Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

A shifty lawyer is threatened with death within two days by a criminal who supposedly died in Australia.

A fearless Antigone, refusing to allow the dishonored body of her murdered brother Polynices to be devoured by vultures and dogs, defies the Thebian tyrant Creon by burying him.

"Your colleague has more testosterone than Mike Tyson," Kozack is told and - even worse - has to admit that his interlocutor is right. He was always the alpha male on the beat! But since the BKA officer Mia von Weitersdorf and the Berlin police officer were welded together to form a team against their will, she shows him where the hammer hangs. Kozack had blown up an undercover operation for which Mia was responsible. A colleague was killed, a suitcase full of money and the designer drug "Green Devil" went missing. Mia and Kozack are put on leave - and continue their investigation together. After some initial friction, they realize that they complement each other very well: Kozack knows his way around the Berlin scene and Mia has a quick wit and excellent contacts "at the top". Kozack has to realize that Mia is an equal partner - a hard blow for the macho man.

Every year, many Germans are preparing to spend their vacations in the sunny south. And they all have to use the same highways. And every year everything ends in a big traffic jam.

Tina, a young woman who has lost her way in life, rents a room from the vibrant Megi, thanks to whom she gradually starts to discover what it’s like to be free and to be able to make her own decisions without being reliant on men… Self-assured in its directorial style, this authentic film portrays millennials in contemporary Tbilisi and points to the influence of patriarchal thinking on Georgian society.

The journalist Alf Mattson gets thoroughly drunk at his birthday party, where his wife announces that she intends to divorce him. He is knocked down on the street and is later carried home by a friend. The next day he is to fly to Budapest in order to make a report for the Stockholm television. Mattson disappears in Budapest.

A couple have disappeared without a trace on their way home after a medieval festival. This calls not only the officers from Brandenburg onto the scene, but also the currently sidelined investigator Lucy and her former colleague Hannah. During their investigations, they come across the widowed Harald Kurtz and his father-in-law Meckenstock, who live on an outlying farm. Meanwhile, Hannah suffers from hallucinations and finds out more about the family.

The 13 days from April 20th to May 2nd, 1945, are unique in the history of Germany: They are the final act in the history of the Third Reich, which was supposed to last for a thousand years and succumbed after twelve in an orgy of violence and fire. In the catacombs of his bunker under the Reich Chancellery in the capital city of Berlin, which Adolf Hitler wanted to make the centre of the world, the dictator operates with ghost divisions during the final days of the war. Only in the final moment, he takes his own life. Meanwhile, On the streets, in the ruins, and the basements of the destroyed city, the final battle wages on: Adolescents are sacrificed without purpose, women get raped, loyal party comrades commit suicide in the thousands, Jews who were in hiding for years hope for the liberation.

The high-rise building block near the forest is famous for its carefully curated community. As a dog disappears and her daughter refuses to leave the bathroom, security officer Anna faces an absurd battle against the fear, that slowly spreads among the residents and shakes the utopia with a view.

East Germany before reunification: Wolfgang Schulz watches Western television and discovers his long-lost twin brother Walter on the show "Aktuelles Sportstudio." They quickly get in touch, and the two decide to switch roles for a few days. Since both work in advertising, they think it will be a temporary bit of fun. But everyday life turns out to be different. Shortly afterwards, the Berlin Wall falls and the brothers found a company together. Now their different mentalities really come to the fore, and "Schulz & Schulz" have to realize that even in the general spirit of optimism, it is not so easy to run a company together. It doesn't take long before the two find themselves in the red.

Jefferson City, Missouri: Joseph Randolph, a VIP in a fictional electronics company, has just gotten the sack. The company bigwigs insist it is simply because of downsizing, but Randolph is not buying it. Enraged, he gets a handgun and shoots five managers to death. Then he turns himself in and is eventually put in a psychiatric hospital by the police. His family suffers a series of tragedies that leave only his daughter to wonder about why her father was committed to an institution. She joins with a visiting reporter from Chicago and another interested man, and all three start digging deeper into the company's history.

Two women, one man all the amourous combinations and a lot of tango and waltzes being danced in this silent adaptation of the operette by Gustav Kadelburg.

