Thorsten Merten
After oversleeping yet again, Alfons manages to catch the bus to his class trip to the Baltic Sea at the last minute. In his luggage: lots of adventure, funny pranks and - wait a minute - his mother's clothes?
In the German comedy Jagdsaison, a wellness weekend for three friends is in danger of derailing: Marlene is in a serious midlife crisis and is looking for a sex date. She accompanies the divorced Eva and her ex-husband's new wife to protect them from stupid things. Unfortunately, the three seem to attract chaos almost magically.
Although he already has searched Iraq unsuccessfully for weapons of mass destruction as a member of a UN mission, German bio-weapons expert Arndt Wolf is still obsessed with the idea that Saddam Hussein is hiding something. Nobody around him is interested in this topic any more. This changes abruptly when an Iraqi asylum seeker claims to have been involved in the manufacture of chemical weapons. The German Federal Intelligence Service summons Dr. Wolf to ascertain the legitimacy of the claims made by the informant, who has been given the code name “Curveball”.
The full attention of everyone - just for a moment in time. Maya is sixteen and tries to find online-fame and understanding through a selfie-live-vlog of suicide notes. She streams constantly to a forum of like-minded users. Her many last words are sometimes narcissistic, sometimes poetic and sometimes very honest. She suffers from depression. When Maya travels to Prague with her parents - a trip, that is supposed to somehow cheer her up - she plans for her suicidal fantasies to become reality.
A kidnapped musician and his missing violin are the prelude to a series of murders whose victims were deeply involved in business connections between the GDR and Austria. The investigators of SOKO Vienna and Leipzig are working together.
Clumsy peculiar pupil Alfons Zitterbacke dreams of being an astronaut and wreaks havoc anywhere he goes but against all odds wants to proof everyone who is teasing him wrong especially his father who wants him to be more of a 'normal' kid.
The real life story of East German singer and writer Gerhard Gundermann and his struggles with music, life as a coal miner and his dealings with the secret police (STASI) of the GDR.
In the historic Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, despite the cruel war that has been raging since 2014 between the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and the Ukrainian government, people tries to survive in the rotten heart of chaos, where violence disguises itself as peace, propaganda becomes univocal truth and hatred reigns in the name of love.
17-year-old Cyril is funny, smart and an all-round good guy. Just his somewhat overlarge nose spoils the picture. On a school trip to Berlin with Roxy, a stunning new classmate, Cyril is not the only one taken with her. Benno, the class Casanova has his eye on the girl too and makes a nasty wager. Roxy is more interested in the introverted Rick, who is not only shy but also slow. Cyril hastens with his spoken word skills to Rick's aid, and falls head over heels in love with Roxy himself. So whose brave heart will win the fair lady?
The mountain spirit Rübezahl falls in love with the young maid Rosa. Blind with love, he does not notice that the Baroness of Harrant wants to plunder his gold treasures in order to build a sawmill in the Giant Mountains.
Four former classmates, Philipp, Leonie, Timo and Yasmin arrange reunion over the weekend in one of Philipp's properties. Philipp's wife and daughter are also present. The weekend ends in bloodbath however, with three people dead and the suspect in coma. Two years later Leonie's mother asks the former classmate of the alleged murderer, Doro Kagel, to reopen the case. She would never trust her daughter to do such an act, and even Doro starts having doubts that are only reinforced by the silence of the survivors.
Colognian commissioner Gereon Rath moves to Berlin, the epicenter of political and social changes in the Golden Twenties.
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.
Just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the birthday celebrations of an East German family turn into a tragicomical moment of political and personal breakdown.
Plum out of luck, Swabian farmer Huber’s farm goes under. Then his girlfriend Birgit takes over her father’s newly-acquired firm – in former East Germany. That's reason enough for Huber to bail on his debts and head out on a road trip through southwest Germany.
Taking place at the Concentration camp Buchenwald at the end of March 1945, prisoner Hans Pippig discovers in a carrying case of an incoming prisoner a Jewish child. If reported the three-year-old is sure to die. On the other hand, a violation of the rules of the camp would threaten the long prepared uprising of the concentration camp prisoners against the SS.
