A 14-year-old orphan named Krabat flees the horrors of the 30 Years War by becoming an apprentice to an ominous master of a mysterious mill. Krabat is not only taught the craft of milling, but is also instructed in the sinister world of the darker arts. When the life of his friend and protector is threatened, Krabat must struggle to free himself from an evil sorcerer's control in a gripping fight for freedom, friendship and love.
In DIARY OF A BEE we follow the adventurous journey of a single bee from its birth (or hatching) to the founding of a new colony. Three years of shooting with the latest macro camera technology and special post-processing enable a unique visual language that allows completely new insights into the world of bees - without becoming unscientific. This story is told by Anna Thalbach as the "winter bee" and her daughter Nellie Thalbach, who takes on the role of the "summer bee". Welcome to the big drama of the little pollen collectors!
What happened in 1953 in Stalin’s secret dacha in Kuntsevo? The last five days of the dictator. The film presents narratives about the life and death of the scrupulous power seeker Stalin. A life full of cruelties and red glamour which ended 70 years ago in his secret dacha in Kuntsevo. The almighty suddenly powerless.
Hamburg, end of the 1960s: occasional pothead Jan, also known as "the pirate", makes a career for himself in the local drug scene. He quickly becomes the "hash prince of Hamburg". But when he starts dealing heroin, he also draws his brother Ludwig into his dark business...
Produced and directed by seven Munich Film School students, Honolulu takes place not in Hawaii, but inside of a rural town just outside of Munich, Germany. Several vignettes, lasting approximately 10 to 15 minutes each, are connected by one of the town’s public bus routes, outside of which two men booze the night away while waiting for the bus to make its rounds.
Seduced by the challenge of an impossible case, the driven Dr. Carl Jung takes the unbalanced yet beautiful Sabina Spielrein as his patient. Jung’s weapon is the method of his master, the renowned Sigmund Freud. Both men fall under Sabina’s spell.
Think of a really nice person, a friend of yours, someone who could never hurt a fly. Imagine finding out that he is supposed to have killed someone. You're told that he has shot a person in a bar, for no obvious reason. He has already confessed. He says the murder was planned. He expects a life sentence. He even longs for it. He wants to pay for his crime. The psychiatrist cannot see any mental illness. People around him don't think him to be evil. They like him. They want to help him and protect him from himself. And they all ask the same question: Why....?
Two young women are hitchhiking when they get picked up by a man who proceeds to sexually assault them. He disappears after that. The suspicion that the „girls" - having a reputation of being "loose" when it comes to sex - killed him, begins to grow.
A teacher at a German high-school in the nineteen thirties has issues with his students who seem to be getting less human and more convinced of Nazi ideals as time goes on.
A biography of the eighteenth century Viennese physician, Franz Anton Mesmer, who used unorthodox healing practices based on his theory of "animal magnetism."
The recruiter Tom Moreno are familiar with women and how they, after you won it for themselves, going on at the latest after the third time back to. As ELISA, the new art director of his agency, doesn't want to exit on this scam, Tom falls into a crisis of meaning. But even his friends have to contend with their problems: Vince finds his wife in Tom's bed. By Tom's mother, Luke learns that sex is not a solution. Tom's roommate Paule fell into a tie holder and mutated by the buddy type to the Femme fatale. His Chief Rolf created him also still, that the Agency is virtually broke. Tom starts for the first time, to reconsider his old proven lifestyle.
A children’s animated feature film based on an internationally bestselling book series for a main target audience of 3 to 8 year olds telling a universal story about friendship, loyalty and honesty in which Little Raven and his friends have to work up all their courage to save their beloved forest.
After the death of his sick wife, a man discovers that she had an e-mail friend he did not know.
„Friedrich - Ein deutscher König” beschreibt in markanten Schlüsselszenen die wesentlichen Lebensstationen des Preußenherrschers. Katharina Thalbach verkörpert den „Alten Fritz”, ihre Tochter Anna den Kronprinzen und jungen König. Der Film rekonstruiert Aufstieg und Leben des Preußenkönigs und schildert dessen zentrale Stationen - von der durch den Despotismus des Vaters gezeichneten Jugend bis zum Aufstieg zum bewunderten Feldherrn und als „Friedrich der Große” verehrten König.
After oversleeping yet again, Alfons manages to catch the bus to his class trip to the Baltic Sea at the last minute. In his luggage: lots of adventure, funny pranks and - wait a minute - his mother's clothes?
