Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

Christmas is just two weeks away, it is pouring with rain, and Ben is struggling to get into the Christmas spirit. Suddenly, Bens life takes a turn for the better when Santa Niklas Goodfellow and his Christmas caravan come crashing down to Earth in the middle of thunderstorm and land in Foggy Lane. Santa is on the run from the ruthless Gerold Geronimus Goblynch and his army of nutcrackers who have outlawed all of the old magical ways and have transformed the bright and peaceful Christmas world into a dark and hostile place, governed by greed and money. Goblynch has banned work for all Santas and confined the Christmas angels to tiny prison cells, where they can no longer hear the dearest wishes of children. Goblynch also wants to force Santa Niklas Goodfellow, the last real Santa, to work for his commercialized Christmas company and forces him to do hard labour in the ordering department of the Christmas Palace.

German Paratroopers are ordered to hold the line at Monte Cassino in Italy, and halt the allied advance on Rome.

Berlin, 1943, during World War II. Martha Liebermann, an elderly upper-class Jewish woman, faces the decision of her life: should the widow of the world-famous and revered painter Max Liebermann continue to try to obtain an exit permit from the Nazis or, with the help of a resistance group, should she flee to Switzerland?

Every year in the spring the pupils of the 8th grade in the GDR receive the 'Jugendweihe' and are admitted to the circle of adults. This year, Tim is ready. For him and his classmates, the day begins with a ceremony in the culture house, then he goes with the whole family in a hotel restaurant, to celebrate the event properly.

An apple juice producer can't decide between his wife and his secretary and tries to commit suicide. Being committed to psychiatry, he falls asleep and dreams of adventures as Adam and Eve in heaven and hell.

A completely new life begins for railroad employee Werner Nordhaus when he meets the fascinating variety theater director Karena Rodde. She discovers that Werner is a great dancing talent and is determined to win him over for her theater. Karena wants Werner to give up his life as a train driver and start training as an artist for her in Hamburg - a decision that would turn his life upside down...

The experiences and adventures of three “thirty-something” buddies who involuntarily find themselves caught up in civil unrest. At first it is simply a jaunt in their boss ‘Porsche’ which their “borrow” without permission to drive to Triest, however, it becomes an adventure.

Hamburg landscape architect Ulrike inherits a vineyard near Barcelona, where she falls in love with Pablo. Her fatherly friend Joe advises her to be careful, because Pablo is the son of a real estate shark. Is the Spaniard just after her property? Until this is clarified, the drama takes many a bumpy turn.

After surviving a car crash in the middle of Lebanon's isolated Beqaa Valley, an amnesiac man finds himself held hostage on a local farm that doubles as an illegal drug-production facility.

In 1957 Gustaf Gründgens staged a new production of Goethe's Faust in which he once again played Mephisto, a part he had played since 1932. The brilliant production was a huge success and ran for a couple of years. In 1959 Peter Gorski captured the performance on film in his directorial film debut. Basically it is a registration of the production, but Gorksi did manage to accentuate the details of the acting by using enough medium and close-up shots which give a view on the acting you normally would not able to see in a theater.

The story of hotel manager Michael Hagen, who finally wants to catch up on his long-promised honeymoon with his wife Rebecca. But Michael's boss has other plans: Michael is to take over the luxurious but increasingly run-down hotel "El Sol" in Mallorca and find out why the already few guests are increasingly leaving head over heels. To avoid disappointing his wife and losing his job, Michael keeps his assignment secret and flies to the Balearic island with Rebecca in the hope of making their dream vacation together possible after all.

The seemingly innocent Alexander Rothstein ends up in jail for drug trafficking. In fact, he bears the responsibility of providing for his newly pregnant girlfriend Julia and their future child. To make matters worse, he ends up sharing a cell with the dangerous Russian Viktor and the unstable Arab Khalil. To fulfill his duties as a father and escape the dangers of prison, Alex needs money - a lot of money. His desperation drives him into the arms of the Kurdish gangster boss Mazlum, also known as the Dutchman, and back to his friend from drug therapy, Cem. Together, they weave the threads of an organization that casts its nets even beyond the prison walls, but at the height of euphoria, Alex suddenly finds himself caught in it. He is left with only two options: Succumb to the conspiracy of intrigue and betrayal or become a monster himself.

1828 in the German port city of Bremen: Two very different women collide in an age that has no place for either of them. One strives for a career in law, at a time when women aren't even admitted to universities. The other has lived life outside the law and may now have to pay the tab. One of them needs to get her head together – while the other would do anything not to lose hers. -- Based on a true story.

After the corpse of the programmer Klaus Pape was found neatly dismantled in a freezer, Commissioner Beate Stein starts the research that will lead her to both the red-light district and the better society of Hamburg.