German travel guide researcher Kai, a gay player, breaks a leg on mission in Amalfi, once more paying too much gay attention to Italian stallions. This forces his editor Claudia Wesskampe, who hates the Mediterranean on account of her absent Italian stepfather, to join Kai to finish the field work, as he's already dangerously close to her deadline. Friendly locals like padre Leo Muti and his flirtatious cousin Luca soon convert her to appreciate the country, its people and even her unraveled family history.

In 1914, with men gone to war, Marcel Proust hired Céleste Albaret as his attendant. More than eight years later, she was at his side when he died. During this entire time, she only entered his room when he rang for her, sleeping from 9 AM to 3 PM to wait during the night while he wrote. Marcel uses her as more than a servant: she is his muse, telling stories of her childhood to stir his remembrance of things past; she's in cahoots with him as he manipulates those he wants to draw on for his writing; she listens appalled to his descriptions of the underside of Paris. Hers is a life of love and sweet devotion as he races time to finish his work before death.

Single mother and trauma surgeon Christiane juggles work, her teenage daughter Jette, and a secret affair with younger colleague Lars. When her meddling mother Luise arrives unannounced and moves in, chaos erupts. Luise takes over the household and Christiane’s love life, while Jette secretly signs her mom up on a dating site to help her find love.

The story of four kids in Afghanistan whose lives changed dramatically after US troops completed their withdrawal and the Taliban swept to power

In 2016, DEFA celebrates its 70th anniversary: the film embarks on a journey into the exciting film history of the GDR. In a comprehensive kaleidoscope, the importance of DEFA productions is illuminated, the relevance of the films as propaganda productions for the GDR, which socio-political themes were in the foreground, but also which heroes DEFA brought to the screen and celebrated as people from the people.

One and a half years before the begin of the Second World War during the annexation of Austria in March of 1938, Hitler conceived the megalomaniac idea of creating the largest European art center in his home town of Linz. At the beginning of the war on the 1st of September 1939, not only did his armies advance but also his art thieves began to fan out in their great foray of art plundering; an expedition on a previously unheard of scale began. Not only did the task forces of diverse National Socialist organizations pillage the occupied countries; Nazi bigwigs like Goering also took whatever they felt was valuable. This documentary includes the long and eventful journey of an exceptional masterpiece of European art: the Ghent Altar, created by van Eyck.

The petty dealer Ole was found murdered and burned. Siggi Baumeister, tabloid journalist in Berlin, senses an explosive story

Germany is in uproar; the new government has adopted a law which enables a government-controlled censorship. Media and cultural facilities are being inspected. The theatre house of Jan Reeberger is one of the inspected institutions. During the inspection two different world views collide, on the one side, there’s Jan with his idealistic and cosmopolitan worldview, on the other side, there’s Micky who is standing up for the new political system.

Two French agents fight a Chinese sect that aims to control the American Secretary of Defence via high-tech medicine, so that he would start a world war.

11-year-old Michi lives in a children's home, every day fighting to win the respect of the other kids, till the day he finds his real dad, Tom - who happens to be a dwarf, even shorter than Michi is, the opposite of his idea of manliness and strength. When the kids find out, Michi's life becomes hell and he flees. With nowhere to go, he moves in with Tom, who is new to this fatherhood thing, while Michi tried to hide his embarrassment and shame from his fellow school kids. This forces Tom, who had coped well till now, to confront his handicap head on. As time passes, they discover they have more in common than other sons and fathers, until their relationship is again suddenly put to the hard test...

The German tourist Kiki and the Swiss tour guide Marlies are kidnapped by Contra rebels from Nicaragua while on vacation in Costa Rica. While Kiki's friend Markus fights for her release together with her mother, Kiki begins an affair with one of the kidnappers. When the two women were released after 72 days on payment of ransom, the police suspected that they had colluded with the kidnappers.

