Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

A famous figure of the 20th century, Albert Schweitzer was a tireless humanist and polymath who opened a hospital in the Gabonese jungle to bring healthcare to remote areas. But today the legacy of the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 is being scrutinised. How important was his wife Hélène in his success? And was the virtuous man also racist?

Saniye is offered a career advancement by her boss as a wedding present. But instead of being happy, the previously modern young woman suddenly feels the need to become a mother. Her fiancé Tom is not enthusiastic about Saniye's reproductive instinct. The two of them suddenly embark on a fatal journey into the all-promising, passionless world of fertility medicine, with their relationship falling by the wayside.

Young journalist Lilly Parker is shocked when she learns at the reading of her recently deceased father's will that she is not his biological daughter. As a result, she is only tolerated by her stepmother Nora and takes care of the heartbroken readers of the local magazine Country Lady. Lilly herself has no problems in love, at least since she has been in a relationship with the much older Eric. Then Lilly finds a letter written 50 years ago by the American Grace and helps her to find the love of her life, David. In the process, Lilly also meets Grace's grandson Nicholas and falls in love with the charming stranger.

Anja, a student, and Leonhard, a judge, meet at Marlene, his ex-wife, and Paul's house, marry shortly afterwards and have a son, Daniel. However, Anja's desire for love is not fulfilled in their relationship. When she is not careful, Daniel scalds himself and is admitted to hospital. Subsequently, Anja drinks more alcohol and begins an affair with Paul. When Marlene and Leonhard find out, Leonhard files for divorce. After an alcohol poisoning, Anja goes to rehab. During an outing with the therapy group, Anja throws herself out of a window and dies.

Doro is young, beautiful and a trained opera singer that gets by with occasional jobs. Her neighbour, a former criminal detective, is dying and she cares for him in his last moments. His dying wish is to see his son Michael. Doro fulfills the old man's wish and they meet for the first time since twenty years.

Pepe Nietnagel's father has a valuable stamp collection stolen in Amsterdam. Street musician Pit recovers it. To show his gratitude, Pit is invited to Baden Baden and enters the Mommsen Gymnasium. There, he joins Pepe in his pranks.

Mikail had to flee Chechnya for being homosexual. Unexpectedly meeting his old childhood-friend Daud in Germany, Mikal is not only faced with a renewed friendship, but a recurring fear of persecution.

In an art gallery, a secret agent meets a contact to exchange information about the imminent collapse of the Eastern Bloc.

Old Karl Knesebeck has long been head waiter and rules his waiters with an iron fist at the hotel. When the business passes into the hands of the heirs after the owner's death, he's in a difficult position. The unscrupulous Alwin makes advances toward Niddy, the owner's daughter, whose well-being Knesebeck watches over like a father. Alwin demotes the old man to toilet attendant – a tragedy that Knesebeck tries to salvage, especially since Niddy is about to marry Alwin and another man would actually be better for her...

After many years, Detective Chief Inspector Steffen Gellhagen returns to his home town to solve the case of a missing schoolgirl. The former teacher Kortmann, who has a criminal record for rape resulting in death, very quickly becomes the investigator's target. However, the eloquent Kortmann is uncooperative and cynically dismissive during interrogation. Gellhagen is convinced that the man knows more than he is admitting. As the pressure from the media and the outraged citizens grows, the police officer has to decide how far he wants to go to get Kortmann to talk.

Bette Davis is the most disturbing film diva Hollywood has ever seen. Her life and her roles reflect the fractures in the American image of women. She was dominant, intelligent, sometimes heartless and yet above all she wanted to be loved. This did not work out in her private life. She was too strong for the men. But the public always loved her!

When Katharina got an unexpected letter from her son Hans announcing that he was getting married and that he and his fiancé Nicki were leaving Berlin to come visit her...

Grandpa Lörke is preparing for a contemplative, quiet Christmas Eve. But nothing comes of it, because his daughter Anne informs him that his 17-year-old granddaughter has disappeared.

In August 1988, two armed bank robbers keep German police at bay for 54 hours during a hostage-taking drama that ends in a shootout and three deaths.

