Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

A young saleslady travels by car to the Riviera with a modest seeming young man who, it turns out, is really a wealthy nobleman.

Documentary about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Karl Maiwald, a Dortmund auto mechanic, struggles amid neighbor disputes and family tension. Discovering his company’s clandestine bugging, he exposes management, expecting union backing. Yet the union’s hidden ownership of the firm stuns him, as he realizes the very workers leading protests are its members.

Massage parlors are spread all over the world. Masseuses advertise even in "serious" newspapers in order to loose up every muscle. This movie reports about the experiences in the massage parlours of Rome, Bangkok, Paris, Copenhagen, Vienna, Zurich, Stockholm, Berlin, Nice and Munich. There is more truth in it than you would believe.

The documentary film Dragon Girls tells the story of three young Chinese girls training to become Kung Fu fighters, far away from their families, at the largest Kung Fu school in China. These girls, in a crowd of 26,000 children, are under constant pressure to conform to the norms and structures. They are turned into fighting robots and yet, if you look behind the curtain, you see children with dreams and aspirations. It show the controversial world of selection of the fittest in a totalitarian system.

Ari and Oona go to the same school. Lolita-like Ari, is blonde, pouting and lives in a world of bright colours, frustrated by her mother still treating her as a child, while arty Oona dresses in black and is treated as an adult by her artist father. When Oona’s father commits suicide after his wife has an affair with his brother Lukas, Oona starts to self-harm, but finds and unlikely friendship with Ari. Ari’s enthusiasm for exerting her sexuality rebounds when she starts an affair with Oona’s uncle, who has recently moved in with Oona’s mother.

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

Hilde Reimer is overjoyed when her three grown-up daughters and their partners move into the old family villa. The only thing that really bothers Hilde is that her three girls are still not married, despite having children and being very much in love.

The global corporations have established cities and agricultural zones in areas where the climate is relatively good. These cities are populated by the elites, while the immigrant masses struggle with hunger and epidemics. For unknown reasons, the city’s agricultural plantations have been hit by a genetic crisis - and, as a result, by massive crop failure. Professor Erol Erin, a seed genetics specialist learns of Cemil Akman, a fellow scientist. Apparently, Cemil wrote a thesis about the recurrent crisis affecting genetically modified seeds - but the work was banned by the corporation..

Dr. Sophie Schöner is to treat patients in a hospital in Berlin as a trial with traditional Chinese medicine. It quickly comes to a conflict with the local chief physician. The unequal balance of power provides professionally for plenty of controversy. The fact that the two are attractive does not make things easier.

It was not until twelve years after the end of World War II that Irene Besser's husband, Martin Besser, long believed to be missing, returned from Soviet captivity. But the country and family have become unfamiliar to him. His wife Irene and her daughter Lotte built a new life all by themselves in the tough times of the post-war turmoil in the still young Federal Republic of Germany. With a lot of commitment and dedication, she runs her own department store today and has become an extremely successful businesswoman. Not only as a consultant, the lawyer Dr. Heinz Werther stand her more and more aside. It is becoming increasingly impossible for Irene to do justice to both, men and lover alike. She hopes that even without her, Martin will slowly find his way back in his homeland and open up perspectives for him..

Mr. Rapp was close to selling Rauhenegg Castle when suddenly some young men turn up claiming that the place is haunted. The seller wants to prove the opposite and invites the men to spend a night in the building themselves.

The story of a young, idealistic doctor and his on-the-job training as a rookie surgeon. Dr. Heiner Sommer moves to a small town in the GDR where he will complete his training under the senior physician, also named Dr. Sommer.

Tom Winkler and Alina Liebermann are the heart and soul of the Altkirch Strategy Consulting restructuring team. Smart, intelligent and extremely effective, they always work flawlessly as a perfect team. If they didn't work together so professionally, they would have been a couple for a long time, Alina hopes. But so far, to her regret, there has never been a truly private moment between them. Altkirch Strategy Consulting is a management consultancy that looks after the profitability of ailing companies. Their latest assignment is the mechanical engineering company Salerno AG in Oberhausen. Once there, it quickly becomes clear that the company's employees do not see the team of consultants as helpers, but rather as the enemy. After all, the restructuring of the company could mean its possible closure and thus jeopardize the existence of thousands of jobs.

