Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

A Czarist courier has to get across the Siberia frontier, threatened by Tartar invaders and a treacherous Russian helping them. Strogoff encounters several colorful characters along the way. German language version of the French film Michel Strogoff, adapting the novel by Jules Verne.

Cookie manufacturer Bertram Dinkler with his old-fashioned know-it-all attitude triggers an unexpected fighting spirit not in the teenagers, but in single mother Stefanie Eckhoff. Stefanie challenges Bertram. She wants him to do a sports badge and try to do better than her. Right from the first training session, the rivals realize that they may have gone a little too far. Fortunately, their stubbornness helps both of them to unleash unexpected energy.

Axel and Gaby are looking for a priest who stole an erotic magazine from them, which happened to contain an envelope with a lot of money.

Docker and Dretzke are two police officers from Cologne. But the cases here in the precinct don't win them a flower pot at the CID. And so they find themselves at the bottom of the career ladder. When they are assigned by the Düsseldorf State Office of Criminal Investigation to work the night shift on an apartment where drugs are presumably being dealt during the day, they discover more than their Düsseldorf colleagues had planned...

Ze, a 17-year-old, studies hard at school to succeed in the cold, callous society of modern Mongolia. When Ze encounters Maralaa, his senses are awakened and another reality seems possible.

Fat German star restaurant chef Gregor shows romantic interest in waitress Eden Drebb. She's happily married to hunky Xaver Drebb, but feels romantically neglected. Gregor's deserts seduce her, first trough her brat daughter Leonie, to spend time with him and his fabulous dishes. That soon becomes a rather platonic affair, and domestic troubles. Xaver decides to exact revenge on Gregor, with tragic results.

Leah and Purity are rangers in the Kenyan bushland. They roam around Amboseli National Park every day to track down wildlife. The Maasai shepherds also have their villages here. Conflicts can hardly be avoided. The young women are often called to missions to mediate or comfort. The two Maasai women themselves have to fight against discrimination

A TV special about the christmas celebrations of the most popular TV characters in the ZDF at that time.

For the first time in history, a white man has been invited to become a Massai Warrior. The Massai of East Africa are one of the last tribes on earth to live as they did hundreds of years ago. Benjamin will live among the tribe, sleeping, hunting, and surviving in the bush. He will get to know their culture, their customs of dancing and playing, and learn how to conquer the dangers of the wilderness. Will he be able to become a true Massai warrior? To become a Massai is a great journey into the unknown.

After 200 years, Count Zoltan emerges as a zombie from his tomb to avenge himself on the descendants who have in 1974, the witchcraft destroyed him and his Bura. He kills everyone who overtakes the Buraruinen at the grave of the dead, until at last, someone has the courage to face the creature.

Student Markus Schneider works as a courier. Every day he chases through the streets of Berlin on his rollerblades to deliver documents on time. Little does he know that he is being used as a cocaine courier by a gang of corrupt police officers. He is also a convenient scapegoat when the crooks are looking for someone to frame for a double murder.

A thriller directed by Hermine Huntgeburth.

Sophie "inherits" her uncle's preserved whale and finds out that whoever sleeps in the whale's belly with her will be granted one wish, causing chaos and hatred in the village.

It's 30 years later and the Sackbauers have estranged themselves from everyone; only mother "Toni" tries to re-establish the old happy family.

In 2008, Natasha, a newly rich woman, decides to open an independent TV station in Russia and builds an open-minded team of outcasts. By 2020, Natasha has lost everything to Russia's war between Propaganda and Truth.

Franziska Dreyer and Sebastian Pauli are a happy couple. When one day the police arrest her boyfriend on suspicion of murder, Franziska assumes it's a mistake. But in a trial marked by circumstantial evidence, Sebastian is tried, convicted and sentenced to life. Franziska believes he's innocent and fights to get him released. This puzzles her parents and friends who advise her to cut all ties to him. Her reaction is to marry Sebastian in prison. Then Franziska discovers completely unknown sides to her husband and now doesn't know who or what to believe any more.

Because of their children's bad grades, some parents want the teacher Mrs. Müller gone. They meet with Mrs. Müller and try to convince her to leave the class.

Hans-Dieter Anhäuser, owner of a joke articles factory, is a creep. He cheats on his wife, neglects his children, bullies his employees - and all just before Christmas. But then he has an accident, falls into a coma and experiences his own funeral in a dream. In the process, he learns what everyone really thinks of him. To make matters worse, he meets his deceased father-in-law, the former factory owner, who tells him that he, Hans-Dieter, has one last chance. If he doesn't manage to make his family happy by Christmas, he will send him to hell on Christmas Eve.

The star reporter of a Berlin lifestyle magazine announces job and apartment to go with the married advertising boss of their newspaper to Paris, where a dream career as an editor of a prestigious fashion store awaits them. But when the lover lets the pregnant woman sit, who then neither gets the job in Paris nor can return to her old editorial office, the homeless career woman suddenly finds herself in the black.

