Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

Young women come to Munich for fun and work during the '72 Olympics and invariably wind up naked.

Although evidence of meat consumption's negative impact on the planet and on human health continue stacking up as animal welfare is on the decline, humanity's love affair with hamburgers, steaks, nuggets and chops just doesn't end. In The End of Meat, filmmaker Marc Pierschel embarks on a journey to discover what effect a post-meat world would have on the environment, the animals and ourselves. He meets Esther the Wonder Pig, who became an internet phenomenon; talks to pioneers leading the vegan movement in Germany; visits the first fully vegetarian city in India; witnesses rescued farm animals enjoying their newly found freedom; observes the future food innovators making meat and dairy without the animals, even harvesting "bacon" from the ocean and much more. The End of Meat reveals the hidden impact of meat consumption; explores the opportunities and benefits of a shift to a more compassionate diet; and raises critical questions about the future role of animals in our society.

When Jan decides to marry his girl-friend Sara, he is not aware of his opponent: her father, who is an Italian.

When the First World War breaks out in 1914, Josef Schwejk, a naive dog dealer in Prague, joins the Imperial Army.

Willibald Adrian Metzger restores old furniture, the beauty of which he admires with a good glass of red wine. The amiable loner visits his customers by bicycle because he does not have a driver's license. Usually he only pays attention to old cupboards and chests of drawers, but this time something else piques his interest: a beautiful woman bathing in a lonely mountain lake. The sight promptly knocks him out of the saddle - especially since it is his unfulfilled childhood love Danjela Djurkovic. She doesn't seem to recognize him anymore, because she is only interested in the macabre find at the place where they meet again: a severed finger that is stolen by a bird of prey in the next instant. Is that a dream Willibald and Danjela have a common goal, the Hotel "Sonnenhof" - from whose pool the corpse of a guest has just been fished. The police assume an accident. But before Willibald knows it, the curious Danjela has taken a farewell letter and the dead man's cell phone.

This reunion celebrates the 20th anniversary of the tv series "Die Schwarzwaldklinik".

Shot under extreme conditions and inspired by Mayan creation theory, the film contemplates the illusion of reality and the possibility of capturing for the camera something which is not there. It is about the mirages of nature—and the nature of mirage.

Retired coffee house owner Franz is a real hypochondriac. When he overhears the doctor's prognosis during a visit to the doctor, everything is clear to Franz: the terminally ill patient can only mean himself. He has three weeks left to sort out the affairs of his life. So the old man sets out to finally make peace with his daughter Johanna. Because he doesn't know his son-in-law and has no idea about his daughter's private life anyway, he mistakes Johanna's boss for her husband...

American Mark Jason is stranded in Southeast Asia and works there as a teacher. One day, he finds diamonds worth several million dollars in his apartment. Jason quickly succumbs to the temptation to keep the treasure stashed here by the previous tenant for himself rather than handing it in to the police. When his Asian servant, who witnessed Jason's find, is found murdered, the teacher comes under suspicion of having disposed of him. Now Jason has the local police on his tail after all, and he has to flee. The American is accompanied by his Asian girlfriend, Nhan Lee Quon. The local police inspector Gonsart is extremely keen to catch Jason and hunts him down without mercy.

Conny works at the hospital. But she earns the real money together with her friend Bibi in a telephone sex agency. She has a special relationship with one of her clients who demands more than sex. He exploits her fantasies for his erotic productions. Conny has no idea that this eccentric artist is turning the sex tales into deadly reality. The obsessions increase from call to call. Conny believes he has the client under control. But then two women are found dead...

Drifters tells of Karin, a past-her-prime cosmetics saleswoman, with her increasing exasperation with her life and her dreams of leaving it all behind and living in Paris. An unlikely but entertaining plot develops, where anything can happen.

As a geophysicist, Leonard Gehra is now known for his theories on silver mining. However, Leonard originally comes from the mining town of Buchenrode in the Harz Mountains, which he left after the mysterious death of his father in the 1970s. Now Leonard is to return to his homeland to put his previously theoretical method of mining silver in the old mining tunnels of Buchenrode into practice. The town is on the verge of bankruptcy after Ferdinand Türnitz decided to close his mines. Leonard, in whom the town's last hope is now placed, sets to work and discovers a long-kept secret during his investigations, which does not leave his father and Türnitz out in the cold.

After Using the instructions found in an old Jewish diary, Markus and Thomas hope to gain access to a WW II underground military base formerly codenamed: Cerusit. It was used by the Nazis as a secret research institute and is shrouded in rumors to this day about the lost gold of the Third Reich. The entrance to the cave system, however, lies right within the restricted area of a U.S. military base.. the first of many problems Markus and Thomas will have to face.

