Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

Images and numbers illustrate the domestic political measures taken after the Nazis came to power to eliminate unemployment.

London, in 1730. Charly, Jim and Ben work hard, with the brave Maud, in a cotton mill to earn a few shillings. They all dream of the wonderful island told by Daniel Defoe. The latter lives in a miserable room. He is disgraced and rejected by his son Tom, a scoundrel who blames his father for losing his position at the Court ...

Ferdinand Weitel, a forklift driver, is desperate: Insurance agent Arno von Mehling, a true sales talent, has had contracts signed in record amounts. Now Weitel is wandering through the corridors of the insurance company trying to save what can still be saved - on Shrove Tuesday of all days. The department for customer service and complaints is in a colorful mood and has no ear for Weitel's worries. Finally, secretary Annerose Waguscheit takes heart and tells him about the evening carnival ball "Traum-Police", where he can safely find Mr. Mehling.

Jochen Epstein is released from prison after serving 15 years for murder. He is determined to emigrate from Germany and leave the past behind him forever. But familiar places, repressed memories and a never-forgotten girlfriend break the armor that the old man has built around himself. It all began on his last night in freedom: during a chance visit to a Christian service, Epstein believes he recognizes his former concentration camp tormentor Giesser in the parish priest.

Air traffic controller Johann Lenders has just taken over the night shift in the tower at Zurich Airport when he notices an irregularity on the radar screen: two planes on a collision course. His efforts to avert the impending collision fail. A Russian passenger plane and a German cargo plane collide, killing 71 people. Meanwhile, Yuri Balkayev waits at Barcelona airport for his wife and two children to arrive - in vain. His family are among the victims of the Überlingen accident. Unable to comprehend the news of his loss, he sets off in search of those responsible. Johann Lenders is also completely distraught, he can hardly believe the disaster. He feels compelled to apologize to the relatives of the victims - but Katharina Rohl, a lawyer at air traffic control, forbids him to do so on behalf of the company boss.

A women's prison on a tropical island is a hellhole where the inmates are raped, tortured and otherwise abused by the evil commandant and brutal guards. However, one of the guards falls in love with a beautiful inmate, and decides to help her and all the other prisoners escape.

Mary is a lawyer whose successful career is turned upside down when she has a car accident. Forced to live in a wheelchair she is fired and abandoned by her lover.

Seven beautiful women in a high security prison set the stage for a big bust out.

For Detective Inspector Alexander Bischoff, a functioning family is something he's never known. He grew up without parents and hasn't started a family of his own. He works in a special investigations unit at the police department. Although he initially chose his profession because he wanted to do good, after 25 years he's come down to earth and is completely disillusioned. He's eventually assigned to investigate the case of a large Arab family – but after that, nothing will ever be the same again. For Alexander, the lines between good and evil, between right and wrong, become blurred...

A double portrait of two dictators who were thousands of miles apart but were constantly fixated on each other.

A chemical engineer of foreign origin faces discrimination and bullying at work, plunging him into an identity crisis.

After the success of the first film "Die Informantin", which delighted over 5.5 million viewers, the story of the undercover law student Aylin is now being told. She actually doesn't want anything to do with the LKA. But she has no choice. In "Der Fall Lissabon" she has to spy on a star lawyer who launders money for terrorist cells. Should she refuse, the life of her sister and that of her niece is threatened. Crime scene inspector Aylin Tezel embodies a brave young woman who gets caught between the fronts and can only rely on her instinct.

The daughter of a prominent medieval Norway landowner, Kristin grows up in total harmony with the ideals of the time: strong family ties, social pride and devout Christianity. As she accepts the fact that she has been arranged to marry the son of another landowner, Kristin's beauty, innocence and purity evokes violent emotions around her: envy, lust, murder, revenge. She seeks refuge in a convent, awaiting marriage. Here, the passion of her life strikes, the knight Erlend Nikulaussonn. However, their love cannot be private, and suddenly Kristin is the centre of a scandal.

Ingo Hasselbach, whose parents were Communist Party members in East Germany during his childhood, has lived at both ends of the political seesaw. The question of how people reach a change of heart is a profound one; Hasselbach describes the external forces that led to his founding Germany's first neo-Nazi political party and the internal ones that led him away from it five years later.

The story of the complex man and 75-year-old writer named Paul Gratzik, who worked as a Stasi informant in the GDR and was known as a “man of extremes”. However, after spying on friends and colleagues for more than 20 years, Gratzik decided to voluntarily expose himself in the 1980s.

