Fritz Haarmann, who has killed at least 27 boys, is questioned by a psychology professor in order to find out whether he is sane and can be held responsible for his crimes. During this interrogation Haarmann reveals his motives and his killing methods.
March/April 1917. The first world war is already a couple year to pace. A sealed train with Russian emigrants keeps on driving from Zürich Germany and Sweden to Sint-Petersburg. The outlaws stand under the guidance of Vladimir J. Lenin. Two senior officers support the revolutionary bomb "to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Yet there are some unpleasant clashes between Socialists and enthusiastic workers who are worried about the war. During train travel there comes an end to Lenin's affair with the gracious Inessa, and his wife Nadja is prepared take back him. The triumphant entrance in St. Petersburg will exceed all expectations....
Thomas, the son of a prison warden, falls for Martin, one of the prison inmates. After Martin is released, they try to build a relationship and a life together but, no one will leave them alone.
Hundreds of years after humans have settled on Mars, Regulator Rogul and Lord Jens Maul, lead a force of Martians to Earth in order to conquer the planet. Queen Metaphor looks to the gay heroes aboard the spaceship Surprise -- Captain Kork, Mr. Spuck, and first engineer Schrotty -- for help.
A hit man whose mission is to prevent the printing of a tell-all book written by a former Mafioso, falls in love with the employee who may lose her job if the book doesn't get published.
The film deals with questions that have long tormented us: Who was the first civil servant? How has the civil service developed over the course of history? What did Mr. Weber, Engineer Breitfuß, Ms. Knackal, and Mr. Claus do before MA 2412 existed? How did they meet? Why was MA 2412 actually founded? What if the EU decides to introduce a Europe-wide Christmas department? And what is the point of it all?
After aspiring poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe fails his law exams, he's sent to a sleepy provincial court to reform. Instead, he falls for Lotte, a young woman who is promised to another man.
In the near future, the company, "Menzana" succeeds with the crucial step of transferring personalities for eternal youth. For the aged Hermann and his seriously ill wife, Anna, they both fear the day that death will separate them. At Menzana, they commit to purchasing the bodies of Apolain and Sarah. Under the conditions of the transfer, Hermann and Anna have use of their new bodies for 20 hours a day. When they sleep, their hosts Apolain and Sarah return to consciousness are able to use their own bodies for a period of four hours.
A greater-Vienna seniors' home is run like a prison by the stuck-up female executive and staff. Hippie-type rebel Rochus 'Rocco' Siwak incurs a community service to be spent there as orderly. Sympathizing with seniors who still aspire to some dignity and self-realization, he helps them get around the rules, such as smuggling in contraband, and ends up inspiring them to form a rock band and enter a free podium competition. But it doesn't square with his own last shot as band guitarist.—KGF Vissers
Larry is a misfit stranded in Berlin, the pilgrim capital of the lost and haunted. Whatever he does goes wrong. Yet he still can't help acting like a smartass in order to make him feel self-important about his desolate life. But Larry's life is on downward spiral… Pressurised by his girlfriend Lilly, who drives him crazy with her obsession about having a baby, threatened by Kokser, a man to whom he owns money, and trying to dodge an ominous preacher called Klaus, who takes the words of Bible as literal truth, Larry seeks help from Bruno, a homeless drifter, crossing the border between dreams and reality...
When Anna Maron follows her brutal husband after a violent argument, she catches him with his mistress to make matters worse. Completely distraught, Anna drives off and promptly has an accident with hitman Alex Lee, who takes her hostage in order to have a better chance of escaping from the police and the Chinese mafia. Anna's ordeal begins with surprising twists and turns.
In Rimini (2022) and Sparta (2022), Ulrich Seidl followed the lives of two brothers, Richie and Ewald, respectively. The former is a crooner long past his prime yet still beloved by hordes of late-middle-aged female fans who can also buy his sexual attention; the latter is a technician living in Romania and wrestling with his pedophile desires. These two tales were supposed to be told in one film – and now they finally are! The result offers a staggeringly different experience of the narrative(s). It's far more cerebral, above all a work of ideas.
A woman inexplicably finds herself cut off from all human contact when an invisible, unyielding wall suddenly surrounds the countryside. Accompanied by her loyal dog Lynx, she becomes immersed in a world untouched by civilization and ruled by the laws of nature.
