Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

Thirteen-year-old Jonas Ettenberger's parents were killed in a traffic accident. Now the Hamburg city boy has to live with his grandfather in the deepest Bavarian province by order of the youth welfare office. The boy finds it difficult to get used to country life and the Bavarian dialect, as does his widowed grandfather to his grandson, whom he has only just met. But Jonas quickly makes friends with his new classmate Julia Stelzer. In the meantime, Harald Messner, Jonas' uncle, finds out that his nephew has inherited a lot of money. Although he also lives in affluence in Munich, he and especially his new wife Sonja hope to get even more money through Jonas. They appeal to the youth welfare office for custody of the boy and are proved right. Jonas has to return to Munich, even though he is now very happy with Grandpa Ludwig and his housekeeper Rosi.

In Echigo, Japan, the snow often lies several feet deep well into May, covering landscapes and villages. Over the centuries, the inhabitants have organised their lives accordingly. In order to record their very distinctive forms of everyday life, their festivals, and religious rituals, Ulrike Ottinger journeyed to the mythical snow country – accompanied by two Kabuki performers. Taking the parts of the students Takeo and Mako, they follow in the footsteps of Bokushi Suzuki, who in the mid-19th century wrote his remarkable book “Snow Country Tales”.

What could be lovelier than Women's Lake - a magical summer setting near Berlin? Rosa, perhaps. She's the slightly melancholy guardian of the lake, spending her days in a boat, trapping fish and watching for poachers. Or her lover, the polished and prosperous Kirsten, with her perfect cottage on the shore of Frauensee. How does their relationship work, and what effect will the two young lesbians in the canoe have on it all? Thoughtful, complex and beautiful.

Nuclear security expert Katja Wernecke (Ulrike Folkerts) helps cover up a fire in the German nuclear reactor she works in, before the government takes a decision on extending the usage license for it. But the press uncovers it. PR man Steffen Stratmann (Matthias Koerbelin) is brought in to improve the companies image - but before he can implement his plan a nuclear meltdown occurs. 2m people have to be evacuated. Wernecke re-enters the hot zone to investigate the cause...

Driven by a personal interest in finding out how people deal with the sudden loss of their familiar structures and surroundings, director Jonas Kaufmann embarks on an emotional journey on behalf of Generation Z. A journey with the aim of finding the one inviolable point of human existence that gives us support when everything is lost. In our documentary, protagonist Roman Sachuk and Jonas Kaufmann take on the challenge of providing partial answers to the central questions of a generation in crisis.

JESUS CRIES is a modern adaptation of the New Testament. The story is set in a fictitious metropolis in the near future. The First and Third Worlds are reflected in one city. The divide between poor and wealthy continually grows. As insurrection begins, Jesus of Nazareth becomes the political and spiritual force behind change. He is arrested, tortured, and executed. After his death, his disciples are thrown into confusion with feelings of doubt and guilt. They fight over the interpretation of his teachings and their responsibility to his vision. Will they themselves move to action?

Directed by Harald Braun and told from the perspective of Bertha von Suttner, the first female to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, The Alfred Nobel Story - No Greater Love chronicles the life of scientist, inventor, and businessman Alfred Nobel. Nobel built a massive fortune throughout his life, and while much if it was amassed by his inventions--dynamite being perhaps the most notable--he was also revered for his discoveries within the fields of science and economics. Upon his death, Nobel decided that his fortune was simply too great to continue in the form of an inheritance or single charitable donation, opting instead to use the money as reward for the greatest contributors to physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and, of course, peace.

Nina Kern, a divorced woman in her late twenties, will soon be fully deprived of her custody rights for her three children, who already reside in a home for the displaced due to Nina’s many years of willful neglect. Although she has broken her promise to change her moral conduct many times, she is given one last chance on probation.

2014: Amuna (44) and her husband Aziz (48), an ISIS fighter, live as shepherds in the rural Syrian desert. When he takes a very young, European ISIS convert as his second wife, Amuna's everyday life is thrown into turmoil.

On June 8, 2024, Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard joined the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Arthur Honegger’s oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake), conducted by Alan Gilbert, performed at the Berliner Philharmonie in Berlin, Germany and broadcast live on Digital Concert Hall, the online concert hall of the Berliner Philharmonie. In the oratorio, Joan of Arc looks back on her life, her visions, and her successes during a show trial in which she is sentenced to be burned at the stake.