A circus film made as a deliberately escapist release at a time when the Second World War was starting to turn against Germany and its allies.

A clearly confused girl is found wandering around Stuttgart and can't be understood, because she's speaking in a foreign language. The police take her to some doctors, who eventually believe they're dealing with a Tibetan. Doctor von Aldenhoff takes the stranger in and begins to educate her according to western European standards. In her new home, the girl, Luscha, gets to know Robert Lorm, a rather well-travelled man, and falls in love with him. Eventually, she decides quite unilaterally that they're going to build a new home and life together. A plaster of paris mask of the girl's face is made for the doctors to keep as a remembrance of Luscha. But as soon as the mold is removed from her face, she suddenly seems to become an entirely different woman.

With a t-shirt sale the two friends Günther and Wolfgang finally want to turn their backs on unemployment benefits. But this plan is not as easy to implement as expected and in the end, almost everything is different than it initially looks. But one thing is certain: there is always time of a Schnitzel.

Robert Dühring is a respected businessman and lives with his fiancée in a small town in Baden. His brother Georg is a convicted sex offender. Robert has been in denial about Georg for years, but now that his prison sentence and preventive detention are over, Robert has to take Georg in and help him take his first steps towards rehabilitation. His neighbors and friends are afraid. A pogrom atmosphere is slowly spreading in the village. Robert is overwhelmed, he doesn't want to risk his whole life falling apart. But he also begins to realize that Georg must be given a second chance.

It is a terrible disaster! Due to a series of wrong decisions, the ferry Castor gets caught in a sea storm and sinks. The tragedy is already foreshadowed in small details: first there is an hour-long delay before departure, then some trucks are not properly secured and on the bridge there is a heated discussion between Captain Eriksen and his deputy van Damme about how to deal with the storm warning received. The captain's sudden heart attack complicates the situation. The next day, it is learned ashore that the Castor has sunk. Herwegh, the head of the commission of inquiry, then tries to find out who is morally responsible for the disaster and who the real culprits are. In the process, several human dramas unfold...

Ten years old Ernst and his father Alfons are traveling to the family event on their bikes.

A young man practices medicine without a licence.

While staying with her aunt at a fashionable spa, Else receives an unexpected telegram from her mother, begging her to save her father from debtor’s jail. The only way out, it seems, is to approach an elderly acquaintance in order to borrow money from him. Through this telegram, Else is forced into the reality of a world entirely at odds with her romantic imagination – with horrific consequences.

Stevie, a precocious 14-year-old girl must cope with the instabilities of her immoderate parents. When they decide to move to a small provincial town in Germany, Stevie attempts to slip into a normal life. Whilst her parents playfully escape their responsibilities, Stevie tries to make a good impression in town, spreading stories of grandeur and claiming to be the daughter of a diplomat. She makes progress. Yet the good weather doesn’t last and before long, she discovers that her parents have once more resorted to illegal means, as a way of supporting their leisurely lifestyle. As friends and hangers-on of her parents fill their new home, the chaos continually mounts. It is in this atmosphere of physical and emotional destruction, that Stevie must now start to define herself and perhaps even break free.

A murder in broad daylight in the port of Antwerp: model Jean-Baptiste Kalemba is shot dead by a masked cyclist while jogging in front of the famous “Havenhuis”. Although the assassin must be a professional, Detective Inspector Louma Shapiro and her colleague Pierre Didier suspect a mistake.

Doctor Lydia shares a scalpel and a bed with the head of a clinic in Bochum. Until one night the brash steelworker and karate fighter Uwe turns up in the emergency room. She stitches up his wound without anesthetic. A real guy, Uwe, and not such an academic wimp like her fine surgeon. That makes an impression on Lydia, who otherwise only moves in better circles. So she falls in love with the daredevil against her parents' wishes and against the rest of the world.

Auguste is an aging prostitute who falls in love with Felix, a younger student. While Felix has strayed away from his parents, Auguste starts taking care of him and spends her life savings into a cake shop to move further away from prostitution, but trouble comes when another woman enters the picture.

Anouk, a woman in her late 30s, a copywriter from Stuttgart and who has traveled the world, bumps into Heiner, an architect, who is in his mid-40s, in Berlin. The two meet in spontaneous longing for a different, a new life.

Louis-Ferdinand Céline described the period he spent in Sigmaringen in his delirious and infernal novel, Castle to Castle, published in 1957. The last months before the German “moment of truth”, as they’ve never been portrayed before: Documented in delirious reality. A documentary film based on Céline’s texts. A screen adaption with documentary material.

Three episodes depict events that actually took place in the years before the film was made. Three true‐life dramas explore teacher–student taboos: 1. Monika: A young teacher’s love for his pregnant 17‐year‐old student leads to his self‐incrimination amid legal peril. 2. Sybille: A 15‐year‐old fabricates a scandalous affair with her bachelor principal, ending in his suicide. 3. Fantasie: A 13‐year‐old boy’s infatuation with his teacher drives him to violence and a troubled return to reality.

