Lars Rudolph
Chief Inspector Adam Raczek gets a new partner at his side. Inspector aspirant Vincent Ross becomes involved in a murder investigation before his first day on the job. Ironically, the 22-year-old Bastian Grutzke was murdered above his new apartment in Slubice. The day before, the German student helped him move into the house. Adam Raczek, who is interviewing witnesses at the scene of the crime, is amazed to get to know his new colleague in this way. The traces in the victim's apartment point to a dispute that seems to be related to escalating inheritance disputes in the Grutzke family. Bastian's grandmother, the matriarch Hilde Grutzke, keeps a considerable amount of cash at home and sometimes opens the door at gunpoint. Her relationship with her family is strained and extremely distant. Does the question of who will inherit the old lady's fortune also solve the murder case?
This is the true story of Freddy and Walter – two young Slovak Jews, who were deported to Auschwitz in 1942. On 10 April 1944, after meticulous planning and with the help and the resilience of their inmates, they manage to escape. While the inmates they had left behind courageously stand their ground against the Nazi officers, the two men are driven on by the hope that their evidence could save lives. Emaciated and hurt, they make their way through the mountains back to Slovakia. With the help of chance encounters, they finally manage to cross the border and meet the resistance and The Red Cross. They compile a detailed report about the systematic genocide at the camp. However, with Nazi propaganda and international liaisons still in place, their account seems to be too harrowing to believe.
In the prelude of the twentieth century, Pedro arrives in Tierra del Fuego, an hostile and violent territory, to immortalise the marriage of a powerful landowner. Fascinated by the beauty of the bride-to-be, he betrays the rules and is left to face the land, crawling with violence and marked by the genocide of the land indigenous.
The dress is too lavish and the toilet cubicle too small for the bride to fit in. The ballroom is jam-packed and the mood is alarmingly good. Something is about to burst: the groom’s delusion of grandeur? The pregnant belly of deaf Betti? Her step-father’s patience? Or the wine-filled bladder of his ex-wife?
The director of a theatre play about the holocaust takes some of his actors to Auschwitzt to get in the right mood...
Once upon a time, there's been an epidemic on earth: People float away due to fear and petty criminal brothers Rémi and Widu are fighting the whole time while trying to accomplish their biggest mission yet.
Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz 1992-2017. The end of the GDR gave rise to new artistic freedoms in reunited Berlin. Shortly after the fall of the Wall, rebel director Frank Castorf was appointed artistic director of the Volksbühne. His way of working altered the public’s perception of this theater. The chronological history of the Castorf era between 1992 and 2017 is told here in excerpts from the productions and in a series of conversations conducted on the long sofa in the theater's foyer.
Christoph begins his year of civil service at a nursing home as the personal caretaker for 28-year-old Sven. The seriously ill young man is suffering from muscular dystrophy and his nursing room has become his own little microcosm which he has been sovereignly controlling for years.
Nobody captured the atmosphere of 1990s Berlin better than German photographer Daniel Josefsohn, who died in 2016 at the age of 54, leaving his mark in advertising with his irreverent aesthetic and punk sensibility. It was his spontaneous, imperfect images shot for an MTV campaign in 1994 that first made him famous.
Alma and Jan are having an affair and yet Jan does not want to admit it. In order to force him to recognize their relationship, Alma secretly takes Jan's small son, Juri on a trip. Accompanied by the delivery man Bruno, the two drive in the direction of Berlin. At a rest stop, he tries clumsily to get closer to Alma but she rebuffs him. In doing so, Alma unwittingly injures him in such a way that he drops all his inhibitions. Whereas Bruno until now was acting covertly in the hope of establishing contact, he now wants to take for himself what has been denied him.
In the artist colony Rocket Perelman ten people strive to live their version of freedom and independence - everybody for themselves and all together. But that's hard work, since the joined theatre production puts the groups' idealism to a hard test.
