Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

Public prosecutor Judith Schrader wants to return to the 'Organized Crime' department. She has been given a chance to do so, as Sirin Dogan is to become the new police commissioner. The politician of Kurdish descent takes action against right-wing extremism, especially within the police force. This makes her the target of hatred. Shortly before her inauguration, a stranger threatens her with death in her apartment. Judith accepts the assignment to investigate this stranger and once again works with Detective Chief Inspector Jochen Montag.

An undercover cop presenting as an accountant for a gang of criminals has no choice but to take on all the gangsters when a kidnapped man is brought in to be killed.

A drama set during the failed coup against President Mikhail Gorbachev.

"Bullenkloster" is the name given to the Ruhr miners' single home. Heinz Lenz has lived there since his divorce from Gisela. When he returned to the mine, he met his buddy Jupp again. Jupp persuades him to enter the ring once again. Only when Trudi promises him something, he agrees, but loses in the big fight. Through Jupp's mediation, he meets Gisela, who picks up their son. At first he only wants to see his son from a distance, but when he sees him he decides to start all over again.

An eleven-year-old Turkish boy, two young men from a small town, and a cuckolded policeman from the sticks all find their way to Berlin on May Day, where, in the district of Kreuzberg, emotions come to the boil every year.

Pam Holloway believes in love and a stable marriage. Her parents Laureen and Elliot are her great role models: they are celebrating their silver wedding anniversary this year.

In the late 19th century young radiologist Georg starts to experiment with the recently discovered X-Ray technology. At first his methods seem promising and his patients get better. Soon however, he plunges himself more and more into his work and must learn the true devastating nature of his treatments.

Prince Valona has a bit of trouble with his girlfriend Eveline (Olivia Fried), so he's quite open for the attraction of a young lady he meets by chance (Valerie Boothby). He doesn't know, however, that this lady is a detective who follows the con-man Carlo Moreno, and as the prince and the criminal look alike, she mistakes the prince for the criminal. The real Moreno isn't far away, though, and he first deprives the prince of his train ticket and then also takes on his identity in order to steal a pearl necklace from Eveline.

"A Guru Comes" - A failed opera singer rises to the leader of a new religious community. Satirical film about the new religious movements of the 1970s and 1980s.

The Prince of Guastalla falls in love with the young citizen Emilia Galotti, who is soon to marry Count Appiani. In order to win Emilia, the prince tries to send the count on an "honorable" journey on his behalf with the help of his chamberlain Marinelli. However, after the Count refuses this offer, Marinelli decides to have the wedding carriage robbed on his own initiative in order to have Emilia abducted to the Prince's nearby pleasure palace. But he has not thought of the prince's mistress, Countess Orsina, and Emilia's shaken father Odoardo, both of whom soon arrive at the castle, one to meet the prince, the other to look after his daughter...

Despite the homeopathic doctors studying medicine, they treat their patients against the basis of scientific knowledge. Allegations of fraud surround the topic. In the film, homeopaths embark on adventurous explanations of their popular belief system.

Hamburg, Germany, summer 1988. A young bank employee embezzles a large amount of money using an ingenious technique and flees to Australia, from where he phones his girlfriend to tell her what he has done so easily; but her reaction is not what he naively expected.

The school authorities want to read success stories in director Joachim Faber's reports. But they cannot simply be produced on an assembly line. Pupils, for example, use the wrong tone. The matter draws circles until the superiors finally talk about refusal to work. Director Faber is caught between the efforts to resolve the conflict with pedagogical means and the pressure from above.

Maria, Helga and Kiki were best friends in their youth. Now there has been radio silence between them for many years. One day, the ladies meet by chance and it is the first step into a new life.

Crime writer Solveig Karlsdottir is pretty successful - although that's not particularly easy in Iceland. After all, with only two murders a year in the entire country, there aren't many sources of inspiration, but she makes up for this with a lot of imagination and her special feeling for things that aren't quite right. And this feeling kicks in strongly when she travels from Reykjavik to her old home village to look after her mother Margret, who is suffering from dementia. When an old friend from her youth is found dead at the harbor, she doesn't believe the official conclusion that it was an accident.

