Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

Children's Souls Accuse You is a 1927 German silent drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Albert Steinrück, Nathalie Lissenko and Walter Rilla. It was made with an anti-abortion theme.

Best friends Nini and Jameelah are both 14 years old and live in the same housing complex in Berlin. Jameelah's family is from Iraq and might be deported if their application for citizenship isn't approved, but right now, the girls try not to worry about these existential problems. They look forward to the Berlin summer and the school holidays.

Movie-making cliches are parodied in this German comedy which features to warring actresses, meddling producers, indulgent directors, and an ignored writer. Not only must they contend with each other, they must also deal with the bankers who have the power to shut them down at any moment. The story begins at the premier of director Viktor Rote's newest film "The Tin Cat," which stars his popular wife Riki Rote. The film's writer and Viktor's brother Richard is miffed when he is not allowed into the screening. Viktor's ambitious mistress and aspiring star the Nina is also not invited in. The film is a hit so Rote is allowed to begin his new film by producer George Kuballa. George is also head of the studio. His rich and frequently rejected wife is Lore, a major financial studio backer who prefers spending her time consorting with her handsome young chauffeur.

Before Dawn charts the years of exile in the life of famous Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, his inner struggle for the "right attitude" towards the events in war torn Europe and his search for a new home.

Unusual race relations melodrama from West Germany follows a German sailor who meets and weds a Chinese woman while on leave in Hong Kong, only to meet with disapproval from his family and friends when the couple returns to Europe.

The crunchy sisters Biene and Püppi decide that there must finally be an end to the emotional and financial disaster of their mother Hilde. Therefore, they successfully rely on the testosterone reflexes of those men who have dirt on them, but not every representative from the macho camp can be so easily degraded to a fool. When the rip-off blackmail victims Alfons and Latten-Harry start a counter-offensive and want to have the girls killed by the windy tattoo eagle, the following, unrestrained over-excited cat-and-mouse duel escalates into a chaos course across all allotments, ice cream parlors, law firms, nightclubs and sausage stalls of the backwater…

When Blackie Blacavov and his sister Barbara inherit 50,000 acres of Alaskan wilderness, he tries to live a more harmonious, natural existence on the land. But Barbara, without informing Blackie, gives mining exploration rights to King, a businessman with a passion for hunting wolves. On the sly, King also uses the area as a toxic waste dump. So Blackie and Barbara join together with the wolves to defeat their common enemy and save the idyllic refuge.

Set in a bleak future in which the world suffocates under the iron fist of a tyrannical regime. Driven by unyielding determination, Ken Shiro sets out on a perilous mission to find the gate to Hell and save his daughter from the Inferno.

“RAPTURE II - PORTAL" revolves around Ukrainian Vogue dancer Marko and the confrontation with his abandoned apartment in the region of Donbas, where the war is going on for ten years. It fuses the idea of a physical lost home and the body of a dancer as an infinite eternal home. The film is contextualized by the self-commented tour of Marko, structured as a hypnosis session.

A murderer always kills across Europe according to the same pattern: he kills single women and provides the victims with his personal signature. A friend of Abel's is suspected. Abel wants to help him and investigates himself.

Vienna, 1957: Head waiters Gustav (Paul Hörbiger) and Franz (Hans Moser) are working for the stinted Cafétier Panigl and are close friiends despite of their different characters. Franz is happily married and a good family father, Gustav, a relaxed charmer, is living a calm single life. Overnight both of them become jobless, because Panigl decided to sell his Café which was not successful anymore. Right in this moment, Franz' brother is sending 20.000 Dollar from USA. Money, he once peculated and now wants to pay back.. Gustav and Franz are buying half of the Café for each from the unexpected money. One half they develop as the modern Musicbox-Espresso «Pinguin», the other half as a traditional old style Vienna Café . Misunderstandings between guests and generations are inevitable and stretch the long term friendship of the two waiters.

A carnal and intimate Film about a group of Berliners who are looking for new ways of Living, while playing with infamous Fantasies, Pain and Sexuality in a sunny and very experimental huge living room.

Hella is around 30 and works in a pharmacy. She is waiting for the right man to step into her life, but as she has a certain affinity for losers, she is kind of disillusionized. When she gets to know Levin, a dentist student who likes cars most, her dreams seem to come true. Levin has a very rich grandfather who likes her at first glance. The old man thinks of changing his last will to the condition that Levin has to marry Hella in order to inherit his fortunes. Like in a fairy-tale the door to a new life opens for Hella, but can she take it?