Beate Uhse was a German pilot and entrepreneur. The only female stunt pilot in Germany in the 1930s, after World War II she started the first sex shop in the world. The company she started, Beate Uhse AG, is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and is the world leader in sales of sexual aids. The company also started a television channel on the Premiere network of television channels.

Professor Wilkens has invented a formula for a new type of fuel and puts it on a microfiche that he sends to his daughter and her bodyguard, but multiple different mysterious groups, including the "Chinese Carnation", would kill to get their hands on it.

Main subject of Serengeti is the mass migration of wildebeest , which in search of nutritious grass hundreds of kilometers annually by the savannah draw. At the end of the rainy season, they break into a huge herd of over a million animals on the north. The wildebeest and other animals are joining the migration, as zebras and gazelles , continuously exposed to hazards, particularly by predators such as lions and cheetahs . A highlight of the great migration, the crossing of the Mara is: There, the wildebeest have to overcome not only meter high cliffs, they are also crocodiles delivered. With the onset of the rainy season, however, leave the wildebeest north again what had long been a mystery. The reason for this is that the grass in the north a phosphorus deficiency , and said thus wildebeest forces to retreat to the south.

Lavinia Kean, a brilliant American espionage agent, combats the wiles of international criminal and blackmailer Cesare Magnasco.

Äls, a young woman from Sweden living in Hamburg in the summer months attracts a newly married explorer, Albrecht Froben who has just returned to his native city. But although Äls seems to be 'life itself', she suffers from a tropical disease which is slowly killing her. Froben is torn between Äls and his wife Octavia, who he seen as a kind of 'heavenly' counterpart to the earthy and beguiling Äls.

"Maria am Wasser" tells a story of the search in symbolic allusions and beautiful, fairytale pictures. The search for love, past, reconciliation and forgiveness. Summer 1983 in Saxony. A tank drives with four children of the orphanage "Frohe Zukunft" through the Elbe. The excursion seems to end fatally for all children, as the tank sinks. 22 years later, organ builder Marcus Lenk returns to his home village of Neusorge and claims to be one of the children. Marcus is perplexed: no one recognizes him. Not even his father Hannes, who lives with a few sheep, nor his mother Mary, who runs the orphanage with a strict hand, believe in his identity.

Third Jerry Cotton Adaption. A big shipment of Nitroglycerine, enough to make a shambles of New York, mysteriously vanishes! It's a race between agent Jerry Cotton and the underworld to see who can find the deadly explosive first. To complicate things further, the nitro must be found before a torrid heat wave causes it to blow much of the city sky high.

Andreas Brandt is the head of the research department in a pharmaceutical company. He earns enough to build a future with his wife Monica and his daughter Eva. But a merger puts his position in jeopardy. Brandt randomly observes Larssen, who’s responsible for the merger, raping the waitress Vanessa. Instead of helping her, he takes a file which has previously been stolen by Larssen. It contains incriminating evidence against Larssen. Brandt tries to blackmail Larssen, but Larssen is capable to shift the buck back to Brandt. Slowly Brandt’s family becomes involved...

Street sweeper Sigi finds a box containing not only 300,000 marks, but also a photo of his unsympathetic superior in a compromising situation. Sigi thinks he's in luck, but what he doesn't realize is that an unscrupulous businesswoman wanted to use the money to bribe influential men. And of course she wants her money back. So the good-natured Sigi becomes embroiled in a series of turbulent adventures.

When Kathrin Bahro once again plays babysitter for the neighbors, a thief breaks into the house. Kathrin confronts the intruder, who escapes after a brief struggle. What remains is the dead child. Thanks to Kathrin's drawing skills, the perpetrator is quickly caught. Nine years later, the convict takes part in a Ministry of Justice project - ankle cuffs with acoustic signals are supposed to put the criminal in his place - and has only one thought: revenge...

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 ...

During a dinner given by a wealthy baron and his wife, attended by four of her suitors in a 19th century German manor, a shadow-player rescues the marriage by giving all the guests a vision what might happen tonight if the baron stays jealous and the suitors do not reduce their advances towards his beautiful wife. Or was it a vision?

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is retired and lives with her husband and pug in a small town. She is bored with the quiet life. When a man is found murdered in a castle, she begins to investigate on her own, supported by her bodyguard.

More than anyone in the cynical film industry, legendary artist Robert Redford embodies the United States' brightest side: perseverance, independence, idealism, and integrity. A champion of active environmentalism and the right to openly criticize any institutional abuse, he has put his artistic work at the service of his political commitments, whether as an actor, director, producer, or founder of the Sundance Festival, a formidable forum for his struggles since 1985.