Hans and Anna – together they make the Hannas: A hefty couple who love to cook. They meet sisters Kim and Nicola, both anorexic and excitingly different. Opposites attract, however, and anything goes, so the Hannas each wind up having an affair without the other’s knowledge. But Kim and Nicola have a secret of their own in store.

Theres and Kenneth are both young when they first meet whilst on holiday. They fall in love but are unable to prevent themselves from losing each other. Thirty years later, in another country, another couple: Ariane leaves her husband David because she no longer loves him. The paths they both take lead them to Kenneth and Theres.

The story is one of the classic operetta stories with a young princess destined to marry a king whom her mother tries to enforce while the young woman tries to escape her fate.

Shortly after his return from India, a special agent of the British secret service falls victim to an insidious poisoning in London. Scotland Yard gets involved. But too late: valuable information has fallen into the hands of an international criminal gang...

Six Catholics share their thoughts and problems with Jesus in different churches. The camera accompanies them.

Hartwig gets by a strange coincidence confused by a prince with a certain Josef Döllinger in a luxurious restaurant. Hartwig is overjoyed, as he gets to know the dancer Garda Maro.

Andrea, a woman without a past, is the object of both Philipp’s and his son’s desire. A love triangle filled with expectations, longing and fears leaves open the speculation of who knows what about whom.

A privileged millennial struggles to be a good member of society. Greta Thunberg is watching and so is an old white man, commenting on her every move. A matter of life and death!

About the violent captain Gaustad on a ship of rape, mutiny and shipwreck, in the icy waters of Sweden. Two shipmates, Björn and Sigurd, survive the chaos and cold white desert.

The severe earthquake in February 2023 has also brought northern Syria back into the international spotlight, a region that has long gone largely unnoticed. Yet a conflict has been smouldering here for years that could escalate at any time and have international repercussions: The terrorist organisation known as IS, which had its stronghold here and has been defeated militarily, could regain strength from here.

A good doctor is out to stop his evil doctor brother from blackmailing his patients.

A photographer convinces a model to use sex to obtain what she desires.

The 21-year-old student Oliver Mansfeld attends a boarding school in Frankfurt. There he meets the married banker's wife Verena. A passionate affair develops between them, which does not remain undiscovered by Verena's husband for long.

In a german suburb a babysitter is too busy with her own teenage business and leaves a boy with his little sister alone. Then the girl is missing. The only way the family and society are able to deal with the horror is to ignore it and hide the truth in the closet.

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...

A descendant of Count Dracula returns to his ancestral village to take revenge on the people who destroyed his ancestor.

Tibere is a small-time hood who tries to get one of three airline hostesses to help him in his gold-smuggling operation in this light comedy. One woman is a snob, the second is adventurous, and Melanie is sentimental about love.

A young man is searching for his place in the world. He finds his way, religion and his "brothers" in the radical Islam. What begins with the wish of helping people in Syria leads Jan through religious murder as an ISIS-soldier and back to his home county Germany.

The hopelessly romantic Lisa takes desperate measures to win her former lover back, Alf. But the fact that Alf already has a new girl at his side and that Lisa needs to bring her alcoholic father to an antivaricose-campaign photo shooting without letting him know, is not particularly helping.

Doctor affected by cancer tries to reconcile with her daughter in view of her imminent death.

Charo seems like a typical Berlin teenager. She's a student surrounded by good friends and has her eye on the coolest guy in school. But no one knows that Charo has been living in Germany illegally for years, not even her best friend Laura. Problems start to arise when Charo's mother is caught by the police and wants to take Charo back to Columbia. Charo now needs to trust Laura with her secret because it's the only way she'll be able to fight for her future in Germany.

Toni (Sarah Engels) falls in love with Tom, but he has a dark secret.

Consul daughter Anne Stülcken wants to take her fiancee undetected under the magnifying glass and therefore slips in her father's villa in the role of a maid.

The unorthodox millionaire's wife Eva Klüber raves when her husband Rainer divorces her and she should keep according to the marriage contract nothing of the common assets. Eva fictitiously her own kidnapping, in order to come to what they see as more than earned money. But her perfect plan is backfiring in several ways.

A film about non-territorial office space, multi-mobile knowledge workers, Blackberries and Miles&More. A road movie discovering the working world of tomorrow. This documentary will take you on a journey through the post-industrial knowledge and services workshops, our supposed future working place. In this new world work will be handled more liberally. Time clocks cease to exist. Attention is not compulsory any more. The resource “human“ comes into focus. The film closely follows the high-tech work force – people who are highly mobile and passionate to make their work their purpose in life. Further episodes resume this topic and lead into the world of modern office architecture and into the world of Human Resource Management.

The film is set in 18th century Northern Italy, where the world’s two best violin makers battle it out to build the perfect instrument.