Some doctors say he won't last another day but still he keeps making films. Sluizer Speaks tells the story of George Sluizer, director of such films as The Vanishing and Dark Blood who fully dedicated his life to cinema. Where did his passion for film lead him?

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.

In 1697, an exorcism on the young French girl Rapunzel Gothel in Germany failed. The girl was killed, but the demon continued to live in the castle of Father Petrosinus, who carried out the exorcism and sold the building shortly afterwards. Centuries later, one of the last relatives of the priest enters the castle. Alina Grimm and her friends want to shoot their final student film, a horror movie, in the castle. Unsuspecting that their presence will conjure up Rapunzel Gothel's demon again, they roam the castle to take test shots for their project. But the demon wants revenge... and if he can't have the Father, then at least a relative of the same blood.

They were, at best mocked or ridiculed, at worst incarcerated, tortured, or even beheaded. But they would not be deterred. For decades ten thousands of women in Germany, Great Britain, in France, the U.S. and many other countries fought for their right to vote. Some used the institutions, others turned into media savvy politicians, and still others turned to terrorism, went on hunger strike, or died as martyrs. 100 years later we tell a multi-perspective and emotional story of the international fight, against all odds, for women’s suffrage as an important step towards equal rights.

For centuries, the water supply of a mountain village has depended on an endangered, wooden water pipe. The young engineer Josi blows a channel in the rock. After initial resistance, the villagers are excited about it. The film was based on a novel by Jakob Christoph Heer.

A biologist has succeeded in growing a particularly energy-rich lettuce and now the whole world wants to get hold of the product.

Den Traum vom Lebensabend im sonnigen Spanien haben sich inzwischen immer mehr Deutsche erfüllt. Die iberische Halbinsel wird bei Aussteigern immer beliebter. Eher zufällig kommt in Peter Lichtefelds „Playa Del Futuro“, seinem erst zweiten Projekt in Spielfilmlänge, der Protagonist mit diesem Lebensziel in Berührung, denn eigentlich ist er nur auf der Suche nach einem besseren Job und seiner großen Liebe.

In the GDR, purchasing a car was such a difficult process that many families applied for one years in advance. For example, Gisela secretly orders a Wartburg model after the birth of her first child. By the time the vehicle is ready, her daughter is a teenager, and Gisela's husband, who actually prefers walking, has already bought a second Wartburg from a friend in financial trouble. As a result, the couple decides to sign up for driving school together.

The lively damselfish Shorty lives in a colorful coral reef with his beloved little sister Indigo and his best buddy Jake, a high-spirited sawfish. Shorty and Jake want to finally win the annual soccer tournament for the reef cup, when a huge trawl net from a fishing fleet devastates their tropical underwater world in a matter of seconds. The two friends narrowly escape the disaster, but Indigo is initially swallowed up by the seabed. When the three friends are finally reunited, they set off together in search of the mysterious magic reef that the wise octopus Oana told them about.

After a period of separation, Sarah visits her research scientist mother on a remote New Zealand island. Before long Sarah becomes inextricably involved in events involving both Maori legend and an Albatross.

Living an indolent life in a luxurious palace, Prince Gautama (Rai) is insulated by his family from the harshness of the world outside. But he is destined to learn greater truths: shocked to discover the pain and suffering of so many in his kingdom, he abandons his privileged existence, and his wife Gopa (Seeta Devi), to become a wandering teacher, eventually finding enlightenment and founding Buddhism. Featuring superimposed images and deep-focus shots that were highly impressive for the time, Light of Asia astutely combines a deeply felt spirituality with the surefire attraction of Indian exotica, which helped make it a considerable success in Europe.

Dr. Paul Venner, a headstrong young doctor, is working on the development of a serum to renew destroyed brain cells. He is watched with skepticism by his colleagues, whom he repeatedly snubs with his cynical manner. Physician Françoise Maurer also feels his coldness. But very soon he senses that she gains her great strength from her faith, and a deep affection develops between them.