A poignant film essay about 'superfluous people' facing up to a moment of crisis in their lives.
Josef "Schmutz" (german for "dirt"), a security guard obsessed with duty and cleanliness, is given the task of guarding a decommissioned industrial plant. While maintaining his devotion to the authority of property right, the self-proclaimed "Representative of Ownership" is himself slowly losing his sense of reality.
A disaster-movie made in Germany.
Patriarch and entrepreneur August Manzl is terminally ill. As his four grown-up children are all spoiled and sluggish, he comes up with a rather cynical idea to determine the future leader of the families empire: whoever of his children shows the courage and willpower to end his suffering within the next week will become the sole heir - and simultaneously proof the skills necessary to succeed in a modern business world. Between the children a murderous competition evolves.
Real estate speculator Albert Hahn is found dead in his cellar. He died of fermentation gas poisoning. The doctor in charge assumes it was an accident. But Polt knows that the dead man was hated in the community. He suspects that the murderer wanted to make the death look like an accident. Many of the winegrowers had a motive. After a long investigation in the wine cellars, he discovers that all the cellars are connected by holes. Polt doesn't want to leave the feeling that it was a murder. As he drinks some wine with his friends, they all confess to the crime. They had all poisoned Albert Hahn with the fermentation gas together, but only one of them wants to take all the blame, as the rest have children and wives. He commits suicide and leaves a confession behind.
A 17 year old tries to find his own identity in October 1958 while Elvis Presley begins his service as a G.I in Germany. He is torn between his parents' generation which was marked by war and the new "American way of life" which is particularly present in the town of Bremerhaven.
Follows "Live is Life" aka "Die Spätzünder".
A crime comedy directed by Peter Weck. The movie was followed by "Die Ehre der Strizzis" (2000).
Much has changed for Simon Polt, a retired gendarmerie inspector. He's embarking on new career paths, and his future with his long-time girlfriend, Karin Walter, suddenly took on a completely new perspective. Polt has little contact with the police, who now watch over the small villages in the Wiesbach Valley—his only friend is Norbert Sailer, a law enforcement officer who's just his style. But the discovery of a stranger's body completely disrupts Simon Polt's quiet world: No one claims to have known the dead man, but some seem to know more about him than they're willing to admit to the police.
The Alps, late 19th century. Greider, a mysterious lone rider who claims to be a photographer, arrives at an isolated lumber village, despotically ruled by a family clan, asking for winter accommodation.
A film by german playwright Tankred Dorst about a case of incest in a rural community.
A true story about Johann Georg Elser, a quiet carpenter who tried to assassinate Hitler with an explosive device in 1939.
A docudrama about Germany's former chancellor Helmut Kohl, whose 16-year tenure during the 80s and 90s included the reunification of the country after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Polish socialist and Marxist Rosa Luxemburg works tirelessly in the service of revolution in early 20th century Poland and Germany. While Luxemburg campaigns for her beliefs, she is repeatedly imprisoned as she forms the Spartacist League offering a new vision for Germany.
Based on the research for his non-fiction book "Der Baader-Meinhoff-Komplex", "Spiegel" journalist Stefan Aust wrote the screen play to Reinhard Hauff’s controversial feature film that re-narrates the startling trial against the RAF terrorists Baader, Meinhoff, Ensslin, and Raspe. The trial that started in May 1975 in the Stammheim maximum-security prison extended over 192 days and ended with a lifetime sentence for all defendants.
A drifting teen slips from petty crime into exploitation on the streets of Hamburg, courted by a self-serving journalist and a predatory pimp, before a doomed romance pushes him toward a desperate armed-robbery scheme he can’t outrun.
In 1820, Tyrolean surveyor Josef Naus set off for the Zugspitze region to map the area. "Gipfelsturm" is about the resistance he has to overcome before he can successfully climb the Zugspitze and how he finds the love of his life.
Anna and Kurt spent their youth in Berlin, then the capital of the Greater German Reich. In the summer of 1938, they met on board the "Strength through Joy" cruise ship "Ozeana" during a trip to Norway. Kurt and Hanna fell in love and almost got married later, but the war broke them up. While Anna stayed in Berlin, Kurt was taken prisoner. Twenty years after the end of the war, the two met by chance in Düsseldorf and since then Kurt, who now lived in Canada, had come to Berlin from time to time. It was here that he proposed to Anna for the second time. As a preliminary answer, however, Anna had given him her diary from those days...