Teenage girl Lys is discovered inside the reactor of the newly build TERRA Power Plant and finds she is developing special powers that connect her to the energy of all living things.

On business trip in Milan, Bavarian architect Max Hauser falls in love with strong-willed waitress Bianca, who is fired for speaking up to his rude colleagues. When he proposes, she runs, but he traces her to Rome, where he finds she's actually the multi-titled rebellious daughter of impoverished prince and count Vibaldo D'Arcadia and his snobbish silver spoon wife Gioia, who inhabit a stunning but slowly derelict renaissance palace. When Max asks for her hand, she hastily accepts, and after getting the matriarchal blessing of the countess-mother Donna Costanza, Max invites his parents, egalitarian dentist Walter Hauser and wine merchant Eva and Zahnarzt to attend his socialite wedding. Max is not amused to find his father cornered by his mistress, flight attendant Xenia who demands Waleter's divorce, a secret they will painfully fail to keep under control, yet the parents refuse to spoil their son's wedding, but the palatial maid gets wind of half the story and confides into the ...

Berlin's theatre crowd is excited about the new operetta "Frau Luna". But for the head of the city's vice police, who was invited to the dress rehearsal, the costumes for the ladies onstage are a bit too revealing. He demands the show be cancelled as offensive. The president of the Thusneldenbund has taken it upon himself to alert everyone about the growth of immorality in the capital. The theatre director Knopp has come up with an idea to convince these "fine" gentlemen to let the operetta go onstage again: He intends to win over the friendship of the moral police and then nothing will stand in the way of "Frau Luna" once more being performed.

The wife of the Swedish Ambassador of Greece becomes involved in a romantic triangle, but the man who comes between husband and wife has a preference for the husband.

Germanus, a brave gladiator, witnesses the brutal murder of his brother, committed by another fighter. Since then, he will become his worst enemy, with whom he will fight in several fights, each more bitter. One day, Germanus discovers that his sister, also gladiator, maintains a passionate affair with the man who killed the brother of both, without her knowing anything about the crime

Death and the devil, nudity and eroticism, horror in blazing colours, Gothic art cast a spell over people 500 years ago. In these image-poor times, art deliberately and skilfully played with the emotions of the viewer, triggering fear, devotion, but also rapture. Art documentary on German gothic art of the late-middle ages.

Agathe Zausel doesn't have it easy. Not only could her doll factory be running better, but her sons-in-law Fred and Otto also seem to have nothing but fantasies on their minds instead of devoting their full attention to the family business. Fred has taken it into his head to secretly compose pop songs, while Otto is secretly designing a rocket plane. As they both try to keep their pastimes a secret from Agathe, she can only fear the worst.

Aidai the baksy, or witch doctor, lives in the mountains and helps people. She uses mysterious actions to cure the sick and to give infertile couples children. As capitalist forces begin to encroach on tradition, the first casualty is any culture's most fundamental inheritance - land. The healer has to leave her land because the mob thinks the location is suitable for a filling station. A harsh battle between supernatural good and earthly evil ensues.

A complicated love triangle, enriched with plenty of drugs, sex and nightlife in Berlin.

As a little girl, Lissie Lensen had only one dream: to become a princess. Consequently, she has now ended up with the trendy women's magazine "Gossip". But unfortunately only as a small assistant, because her boss Carmen doesn't trust her to go on a celebrity hunt with the right bite. Only when Lissie has a hot one-night stand with the handsome Paul does her life change abruptly: Paul is the fiancé of the Danish princess and heir to the throne, Silvia.

11-year-old Rea has recently moved to a distant planet in an outer-space colony where she discovers a mysterious animal cub while her father works in a factory that builds robotic creatures. With the help of her new friend Andy, she must protect the real cub from the factory’s ruthless owner, who intends to turn it into a robotic prototype.

When Conny died at the age of only 47, his son Stephan was just 13 years old. Twenty-five years later, together with co-director Reto Caduff, he went in search of the man he often only experienced behind the mixing desk as a child. At the same time it became the search for the artistic legacy of his father.

Leo Vincey receives a map from his late father, leading him to the legendary city of Kor in search of an explanation for his mysterious ancestry.