The life story of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a German Jew, who as a physician established the field of sexology, and fought militantly against German anti-sodomy laws in the late 19th century. The script reveals main characters in Hirschfeld's life including impossible love interest Baron von Teschenberg, and Hirschfeld's aids- young Karl Giese and guardian angel, the transvestite Dorchen, as they establish the First Institute of Sexual Sciences in Berlin in 1920, and follows their struggles to keep it open, up to the rise of the Third Reich in the mid 1930s.

Crisis? Nonsense, Daniel @danielnator3000 sees the Qurarantine as a chance for maximum productivity and efficiency: morning routine with learning Japanese, reading self-optimization books while doing pushups, always on, always on, whoever falls asleep freezes to death. But what if at some point the crisis is no longer around you, but in your head?

Fifteen-year-old Heinz Stielke is a Hitler Youth fanatic who is devastated to learn a hidden truth about his respected father who was a German officer in WWII: He was Jewish. Pushed out of his community after the discovery, young Heinz falls into a tailspin of alienation and anger. He is subsequently thrust into a series of social collisions across the war-torn German fatherland.

The lawyer Dr. Wagner is a real disgust - neither for his employees nor for the residents of his apartment building does he have a friendly word. But when a violent pipe break in Wagner's penthouse flooded the apartments underneath on Christmas, the neighbors who had become "homeless" made a radical decision: Since Wagner refused to help his tenants, they settled under the leadership of the resolute Rita and her adult daughter Sophia without further ado with the stubborn loner - for a few happy, if not exactly quiet, Christmas holidays.

Chief Inspector Fredo Schulz receives a surprising diagnosis: the doctor tells him that he has colon cancer and only has three months to live. He should do something nice. “What’s that supposed to be?” Fredo asks himself and goes to work. He and his colleague Radu Lupescu are called to an apartment block in front of which a security guard was shot. He accompanied the owner Samir Berri, who is planning to clear and renovate the apartment block. Fredo has already arrested Samir once - for drug trafficking. He suspects that Samir is just laundering money with his supposedly clean real estate transactions.

Cowboy has a vision. He wants to save the planet with his movement of Free Swingers. That's why he applies for a grant at The Central Agency, who then sends a representative named Fey of Sweden to approve Cowboy's proposal. She demands results and he de­cides to stage a charity bicycle rally featuring a roster of two-wheeled Berlin misfits. Meanwhile Cowboy's neighbor kills his mother's budgie and sets the Devil of Hermannplatz on him to sabotage his plans. Pretty bad timing considering that he also has to rescue his stubborn mother from a shady retirement home. Torn between Cowboy's budding crush on Fey of Sweden, his hot neighbor Angel and his innate drive towards chaos, the rally soon turns into a race against time. Soon his mother will be taken away from him and the rally racers are doing anything other than what they should: cycling.

A young Viennese actor is having much success on the stage; but intrigue and confusion in his love life are making his life a living Hell.

Rosika, a girl from Genoa, fled her innkeeper stepfather after he tried to abuse her. She finds refuge - and a job as well - in a traveling circus. Cherubini, the owner of the big top, falls in love with the lovely young woman and makes her the star of the show 'Light Cavalry'. But unfortunately for him Rosika's heart beats for Geza, the stable boy.

Young Fynn has one dearest wish - to liberate the Sleeping Beauty. His uncle August has told him the story of Princess Myrose and how she was cursed by the wicked Fate Fairy Maruna when she was a baby and causing her to prick her finger on a spindle on her 15th birthday

At times of changing gender roles, a tinder date encourages young Leonid to live his own definition of "masculinity". A current reflection on love, sexuality and role models.

Rick (Rutger Hauer), a disaffected sailor turned hard drinking womanizer, returns home from six months at sea to find his wife (Corrigan), whom he was deeply in love, has unexpectedly left him and is now a junkie whore. Devastated, he tries to ease his pain with booze and cheap thrills. His wife's best friend (Dagmar Lassander) makes a move on him, and when he spurns her (after scewing her first, naturally) she plots her revenge. She does so in an ingenious way, by exploiting a fantasy woman of his, but her plan backfires with tragic consequences.