It was supposed to be a cozy Christmas evening with the family. Labor Director Walter Lörke was particularly looking forward to it. But then his daughter Anne surprised him with her future son-in-law Thomas Ostermann. And that's not all: Lörke is to become a grandfather. This doesn't suit him at all, especially as the young man clearly shows his critical attitude towards the state whose ideals Lörke has fought for all his life. An argument ensues - on Christmas Eve. Lörke leaves the apartment in a rage. But he is driven by unrest: He wants to know what kind of person his future son-in-law is and why he has such a negative attitude towards the state. It turns out that Thomas has had bitter experiences with the opportunistic attitudes of many adults and that, although he was the best student in his class, he was not admitted to university because of his critical opinions.

Switzerland 1523. The mercenary Hansli Gyr returns with his soldiers from Italy to his home in the Oberland. They have fought for the Pope and now find a religious upheaval in Switzerland.

In 1988, Cynthia Beatt and the young Tilda Swinton embarked on a filmic journey along the Berlin Wall into little-known territory. The film is now an unusual document. 21 years later, in June 2009, Beatt & Swinton re-traced the line of the Wall that once isolated West Berlin. This film depicts this poetic passage through varied landscapes, this time on both sides of the former Wall.

A young student stands to inherent a fortune provided he can pass his first semester of college and find a steady girlfriend. His scheming stepfather has other plans for the money, however.

The mother of a murdered hitchhiker meets the offender.

Flo, a young woman from the province, moves to Berlin to become a photo model.

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...

In the German gangster comedy, Jan Josef Liefers and Justus von Dohnányi play two petty criminals who are supposed to do a job on Mallorca, but who can't stand each other.

Juggler and con-artist Caesar comes to Karlsbad, where he hopes to trick the renowned Vaudeville manager Willard into taking him to America. But when he actually meets Willard, Caesar mistakes him for a certain Mr. Lehmann. Willard / Lehmann is not amused, since Caesar constantly courts his daughter Eva. While fooling around, Caesar doesn’t notice that young Rosl, the daughter of innkeeper Mrs. Svoboda, has fallen in love with him. Finally, the romantic and comical confusion is resolved during a hotel fire.

A Polish woman and a German man fall in love against the odds and decide to set up a cemetery for exiles. But can their daring venture survive the call of the toad? Adapted from Gunter Grass’ novel.

The door has been closed for many weeks. A teenager has locked himself in - shutting out a helpless father, mother and sister. In Japan, youths like him have already been given a name: Hikikomori (the secluded). The phenomenon is also beginning to spread throughout the Western world. This is all the family has been able to find out. All they can do is stand in front of the locked door and ask, beg, implore, throw tantrums, despair, accuse, ignore and hope. All the while, the door increasingly becomes a mirror of their own lives.

Rose is very close to her older brother Sam. When a woman accuses him of rape, Rose is asked to testify in the investigation against him. This tests both their relationship and her moral integrity.

After their hunger strike in Berlin's government district, 5 climate activists reunite. While Lina has joined the "Last Generation," her comrades prepare for the eviction of Lützerath, a village facing demolition for mine expansion. How far will they go for their ideals?

Egyptians Radu and Ma milk British tourists out of their money by offering phony tours of a mummy's tomb-- Radu has the girl lend her eyes to the "mummy" from inside an empty sarcophagus. When adventurer Wendland comes to visit the tomb, Ma is rescued and falls in love with him, leaving Radu in the dust. Needless to say, her former employer / captor follows them abroad in order to exact his revenge.

The life of 15 year old Alex is turned upside down, when his parents are divorced and find new partners right away. After a fight at school, the mother takes him over to England, where Alex chaotic life continues.

A brown bear in the wild causes a sensation as a border crosser between Tyrol and Bavaria. Because Master Petz snatches many a lamb, repeatedly plunders beehives and prefers to visit garden inns to feast on the food and drink (including a pint) of the escaped guests, the alarmed people demand that the beast be shot down. After some initial bickering, this unpopular decision is also accepted at a political level, with Bavarians and Tyroleans alike hoping that the execution will be carried out by their neighbor.

A charismatic lieutenant newly assigned to a remote fort is captured by a group of mountain bandits, thus setting in motion a madcap farce that is Lubitsch at his most unrestrained. A wonderfully anarchic and playfully subversive satire of military life from one of the great comedy filmmakers.