An advertising man, young, casual and a yuppie, stands up his girlfriend and suddenly finds himself relegated to the role of the fifth wheel, which seriously questions his self-esteem.

Pilot Chris Bergen falls in love with Tamani, a Thai woman, on a flight to Bangkok. It is only later that he learns she is a princess and is supposed to marry a prince at her father’s behest.

In contrast to his successful brother Ernst (Heino Ferch), Robby (Sebastian Koch) dropped out of teacher training early and ekes out a living as a taxi driver. When Ernst emigrates to New Zealand to find love, Robby spontaneously takes on his brother's trainee position.

A young Russian dancer in Geneva returns to Russia, where he falls in love with a grand duchess. He is arrested but manages to escape. Lost film.

After searching in vain through Europe for her boy after 1917, a Russian ballerina settles in with a Paris artist, which arouses the ire of the man's model.

When a squatted house in Hamburg is evicted, Else, a well-known vagrant, also has to look for a new place to live. Having separated from her family at a very early age and bequeathed part of her fortune to poor orphans in India, she makes her way to her sister, the owner of the house, and is forced to watch a failed bank robbery. The two gangsters, who fear Else's testimony and therefore take her into their power, devise a plan to accompany her and get their hands on her sister's fortune.

A nightclub waiter and a manicurist share the same room, she sleeps there by night and he by day. They've never meet , but they can't stand each other. Then they meet by chance, not knowing who's who and fall in love.

Maria is a student at the university of Essen, Germany, living and working in a gray, unpleasant, and anonymous environment. While she has little problem finding someone for a one night stand, she rebuffs her lovers in such a rude way that they actually don't know what's going on. But what seems to be a negative attitude at first glance is in fact much worse: Maria is suffering from borderline syndrome, a serious psychotic disease that makes her fail to develop a continuous, reliable personality, from her own perspective as well as from the perspective of those she meets. Then one day, she bumps into Jan, a student who falls in love with her without delay. He's awaiting a hard time when he has to learn how hard it is to stay loyal and faithful to a person who, in her own words, "has a different world inside of her head" and who feels that "there is something inside of me that eats me up."

"You can take a man out of the small town - but you can't take the small town out of the man." Clemens Wolf plays bass in a US band and takes advantage of a break from touring to pay a visit to his hometown on the Brandenburg B96.

Paris, 1830: Jean-Gaspard Debureau performs on the stage and delights his audience with song, wit and charm. He is, however, very unpopular with King Charles X, who is the target of much of Debureau's scornful jests. That would be a somewhat tolerable situation if it weren't for the fact that Debureau has fallen for a countess, who happens to be the King's mistress.

After more than 20 years, the marriage of Bevon consultant Thea and car mechanic Rainer has been worn down by years of routine. Thea lacks appreciation from her family and no longer has access to her teenage daughter Janina. Her husband Rainer is still mourning his missed chance of a career as a rock star and is hopelessly at odds with his son Patrick. When Heinrich Bittner, a supposedly close friend of Thea's deceased father, suddenly moves in with the Cronpichels, Thea enjoys his presence and begins to see her life with new eyes. But is the charming and mysterious Heinrich really who he claims to be?

After breaking up with her unfaithful boyfriend, Katharina Reiff urgently needs a change of scenery. Together with her 16-year-old daughter Nele, she travels to her mother Marianne, who lives on a small island in the North Sea. On the way there, Katharina observes a man being followed by two dubious figures. Good-natured as she is, she takes Sebastian, the stranger's name, with her to the island. When Sebastian's shady pursuers turn up a little later, the shrewd islanders join forces to shed light on the matter.

A crime comedy directed by Jirí Menzel, based on a story by Edgar Wallace.

Sándor Barinkay joins the gypsies en route to his home village hiding his real identity as an Hungarian nobleman, whose parents were sent to exile. He claims his former properties, now taken by a pig merchant who plays the fool to the villagers' delight. Yet this man has an interesting daughter, and there's also the beautiful gypsy Saffi to consider. And a family hidden treasure to be found.