Whenever a criminal is killed in London, a black Jaguar is nearby, with a white cat always sitting in the passenger seat. Inspector Higgins and Inspector Lane find a joker card on all the victims. Their investigation leads them to a diamond smuggling ring.

To experience snow and learn German, the young Vietnamese woman Trúc Lâm moves to a little town in the Erz Mountains. During a guided tour of a mine, she leaves her group and reaches the other side of the mountain through a secondary shaft. The world there is similar to the one she left – only all the people are different. She meets Duc, who is also from Vietnam and whose parents have an Asian snack bar. And she meets a mysterious spirit who offers to make a deal with her to enable her return to her old world.

Oberst Alfred Redl heads the military intelligence department of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Frequent letters from the Russian Empire, however, make him suspect of sharing his knowledge with unauthorized authorities.

Teenager Raphaela was born blind into a wealthy, material focused family. Her father escapes reality into an affair with his secretary while her mother reacts to the difficult situation in an over protective and possessive conduct towards her blind daughter.

Sarah Simon, a successful editor at the renowned Cologne publishing house Rotberg Verlag, has managed to make a career for herself while raising a wonderful son, Tobi. Although her marriage to Tobi's father Oliver didn't last, they have been best friends since their separation. Sarah reckons she has a good chance of becoming editor-in-chief at Rotberg and accepts many an unloved task that Karl Rotberg, the head of the publishing house, throws at her. Including this one, the fulfillment of which Karl makes a precondition for the longed-for promotion: Sarah is to seek out Martin Herdecker, author of the bestseller "How to Find the Right Woman for Life". The promised manuscript of his new book, which is due to be published in time for the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair, is a long time coming. Sarah's mission: find Herdecker and return with the manuscript. Sarah is outraged when she meets Martin Herdecker, who is as unkempt as he is prickly...

In this German political drama, an ex-Stasi agent encounters an old friend whom he may have betrayed after his friend tried to escape East Germany. The former East German agent is Otto Skrodt who after many years is about to be promoted in the highest government ranks. He is anxious to maintain a squeaky clean image. His daughter is Isabelle. The young and friendly Kalle returns after spending many years in jail for his escape attempts. He doesn't know exactly who blew the whistle, but his friend Skrodt is definitely under suspicion. Kalle returns to ostensibly renew the friendship and to see Isabelle whom he loves. The duplicitous friendship between the two men becomes the main focus of the story which features interesting plot twists at the end.

A boy who was once a perpetual outcast finds friends in a new boarding school, united with his new peers gets involved in a heated rivalry with a group of students from a neighboring school.

A wife, bored by her overweight slob of a husband, gives in to the temptation of a slickly seductive poet.

A company's stockholders hold their meeting at a lonely mansion. A mad doctor conducting experiments in the mansion starts to strangle them one at a time with a nylon noose. The survivors must figure out a way to stop him.

A young nurse starts a new assignment in a small isolated village in the farthest reaches of Turkey, a place that seems asleep in an endless winter. A thick layer of snow covers the souls as well as the lands. But under the snow, unspeakable secrets hibernate.

Riley Owen, a bodyguard, is tasked with protecting Lady Anjali Cassley from a ghost. Despite the fact that the job seems ridiculous, he decides to accept it.

An attempt to visualize a secret knowledge about the nature of man —a philo-clip—, through the use of structures of dissociated geometry and laser beams, with direct references to the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci and the work of Agrippa von Nettesheim.

In this one we look at the cases of a number of young women and their plumbing problems as seen through the eyes of the narrator, a moralizing but well meaning gynaecologist.

Life is full of surprises. One hopes for an even million and inherits an old bus. Willy, a trumpet player in a jazz band, tries to make the best of it and travels to the sunny south with a few musicians. Barbi and Petra are also part of the party, but they set off on their journey without their father's blessing. The fathers hurry after their disobedient daughters in a fast road cruiser...