Germany

To withstand the psychological torture of the Gestapo, a lawyer imprisoned by the Nazis finds refuge in the world of chess.Read More »

Seamlessly weaving together exclusive archival gems with dynamic tour footage, this documentary captures the transformative journey of Canadian Merrill Nisker into the internationally acclaimed cultural powerhouse that is Peaches.Read More »

Synopsis:
There are places in Europe that have remained as painful memories of the past – factories where humans were turned into ash. These places are now memorial sites that are open to the public and receive thousands of tourists every year. The film’s title refers to the eponymous novel written by W.G. Sebald, dedicated to the memory of Holocaust. This film is an observation of the visitors to a memorial site that has been founded on the territory of a former concentration camp. Why do they go there? What are they looking for?Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Cardillac is a craftsman and goldsmith who sells the products of his craft then becomes obsessed with reacquiring them. A devoted father to his daughter Madelon, Cardillac will even kill to get the precious jewelry back into his hands. As he sinks into irreversible insanity, he constructs a homemade electric chair and contemplates suicide.’
– Rotten Tomatoes

Based on the novel by E.T.A. HoffmannRead More »

A white line across the colourful side of the Wall in West Berlin. An art action that was to end with a serious arrest in 1986. The back story takes place in the Weimar punk scene of the 1980s, where small anarchic free spaces were defended against state normalism: Turn the state into cucumber salad! More than thirty years later, it becomes clear that there was a leak. A betrayal is suddenly in the air. The consequences continue to draw their perfidious line to this day. Friendships break up in retrospect. The film tells of the tension between subculture and dictatorship. There is no line to be drawn under the GDR.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Magdalena and Michael have loved each other since they were children. But when the Nazis come to power, Michael rebels against the regime and is sentenced to fifteen years in a concentration camp. Magdalena, meanwhile, goes underground with the help of a friend and later immigrates to the Soviet Union. Michael, who has joined the Red Army, discovers on the way to Moscow that Magdalena is staying there…’
– DEFA Film LibraryRead More »

A smooth-talking rogue assumes the identity of the new village doctor, and soon has a thriving practice with the help of three quick-witted “daughters”.Read More »

Synopsis:
Jan Nebel’s life is quite depressing and just a streak of bad luck. His former girlfriend tells him that she is HIV positive, his sister is married to a disgusting idiot and his father dies with his head on a plate of noodles. Above all, he gets into a street riot between anarchists and the police on the way to his job at a slaughterhouse. Thus, he is fired, but gets to know the mysterious Vera who becomes his new girlfriend. Together with Jan’s weird friend Buddy, they move into his father’s apartment and try to survive their Berlin everyday life…Read More »

Franz Woyzeck, the protagonist of Georg Büchner’s unfinished drama is incorporated in this adaption of a classic. The contemporary Franz Wodzeck lives in Germany’s Ruhr industrial region. Wodzeck meanders back and forth between the monotony of working each day in a car factory and returning each evening to the cheerless desolation of the factory dormitory. Once his girlfriend, Maleen, snubs him for his boss, Wodzeck’s personal and social frustrations escalate into a vista of emotions: he runs amok and bloodily stubs Maleen to death. After he has killed his one sole love Wodzeck resigns himself to his fate. A hollow shell of a man is admitted to a psychiatric asylum. He feels no more anxiety, no more desire. He simply exists. FBW Prädikat: “wertvoll”.—Oliver HerbrichRead More »