The love of his life, Svetlana, chose suicide twelve years ago. At that time, Stein resigned from the Federal Intelligence Service. Since then, the ex-agent no longer searches for criminals, but is a professional hunter on the prowl. One morning, Stein comes across explosive secret documents in his hunting ground. They reveal the name of the man who had Svetlana on his conscience: Like Stein, Mooser worked for the BND in the CSSR and was in love with Svetlana. Out of wounded vanity, he blocked her exit visa and thus drove the Czech woman to her death. Stein senses an opportunity for the final shot. But Mooser also knows how to lay traps...

Concierge Felix is looking forward to a quiet night-shift with his favorite co-worker and secret crush Tanja. Unfortunately she brings a cage to work that does not contain a cuddly pet and draws a group of very peculiar gentlemen into Felix lobby.

The architect Nora wants to go to Greece with her fiancé, the successful lawyer Tobias Becker. During the holidays in Crete Tobias should also find a link to Nora's children Julia and Ben. But the two kids can not smell Tobias, and it gets even thicker: Due to an annoying double occupancy Nora and Tobias have to share the dream house with the event manager Marion and her divorced husband Tobi, because both families have booked under the name Becker. While the two teens Philip and Julia quickly discover their sympathies for each other, the parents need a little longer for it ...

The story of Marie Ward, a religious woman from a devout, aristocratic Yorkshire Catholic family who lived between 1585 and 1645 and moved to St. Omer in Walloon France, where she joined the Order of St. Clare, later returning to England to found her own order and devote her life to helping others.

The Darkhad and Soyon Uriyanghai peoples live in a vast valley in Northern Mongolia, much as their ancestors have for centuries. "Taiga" is the record of a long period spent by the German filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger among these people.

The Dutch supervillain Freek van Dyk is keeping the world on tenterhooks - and the world's best secret services can only stand by and watch. Finally, the Turkish Ayran Secret Service intervenes. However, there is a mix-up, because after two of the ASS men are eliminated, ASS head Süleyman is looking for a "Süper agent" and mistakes the clueless Indian cleaner Ranjid for one. He actually just wants to cure his sick cow, but suddenly has to save the world.

The film is a novelized biography of François Villon (1431-1463), known as the Wandering Poet, who led a troubled life due to the fact that he supported the free expression of people in a coercive climate.

Shock on the night of love: Instead of the tender hand of his neighbor Maren Wenning, the married suburban Casanova Rudi Sterzenbach suddenly feels the bloody hand of a murder victim on his face in the dark cellar. The man lying there with his skull smashed in is the speculative shark Armin Teller. Ironically, also wrapped in the banner of a citizens' initiative against the gentrification of the quarter. An initiative in which they are both active.

This film powerfully documents New York City's gay community's response to the AIDS crisis as they are forced to organize themselves after the government's failure to stem the epidemic. Activists who are interviewed include playwrite Larry Kramer, People With AIDS Coalition co-founder Michael Callen (who died of AIDS in 1994), New York filmmaker and journalist Phil Zwickler, as well as representatives from ACT-UP, Queer Nation and the Gay Men's Health Crisis.

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.

In a small German town roams Ben, a boy with mental disorders. When several youths are murdered Ben becomes suspect.

Pia and Sebastian want to get married and this wedding is to be recorded for posterity by Sebastian's best friend Daniel. However, Daniel takes his job a bit too seriously.

Set against the gritty, vibrant backdrop of Berlin, BERLIN LOOP tells the story of Fatma’s rapid entanglement with the city’s bike-theft mafia. Her meteoric rise to becoming the gang’s chief lock-picker brings initial success but quickly devolves into a perilous trap controlled by the gang’s ruthless leader. Fatma’s only escape lies in a mysterious portal she discovers in an abandoned countryside house, which sends her back in time to the pivotal moment before her first theft. Caught in an unrelenting time loop, Fatma refines her strategies, inspired by the Art of War, to dismantle the gang and reclaim her freedom.