Remake of the silent film of 1921: The lord of a castle disappears after the return of two feuding brothers from a noble family. Suspicion falls on the recently returned brothers.

Bella is not a sad child. She lives out her promiscuity openly, smokes, drinks and is not averse to the occasional drug binge. But the really special thing about Bella is her appearance: she is a doll, barely more than half a meter tall, with red pigtails and a mischievous smile. Bella has also been best friends with stuffy Jana since childhood, but the two lost touch years ago. On the day of Jana's engagement, the formerly famous Bella - broke and homeless - unexpectedly bursts back into her life.

The former bank robber Wanja is released from a long prison sentence. As her feelings of loneliness escalate, Wanja sets out to find work and hereby a new identity. Against all odds she lands an internship at a horse race track. In the stable she gets to know the troubled teenager Emma, and a strong friendship develops between the two women. When Emma slips deeper into her own drug abuse, Wanja decides to rescue her.

Directed by Aleksandr Razumnyj.

Her father urges Greta to marry the noble lawyer Dr. Hans von Spoerling. But her former boyfriend Fred Roland is informed of the planned engagement and arrives from America just in time. Put under pressure from both parties, Greta leaves and hits the road. She ends up in Schlaffenhofen, a small village in Southern Bavaria. The attractive woman and her modern car - with Berlin's number plate 'IA' on it - is a small sensation. But the two fiancée haven't given up on her, especially since her father promised her to the first who finds her.

The Petermann family decides to take a family vacation to the sunny south. The Petermanns are grandfather, father Max, mother Biggi, children Stupsi, son Andy, and pretty Monika, Max Petermann's sister. They rent a speedy sled because Max Petermann has just gotten his driver's license. Not only are there various starting difficulties due to a lack of driving experience, but there is also a special case with the car: hidden deep in the upholstery are secret documents that a trio of gangsters are trying to smuggle abroad. A mix-up of the license plates causes some turbulence. Willi Polz is assigned by the trio to keep an eye on the Petermanns in order to secure the documents at the right opportunity. Of course, something always gets in the way on the trip to Bella Italia. The fact that Willi falls in love with the blonde Monika is the least surprising thing. But the grandfather's actions are the real sensation.

Some businessman of a software company moves to the seashore because his daughter suffers from asthma as her mother did before she died. He doesn't like the villagers and he doesn't want them to hold the Biikenbrennen like every year in front of his new house because it's too dangerous. Biikenbrennen is a fire which prevents the cursed ghost of Wavlew to steal a child as he did in the 15th century to receive all the belongings of the villagers. So fate happens. And the arrogant father has to get his daughter back. Without the help of the villagers.

Lawyer Thomas Neumann is extremely successful in his career and happily married to his wife Bettina. Nevertheless, he has a mistress on the side, who one day reveals to him that she wants him to have a child. Thomas agrees, but a sperm test reveals that he is infertile. Now he asks himself the question: who is the real father of his children? His brother Johannes, a priest, helps him to find out the truth. Thomas suspects two former friends with whom he and Bettina used to go on vacation. He invites them to his home so that he can carry out comparative studies in peace, as genetic testing didn't exist back then. One friend has gone mad, the other is blind. The two of them cause Thomas' household a great deal of confusion, especially as he has to entertain an important business partner from overseas at his home.

Belgrade, 2022: A photojournalist is threatened by right-wing extremist groups in her Serbian home and flees to Germany with her daughter. But then she also experiences increasing strong threats and attacks in her new home.

German TV comedy.

Judith leads a busy life with her daughter Lissi and her job as statistician.

A parcel carrier who has nothing to do with Christmas accidentally crosses paths with a petty thief and a mysterious little boy who doesn't speak. Nelly is stunned when Filou Sonny steals two bottles of whiskey and a vintage car from the petrol station where she has a second job. Nick, who suddenly appears between the shelves and doesn't say a word, distracts Nelly during the theft. Since she has to assume that Nick is Sonny's accomplice, she grabs the boy and takes him with her on the chase, receiving support from the elderly cab driver Gesine, who had just filled up her car at the gas station. When Nelly discovers the stolen vintage car by chance outside a villa, she sends Gesine back and asks her to look after the filling station while she is away.