17-year-old Paul likes strange things: stealth trails and abandoned buildings, whispered conversations and left-behind bags. Besides that, he seems to be a young man without qualities. His mysterious nature catches the eyes of his classmate Dala and his art-loving teacher Mr. Bulwer, both seemingly driven by hidden desires. Then a boy’s dead body is discovered in the forest...

The fates of three German-born Muslims in Berlin collide as they struggle to find their place between faith and modern life in contemporary western society, caught at a crossroads where alluring liberated lifestyles conflict with deeply-rooted traditions.

The beautiful and charming laundress Lurette is a well sought-after young woman in Ludwig XV’s Paris. Her heart is already taken, however, and she makes elaborate plans during Carnival to obtain the man she truly loves, the carpenter Campistrel. During her plans to make Campistrel jealous and recognize his love for her, she meets the Duke of Marly, who plans to make her his mistress. The unsuspecting Lurette finds herself caught in a love triangle, and her peer, Marcelline, must save the beautiful Lurette from these scandalous schemes.

Police officer Lena Jörning is confronted with the first corpse of her professional career and recognizes her sister, whom she has not heard from for 12 years. The case raises many questions: When did Evelyn return? What roles do Evelyn's husband Claas and Lena's fiancé Bruno play in the death? The criminal investigation team arrives to take over the case. The investigation becomes a dramatic journey into the past for everyone involved, which - until then unrecognizable to Lena - overshadows even the present of the entire village.

A historical drama about the revolution of 1848/1849 in the Austrian empire.

Felix from West-Berlin falls in love with Thomas in East-Berlin. At first they keep their relationship going by regular visits from Felix, but the curfew forces him to return every evening. When the East-German authorities become suspicious, Thomas decides to try and flee to the West.

Every year, top athletes set new world records. But are today’s record holders really better than those of the past? Or do modern athletes get their edge from their high tech gear? Top sports scientist Steve Haake sets off on a journey to investigate. He travels to Canada, the USA, and Germany to meet five champions. Each athlete demonstrates how their modern training and equipment enhances their performance, and then Steve challenges them to compete against a legendary athlete using old-school vintage gear. Each experimental matchup has a surprising result.

In the life of TV presenter Lisa, everything revolves around her talk show, celebrities and the ratings. There is just as little room for love as there is for her mother Maria. When the 66-year-old loses her memory after a fall in her apartment and wakes up in the hospital, she can only remember that she has never been to New York and sets off immediately. Lisa goes in search of Maria with her makeup artist Fred. She struck gold on a cruise ship that was just leaving for New York. As stowaways, the three have no choice but to earn the passage. While Fred is hired as an assistant by the Greek on-board magician Costa, Lisa and Maria have to work in room service. The crossing soon takes surprising turns for mother and daughter: Maria falls in love with the charming dancer Otto, who supposedly knows her from before, and Lisa takes a liking to the widowed statistician Axel Staudach, who is traveling with his son Florian.

A biopic about Austrian composer Johann Strauß.

Two amateur circus kids from a poor Ukrainian village, ten-year-old Barbu and his older sister Mimma, are sold to a circus artist called Caruso who promises them a career in the West.

The year 1933: Successful actress Maria Rheine is in love with her Jewish colleague Mark Löwenthal. When the Nazis implement the racist Nuremberg Laws, their relationship is severely endangered. Defiant Maria decides to stay together with Mark and ends her promising career: She assumes a Jewish identity and continues to work under the name Manja Löwenthal. She and Mark perform at the Jewish Theatre in Berlin, until they become victims of an intrigue: Their colleague Judith, who has a crush on Mark, denounces them to the secret police.

At the VII Party Congress of the SED, a delegate tells a reporter his life story: 18-year-old returning soldier Georg Lendau ends up in a small village in 1945. He is starving and sick. Mayor Kallam helps. Later, they meet again; Kallam is now the director of a heavy engineering company. He gives Georg, who is a lathe operator, work. But Kallam has more plans for him and wants to send him to university. Georg refuses. An extra shift, which he only did so that he could buy his future wife wedding shoes, brings him into conflict with backward colleagues - and the realization that you first have to work better if you want to live better. He followed this insight with action, becoming a master craftsman, comrade and student.

This movie, directed by Richard Oswald, is based on the operetta "Les contes de Hoffmann" by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), which is a genial musical potpourri from various short stories and novels by the Prussian writer, composer, painter, lawyer and judge E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822). While Hoffmann's literary work was longtime considered to be merely fantastical, it was finally researched, in the last years, according to its metaphysical background. Characteristic for Hoffmann's work is his life-long fight against rationalism and for the revelation of nature morte, culminating mostly in carnival-like scenes anticipating literary techniques only described in the works of Bachtin and Bachelard.