A soldier fighting for France loses his memory and has a second career as a national leader, but in Germany.

A baby is abandoned in the village church of Fischbach. While Pastor Steffensen wants to take the legal route, the bundle of joy activates all of housekeeper Sophie's granny instincts. As Steffensen also takes the little rascal to his heart, the duo set off in search of the parents. The father of little Emil, who was apparently conceived out of wedlock, is a man from Fischbach, which causes a lot of unrest in the village. The bishop is also alarmed when the "parents" become the subject of media attention.

On operated by Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck the German Empire is finally founded in 1871 on the floors of Versailles castle, ancestral seat of the French monarchy.

An award-winning performer trio and a sophisticated story characterize the thrilling TV thriller "The Missing Woman". From the naive betrayed to the tough revenge angel Corinna Harfouch turns into the lead role. At her side, Ulrich Matthes silently plays a professional killer, who does not look at the cards. Never laying an excuse, is the Dortmund crime scene commissar Jörg Hartmann in the role of a shameless swindler. Because all three want to cash in on the life insurance, begins a game of fraud and extortion, in which also the red light milieu interferes.

In a poor neighborhood of a big city, a crippled mailman is in love with a maid who lives in his building. However, she is in love with a wealthy and handsome young man, who soon disappears. The mailman provides the maid with letters that get her hopes up... but tragedy will soon befall all three.

An American, with a past as a successful musician, makes a living by playing at weddings and the likes in Germany. Then he gets an offer to tour in East Europe. During his travels he gets insight and finds true love.

“Let nature be nature” is the philosophy of the Bavarian Forest National Park. Despite massive resistance, this vision has become a groundbreaking showcase project. Because humans do not interfere with nature, the former commercial forests grow into a primeval forest, a unique ecosystem and a refuge for biodiversity. People from all over the world come here. They are looking for answers to the question of why we need more wild nature and what we can learn from it to preserve forests for future generations in times of climate change.

Troubled Roula finds herself drawn to Leon, an author of children's books who has suffered an enormous emotional and creative blockage ever since his wife died in a motorcycle accident two years before. Leon has only his 12-year-old daughter Tanja to keep him company. As romance blooms between Leon and Roula, his daughter approves. Unfortunately, Roula is carrying heavy emotional baggage stemming from the incest she suffered at the hands of her father.

Reconstruction of the murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg and the following farcical military court procedures.

Eva lives a happy life with her ​​father, an unsuccessful but always optimistic car salesman, her consumerist mother, and her quirky grandmother. But Eva is a tad different - she suffers from Tourette's syndrome. Her family has long been accustomed to her tics and the accompanying insults and bullying, and Eva has come to grips with her role as an outsider. When her father gets a job offer to work in Berlin, they must suddenly leave their familiar surroundings. But Eva won't have it, this move must be prevented - at any price!

A group of friends are terrorized by a cannibalistic family while camping in The Black Forest of Germany.

The subject of this historical drama is a splintering Berlin in the years of 1948 and 1949. Played against the backdrop of social upheaval, the characters in the drama come to epitomize the best and worst of each pole of the political sphere. A 17-year-old hoodlum by the name of Gladow works hand-in-glove with a local white-collar criminal to rob and pillage every day and night, defying capture. While he and his gang of thugs are terrorizing the people of Berlin, the Soviets are trying to make the blockade of their region of control impermeable. The future casts long shadows over the drama, as Berlin's problems take the shape of times to come.

A film crew is shooting a movie about guns and robbers, when real robbers turn up. Having to go home in robbers costume, they are mistakingly accused of a robbery. One of the earliest films portraying bisexual characters.

The young musician and composer Josef lives with Beethoven's music copyist in Grinzing. In the evenings, he plays for dances in the Prater, often his own melodies, although he doesn't make much effort to spread them, as they're almost all waltzes, a dance not well-regarded in high society because they're too sweaty. When one evening a lively princess—fresh from the convent—mingles incognito with the Prater crowd and falls in love with the dashing conductor Josef, an entire cultural system of values ​​begins to crumble.

Olha and Oleh live in Ukraine as LGBTQ+ individuals. However, Russia's war of aggression is putting the couple's identity and love to the test.

As one of Germany’s beauties, the river was the gem of German landscape. But with industrialization it became the country’s hardest working river and like everything that has been overworked, it lost it magnificence and charm. Due to tender love and care, the river is now a reigning example of one of the most successful and outstanding renaturation projects in the country.

The clever Zacharias Bräsig is a good friend to all and tries to help out, where he can. Bräsig also meddles in the relationships of young people, so that by the end of the film, there's a double marriage.

When a young couple in Vienna suddenly find themselves unemployed, they open a little restaurant near a local soccer place. Soon they have to find out about the odds and ends of self-employment as they have to learn that their newly won independence suffers from bureaucracy and greed.