Best friends Nini and Jameelah are both 14 years old and live in the same housing complex in Berlin. Jameelah's family is from Iraq and might be deported if their application for citizenship isn't approved, but right now, the girls try not to worry about these existential problems. They look forward to the Berlin summer and the school holidays.
The first day of the holidays at the campsite. Mimi wants to make friends with the other children, Karl wants to go swimming with the crocodile, Dad’s hungry and Mum left the sandwiches on the kitchen table. All of a sudden, the caretaker’s little rabbit Fernando goes missing. Not until the medieval tourists arrive does a sense of order return. One thing is for sure: the world is in turmoil.
Mirko Talhammer is beyond himself when two strange guys show up in his noble insurance office and remind him where he really comes from: from a scrapyard in the provinces, where careers are not what counts, other things are more important: scrapping things, the family, and every once in a while, a nice fist fight. Mirko left all that behind, but his father messes things up big time when he dies and leaves his son the run down scrapyard - together with his brother Letscho. And Letscho is still ticked off that Mirko deserted the clan. But soon the brothers realize that the Talhammers only have a future if they can pull themselves together and fulfill their father's last wish: to rob a train like real professionals! The coup itself is like a suicide mission, but then Kercher, the Talhammer's biggest nemesis, gets wind of things...
Peter and Lisbeth are two young but unfortunate lovers living in a rigid rural community in the Black Forest. She comes from a wealthy family of glassblowers; he is a poor coal worker on the lower end of society. To become rich and respected, Peter makes a pact with a devil named Dutch Michael, who rips out his heart and replaces it with a stone. Robbed of all warmth and feeling, Peter becomes a cold-hearted go-getter who rapidly achieves his goals. Ruthlessly he strives for money and power.
After Lucy (17) finds out that she was conceived during a porn shoot she sets out to find her father and meets Udo, a has-been former porn star. Together this unlikely couple go on a journey during which both find more than they bargained for…
Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel’s son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the ‘Führer’ and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat.
Nama, a teenager from Mali, has crossed desert and sea for his freedom. When Nama is injured in a fight, an old man named Willi lets him move into the house that he used to share with his son Stefan. The father and son have not spoken for years and the three men may have little in common, yet what binds them together is their search for a home where their wounds from present and past can heal.
Adolf Hitler wakes up in a vacant lot in Berlin, with no knowledge of anything that happened after 1945. Homeless and destitute. Although everyone recognizes him, nobody believes that he is Hitler; instead, they think he is either a comedian, or a method actor.
Horror comedy film following vampire count Geza von Kösznöm who's visiting groundbreaking neurologist Sigund Freud because he's bored of his life and frustrated of the "eternally long" relationship with his wife Elsa.
Three young Georgians have to clean a castle in Berlin, where a German arms manufacturer's art collection is being set up for an exhibition. Of course, the proletariat isn't welcome at the opening party and they are banished to a servants' room in the attic. Downstairs, however, a splendid buffet attracts them - so why not just ignore the unfair prohibition and cross the line of class society? Didn't the French Revolution start over a piece of cake?
Canada, the summer of 1898. A group of German settlers travel towards the far north in covered wagons with packhorses and their few possessions in tow. The seven travellers set off from Ashcroft, the final railway station. Along with their leader, flamboyant businessman Wilhelm Laser, they are hoping to find their fortune in the recently discovered goldfields of Dawson, but they have no idea of the stresses and dangers which lie ahead on their 2,500 kilometre journey. Before long uncertainty, cold weather and exhaustion begin to take their toll and conflicts escalate. The journey leads these men and women deeper and deeper into a menacing wilderness. (Berlinale.de)
A dead girl at the Elbe beach gives riddle to Chief Commissioner Jan Fabel. However, it does not stop at this one murder. Alluding to the literary models of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, a bloody trail soon runs through Hamburg. In his new novel, writer Gerhard Weiss argues that the bloody fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm were based on authentic models. Is the Hamburg fairy tale murderer inspired by Weiss's novel?