The everyday lives of a poverty-stricken railway trackman, his wife and daughter in a remote, isolated house in a winter landscape. One day, they receive a telegram announcing the arrival of the section inspector, who is to live with the family. After his arrival, a downward spiral begins.

Based on the true case of the "mask man", the film tells the story of Claus Jansen, whose son Hannes disappears from boarding school overnight in 1992. A few weeks later, the boy is found murdered. The father begins to investigate himself and makes the search for the perpetrator his personal mission. Claus is pushing the question of his own guilt: If he hadn't sent Hannes to boarding school, would his son still be alive today? Claus knows that if he doesn't end his obsessive hunt, he will lose himself and the love of his wife Heike and his younger son Sebastian ...

As thoroughly unlikeable a robber as ever walked the West, Joe nonetheless robs from the rich and gives to the poor. Not only is he a murderous, ill-tempered sort, he is bad-mannered, too. When beautiful Sonny decides he should be her man and teach her how to be a proper outlaw, sparks fly.

Laura returns to Chile, after thirty years, to say goodbye to his old and sick mother. In this bitter journey she is accompanied by his daughter Elizabeth, who still did not know her grandmother. When the old woman meets her granddaughter, she decides to change her will and leave the young Elizabeth as heir of the family mansion. When soon after the grandmother dies, Elizabeth examines the inheritance, and discovers with surprise that the mansion was donated to a foundation.

In San Francisco, well-known sportsman Kay Hoog announces to a club that he has found a message in a bottle with a map drawn by a Harvard professor who has gone missing. The map tells of a lost Incan civilization that possesses an immense treasure. Hoog immediately plans an expedition to find it. But Lio Sha, the head of a criminal organization known as the Spiders, is determined to get the treasure for herself and plans a rival expedition.

Theo Neuner is an unscrupulous West German building contractor who senses big business in the GDR after the collapse of the SED dictatorship. But things don't turn out as he had imagined. The fall of the Berlin Wall does not bring the desired business, but rather a number of private problems: his lover dies, her sister makes his wife suspicious and the marital crisis reaches its climax on a business trip to Berlin...

5 people of different personalities have to take a taxi from Munich to Hamburg, as the train service is canceled. The strangers discover that every one of them has their own cross to bear, but to overcome trouble they have to work together as a group.

In Germany, an old man attacks another old man and is arrested. The attacker refuses to speak. A female lawyer is appointed to him. She discovers that the attacker has numbers tattooed on his arm and the attacked man was a German officer.

At first glance, Leyla and Tristan are a happy couple. When they travel to a mysterious island, a game of identities begins that changes everything – their perception, their sexuality, their entire selves. But not only their relationship threatens to break up. They may even never be who they used to be again…

A beautiful woman, Supergirl Francesca Farnese, appears out of nowhere on a Bavarian highway. She wears only an orange jumpsuit and wants to go to Washington. Playboy Charly first takes her to Lake Starnberg, where she meets best-selling author Evers. He immediately leaves his wife and travels with Francesca to Spain, where he negotiates a project with the American film producer Polonsky. No one remains unimpressed by the mysterious beauty. Supergirl remains elusive— she quickly disappears again, leaving behind a warning to the inhabitants of Earth that an attack from outer space is imminent...

Brothers Kenan and Sinan Yeşilyaprak, both officers in the Turkish army, have been conflicted since birth. Their father was a prominent — later persecuted — general and their mother a member of the oft-discriminated-against Kurdish minority.

Heralded racing driver Pierre Chaillot has never noticed the pretty young flight attendant who dotes on him adoringly. But when his fiancée's infidelity drives him to the brink of suicide, Pierre's guardian angel takes the form of this stewardess to urge him to choose life. Though the angel confesses her divinity, Pierre is skeptical of the existence of angels. But, despite their difference, the two bond during her brief sojourn in human form.

Pretty student Ina arrives in the small town of Meschede. After setting up a date with the bus driver Speedy, she flirts with other locals at the local private airfield. She soon begins affairs with the banker Peter Nase, the sawmill owner Wagner and the married manager of the airfield, Dirk Karuso. Master butcher Wusch, on the other hand, remains faithful to his wife.