Wolfgang follows a ransom note from his supposed illegal kidney donor Irina back to Istanbul, the city which he would love to erase from memory. Donor and recipient collide and struggle for a fair solution after which there is a bitter new beginning
Germany, 1967. Ruby & Martin, a young couple, are rehearsing their uprising. The price is high: expulsion from school, parental violence, and ultimately institutionalization. But they are ready to take on the cause of love.
A lighthearted look at the opening of the border crossing of Bornholmer Straße in Berlin from the point of view of the confused border guards.
In 2012 German Bundespraesident Christian Wulff declares his resignation in the great hall of Bellevue Palace. At the side of his wife, he had to face the pressure of the media for 68 days while struggling for office of head of state of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Four men’s destinies slam into each other and intertwine on four balmy summer nights. Old wounds are reopened, new ones appear, unexpectedly there is a new closeness. And, when the sun rises over the city and the striking garbage men, finally ensure German order again, nothing is the same for these four men.
On 24th August 1992 in the eastern German city of Rostock a rampaging mob, to the applause and cheering of more than 3,000 bystanders, besieged and set fire to a residential building containing, among others, more than 120 Vietnamese men, women and children on what has since become known as "The Night of the Fire." The riots became a symbol for xenophobia in the just recently reunited Germany. This film recounts the incident from the perspectives of three very different characters.
Deep in the Bavarian countryside Kleist’s historical drama Michael Kohlhaas is being shot. But instead of shooting a huge epic with impressive costumes and extraordinary props, grown-up men in suits fight with imaginary weapons. What has happened? Young director Lehman is fighting for his film, although all funds have been canceled. He’s convinced that the actor’s play and the fantasy of the audience will be sufficient. He fights for his vision as much as Kleist’s Kohlhaas fights for his rights. This film has to be finished. Whatever may come. Even if he has to go too far.
A young financial auditor, promoted to his first serious position, soon finds himself following in the fatal footsteps of his predecessor.
Silvi is in her late forties. Her husband has just left her. Until this point, she was fairly content with her life, but now everything is in ruins. A friend advises her to make a fresh start. But how is that supposed to work? Especially if you see yourself as a team player and there’s no team in sight you would want to join. Driven by a sense of longing, helplessness and curiosity, Silvi tries to make new friends and, in her own, touchingly earnest but also naïve and charmingly uninhibited way, starts to take control of her life. Anonymous sex, cosy romanticism and bondage games catapult her from one emotional disaster to the next. But, thankfully, Silvi is indestructible.
Simpleton is a poor carpenter's apprentice. Everyone makes fun of his naivete. His greatest wish is to make the sad Princess happy. When he gets a Golden Goose as a gift, he resolves to give it to the Princess...
Frank and Simone have fulfilled a dream and live with their two children in a row house in the suburbs. They are a happy couple, until the day Frank is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. The family is suddenly confronted with death.
Actually, the young Berlin doctor Jan Büchner wanted to go directly to the Baltic Sea for a week. But a detour forces him to drive over land. And then his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, just behind a small town called Marienhagen. The residents of Marienhagen take care of Jans Wohl and make the stay as pleasant as possible. A comedy about rural doctors and people who fight for their pride and self-respect and take their destiny in their own hands in their own hands.
Katja Winzer lives with her eight-year-old son Tobias and her partner Jürgen in a small town near Bremerhaven. When Tobias does not come home one evening after playing games, and broadcasts remain fruitless throughout the circle of friends, Katja turns on the police. For Katja begins a nightmare of waiting, hope and fear, where she threatens to break. Only weeks later, the terrible idea that Tobias could have become a victim of a violent crime, to the certainty.
Success is a question of confidence, particularly in times of crisis. Life would be unbearable if there weren’t beautiful things to brighten it up a little, including pretty faces. Frank Knöpfel constantly flirts with life with his beguiling bright blue eyes. He buys a complete stranger an expensive coat in a designer boutique just because he feels like it. He disguises himself as a businessman from Oslo, a Mafia boss, a stock exchange specialist and an estate agent, whatever it takes to bring in the cash. He is the type of person who enjoys looking in the mirror, and delights in what he sees there. A flirtation with a customer in a boutique leads to Frank’s undoing.