One of Oskar Fischinger's earliest films, Seelische Konstruktionen (as it is known in German), clearly points the way to the masterpieces of musically-blended experimental animation he would conceive in the decades to come. The sense of masterful timing and rhythm, the easy and natural -- though patently Fischinger-esque -- character traits of the subjects, and the smooth precision of both line and movement are all present already. Unique is the black-silhouetted, semi-cartoon characters (not nearly as rigidly self-contained as Lotte Reiniger's cut-out forms) which seem to adhere to no physical limitations whatsoever. Morphing into shapes, structures, objects, patterns, and even one another, as though they were made of pure mercury and set to music. As for the "story", it's rather non-sensical, and certainly silly, but also has a slightly dark and devious tinge to it as well; men becoming monsters, uncontrollable shape-shifting and the constant, almost desperate movement.

Inspector Sörensen has finally retreated to the Frisian province, but he still has to contend with his own inner demons. Loneliness, insomnia and inner restlessness plague him, and although he does everything he can to stop taking his medication for the anxiety disorder, he remains trapped in his psychological torment. One dark night he almost runs over a young, disturbed woman on the country road. She is malnourished, wears only a nightgown and is blind. After she finally reveals her identity to Sörensen, a web of murder, religious madness and well-kept secrets begins to unfold before him. Sörensen is overwhelmed, not only by the shocking situation, but also by his own demons, which are gaining power over him again. The villagers reject him, and as fear takes hold of him again, he will soon realize that it won't just be a corpse.

A bank robbery in a small town. Police officer Arved Minks discovers that the bank robber, surrounded by police, is his own son. But to free him, Arved needs a miracle that night.

On the street, students conduct surveys on the behavior of housewives.

Winter 1968. Historian Dr. Dallow is released from prison. He is still trying to cope with and understand why he was put behind bars for 21 months for defamation of the state. His supposed "crime:" for five minutes he accompanied a cabaret chanson on the piano. The film shows what "ordinary socialism" was like, letting the audience feel the threat under which the people in the GDR had to live over many years.

cheek wins! According to this motto, Conny Herzog is very successful in life and usually achieves her goals, which are often very high. After the successful conclusion of the "father search" operation, the cheerful woman wants to really get going. With an invention by her father Paul, great business ideas and a good deal of courage in her luggage, she dares to pull off the big coup with the help of her friends Freddy, René and Susanne.

An adventurer, Peter Diercksen, travels to South America to guide an expedition into the jungle. However, when the ship is quarantined he believes he has a serious disease. He does not accompany the trip, which runs into major problems.

Eva, a single mother of two children, like many job seekers before her, falls victim to a fraudster who talks her into buying a knitting machine. What initially looks like a huge flop turns out to be a real gap in the market thanks to Eva's cleverness. Shortly afterwards, she falls in love with her neighbor Jan. But dark clouds soon gather...

From director Wolf Wolff comes another zombie movie whose epidemic derives from a virus which turns humans into hideously infected cannibals with superhuman power. In a country town of Landsberg is where the movie is set and it primarily focuses on a trio of friends, medical students who find themselves in a whole heap of trouble. Robert is returning home to settle his genius scientist relative's estate once he dies. Eugene and Patrick accompany Robert to Landsberg where they meet up with two girls, Robert's former flame, Marlene, and her pal Vanessa. The pandemic is understood once Eugene discovers a lab behind a wine cellar door and Robert listens to the recorded audio comments of his grandfather's experiments on corpses and animals hoping to find out what causes the virus and how it spreads.

Traces the story of an extreme athlete, past and present; but also explores the psychology behind life, death, risk and the confrontation of fear.

The teacher Antek Liebmann moves to the French countryside to leave his former life in Germany behind. He soon gets a job and finds himself in a new relationship...