This is the opportunity of a lifetime: Sabine Fink, a young, ambitious public prosecutor, is entrusted by Chief Public Prosecutor Grabowski with the spectacular case of a tunnel disaster. A catastrophe that cost the lives of entire families. The question of guilt is as good as clear: the truck driver Roman Sikorski drove into a queue of cars while overtired and at far too high a speed. But Fink notices irregularities the first time he looks through the files.

Merowe Dam in North Sudan. Maher works in a traditional brickyard fed by the waters of the Nile. Every evening, he secretly wanders off into the desert to erect a mysterious construction made of mud. Despite a disturbing wound in his lower back that seems to be eating away at his skin, he continues his labor day after day. While the Sudanese people rise to claim their freedom, his mud creation starts slowly to take a life of its own.

A godless sawmill owner makes his family's life so hellish that he has to be killed.

Anticipation in Salzburg Festival: the new production of "Don Giovanni" is in its final rehearsals and the arrival of the famous conductor Marius Atterson is imminent. Unfortunately, the equally famous opera director David Roth feels so provoked during a rehearsal that he shoots himself offside with his impertinence. The festival president remains cool and persuades Beate Zierau - a director who is rightly regarded as particularly difficult - to join the production. A piquant choice, as Atterson and Zierau were once married.

Like every year, Gerald and Gundula celebrate Christmas with the whole family. But Christmas Eve turns into a disaster in which Gundula loses his nerve. It was not to be expected that her mother and mother-in-law would warm up the old stories and that her husband Gerald would not even be able to put up the Christmas tree. Gerald didn't want to have Christmas with the family from the start. Gundula's religious brother Hadi and wife Rose are notoriously annoying.

Paul and Paula are partners in their profession as comic artists and best friends in their private lives. They also have the same problem: being overweight! When Paul's school sweetheart Mariah suddenly turns up and is about to move to the city, Paul decides to lose weight. But he breaks his leg during his first attempt at fitness. And how do you burn a lot of calories despite breaking your leg? By popping! The results are impressive and gradually everyone around him falls for the sex diet. Eventually even Paula, who persuades her good old friend Paul to have sex with her. After all, they know each other inside out and don't want anything else from each other, or do they?

Despite having lived in the East German countryside for several months, teenager Lars and his dad, Henrik, are still treated as unwelcome guests. Henrik is building a “marriage barn,” a proposed bed-and-breakfast for newlywed Berliners.

Sabine Nemez is now studying at the BKA academy with the eccentric forensic scientist Sneijder. Although she is shocked by the death of her boyfriend, her lecturer puts the young investigator on three unsolved murders. Second case of the duo after Andreas Gruber.

In his dreams Sammy is a rock star. But in reality he works and cleans in his brother Momo's hammam. Suddenly, a music label gives him the chance to become famous in a casting show. On one condition: The solo musician must form a band. So Sammy, his sister Jessi, the old temporary masseur Wolle and fat Mahmut quickly become the group "Hamam Hardrock". The audience celebrates the original newcomers but label boss Thomaschewsky wants to prevent the multicultural rockers' triumphant advance by any means necessary.

A lengthy interview with director Mel Welles who talks in detail about how he came to be a fan of monster and horror pictures at a young age, and the origins of his 1971 film, Lady Frankenstein. Originally released for German TV.

Part satire, part drama, this movie tells the story of Anton Paulisch (Herb Andress), who has been living and working as an actor in Rome. When he hears that his mother is mortally ill, he returns to Munich to be at her bedside, but doesn't quite make it. He and sister Astrid (Elke Haltaufderheide) rediscover their friendship, though, as they go through a number of crises. Meanwhile, Anton makes an effort to find work in Munich, and runs headlong into the silliness and pretensions of the "New German Cinema" movement.

After the death of her husband, the well-off widow Juliane Willbrand sinks into a great void. Her efforts to return to her old job as a librarian after twenty years prove futile until prison warden Schober gives her a chance. The challenge as head of the prison library gives Juliane energy and new courage to face life. She falls in love with the artistically talented prisoner Albert Tieck, who was sentenced to seven years behind bars after an arson in which his wife died. When Albert apparently uses a prison leave to escape, Juliane's world falls apart - until she discovers Albert's secret.

On August 13th, 1961 - the night that the Berlin Wall goes up - three people must make a decision that will change their lives forever.