A German wartime biography of Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the Diesel engine. The movie links the importance of the engine to the war by starting the movie with newsreel clips of German Navy U-boats in action.

After his colleague self-destructs by eating ice cream, android Clu tries to process his emotions.

Dark Legacy is a production in the tradition of the great masters of the genre, like Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter and not to forget Edgar Wallace, which understands itself as an experiment in Mystery & Horror. After a sudden and tragic lost in the family, four relatives of the deceased met again when the last will should be announced.

German television movie about an alcoholic university professor (Robert Atzorn).

Uwe Friessner’s first feature, At the End of the Rainbow, follows the exploits of a West Berlin teenager named Jimmi who ekes out a living through petty theft and part-time hustling, hangs out in punk clubs, and who, for reasons which this film subtly details, is thoroughly unemployable. Drawing on his own experience in trying to help a young runaway who eventually committed suicide, Friessner wrote into Jimmi’s story several older students who attempt to find work for him, and who give him shelter for a time in their commune.

A daft road movie about two aging thesps in search of Klopfenstein himself.

Thirteen-year-old Daniel lives with his older brother and terminally ill father in a village plagued by rural exodus. There, the young people live their lives between rare bus stops, xenophobia, unemployment, illegal dog fights and chemical intoxicants, among other things. Daniel stands between childhood and adolescence, and in the face of the indifference and stagnation of his surroundings, he becomes the victim of inhuman conditions that force him into a painful loneliness.

This year Christmas is different. Mother is dead and the siblings Brandt now try to make the best of this situation. Everyone in their unique way. Because one last time they can still celebrate all together, right?

Paul Bacher is in crisis. If he could feel in the past as one of the most influential writers of his generation, he has long lacked ideas and impetus for a new great work. His reading tours are becoming more and more a sad affair with too much alcohol and too little public. Then Paul overflows in a drunken hitchhiker, flees first scared and later removes the body, without talking to anyone about the experience. But something is flowing in its interior. Paul starts to write again. The criticism is done, but the story about the death of a hitchhiker also arouses suspicion.

A misanthropist ex-hacker is suspected of sabotaging a famous happiness-research facility. He is forced to prove his innocence and stumbles into a wild adventure, during which he involuntarily becomes an idealistic activist, has to deal with strange, possibly supernatural rabbits and his crazy family - and regains a little belief in happiness.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, a teacher tries to teach his students tolerance for others.

Cibrâil, a young policeman, is living happily with his girlfriend in Berlin. He is well integrated in society despite his Turkish background. One day his girlfriend's cousin comes to stay and Cibrâil's life is turned upside down.

A legendary band story began in Münster, Westphalia, in 1973: Udo Lindenberg and the Panikorchester played their first concert and released the successful album "Alles klar auf der Andrea Doria". What follows is history. The documentary shows the turbulent path from the pub Onkel Pö to the big stadiums of the republic.

"Sleep Paralysis" dives in to the little-known phenomenon of the same name. Affected people from different cultures tell of their frightening experiences, while scientists try to find explanations.

A video journalist who converted to Islam out of love for a woman, is about to interview a young, wild American actress with Russian roots who is in Berlin for the premiere of her new controversial song.

Documentary about the Belgian surrealist artist who died in 1967.

The largest predator on the planet, the sperm whale, is your host for an amazing exploration of the final frontier – the world at the bottom of the ocean. From the makers of the Walking With series comes this incredible marine tour, in which you'll witness a rarely seen world of hidden mountain ranges, majestic canyons, volcanoes and the beautiful and often deadly creatures that inhabit the deep sea.

Three decades ago, they performed as the pop quartet "Altmarkspatzen" and felt great in front of the spotlights of the television cameras that had just come into fashion. Now a surprising telegram brings the four sisters Carla, Christiane, Constanze and Corinna together again after a long time. They are called to their father's bedside. Memories are awakened, lifelines are traced and confessions are made. The four women are speechless in the face of lies, for which their mother is also fatally to blame.

Since the death of her parents, Natalie has been taking care of her younger brother John, who has gone wrong due to this tragic loss.

A long time ago, when monsters and ogres lived around the world, Zeus decided to make his son Hercules immortal so he could rule over Greece. But Hera, Zeus' wife, doesn't like the idea. Now, Hercules must prove he's worthy of being called a hero.