Germany

German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.Read More »

The internet is an integral part of Rudolf Thome’s feature, VENUS TALKING. Novellist Venus lives with her family out of Berlin and moves temporarily to the city where she is starting to write a new book. Her fans can watch her via a webcam. Away from husband and children she begins an affair with Fabrizio…Read More »

Quote:
Inspired by Thorndike’s similar East German films,
this is a carefully researched, professionally executed
indictment of the West German government bureaucracy,
proving that many of its members — individually shown
and identified — had served in the same capacity under
the Nazis. A barrage of official documents, incriminating
photographs and Nazi newsreels substantiate the argument.Read More »

Felicity Rash wrote:
During the war years, film developed as a novel and effective vehicle for primary and secondary war propaganda. Visual images of a heroic Self and a terrifying enemy Other were a popular means of conveying a nationalist message and boosting patriotic sentiment. […] In Der Heimat Schützengraben (1916) a farmer newly returned from the East Prussian front tells of the horror he experienced when fleeing from Russian soldiers. His story brings him sympathy from a group of villagers from whom he is requesting a loan. At the end of the film, children are shown opening up their piggy-banks. An old man makes an emotional speech to the villagers, and hence the film’s audience, telling them to lend money to the state …Read More »

Wim Wenders talks with Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto about the creative process and ponders the relationship between cities, identity and the cinema in the digital age.Read More »

Synopsis
A poor student rescues a beautiful countess and soon becomes obsessed with her. A sorcerer makes a deal with the young man to give him fabulous wealth and anything he wants, if he will sign his name to a contract. The student hurriedly signs the contract, but doesn’t know what he’s in for…Read More »

Blood Brothers (German: Blutsbrüder) is a 1975 East German western film directed by Werner W. Wallroth and starring Dean Reed, Gojko Mitic and Gisela Freudenberg.

The film’s sets were designed by the art directors Heinz Röske and Marlene Willmann. It was made by the state-controlled DEFA company.

PLOT:
Harmonika, an American deserter, is captured by a tribe of Indians, who believe he has murdered the wife and child of their chief Grey Elk. It is the chief himself who sets the American free, and Harmonika stays with the tribe and gradually wins their friendship. He becomes the blood brother of his one-time enemy Hard Rock and marries his new friend’s sister Fawn. Harmonika becomes increasingly more aware of the purposeful lies of the white men.Read More »

Afire (German: Roter Himmel) is a 2023 German drama film directed by Christian Petzold, starring Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel and Enno Trebs. The relationship drama focuses on four people who are trapped in their holiday home on the Baltic Sea by uncontrolled forest fires.

The film won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival. In August 2023, it was shortlisted as the German submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for the 96th Academy Awards.Read More »

An ageing swimming champion falls for a failed writer after answering an unusual personal ad in director Rudolf Thome’s existential love story. Impulsively responding to an ad placed by an awkward young writer Johannes, middle-aged Johanna Perl falls hopelessly in love. On the surface Johannes is a balding failure, but Johanna sees something in her new lover that inspires her like never before. Soon enough, the unlikely new couple decides to move in together, and even Johanna’s daughter Sophia finds romance with a handsome new beau. While all is well at first, the blissful new living arrangement is soon shattered when Johannes pens a best seller and begins sleeping with his publicist, leaving his older lover to wonder if she has finally lost her mind. …You Told Me, You Love Me ( Du hast gesagt, dass Du mich liebst ).Read More »