Berlin at the beginning of the 1930s, economic crisis, chaos: Bruno, Franz and Emil, three unemployed young men, are looking for a way out of their misery and decide to kidnap Abel Austerlitz, the son of a rich Jewish factory owner. Emil's charming sister Rosamunde lures Abel into the trap, and the gang of crooks then hold him captive in a cellar hideout on the outskirts of Berlin. While they organize the money transfer, Abel's father informs the police and the unconventional Inspector Jablonski begins to search for the perpetrators. Rosamunde falls in love with Abel and the situation spirals out of control.

About a village gone mad about a suspected treasure and about antagonistic neighbours and their decidely less antagonistic offspring.

Johannes is a loner who wants a better job. And then he meets Ana. Ana is attractive and even though her job is even less prestigious than Johannes's, he falls for her. And then she quits her job to be with him (and be dependent on him) and suddenly things become much more serious. She has fallen for him. But does he still love her? Did he ever? Enter Sarah. Sarah is the daughter of Johannes's boss. He and she have a past. Will Sarah and what she represents be his future, and Ana just a memory, something he'd like to erase?

When Resi and her clique get into a fatal accident on their trip to the Alps, they find themselves in a Bavarian afterlife authority that will decide their fate. Elysium, purgatory, rebirth - anything seems possible. When it becomes clear that the group lacks all conviction, the question arises: what the hell happens to someone who didn't believe in anything when they were alive?

Sanne's and Markus' relationship is in crisis. They go on holiday together, but accidentally fly to the wrong island. There, in desperation, they break into an empty holiday home and embark on a role-play using new identities. At first, the game is an exciting rediscovery of their relationship, but it becomes increasingly destructive as they force themselves into archaic roles.

In the 26th century the inhabitants of Utopia have so lost their individuality, which varies in number. They live in glass houses (this was written before the invention of television), which allows the political police, called “Keepers” can easily supervise them. They all wear the same uniform and usually turn to each other or as a ”cipher-so” or "UNIFEM" (uniform). They feed on artificial food and rest hour marching in fours in a row the anthem of the One State, pouring out of the loudspeakers. As they are allowed to put a break on the hour (known as the ”sexy time“), draw the curtains of their glass houses. At the head of the One State is one called The Benefactor, which are replaced every year the whole population, usually unanimously. The guiding principle of the State is that happiness and freedom are incompatible.

Mondo-style shockumentary about various aspects of the occult and paranormal. An investigation into the fringes of psychic spirituality with so-called experts, it includes demonic possession, exorcism, seances, Voodoo ceremonies, hypnotism, ESP, psychic surgery, and more. A warning bell alerts squeamish viewers to avert their eyes from the more graphic scenes.

In the beginning there was fire: Adam and Eve were on fire for each other when he rescued her from a blazing house. Now they have been married for four years, and the burning desire for each other has turned into a lukewarm togetherness. The dream couple are no longer satisfied with each other: Eve would love to have a child, but in Adam's opinion, cranky brats have always had no place in paradise and the idea of Alete and family happiness in their cozy home makes him want to flee - in short: paradise is in danger.

After the death of their father three sisters, sixteen year old Lou, Charly who is in her early twenties and Emmie who is a mere child, have to try and run the family's horse farm between them. They have to overcome all manner of adversity in order to keep their beloved farm.

Leo, the owner of the stocking product "Discrete", has driven his company into the wall; the company is virtually bankrupt.

Horst Valfelt, deputy manager of a medium-sized bank branch in West Berlin, is passed over for promotion. A woman is put in front of him as branch manager. A serious blow to Valfelt's career. One day, his former fellow student Thomas Berthold appears at the bank. He has achieved everything Valfelt dreams of: a degree, a highly remunerated and influential position and an attractive wife. Berthold wants to start his own business and asks for a loan. Valfelt cockily promises to get him a loan on particularly favorable terms.

An African-American GI retires from the US Army in West Berlin to live with his white girlfriend, who already has a baby with another black man. After an argument with her family, she deserts him as well. Despite finding a job and a new place to live, he keeps running into racism, which also manifests itself in sexual intimidation.

A wealthy middle-aged man tries to seduce younger women at an oceanfront resort.

Split into three episodes, this film examines extrasensory perception, reincarnation and telepathy.