SOUL KITCHEN centers on a likable but hopelessly disorganized restauranteur, Zinos, whose cafe is second home to a motley crew of lovable eccentrics. When his girlfriend Nadine up and moves to Shanghai, a love-sick Zinos decides to fly after her, leaving his restaurant in the hands of his unreliable ex-con brother Illias. Both decisions turn out disastrous: Illias gambles away the restaurant to a shady real estate agent, and Zinos finds Nadine with a new lover. If the brothers can stop arguing and get it together, the Soul Kitchen might still have one last chance at staying in business. The mayhem that follows is a hilariously entertaining story of self-realization, set to an irresistibly soulful soundtrack.
Young Tiuri has to pass the final test before before being knighted by king Dagonaut. He has to pass a night in the chapel, what is suddenly disturbed by a strangers request of help. With his decision to help the stranger, Tiuri abandons his given task and starts into an adventure, that will shape the destiny of Dagonaut. On his journey he learns about the true meaning of love, friendship, courage and loyalty.
Jan is an absolute heartthrob and a diehard Hertha fan. Katrin is attractive, just as successful and an incorrigible romantic. Chance makes the two the ideal couple. At least almost. Everything would be perfect if the two flagship models of their species did not lapse into primeval behavioral patterns. And so Jan sinks a little too deep in the cleavage of his secretary Melanie, and Katrin can not resist the adventurer Jonathan's lead role.
Scotland Yard investigators have to prevent the murder of Victoria Dickman when her name is found on a death list.
Nejat seems disapproving about his widower father Ali's choice of prostitute Yeter for a live-in girlfriend. But he grows fond of her when he discovers she sends money home to Turkey for her daughter's university studies. Yeter's sudden death distances father and son. Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter's daughter Ayten. Political activist Ayten has fled the Turkish police and is already in Germany. She is befriended by a young woman, Lotte, who invites rebellious Ayten to stay in her home, a gesture not particularly pleasing to her conservative mother Susanne. When Ayten is arrested and her asylum plea is denied, she is deported and imprisoned in Turkey. Lotte travels to Turkey,where she gets caught up in the seemingly hopeless situation of freeing Ayten.
Hitler no longer believes in himself, and can barely see himself as an equal to even his sheep dog. But to seize the helm of the war he would have to create one of his famous fiery speeches to mobilize the masses. Goebbels therefore brings a Jewish acting teacher Grünbaum and his family from the camps in order to train the leader in rhetoric. Grünbaum is torn, but starts Hitler in his therapy ...
A story of a Jewish-Hungarian-Serbian family. The plot is centered about trying of an adult son to reconstruct his childhood dream of and memories. Looms, but a sunken world, the central European town with its figures, the way to experiencing deep and see a sensitive boy, his father, who by their fears that penetrate to the bone and the final humiliation of acting madness escapes and becomes a lonely, pathetic buffoon in the drama of life.
Fanny (Nathalie Boutefeu) has a small grain. Even the children tease. She lives in the home of her brother, she discovers that his beautiful sister having an affair. She decided to go to Germany, find its roots...
Set on the farm in Gribbohm where the artist was born and raised, Meechfieber recounts the grotesque adventures of a farm couple who must come to grips with surreal machines, bric-à-brac spaceships, costumed animals and frenetic dances.
Frank and Paul are best friends forever and raised Frank's daughter Lilli after a tragic car accident. The two men scrape a living by working as barmen and bouncers in a strip club while Lilly has grown into a lively and self-confident teenager. The disaster unfolds when Lilli seduces Paul and gets pregnant.