Malchow, German Democratic Republic, 1980. 20-year-old Anne is hiding Juri, a deserter of the Red Army. The two fall in love with each other. But their love is threatened: there is an arrest warrant and possibly a death sentence waiting for Juri. The two leave the country and flee to the West, leaving Anne’s six-month-old daughter Inga behind. Inga grows up with her grandparents and thinks that her mother died during a swimming accident. 25 years later she meets the literature professor Robert, who sends her on the trail of her past. He met Inga’s mother Anne during one of his seminars. At first Inga is resistant, but then she asks for Robert’s help. Together they take off on a journey through Germany, in search of Inga’s mother Anne...
Nora is fourteen and lives with her parents in a quiet Berlin suburb. She is a romantic introvert who spends her day retreated into her own enchanted dreamworld. Her parents, Anette and Uwe, are busy trying to handle reality; both are wrestling with unrealized hopes and dreams along with the added troubles caused by Anette's return to her studies and Uwe's struggling business. When Thomas, a former lover of Anette's and his family move in next door, the already fragile foundations of Nora's family are rocked.
The Hotel Lunik is a refuge for a group of radical utopists. In the center of it all, are the Siblings Franz and Babette, who through their anti-capitalist guerrilla campaigns call into question the basis for a money-based society. On the other side Franz's cousin Toni, is setting up a nightclub on the ground floor of the hotel with an entrepreneurial spirit in diametric opposition to it's surroundings. Guests are to be lured with a high-class lounge act along with a quiz show developed by Franz's own father, Alfons. Toni and his loyal bartender Viktor have their hands full contending with the difficulties of an unmotivated workforce. Among Lunik's odd population are Tom, the bellman with a screw loose, Nora, the pretty cook peeling potatoes and dreaming of a world in show business, and Emilia, the chronically sick photographer who wants to spend her last weeks singing in the company of friends...
They want to get away from each other, but they clasp each other even more firmly. They seek to save appearances at all force. The more they laugh, the quieter it gets around them. The cracks in the family picture widen until an inescapable secret reveals itself.
Based on Michel Houellebecq's controversial novel, Atomised (aka The Elementary Particles) focuses on Michael and Bruno, two very different half-brothers and their disturbed sexuality. After a chaotic childhood with a hippie mother only caring for her affairs, Michael, a molecular biologist, is more interested in genes than women, while Bruno is obsessed with his sexual desires, but mostly finds his satisfaction with prostitutes. But Bruno's life changes when he gets to know the experienced Christiane. In the meantime, Michael meets Annabelle, the love of his youth, again.
Annika's life and experiences as a young woman include peculiar sex, an unfortunately cold best friend, a terrible tutor/boyfriend, and a sensible and beautiful boyfriend (Kai). Her family life and lie collide in such a way that it is impossible for her to tell the truth even when she desperately wants to.
In 1944, a group of high command officers plot an attempt against Hitler, and one of the leaders of the conspiracy, Stauffenberg (Sebastian Koch), goes to a meeting with the Fuhrer in charge of exploding the place. However, Hitler survives and the officers are executed. This unsuccessful operation was called "Valkyrie Operation", and this realistic movie discloses this true event.
Dito Tsintsadze's drama focuses on a loner whose life changes dramatically, when he gets to know a beautiful, but strange girl. Lukas, a young man doing "meals on wheels" instead of military service, doesn't have many friends and leads a boring life, until he meets Isabella. The fascinating girl soon becomes his best friend, but Lukas learns she has a sexual relationship to her stepfather. Thus, he is obsessed with the idea of delivering Isabella by killing the man..
In the style of a documentary this tragic comedy tells the story of a relationship crisis between two married couples and their longing to break out of their miserable daily lives. In this East German post-wall movie Andreas Dresen introduces the sad everyday life of two couples from Frankfurt an der Oder in a honest and tolerable manner.
A young, naive and enthusiastic theater director named Kai comes to a grim provincial town to put on Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Although the lethargic theater company shows no interest in the play, his spirit remains undaunted.Meanwhile, it is fall 1989. The world is changing and somewhere, far away in the capital, a revolution is taking place and it seems that wishes might come true. Great hopes emerge in the little town and unexpected events overtake Kai's mutating production.
Comedy drama about one of life's perennial losers who finally strikes it lucky with a beautiful woman, but not before experiencing the usual seemingly endless pitfalls.
