Udo Kroschwald
A former East German boxing champion reduced to working as a bouncer and debt collector is forced to reflect on his life when he is diagnosed with a fatal disease.
Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on seven over-the-hill, out-of-shape museum directors, artists, architects, curators, and art historians who went to the front lines of WWII to rescue the world’s artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. With the art hidden behind enemy lines, how could these guys hope to succeed?
The Spaetkauf (Late Night Shop) has been at the heart of Berlin Prenzlauer Berg and an integral part of people's daily lives for over 13 years. A place to meet and hang out, local bar, grapevine, a place to buy anything you might need out of hours. A place to forget your worries. Where there is always time for the customer. Every night and all day Sunday. With reggae, dub & hip hop playing out of the speakers onto the street. Tommy, the Englishman, has worked in the Spaetkauf for years, selling the wares and dealing with arguing couples, lost tourists, drunken locals, late night discussions, participating in heated basketball games, visiting late night clubs and suffering hangovers. A kaleidoscope of people offering glimpses into their lives, hopes and thoughts, weaving a tapestry of local life.
In Aachen ring the wedding bells. It will be the most beautiful day in the life of Julia and Alex. But Manfred, father of the groom and Kleinganove makes him a nightmare. A dead courier, a dorky mafioso, a neurotic old-68, sparkling diamonds and a waiting bride: A wedding that you do not want his worst enemy.
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 ...
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
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.
East-Berlin, 1961, shortly after the erection of the Wall. Konrad, Sophie and three of their friends plan a daring escape to Western Germany. The attempt is successful, except for Konrad, who remains behind. From then on, and for the next 28 years, Konrad and Sophie will attempt to meet again, in spite of the Iron Curtain. Konrad, who has become a reputed Astrophysicist, tries to take advantage of scientific congresses outside Eastern Germany to arrange encounters with Sophie. But in a country where the political police, the Stasi, monitors the moves of all suspicious people (such as Konrad's sister Barbara and her husband Harald), preserving one's privacy, ideals and self-respect becomes an exhausting fight, even as the Eastern block begins its long process of disintegration.
The furniture mover Stefan is on the verge of serving his time in the military. He has always been a guy with distinctive civil courage who cannot stand injustice. Now he has ten days left in which he plans to make a lot of decisions, not least the decision with which woman he wants to spend his life. Stefan is picky, however, and none of them seems good enough for him.