Since the death of her husband, a yellow cheetah has been the companion of the attractive Miriam. When the animal falls ill, the woman seeks the help of veterinarian François. The married vet falls for Miriam's mysterious charm and cannot resist her mysterious attraction. Little by little, strange things begin to happen...
Building contractor Jochen Schuster takes out loans worth millions to finance a dubious building project and fulfill the extravagant wishes of his lover. When his mountain of debt is so high that no bank will grant him a loan, he comes up with an idea: he scrapes together the last of his funds and drives up to the banks in a borrowed limousine and wig and tries to borrow money under a false identity. The banks fall for the trick and grant him the loans to "protect German cultural assets". Schuster can hardly believe his luck and handles the unexpected windfall just as irresponsibly as before...
Mysterious deaths are occurring in Basel: people are dying out of the blue in public with no apparent cause of death. The coroner, Professor Rüegg, the cantonal doctor Zäslin, and politicians are at a loss and becoming fearful. There are even serious considerations to cancel the upcoming carnival. Rüegg's assistant Andreas Zinstag, who is also dealing with the deaths, lives with his uncle, Jean-Jacques Zinstag, a retired doctor. The latter begins to take an interest in the mysterious deaths. Among his friends, Zinstag develops the theory that people are not dying from a specific disease, but from "death" itself. The Grim Reaper himself is making his presence felt in Basel, as he once did in the Dance of Death.
The film is based on the figure of the police inspector Simon Polt of the Austrian author Alfred Komarek.
The hungarian revolution 1956. Judith, an Austrian and her Hungarian friend, Taddek, want to escape to Austria. A friend of theirs, a Viennese photographer, helps organize their escape. Taddek doesn't appear at the arranged meeting place, so Judith and the photographer leave without him. Years pass without a word from Taddek..
Pierre earns his money in an unusual way. Together with Dr. Schumann, he helps people die. Schumann is the agent, and Pierre takes care of the jobs. But one day Pierre starts to think about what they are actually doing. Then he meets Silvie, who happens to be one of Dr. Schumann's "patients", and the situation takes a serious turn.
An ageing genetic scientist recognizes the curse of his own research.
Gendarmerie inspector Simon Polt in the Weinviertel region finds it too much of a coincidence when crook Riebel is killed in a motorcycle accident and his friend Willi is found dead on the same day. But the residents of the otherwise peaceful Lower Austrian wine village make Polt's investigation anything but easy.
Stefan is a well respected doctor. Together with his fiancée Miriam, he visits his father in South Africa on the occasion of his birthday. Miriam meets a former friend of Stefan's, Jo . Jo is a bishop who is committed to helping the slum dwellers. As the two get closer, Miriam falls in love.
Daniel Käfer's time out in Ausseerland is coming to an end. He has to focus on his new career. But his journey ends in Hallstatt. His acquaintance with the young Gerd Gamsjäger and his mother leads to dramatic events. In his exuberance, Käfer causes a serious accident that almost costs his young friend his life. In an effort to make amends, he gets himself into even more trouble: with a dubious treasure map, he initiates excavations in search of a man in the salt. A huge embarrassment or the start of a new future?
While the masses enthusiastically meet to celebrate the new Millennium, one does not sense much commotion at the kiosk and corner bar "Das Frankfurter Kreuz ". Strangers as well as regulars come to the Kiosk owned by Walter.
Ewald moved to Romania years ago. Now in his 40s, he seeks a fresh start. Leaving his girlfriend, he moves to the hinterland. With young boys from the area, he transforms a decaying school into a fortress. The children enjoy a new, carefree existence. But the distrust of the villagers is soon awoken. And Ewald is forced to confront a truth he has long suppressed. Sparta is the brother film to Rimini (2022), and the conclusion of Ulrich Seidl's diptych about the inescapability of the past and the pain of finding yourself.
The lives of childless couple Nela and Josch change abruptly after the accidental death of Josch's ex-girlfriend Rosanna. The deceased leaves behind her 14-year-old daughter Aimée, who the couple take in after some back and forth. The couple sensitively try to help the girl overcome her pain. But Aimée, who doesn't speak for a long time, is stubborn and unpredictable. Nela fears that the teenager wants to destroy her marriage and makes serious accusations against the girl. Josch, who is absorbed in the role of family man, doesn't seem to notice.
