Castles and Cottages(1957)

The Good German(en)

An American journalist arrives in Berlin just after the end of World War Two. He becomes involved in a murder mystery surrounding a dead GI who washes up at a lakeside mansion during the Potsdam negotiations between the Allied powers. Soon his investigation connects with his search for his married pre-war German lover.

Die Holzbaronin(de)

Requiem(hu)

When a young boy comes in to see a doctor abourt a red mark on his face, the doctor's wife welcomes him into the consulting room instead. As they talk, she offers him something to eat and then notes that his manner of eating is just like that of her previous husband, who died in prison many years earlier. It turns out that the young man had been his cell mate for a year, and he tells her the story of how her husband died. She then remembers (in flashbacks) how she had helped her first husband rid himself of his sexual repression, and how she had promised him she would marry her current husband if she were widowed. It seems her doctor-husband was a man who could remain untouched through any political climate, and was much admired by her first husband. Now that her memories have been awakened by the young man's account, she ignores the repeated phone calls of her current husband and decides to rid this young man of his own sexual repressions.

Breath of Life(it)

Set in Italy in 1946 just after World War 2, the film explores the lives and emotions of a group of patients who are terminally ill and confined to an isolated sanatorium.

Neger, Neger, Schornsteinfeger(de)

This drama is based on the childhood memories of Hans Jürgen Massaquoi, who was one of the few black native Germans in Nazi Germany. In 1935 at the age of nine, he lives with his German mother in a small flat in Hamburg's working class district Barmbek, while his father and grandfather had left the country. Although the boy is not persecuted by the Nazis and dreams of joining the Hitler Youth, his skin color makes him a target for racist abuse...

Germany, Year Zero(it)

In the ruins of post-WWII Berlin, a twelve-year-old boy is left to his own devices in order to help provide for his family.

Vera – The Hard Way to Enlightenment(de)

Kahlschlag(de)

Robin is 16 and has had enough: permanent trouble at school and at home. On the run from his dull everyday life, he joins a group of skinheads. The clique strengthens their sense of belonging by beating up foreign youths. This is how the "apolitical" boy slips into the right-wing scene, and it's not easy to get out of it. When they injure a Turkish girl during a robbery, Robin, of all people, is questioned by the police.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him(de)

What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)

Der Mann mit der Maske(de)

A series of rapes causes a stir in a German university town. A special commission led by senior public prosecutor Schildt and detective Gawilek investigates. After months of surveillance, everything points to a chaplain as the masked perpetrator, known as "Zorro". But the investigators were wrong, because "Zorro" strikes again when the chaplain is in custody. This time, charges were also filed. But not against "unknown", but against the son of the senior public prosecutor...

M/S Gustloff(de)

Joseph Vilsmaier Two-part TV movie focuses on the tragic events surrounding the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German passenger ship, at the end of World War II. On 30 January 1945, Captain Hellmuth Kehding was in charge of the ship, evacuating wounded soldiers and civilians trapped by the Red Army. Soon after leaving the harbor of Danzig, it was hit by three torpedoes from the Soviet submarine and sank in less than an hour.

Mona Lisa Smile(en)

Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.

Der Untergang der Pamir(de)

The story of the German sail-training ship Pamir that sunk in a hurricane.

The Lenz Papers(de)

Four-part german limited serial about the baden revolution in 1848 and 1849.

Tales from the Madhouse(en)

Set inside the crumbling walls of a dilapidated Victorian sanatorium, eight mysterious characters reveal their secret stories to the visiting camera. The eight are linked by one unifying and crucial event in their lives: each of them has had an encounter with Jesus of Nazareth in some way — an experience that has left an indelible mark.

Warten ist der Tod(de)

Evening in Byzantium(en)

While the prestigious Cannes Film Festival goes on around him, American movie producer Jesse Craig struggles to develop a pitch-worthy thriller about a terrorist plot. Before long, Craig becomes concerned that a shocking act of real-life terrorism already may be underway. Meanwhile, radical actor Bret Easton works in cahoots with a group of extremists to coordinate the hijacking of a trio of passenger planes in a devastating, multi-city nuclear attack.

The House in Karp Lane(de)

Tommy(en)

After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult.

Pugowitza(de)

World War II is over and Heinrich, a young German boy, influenced by the Russians, starts to act according to Communist principles in a small German village.