Two young students bump into each other in Berlin and feel attracted to each other. They tentatively get to know each other, which only adds to their confusion as they are torn between shame and desire.

The sinister Count Oetsch scandalizes the aristocratic social gathering at Castle Vogelod as he announces his intention to "crash" the festivities. Baroness Safferstätt is expected shortly, and the guests are well-aware of the rumors that Count Oetsch murdered the baroness' late husband. Oetsch refuses to leave, vowing that he will reveal the identity of the real killer. Before the weekend is through, the Count and Baroness will reveal secrets too shocking to be believed!

The dreaded Doc Snyder returns home after 30 years. After his long ride through the prairies of the wild west, his laundry is extremely dirty, and who could wash it better than his unshaven mommy? But first she sends him to the prison, from which he is to free his brother Hank, because otherwise he will be hanged. When that's done, they both spontaneously decide to rob a bank, which goes completely wrong. Before Doc Snyder's eyes, his beloved brother is shot by his intimate enemy, the Nose Man. Snyder initially manages to escape, but the Nose Man takes up the pursuit, and from then on many innocent people have to die - including Snyder's mother...

At a mine on the shared edge of France and Germany, an underground explosion leads to the entrapment of a group of French miners. In an effort to save the trapped Frenchmen, German miners Wittkopp and Kasper take it upon themselves to traverse a crumbling war tunnel leading down into the mines. Yet, though the workers harbor no political biases against one another, their callous, less tolerant bosses hope to halt this cross-cultural rescue mission.

Daniela – a single mother, whose boyfriend left for the US – believes wholeheartedly in Cuba's revolutionary new order. Meanwhile, in Florida, a plot is afoot. Under the command of an American officer, four Cubans ex-patriots and a Guatemalan land on the Cuban coast to prepare a US invasion of the island. Daniela's superior, the corrupt Cuban officer Palomino, is secretly helping the invaders and the young woman becomes entangled in the intrigue.

Set in Hamburg's “Hell's Kitchen,” a waterfront milieu of gangsters, pimps, dealers and prostitutes, the story follows the attempts of an ex-seaman first to insinuate himself into the scene, and then to extricate himself from it. He becomes a small-time pimp, sending his naive girlfriend out onto the streets thinking she is financing their middle-class future. When he becomes involved with an old pal, Nil, he increases his criminal portfolio. But when he steals Nil's girlfriend and things heat up, he leaves for his sister's middle-class home in Berlin, where his attempts to fit in are doomed from the start. Returning to Hamburg, he starts a rapid decline that delivers him into the waiting arms of Nil, whose revenge is merciless.

Armin, in his fourties, is a freelancer with lots of time and little money. He’s not really happy, but can’t picture living a different life. One morning the world looks the same as always, but mankind has disappeared.

Mr. Rapp was close to selling Rauhenegg Castle when suddenly some young men turn up claiming that the place is haunted. The seller wants to prove the opposite and invites the men to spend a night in the building themselves.

After some faked medicine is found, an Interpol agent searches for evidence against high rank chairmen of medical companies.

A drama directed by Gustav Ehmck, a teenager lays a small bundle on the tracks, but before the oncoming train can cross it, an older woman saves the baby from certain death. She keeps little Sophie with her and raises her to be a well-behaved girl.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson look into reports that a huge, vicious hound has killed Lord Charles Baskerville and that Lord Henry Baskerville is the next to be killed.

Charleen is 15, melodramatic, mega depressed, and Kurt Cobain’s biggest fan. Her best friend Isa is getting really boring, her dad is out of the picture, and her mom has hooked up with her biology teacher. Even though she has an apprenticeship preparing bodies for funerals, which is pretty cool, her musical idols are all dead. It’s about time Charleen was, too.

A very stylized TV version of the Fassbinder play. The set consists of a few pieces of furniture in front of a large screen on which coastal scenery is back projected. Geesche is a nineteenth-century woman who wants to have a mind of her own. She defies convention and will do anything to achieve her freedom from oppression by her family and friends.

Loosely based on the notorious Richard Speck murders, this is the grim tale of a disturbed Vietnam vet returning home via Belfast, who invades a house shared by eight nurses and proceeds to terrorize and murder them.

After nine years in psychiatric detention Theo, who has brutally assaulted and raped three women, is released. Living in a supervised community, he connects well with his social worker Sascha, finds a job at a print shop and even a girlfriend, Nettie, his principal's brittle and estranged daughter. But even though superficially everything seems to work out Theo's seething rage remains ready to erupt.