Gottfried Binder, a simple employee in the pathology department of the University Hospital Zurich, is suffering from lung cancer and does not have long to live. He is convinced that the fatal disease was actually intended for someone else. For his superior, the unpopular Dr. Götze. The senior physician has always harassed him and smoked incessantly. Binder is certain that Götze made him ill in this way. Binder is inspired by the idea of achieving justice and getting rid of Götze. And he already knows how...
In this mystery/thriller based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, Nico Thomkins (Udo Schenk), a writer, and his wife Helen (Anke Sevenich) are in the habit of playing games with one another. Even while they are breaking up, they are sufficiently in tune with one another to continue this practice. When the writer's wife takes off without leaving a note behind, people begin to suspect that he may have murdered her, and he plays along with this notion to the point of planting clues which would incriminate him. Obviously, no one with a shred of common sense would do such a thing, and these tricks get him into trouble. However, his troubles don't really begin until he starts to search for her in earnest.
The Fischbach brothers and their families live next door to each other just outside Vienna. Hubert works for an oil company, Viktor runs an organic food store. When a climate protection competition is announced in the community, it's all about who uses less energy. The compost is felted and the effect of soap nuts is relied upon. The brothers' increasingly childish squabbling also drives their wives up the wall - and turns the petty war into delicious fun against narrow-minded over-correctness.
The third episodic film, after Deutschland im Herbst and Der Kandidat, in which notable German filmmakers reflect on the state of their country. A collage of documentary and dramatised sequences dealing with such topics as overkill, peace demonstrations, NATO arms policy, and life after the next war.
Based on the play by Lion Feuchtwanger.
A married university professor ends his explosive affair with a female student who then accuses him of sexual harassment. A satire with plenty of situation comedy about a misstep with consequences!
The adaption of Arthur Schnitzler's brilliant study of the moral illusion and reality in a small town near Vienna at the end of the century. - After the famous radio adaption by Max Ophüls in 1954.
Policeman Simon Polt is on cloud nine. He finally has the village teacher Karin in his arms. But soon he's forced to look into the depths of humanity again: the priest's cook has been found dead. Was it the gourmet critic? The feisty woman had poured soup over his head the night before, in shock at the sight of an illustrious dinner party...
When her father dies unexpectantly, a young woman starts to get suspicious about her mother's behaviour.
After the essay "On Marionette theatre" by Heinrich von Kleist.
A holocaust survivor now living as a respected writer in Manhattan is the only person who can identify a suspected Nazi back in his native Austria. When a beautiful reporter eager for a scoop tries to lure him back, Geburtig must decide whether to confront his past.
After the German reunification: A widowed, unemployed archaeologist with two children and a single futurologist with a little daughter in Berlin fall in love at first sight and persistently and unwaveringly develop a life together. An equally unspectacular and rigorous examination of love as a crucial basis for private and political action.
A great mosaic, a labyrinth of scenes, dialogue splinters, interviews, portraits of people surrounding Hamlet and wanting to be part of his story.
A young married couple, professional, intelligent and without inhibitions. Peter, an economist, Helga, a secretary at a financial broker. When Helga's boss is offered old tankers, the clever couple decides to get involved in the business. The plan is bound to fail, because knowledge and the courage to take risks are not enough. To rake in money, above all, a lot of money is needed.
Based on a true story. The Lucona was a ship that sank in the Indian Ocean in 1977. Allegedly, the steamer had a uranium factory on board. And there was a man sitting at home in Vienna, waiting for big bucks. The sinking of the Lucona was a long-planned insurance scam and became the biggest scandal in Austria's post-war history, as high-profile managers, mafiosi and ministers were involved in the case.
Composer Johann Sebastian Bach is introduced to King Frederick II of Prussia in 1747. The aging composer and the young monarch clash and a battle of egos ensues.
A young Swedish freelance investigative journalist dies under mysterious circumstances in South Africa, and his mother sets off in a relentless pursuit of the truth behind his death.
Helen Brindel is trapped in a violent marriage and the prison of her faith when she falls in love with a scholar, Professor Eduard Gluck. But he’s a secret porn addict. Slowly, carefully, two very different individuals get to know each other.