On stage since she was a toddler, Googoosh has been an icon of Iranian pop culture since the 1970s. Her progressive style and raw singing talent attracted worldwide acclaim and saw her performing alongside the likes of Tina Turner and Ray Charles. But the star's career came to an abrupt halt after the Islamic Revolution, which banned women from singing in public. Googoosh was placed under house arrest, where she remained for the next two decades. Niloufar Taghizadeh's documentary, which includes interviews with the charismatic singer (now in her seventies, but still performing and advocating for women and girls) and arresting archival footage, offers both a loving portrait of a national icon and a fascinating historical and cultural record of Iran.

Grandpa Oskar takes neither the truth nor himself very seriously. The rascal has just been released from prison, where he was serving a sentence for imposture. Since the ex-con needs a place to stay, he quartered himself in the old construction trailer in the farthest corner of the garden of his daughter Tilda, who is still mad at him. The senior soon meets his autistic granddaughter Fanny, whose antics and peculiarities threaten to break the family under. In contrast to the old man, the 8-year-old takes the truth very seriously. In order to gain their trust, Oskar does not introduce himself to the comic-loving girl as the criminal grandpa, who has been missing for years, but as Professor Krypton. For Fanny, who prefers to wear a brightly colored superhero costume and is teased at school for it, the omniscient mentor from the Superman planet comes along just at the right time, because she has a dream: To win the talent competition at school!

When Sir John Falstaff decides that he wants to have a little fun he writes two letters to a pair of Window wives: Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. When they put their heads together and compare missives, they plan a practical joke or two to teach the knight a lesson. But Mistress Ford's husband is a very jealous man and is pumping Falstaff for information of the affair. Meanwhile the Pages' daughter Anne is besieged by suitors.

Anja became a millionaire! This wife and mother won million euros on lottery and she decides for a smart investment. First step - getting her husband Uli off the couch. She hires a lawyer, who's in love with her, to buy an abandoned restaurant and employ Uli, a talented chef, giving him a second chance. Things go out of control when restaurant becomes very popular

At a beauty contest, a saleswoman falls into the hands of brutal traffickers. A policewoman poses as a barmaid to infiltrate the gang.

Engelein is a comedy of deliberately mistaken identity. If Jesta, a 17-year-old, can play the part of a 12-year-old, her family will gain a large inheritance from a rich uncle from Chicago. Her unruly “play-acting” for the uncle is preceded by an earlier incident in the film that results in Jesta being evicted from her girl’s school. Wearing a long, woman’s skirt, she climbs up a ladder and onto a thatched roof. She reaches over the top of the wall to kiss her boyfriend, who appears from the other side. However, Jesta is caught by the headmistress, and her forced descent is precipitous. Pulled downward, she reveals a great deal of a black-stockinged leg. She looks distinctly sexual as she falls into the matrimonly arms of the law, whose duty is to enforce the rules of female decorum.

Documentary about Italian cinema.

The whole country wants an end of the drought. Maren has even more reason to wish for rain, her austere father,the rich hay farmer Iven, will approve her marriage with her beloved Andrees only if the rain falls before the next sunset.

Eric Friedler, multiple winner of the Grimme and German Television Awards, accompanies the actors from back then on a journey into their past. In intense encounters and interviews, he unearths painful confessions and suppressed feelings of guilt and shows how close fame and misery, rise and fall lie to one another.

At the age of forty-four, Silke finds herself impregnated by one of her ex-partners: humiliated by her unfaithful husband, she had only one thought in mind: to take revenge by doing the same to him. Now the mother-to-be is faced with a difficult decision.

The daily confrontation with the darkest abysses of the human soul has turned war reporter Paul Holland into an incorrigible cynic. Only one thing keeps him going: his love for his girlfriend Sybille. When she suddenly disappears without a trace one day, everything points to a kidnapping - but there doesn't seem to be a motive. Desperate, Paul goes in search of his beloved. Because he just doesn't want to and can't believe that Sybille is possibly dead.

For more than a decade, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, Adolf Hitler's right-hand man during the infamous Third Reich, assembled a collection of thousands of works of art that were meticulously catalogued.

In 1887 in Munich, a rising artist paints a portrait of a dancer. The success of it during an exhibition leads to him being awarded a major commission in Rome, and he begins to move in high society. By the time he returns home he has almost forgotten about her.

During a cattle drive, Don McGow leaves the herd in charge of his younger brother and rides off. When the herd is reported stolen he blames himself and goes in search of the thieves.

Invisible People is a multi-layered depiction of the unique Japanese contemporary dance Butoh that flows between revolt, eroticism, trance, prayer, ancestral experience, and physical anonymity. The film gradually drifts away from its core issue and becomes a general portrayal of life itself, with all its unforeseen strokes of fate and strange micro-connections.