The documentary begins when the fictionalized drama ends. Sara spent three years volunteering to save refugees on the same journey that made her so famous, and was suddenly arrested in Aug. 2018, accused by Greek authorities of running a criminal enterprise with charges including “international espionage and people smuggling.” If convicted, she faces up to 25 years in prison and the end of her humanitarian career. Shot over three years, the film follows Sara’s fight for justice and journey of self-discovery.

Dramatic life of Gustav "Bubi" Scholz, who rose from post-war obscurity and a background in black market dealings to become a celebrated European boxing champion in the late 1940s. Charismatic and widely admired, he quickly became a national icon. But as the spotlight fades and his victories grow distant, Scholz’s personal life begins to unravel, leading him into a downward spiral of addiction and emotional turmoil.

In Africa - Land of the ever shining sun, German soldiers fulfill a UN mission. For homosexual General Brenner its a dream comes true: Here, where the people are still native and simple, the German can prove his abilities. But then the virgin wife of Brenner gives birth to her first child. Is it the new Messiah? But what is a Messiah good for, if the UN is already there?

Mia, who lends her voice to a Japanese Anime super heroine, finds reality and fiction to be interlacing more and more. Suddenly, Mia can see electricity, leap off rooftops and save people’s lives. But as Mia’s superpowers grow, so does her awareness of looming danger. Just as in the Kimiko anime, hostile powers are planning a massive electric blackout to destroy the city, maybe even humanity itself. And while Mia tries to save everybody from the imminent crisis, it's her own stability which seems to be put at stake.

Pepe Notnagel (who inexplicably had his name changed from the first movie's Nietnagel) and his classmates scheme to get around doing any actual school work by cheating or sending their teachers to the sanatorium. A Swiss documentary film maker disguises himself as his brother in law, who got a position as an exchange teacher, to aid his project of making a movie about the current youth.

When the green box is being delivered, organic farmer Helena (Julia Koschitz) stumbles over the dashing David (Vladimir Burlakov), a law student and starts an affair with him. In fourteen years of marriage, Helena and Thomas (Marcus Mittermeier) have transformed the infatuation of the first years into a dependable, constant affection. But her husband feels that she is keeping something from him. He spies on her, challenges David, and kills him.Later there is silence between the spouses. Then the detective is at the door because the review of David's cell phone connections leads to Helena. And then she discovers what Thomas has done. Only now there is a debate. They want to save the marriage and cover up the murder.

Retired tax official Willi Winzig spends his retirement happily and contentedly in his home. However, this changes when his sister Heidelinde, her daughter and his father want to move in with him, and as Willi is a good-natured man, he takes them in, but because they have no money and his pension is not enough for all four of them, he has to take on a new job. He gets a job as a salesman for household appliances, but his good nature gets in the way again.

A moving love story in a time of hatred: During the civil war in Kosovo, the young Serbian widow Danica falls in love with Ramiz, a Albanian soldier who, wounded in battle, seeks refuge in her home on the Serbian side of the River Ibar.

A young medical student observes his neighbour's love life through a hole in his apartment wall.

Propaganda short film about the construction of the German Autobahn.

Lynn Zapatek, a chambermaid in a large hotel, has a deathly fear of human interaction yet she craves intimacy. A chance encounter prompts her to emerge from her cocoon.

Multi-instrumentalist Warren Wolf and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, conducted by Dary James Argue, present Grand Vibes. A number of tracks are taken from Warren Wolf's album History of the Vibraphone (2024), a fine demonstration of the eclecticism and virtuosity of this internationally acclaimed musician.

A young woman is found raped and bludgeoned to death. Her father can’t reconcile himself with her death, and even less with the fact that the murderer was never found. Half of his life he continues the search. Finally, after more than 20 years, as DNA-analysis becomes a factor in forensic medicine, new perspectives open.

Otto Waalkes plays a magician who strayed into the present from the 11th century and who absolutely wants to return to his time.

A terrorist drives a car to Hamburg's Rathausmarkt and unloads an unknown device that he claims can cause radioactive contamination. A special unit tries to subdue the man, but this reveals that the only way to prevent the explosion is to constantly readjust a transmitter, so they have to let him go.