A German TV drama

The first film in Rudolf Thome's "Forms of Love" trilogy is the most incisive. It's a comedy-drame chronicling the ups and downs in the relationship of an unmarried couple (Adriana Altaras, Vladimir Weigl). When she tries to persuade him that they should have a child, he escapes the controversy by becoming preoccupied with his new aquarium and microscope. Their struggles to settle their differences and accept new responsibilities are presented intelligently, realistically and with low-key wit and irony.

At eleven years old, Billie is well on her way to following in her mother's footsteps, who explored space as an astronaut.

Jeanne is a woman who is driven by her very active conscience. She attempts to assuage her idealistic bent by trying out life as a nun, but this doesn't work out. After she leaves the convent, she takes a job at a factory, where the callousness of management spurs her to become a labor activist. Her efforts are marked by great persistence and fervor, but she lacks any kind of diplomacy or persuasiveness, and as the years progress, she manages to alienate everyone in her life. By the end of the film, there is only one way that she can see to resolve the horrible situation she finds herself in.

Architecture student Paul has failed again. He's been dead in bed for months. His girlfriend Ulrike angrily packs her bags. Then Paul's first self-designed house collapses and his job is gone. Short of money, he rents a room to Isabell.

The notoriously single and not-so-successful womanizer Max has settled down perfectly into his bachelor life when suddenly the enchanting Lisa, sister of his flatmate and partner Ulli, appears on his doorstep and asks to stay for the next four weeks. Nothing better than that, Max thinks to himself and smells prey. But in no time at all, Lisa's appeal is gone when Max realizes that she hasn't come alone: she has her sweet baby Maya with her - and that's the last straw for Max. How is he and Ulli supposed to win the city council's architectural competition if a toddler is constantly bawling in their ears? Ulli insists on helping Lisa and puts a gun to Max's head: either mother and child can stay - or he will leave the apartment they share.

On March 25, 1996, the publicist Jan Philipp Reemtsma is kidnapped. His son Johann and his wife Ann Kathrin witness how their home is transformed overnight into a police control center. Two police officers, the family’s lawyer and a close friend form a community of fate, united by their common goal of bringing Johann’s father home as quickly and unharmed as possible.

A doctor marries his seemingly incurable patient to fulfill her last wish. A serum he develops saves her, and the union born of compassion develops into a loving marriage.

Thirty years after the war, Anna, a journalist from Germany, leaves for her native village in Lower Silesia, which she had to leave with her family in 1945. Here she meets Ludwik, an old love and her daughter's father.

Squirrels are among the most widely known and recognized mammals. In many parts of the world they gladly join us for our lunches in city parks, amaze us with their acrobatics and entertain our children as cartoons on TV. Squirrels live in an extraordinarily diverse range of habitats. Some can fly, some can swim, some live in trees or underground, others love icy wastelands or burning hot deserts. But don’t let their cuteness fool you! They may be small, but squirrels are one of the most successful species on the planet. And they have big families. This blue-chip documentary explores some of the most fascinating squirrel species and shows how they became so successful dealing with extreme environments and curious (human) neighbors. 'Going Nuts' unveils the enchanting world of one of the “most watched” mammals on the planet.

Autistic Florian works as an assistant to facility manager Henk in a luxury hotel and is secretly in love with chambermaid Valerie. When it comes to communication, however, the smart guy has his problems, which is why he usually finds it difficult to deal with other people. Meanwhile, Valerie, who unlike Florian is extremely chaotic, pays little attention to her admirer and has other problems to deal with anyway: she is trying to regain custody of her daughter, but is in danger of losing her job as a result. Florian is immediately on hand to help her and is also actively supported by his boss. But can he really win Valerie's heart this way?

Born into a well-off family, Franz Blum had led a carefree youth until, some time after graduating from high school, he was arrested by the police. For, involved by a gang of bad boys, the young man had taken part in a bank robbery. A "heroic deed" which earned him six years in prison. Once behind bars, he was treated with ruthless inhumanity by the guards. And little by little - but inexorably - Franz turned into an insurgent...