Young Karl Roßmann emigrates to the USA, meets a rich man whose money Karl initially lives off, but who soon throws him out again.

The evil Dr. Mabuse develops a death ray with which he threatens the world.

In rural Westphalia, Franz Berger struggles to keep his inn open. On this day, a bluff, overbearing bully, Hermann Walzer, has booked the dining room for a wedding banquet for his son Mark. There's bad blood between Berger and Walzer, so when the first course, shrimp cocktail, is off, Hermann storms out with the wedding party vowing not to pay. Franz locks the loo door, taking prisoners of the bride and Hermann's wife while he also locks the estate's outer gates, leaving Hermann and the rest outside. Walzer, a pheasant hunter, lays siege; shotguns, rifles, grenades, a shovel, and other weapons leave no one safe. Will it take death to bring these men to their senses?

The story of the life, loves and work of US writer Patricia Highsmith (1921-95), told through her unpublished diaries, her own voice and that of those who knew her, both family and close friends.

After living in the tropics for five years, Peter Asfeld returns to Amsterdam and wants to marry his childhood friend Julia Vermehren. However, his future father-in-law has read in the horoscope that Peter will one day commit a theft and demands that he do so before the wedding. Peter can't get the thought out of his head, and even in his dreams he commits all kinds of crimes. Inspired by so much imagination, he kidnaps Julia, his future wife, the next day. But the horoscope was wrong.

Dakota, 1880. In Silver Springs, with the help of hired thugs, a lawyer tries to take over the town by sabotage, theft and brutal murders. The arrival in town of a new undercover sheriff hinder their plans.

“Luxury, luxury, luxury… and not to be so alone.” Vanessa wants to spend her holiday at a comfortable resort. However, due to a booking error at the travel agents, Vanessa ends up on a barren desert island. The next ship doesn’t arrive for another week, so until then she has to cope with oddball lighthouse keeper Stanislav, and the highly unconventional and nonchalant Sebastian, who also has a right to the only shabby guest room. There’s no escape from this island – and the three gradually get to know each other over schnapps and pie. When a further guest arrives in the form of dubious businessman Felix and a body turns up in Stanislav’s cellar, the insular resort becomes the backdrop for a grotesque fight for life. In his debut feature, Matthias J. Michel cleverly repels various genre and character clichés to create an exceptional black comedy.

In court for violations of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act and the War Weapons Control Act, the managers of HSW try to wriggle out of the trial while their opponents in Mexico search for evidence.

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.

The Dalton gang is riding again, forcing a retired gunman to use his weapons once more.

Red carpet, spotlights, screaming fans, photo- graphers chasing for the best photo, camera teams waiting for interviews - a premiere is about to take place and everyone’s eagerly awaiting to see Germany‘s biggest film star, Marvin Bosch. But Marvin’s nowhere to be seen after his interview with the bitchy tabloid journalist Bettina Bamberger ended in disaster. On the run from the media, the star lands in a small, independent feminist LGBT+ theater called “3000” of all places, which is on the verge of going out of business.

The already successful tenor Mattei is discovered after he already retired into private life. Der Wiener Staatsoper place a significant part in this musical comedy drama.

Christian is a presenter at a small radio station. His wife Katrin directs traffic in a car park. Both are friends with Uwe, who runs a fast food kiosk, and Ellen, who works in a perfume shop. Their four lives are stuck in a rut. Until the day Chris and Ellen sleep together and upset the balance of the two couples...

At seventeen, girls are all about looking good, dressing right and making out with the cutest boys. Or they're like Luka, who's an ace in boxing and couldn't care less about her looks or her appeal to boys. When she breaks a schoolmate's nose, her parents send her off to boarding school to acquire some ladylike manners. There she's mistaken for Frankie, a boy who hasn't shown up, and takes on his identity. With her boxing skills, she instantly wins over her three roommates Chico, Toby and Jo, and strikes up a particularly close friendship with Chico. Her uncompromising honesty and loyalty to her new friends, however, soon get her into trouble with the headmistress and her nephew, the school bully.

After seven years in prison, a female student in Tehran is hanged for murder. She had acted in self-defence against a rapist. For a pardon, she would have had to retract her testimony. This moving film reopens the case.