Götz, the owner of an record shop in Berlin, Kreuzberg, is in love with Aylin.But Aylin is espoused to an turkey doctor named Tarkan. Götz and Aylin are fallin in love and they want to get married. Their Plans first get strong restistance from the turkish parents-in-law and also from the mother of Götz named Helena. Götz converting to the Islam and tries to get a true turk to marry Aylin at the end. After serveral problems and twists they get finally married.

The country estate of American emigre Abel Bellamy is haunted by the ghost of the Green Archer, a 14th century Robin Hood type figure who terrorised the former lords of the manor. Now, with the gangster coming home on vaguely defined business and his niece Valerie arriving with her adoptive father to take up residence in the adjacent mansion, much to Bellamy's annoyance, the archer has returned. Who is he and what does he want?

A documentary about the life and work of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

A former elite athlete is trapped in the hunting grounds of an undead countess and her ravenous cult. To escape a ritual slaughter, she must outrun the cursed, outwit the damned, and place her trust in a jaded cop and a fisherman with secrets of his own.

The 17-year-old Tom filled out a questionnaire for the Employment Agency at a vocational guidance office in his school. He falls in love with the trainee, which distributed the questionnaires. In the evaluation he gets out a job as an apprentice at a funeral home as a funeral professional.

The washed-up pop star “Black Jack” meets the young burglar Jeff Stankowski. He helps him out of a dangerous situation, takes him to Hamburg, and befriends him. Jakob is fascinated by Jeff's profession and the thrill that comes with it. Jeff trains him to be a safecracker, and in return, Jakob promises to make Jeff a huge star in the music business.

On 24th August 1992 in the eastern German city of Rostock, a rampaging mob, to the applause and cheering of more than 3,000 bystanders, besieged and set fire to a residential building containing, among others, more than 120 Vietnamese men, women, and children on what has since become known as "The Night of the Fire." The riots became a symbol of xenophobia in the just-reunited Germany. This film recounts the incident from the perspectives of three very different characters.

The lonely bank-employee Phillip follows a strict pattern of somewhat compulsive actions keeping his encounters with strangers to a minimum. When his home one day is robbed of all content and he later meets the enchanting blind cellist Lina, he finds, however, he needs to start improvising and taking chances.

The lonely bank-employee Phillip follows a strict pattern of somewhat compulsive actions keeping his encounters with strangers to a minimum. When his home one day is robbed of all content and he later meets the enchanting blind cellist Lina, he finds, however, he needs to start improvising and taking chances.

Why is a person evil? Is evil in the genes? These questions have always preoccupied people. The approaches to explaining evil are as varied as evil itself. The latest science assumes that there are three factors that shape human behavior: genes, the environment and the individual situation. All three factors interact and influence each other. The film presents the latest research and addresses one of the most exciting questions in behavioral research.

A Berlin family is totally hooked on new technologies. Nina, the mother, decides one day to requisition all mobile phones for a month and adhere to a digital diet.

Malchow, German Democratic Republic, 1980. 20-year-old Anne is hiding Juri, a deserter of the Red Army. The two fall in love with each other. But their love is threatened: there is an arrest warrant and possibly a death sentence waiting for Juri. The two leave the country and flee to the West, leaving Anne’s six-month-old daughter Inga behind. Inga grows up with her grandparents and thinks that her mother died during a swimming accident. 25 years later she meets the literature professor Robert, who sends her on the trail of her past. He met Inga’s mother Anne during one of his seminars. At first Inga is resistant, but then she asks for Robert’s help. Together they take off on a journey through Germany, in search of Inga’s mother Anne...

Two tales of migration. In the first, after a tailings dam disaster floods her hometown, rural worker Joana (55) moves to São Paulo to find her sister Tania, who lives with her grandson Jaime. Joana enters the universe of insecurity, replying to an application for house cleaning. She bonds with her colleagues, and their struggle for better conditions gives Joana’s life a new meaning. Her relationship with young Jaime brings back old memories. In the second part, after the death of her estranged father, Flavia (32) moves to her farm with her wife Mara. The couple suffer a shock of reality when facing the harshness of rural life. The contact with the abandoned house reveals to Flavia unknown aspects of her father. She begins to suspect that there is something supernatural in the woods.

After a truck accident, Lab crows escape, and provoke a panic in the neighborhood. Alexandra, a young pregnant lady will go to every length to escape the mayhem and raise her neighbors' awareness about the danger.