About sweeping love, rock & roll and getting rid of all that stale air of the fifties. You've got the good guys - that's Lulu and Jimi - and the bad guys: Lulu's mother Gertrud, her secret lover Schultz, the chauffeur, and a wicked old shrink, Von Oppeln, crouching in his gloomy office like a spider waiting to pounce on his prey Lulu. Light and darkness, bright garish colours, hot rock & roll and wild dance numbers mark this road movie about lovers fleeing from the evil powers of a deeply bigoted society. A drama about the relationship between a young black man and a rich German girl.
Poland 1943: An unlikely pair - a concentration camp prisoner and a captain in Hitler's notorious SS - free themselves from the wreckage of a crashed SS airplane. The two appear to be strangely familiar with each other and the extent of their extraordinary relationship is thrillingly revealed.
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
The Vienna State Opera on Thursday before the Carnival. As every year the large ball rather is attended by celebrities from politics and the media. Just the arrival of newcomers is finished and the Polonaise faded as it is in the best tradition: "Alles Walzer". transferred with 20 cameras live throughout the world. Television journalist Fraser (Heiner Lauterbach) views the event from the control room, outside in the hall leads his son has one of the cameras. Suddenly all hell breaks loose: poison gas flows from hidden containers, hundreds of guests die in agony, millions of horrified spectators experience it on the TV screen...
A satire about corruption, about big and small crimes: The noble clochard Maxwell, the unsuccessful film producer Harry and the unemployed actress Wally are anything but kissed by luck. But that changes when the three get in the way of a corporation, who, with the help of bribed politicians, tries.
To reveal the secrets of a photo and a postcard of her late mother, the art historian Lena goes to St. Veit, where she wants to climb the Simonskopf. To do this, Lena first has to learn to climb. The attractive hotelier and mountain guard Martin helps her overcome her fear of heights. The two fall in love. Then it turns out that Martin's father and Lena's mother knew each other very well.
Simon Polt (Erwin Steinhauer) is no longer a gendarme. Arrived in retirement, he participates cheerfully in the Weinviertel on village life. When a corpse is found after a feast, his sense of right and wrong again becomes noticeable. The police do not see any third party debt. He sees it differently.
Private detective Josef Matula is with his usual companion, the dog Dr. med. Renz, on the way to Italy, when his rickety minibus engine fails. During his subsequent unplanned stay in a small mountain village he discovers the body of a mountaineer while hiking. He begins to investigate the death and by the look of it, it could be either accident, suicide or even a murder. However, the conspiratorial community is not very enthusiastic about his investigations and when he comes close to solving the case, his own life is in danger too.
Three actors portray scenes from the life of Sterling Hayden, with a particular focus on his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Inspired by Hayden’s memoir “Wanderer.”
Robert, a masseur who is hard of hearing, is unaware that he has inherited millions. Four people want to take it from him: stockbroker Kuhl, his employee Späh and their friends Anna and Iris. Späh wants his girlfriend Iris to marry Robert in America in order to get half of the money. After a murder that Späh commits, but of which Robert seems suspicious, Robert actually flees to America, but not with Iris, but with Anna, who has since gotten wind of the affair. Robert and Anna marry in Las Vegas, and it is only back in Munich that Robert finds out about his inheritance. Robert leaves Anna, Späh shoots Kuhl and there is a showdown between Robert and Späh on a French island.
Maria has been living in a retirement home in Vienna for almost two years, but she is far from finished with life. She tries to break up the monotonous routine with creative ideas, much to the chagrin of the prickly home manager, who wants to manage her oldies with as little stress as possible. However, the residents are grateful for any change of pace, and former bar pianist Jakob in particular loves Maria's boisterous vitality. He keeps telling her about his East Prussian homeland and his childhood friend Paul, whom he lost sight of after the war.
Young police chief Sandra Mohr returns to her hometown of Graz with a bad feeling. Together with her new boss, Sascha Bergmann, she is tasked with solving the death of a journalist who was planning to write an article on abuse of office and nepotism.
Richie Bravo, once upon a time a successful pop star, chases after his faded fame in wintry Rimini. Trapped between permanent intoxication and concerts for busloads of tourists, his world starts to collapse when his adult daughter breaks into his life.
German film.
Thirteen German directors present short films exploring the state of their country.
A woman faces a variety of emotional crises as she spends the summer interacting in various ways with friends, family, and lovers.
A German Film Award winning short animation about endangered hedgehogs.
Docudrama about a prostitute.