A beautiful blonde bitten by Count Dracula 100 years previously is unearthed in Vienna, and soon she goes on a killing spree.

Attractive uncompromising politician Mona Dengler is investigating the tobacco industry. Tomboyish bodyguard and single mother Johanna Sieber is assigned to protect her. This endangers Johanna's son. Mona unexpectedly falls for her.

An officer and a count who live in opposite ends of the same castle bet each other who will be the first to bed their respective new 'virgin' maid. The winner will get ownership of the castle. In order to attain his goal, the officer ignores his lusty fiancee but she soon finds a luitenant to turn her attention to. Eventually a whole stable of local prostitutes gets in on the act.

It's Friday evening. The lift repairman leaves the building and wants to finish his work on Monday. But he doesn't know there are four men in the building. They use the lift but stay in it about 100 meters from the floor. They have little oxygen and must survive…

The inventor Sir Claude Amery wants to give the thief of the formula for his latest invention the chance to return it in the dark without being recognized. He gathers everyone in the house in the library and has the lights switched off for a short time. When the light comes back on, Amery is dead. A case for the Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot.

In love with a girl that smells of oranges while in a complicated relationship with his father, Darek is gentle, strong and devoted to his little sister and their herd of horses. Darek's world is a story about the joy and pain of growing up in the isolated yet beautiful Lusatian Mountains. Here, horses are not expensive specimens of racing stables but beings you should care for and love. Not even that is enough in life though, as Darek finds out nearing the Summer's end, closing his childhood definitely. However, just like any ending, this is a start of something new.

Wood engineer Richard lives a life like a construction. Highly engaged in his career his private life consists of nothing but short purely sexual affairs. When he first meets Teresa everything changes. The unexpected tenderness, intimacy and the longing it brings pulls him right in. Richard is booked for a wild ride of love, passion, ease and freedom and his time with Teresa becomes a journey towards his own feelings and the question arises: Where do I belong? But the answer Richard finds hits Teresa’s sore spot and suddenly he realizes that he basically knows nothing about her. Where she comes from, where she wants to go, who she is…

Paris, France, February 2, 1922. The novel Ulysses, by Irish writer James Joyce (1882-1941), is published by US poet Sylvia Beach (1887-1962), owner of the small bookstore Shakespeare & Co. The book, whose writing consumed seven years of Joyce's life, years in which his family was in financial need, would have a profound and unprecedented impact on 20th century literature and culture.

Interior designer Kim Joosten is like many modern women: self-confident, successful and always concerned about her appearance. When she saves a child's life at a barbecue, she suffers severe burns and is disfigured by a large facial scar. However, representation and good looks are a must in her job, in which she is now increasingly marginalized. When she also discovers that her husband Max is having an affair, Kim no longer knows what to do.

Rowland falls sick with leprosy while Mac Allan is captured by the Maharajah, who offers Irene a deal: one night with him in exchange for letting Rowland to be cured. She accepts, but tries to commit suicide.

The documentary follows Chilly Gonzales from his native Canada to late '90s underground Berlin, and via Paris to the world's great philharmonic halls. Diving deep into the dichotomy of Gonzales' stage persona, where self-doubt and megalomania are just two sides of the same coin.

In a town in Connetticut in 1906, newspaper publisher Miller has problems with his sixteen-year-old son Richard, who reads Wilde, Shaw, Swinburne and Ibsen. Richard loves the neighbor's daughter with touching naivety, which the neighbor finds sinful. The problems of puberty are solved idyllically with a great deal of understanding and bourgeoisie. The everyday life of an average family with small disasters and small victories oscillates between heart and sentimentality and the wilderness of awakening love is nothing more than a teasing maze.

A youth in middle of self-discovery, offending with his father, just discovering his sexuality and hiding it again. A boy who's often lonely loses a loved one and is in love with the wrong one.

An anonymous man wanders through decomposing, fog-enshrouded catacombs and encounters a series of “the degraded and the humiliated,” including a holy prostitute and a Kafkaesque bureaucrat.

Marc and Sam have been a happy couple for a long time. But they have to hide their love, as Marc is a professional footballer and is afraid of losing his career if his relationship with a man becomes public. When he meets his old childhood friend Emma again, who was dumped pregnant by her boyfriend, he asks her to play his token wife. But she is in love with Charles, unaware that he is Marc's half-brother.

A tall and gangly Victoire arrives in Paris looking for the ideal French lover -- and because she stands well above many of her preceding romantic partners, that is an added dimension to consider. As she finds and drops a series of possibilities -- a free-wheeling sociologist, an up-tight intellectual, and a dentist fixated on sports -- she begins to wonder if this simple quest may turn out to be an impossibility after all.