It is the year 2020 and the Corona pandemic has Germany firmly in its grip. Thus, the red-light business must also close its doors and the sex workers are driven onto the unsafe streets, where the situation is shamelessly exploited.

Grete Minde, based on the novel by Theodor Fontane, tells the story of a girl trapped in the turbulent religious and social prejudices of 17th-century Sweden.

A portrait of American actress Uma Thurman, muse of legendary filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and courageous voice for the many victims of despotic producer Harvey Weinstein.

Franz Schubert works as school teacher, yet his mind and soul are in music. When he is engaged as a pianist for an aristocratic soirée he doesn't suspect how this will change his life forever and even determine his unfinished symphony.

For centuries, art has stylised violence against women - and called it beauty. Proserpina (or Persephone) frees herself from Pluto's grip and leads us through masterpieces from antiquity to the present day: from Roman sarcophagi to Bernini, from Artemisia Gentileschi to Marina Abramović. This journey through art history opens up new perspectives on the representation of sexual violence in art.

On the 70th birthday of famous piano virtuoso Hannes Westhoff, a celebration is to take place at the patriarch's estate. For this occasion, his second wife Anne not only invited Westhoff's three sons Max, Fredrik and Gregor, but also their mother, Westhoff's ex-wife Renate. While Anne tries to maintain a friendly atmosphere, old conflicts resurface among the family. With tensions already high, things take a turn for the dramatic when son Max reveals shocking news.

Dr. Maria Fender makes few friends at her new workplace with her motto “Rehabilitation instead of incarceration”. At the renowned clinic for the mentally ill, only hard cases such as child molesters and serial killers are detained. When Maria defies the therapy instructions of her boss Dr. Strauss, she is suspended from duty. On her own initiative, she frees butcher Marc from the institution because she believes she can cure him...

One of the many German "report" sexploitation films from the early 1970s, with the only distinction that it focuses on female apprentices instead of schoolgirls.

One of Europe's most beloved folk tale hero, Jester Till is the ultimate prankster embodying the simple wisdom and earthy humor of medieval European peasant folk. In this adventure tale, Till is on his way to the city to visit his grandfather, the slightly absent-minded wizard Marcus. The old man are brewing up a magical happiness potion he feels the townsfolk need. The potion however is tampered with and Marcus vanishes in a horrendous explosion. Till embarks on an adventurous quest to find him.

Kurt (Til Schweiger) and Lena (Franziska Machens) move together into an old house outside the city that is in need of renovation in order to be closer to Kurt's six-year-old son, little Kurt (Levi Wolter), and ex-wife Jana (Jasmin Gerat). But before their patchwork family happiness can really begin, little Kurt is killed in an accident - leaving behind three adults who don't know how to live with this tragic loss.

While on tour somewhere in Italy, a famous German pop singer loses his voice. All tickets for the concerts have long been sold out. Someone from the "Star's" entourage finds a young local guy who used to walk around the city singing in a very similar voice. From then on, the pop star stood on stage in front of the microphone, only opening his mouth, while the unknown street singer sang for him, standing in front of the microphone behind the scenes. At the end of the film, the star's voice returns, and he begins to sing solo and in a duet with the young singer.

With dazzling nature photography, Academy Award®–nominated director Markus Imhoof (The Boat Is Full) takes a global examination of endangered honeybees — spanning California, Switzerland, China and Australia — more ambitious than any previous work on the topic.

When her 80-year-old father Robert needs a caregiver after an accident, Ira wants to take care of him at home - despite her difficult relationship with him. He had left her and her mother to start a second family. But now she sees the opportunity to approach him. However, given the high cost of care, she knows how to help but hire the Eastern European caregiver Elisaveta, who works for her black - much to the displeasure of her husband Marquard, who has ambitions as a local politician in addition to his work as a career counselor and never before understood with Robert.

Hong Kong, 2012: The former British crown colony has been part of the People's Republic again for 15 years. To mark the anniversary, the Haiman Collection, a collection of magnificent art treasures, is to be presented to the public for the first time. The curator of the eagerly awaited exhibition is the Berlin art expert Victoria Philips. However, the night after her arrival, all the exhibits are stolen. Victoria has to find high-quality replacements, but the Chinese collectors are hostile to a European woman. Victoria receives unexpected help from the prominent nightclub owner Edward Lim, who is passionately courting her. When Inspector Braddock suspects that the businessman is involved in the theft of the Haiman collection, Victoria finds herself in an emotional dilemma...