenous shots to escape and fly towards another place. But one amongst them seems to have not returned from his trip. The jury speaks: His heart is no longer beating, the dose seems to have been fatal. What are they to do now? How should they get rid of the body? A solution is found, make him fly, but the landing turns out to be not so soft for those left behind.

A road movie about a dropout who leaves himself completely to chance. A parable about freedom, self-determination and the poetry of an undefined life.

Jürgen Matthes, Horst Knüpfer, Peter Vorberger - three men of different ages who are entrusted with the same large-scale IT project. In the context of this project, they begin to reflect on their work, the quality of human relationships and the meaning of life in general.

A young woman solemnly swears to remain a virgin for ever until it is clearly demonstrated to her that such a view contradicts the course of the world and is thus foolishly advocated.

A woman comes to America from Germany through unfortunate circumstances and has to go through a number of experiences and changes.

Mr. Taschenbier's life is turned upside down when he meets the "Sams" one day.

Facing the loss of her youthfulness, Matilda finds herself at a turning point in her life. Refreshing encounters and unexpected longings force her to face rigid self-understandings with new openness. A surprising and empathetic look at the lives of young adults.

Jurgen is an unknown electrician with a dream of pop stardom. His mother browbeats him into fame, while two managers compete for his contract. All Johnny really wants to do is get some sleep.

Silvia and Harlequin, two young peasants, are in love. The Prince, who is also enamoured of Silvia, will test their feelings. Will the rural world withstand the corruption of the court and its rewards? Marcel Bluwal directed a prestigious television adaptation, filmed in a natural setting, with a star-studded cast.

A musician is offered a job in Vienna as stage director, but his disagreements with the aristocratic opera manager end in abrupt firing in spite of a mutual attraction. He's quickly engaged by another theatre and becomes famous for his lavish stage productions and fine acting, which begins their golden age with Suppé and Strauss.

Victoria Stellmann, head of a traditional cruise shipping company, leads a happy but routine family life. But then she meets the charming Jacques and gets involved in an affair. The angry awakening does not leave long to wait, her lover proves to be an unscrupulous blackmailer. He threatens to publish a video of her night of love. Victoria starts to flee to the front.

In a world where humanity counts for nothing, a man has lost his value for society and is therefore to be transformed into an uncaring artificial intelligence.

The Scorpions were one of the first rock bands from Germany, which also gained international fame. This documentary covers the history of the band.

Julia moves with her family to the remote courtyard of her deceased sister. Despite the gruesome memory, she hopes for a reconciliation with her traumatic past. But for Julia her sister Jette remains omnipresent. She soon believes she hears her voice and increasingly has doubts about the alleged suicide. Julia tries to figure out what happened in the last days before Jette's death and identifies more and more with her. She believes that only one last desperate act can save them all. But evil has many faces.

When the body of a postman is found on Lake Neusiedl, the investigation shows that it is probably a robbery, and several of the villagers fall into the circle of suspects: Five young men now need an alibi. Walter was with Elisabeth on the night of the murder, but cannot rely on her support. She is not only the sister of Stephan, who is also suspected, but also the fiancée of the gendarme who is leading the investigation into the case.

An international gang of gun dealers in the USA has stolen the prototype of a laser rifle from a German laboratory. The FBI agent Cormoran is being sent to recover the state-of-the-art and highly effective weapon. But there are some indications that he has defected to the enemy. Since agent 007 is currently on another mission, the chief of intelligence has to fall back on his second best man, the previous number 006. And so the German secret agent John Krim is given the assignment to get the rifle back, find evidence of Cormoran’s treachery and finally eliminate the colleague. Krim’s journey takes him across the ocean, and there he experiences incredible adventures in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Two women get in his way, and Krim can’t be sure whether he can trust them or whether they too are working for the other side.