Germany

1933, the bosses of a large German chemical concern pave the way for Hitler’s rise to power: Thus begins the story line of the feature film Der Rat der Götter (The Council of the Gods), which deals with the history of I.G. Farben. The film adheres throughout to the Communist theory of fascism. Hitler is largely unidimensional: a creature of capital. Thus the story continues: While the directors assist Germany’s military buildup, they continue to cultivate their business dealings with the U.S. company Standard Oil in order to have joint control of the world market. Some directors now carve out careers with the Nazis, while the engineer Dr. Scholz, who comes from a working-class family, has nothing but scientific progress in mind. Read More »

Synopsis:
The Italian mountaineer Carel wants to be the first man to stand on the top of the Matterhorn. Since the climb is very difficult, he agrees to try it together with the British mountaineer Whymper. But due to an intrigue this agreement is dropped and the two men try it on the same day with two different teams and then disaster strikes.Read More »

A homeless mother and son struggle to keep up appearances…

Single mum Mellanie has a job, albeit a probationary one. She works as an air stewardess on short haul flights. She is confident, attractive and crisply turned out. But she and her son Ben are temporarily homeless, forced to sleep in a tent concealed in a patch of woodland scrub on the fringes of the city. It’s a precarious situation at the best of times, but one piece of bad luck can have far-reaching consequences when you are clinging to the appearance of a ‘normal’ life.Read More »

Quote:
Elvira Weishaupt, once a burly working-class butcher named Erwin, has made an enormous sacrifice for love. She has undergone a sex change for a romantic interest who has abandoned her, and she now must struggle to reconcile her past life with her present identity. The emotionally fractured Elvira visits influential acquaintances and old haunts in hopes of putting the pieces of her life back together — and of confronting her lost love.Read More »

This critically well-received independent German film production was made and first seen in 1970, but did not receive general release until 1971. A group of five scientists have invented a machine which will unravel the whole fabric of time and space but have managed to blot the full memory of their achievement from their minds. They did this to prevent the complete destruction of space-time as we know it. However, they also programmed themselves to remember everything if someone uses the key words “a big grey-blue bird.” Gangsters bent on world domination and a young documentary film-team track down these scientists, each attempting to learn their secrets for completely different reasons.Read More »

Baron Victor von Plessen’s “Kopfjäger von Borneo” (1936) is a magnificent early ethnographic film. A painter, ornithologist and ethnographer, von Plessen (1900-1980) apparently was an independent spirit of independent financial means. There is absolutely no indication for the fact that this was produced in Third Reich Germany, but this might nevertheless account for the relative obscurity into which this film has sadly fallen.Read More »

In this monumental work, Thomas Heise draws on letters and other documents to trace the story of his family over four generations. Word and image merge into a piercing, deeply moving portrait of a family, a country and a century.Read More »

Synopsis:
The narrative is set in the summer of 1945 in a small village outside Leipzig, where the Americans have just pulled back and been replaced by Soviet troops. The film follows the inhabitants as they adjust to the new situation, in particular Joschi, a teenage Hitler Youth member who is fascinated by the Americans. (wikipedia)Read More »

IMDB says:
Anna a young girl is thought of having the ability to heal people mysteriously. Elisabeth a middle aged aristocratic woman, is disabled and puts all her hopes in meeting Anna and having her disability heal by her.Read More »