“The Antman” is a lovingly-made but sluggish monster-movie parody, done with German-speaking actors on a sparse soundstage standing in for 1950s Mexico. Promising concept is bolstered by colorful performances by Gotz Otto and Lars Rudolph, and the filmmakers have fun with pic’s look, right down to tacky lighting worthy of Roger Corman. But Marc Meyer’s script isn’t fast or funny enough to keep pace with energetic visuals. The first in a projected series of B-movie homages grouped as “Planet B,” the producers might want to call in Joe Dante to supervise the rest, as “Antman” seems unlikely to crawl very far beyond its native borders
Set just before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Sgt. Ray Elwood is an American soldier stationed at a German army camp. A soldier because a judge gave him a choice between the army and jail, Ray spends much of his free time cooking cocaine for the MPs. When a soldier dies and a toxicology screen shows an alarming level of illegal narcotics, someone is sent in to investigate.
Tirana Year Zero (Tirana, année zéro), is a 2002 Albanian film that tells the story of a young couple in post-communist Albania, at a time when many Albanians left the country in search for a better life abroad. The protagonist of the movie is Nik, who lives in the capital of Albania, Tirana, along with his mother and father. He is in love with a beautiful girl named Klara, who wants to move to Paris to be a model. Nik makes his living with an old truck that belonged to his father, who is now sick, and seemingly dying. Amidst the criticisms of his mother, the confusion and desperation covering the country, and the desire of his girlfriend to leave, Nik is still unsure whether he wants to leave. The film explores the way Nik handles the events of his life.
An experimental study about the love between Franz Kafka and his adored Felice based on their correspondence.
Young nurse Sissi lives a secluded life entirely devoted to her patients at Birkenhof asylum. Her first encounter with ex-soldier and drifter Bodo has a lasting impact. He causes an accident in which he provides first aid, Sissi wonders if he may be the man of her dreams. But when she finds him weeks later she is rejected, as Bodo is stuck somewhere between a traumatic past and a criminal future.
Flanders, a famous female author, travels 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall into the German capitol. She is deeply depressed of the events because she saw the communistic states as a very good thing that has now ended. In the joy of these days she finds no person to understand her, so she has to travel back to Munich. After meeting several people, known and unknown, it seems as if there will be no way to go.
This story takes place in a small town on the Hungarian Plain. In a provincial town, which is surrounded with nothing else but frost. It is bitterly cold weather — without snow. Even in this bewildered cold hundreds of people are standing around the circus tent, which is put up in the main square, to see — as the outcome of their wait — the chief attraction, the stuffed carcass of a real whale. The people are coming from everywhere. From the neighboring settlings, even from quite far away parts of the country. They are following this clumsy monster as a dumb, faceless, rag-wearing crowd. This strange state of affairs — the appearance of the foreigners, the extreme frost — disturbs the order of the small town. Ambitious personages of the story feel they can take advantage of this situation. The tension growing to the unbearable is brought to explosion by the figure of the Prince, who is pretending facelessness. Even his mere appearance is enough to break loose destructive emotions...
In a small farming valley in Austria in the beginning of the 20th century a tyrannical farmer is found dead, and all the farmhands are relieved to be free of their tyrant. But the farmer was childless, so suddenly they all inherit the farm together. Now conflicts begin, as nobody is the boss and nobody has to obey.
Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. She has 20 minutes to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run.
Young Piano teacher Lukas accidentally meets DJ Nathalie, the love of his life. After losing her telephone number, he starts looking for her. Finally, he finds her place and stays with friends of hers while she is abroad. Now Lukas falls in love with Alice, but does not want to admit it. And while his relationship with Alice is in doubt, Nathalie comes back home. Trouble had been breeding all along.
Ramona lives her lonely life in Berlin working in a lipstick factory. One day she accidentally runs into Andrzei, a Polish mechanic illegally selling cigarettes in Germany during the weekend. One thing leads to another, and soon she finds herself pregnant. Then her life starts falling apart, when Andrzei tells her he already has a wife back in Poland and her baby dies shortly after its premature birth.
The same situation is played out in different cities (New York, Berlin and Japan). A lover has to choose whether to commit to a partner who is returning home. In each case there are other people involved, an ex-partner and someone else in a "permanent" relationship, what do they choose to do?