Christa and Theo Zerrback have been running a small kiosk in the Ruhr area for many years - with moderate success. Although Theo often argues with Christa, he is extremely popular in the neighborhood. Not least because he gives his buddies generous credit. Shortly after betting the kiosk's earnings on a horse race, Theo dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. Christa has to run the indebted business on her own, but neither her mother Hanna nor her two daughters Dany and Sonja are much help. The only ray of hope is the teacher and pigeon fancier Jörg Erdmann, with whom Christa falls in love. And Theo also comes to her aid: as an angel who intervenes in her life via a TV screen.
Red carpet, spotlights, screaming fans, photo- graphers chasing for the best photo, camera teams waiting for interviews - a premiere is about to take place and everyone’s eagerly awaiting to see Germany‘s biggest film star, Marvin Bosch. But Marvin’s nowhere to be seen after his interview with the bitchy tabloid journalist Bettina Bamberger ended in disaster. On the run from the media, the star lands in a small, independent feminist LGBT+ theater called “3000” of all places, which is on the verge of going out of business.
A thriller directed by Hermine Huntgeburth.
Anna and Lisa, two young women, meet by chance in the vestibule of a bank, and decide after that to go on together leaving a successful trail of bank-robberies through Germany.
Senator Isaak Kohler shoots and kills Professor Winter in a crowded restaurant, while Winter is dining with the struggling idealistic young lawyer, Felix Spat. Kohler puts up no defense and is sentenced to twenty years. Kohler then gets his daughter Helene to pay the reluctant Spat to reinvestigate the case, on the assumption that Kohler is innocent. The newspapers pick up on this and begin to question whether Kohler was wrongly convicted.
The new tenant in a strange house: Vinzent.
A young man goes on a road trip with an old lady he saves from a hospital.
When German police viciously quell a protest against the shah of Iran, popular journalist Ulrike Meinhof rebels against her dishonest marriage, walks away from her children and joins radical anarchist Andreas Baader. Together with Baader's girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin, they form the violent Red Faction Army, and together perpetrate a slew of terrorist attacks as a way of disrupting the fabric of what they see as an increasingly fascist state.
Cologne towards the end of the Second World War. The city is in ruins, everyone is afraid, many are dead. It is a time of great inhumanity. Cologne’s young Edelweiss Pirates refuse to submit to the pressure of the Nazi regime. They fight with the Hitler Youth and scrawl anti-war propaganda on walls. Karl is an Edelweiss Pirate; his younger brother, Peter, is in the Hitler Youth movement. The two young men have been alone ever since their mother’s death in a bombing raid; their father is serving at the front, and their older brother, Otto, has been killed in action. Otto’s financée, Cilly, is doing her best to survive the war with her children. Carl is trying to help her.
In New York City, detective Luigi Mackeroni investigates a string of mysterious penile mutilations at the Hotel Quickie. After Mackeroni attempts to have a tryst with a gigolo he meets in the lobby, a carniverous condom bites off his right testicle and flees, which sets the detective off on a quest to stop the predatory prophylactic once and for all.
Marriage swindler Herbert Krugschenk is a master of his trade. His success is based on meticulous planning, and his wife "Schnuck" is responsible for this. Herbert's life is promptly turned upside down when she dumps him one day. At least the way is now clear for the big coup that his wife has always warned him about: Herbert and his son travel to Switzerland to make a pass at rich widows and fail all along the line.
An American filmmaker travels to modern day Berlin to make a film based on a real-life incident from 1942 in which 13 Jewish prisoners from a concentration camp were promised freedom if they appeared in a German propaganda film. Unfortunately, the Germans lied. The psychological process undergone by the modern filmmaker while shooting the story provides the basis of this arty and challenging film.
The Taschenbiers could actually lead quite a contented life - if it weren't for the strange fact that if you have a Sams in your home for 10 years, you slowly but steadily become a Sams yourself. And this is exactly what happens to Mr. Taschenbier. You can't see his recurring transformations from the outside. But his behavior changes all the more: he's just as greedy, chirpy and cheeky as our Sams. But when he changes back again, he can't remember anything. And what only we know: If Sams stays with the Taschenbiers, then this transformation will continue until Mr. Taschenbier himself has completely turned into a Sams!
Marco and Melanie, a young married couple, are living a life of passion, chaos, and all the little frustrations of everyday existence. Their love for each other seems like a beacon on heavy seas. But career pressure, burned toast, and dirty laundry are eroding all tenderness, and they never seem to find enough time for their six-year-old son, Benny, either. Their world is about to fall apart when Melanie moves out, taking Benny with her. She files for divorce, and Marco makes a decision that is not only going to change his own life. He suddenly discovers his own unique way of being a father … I’m the Father is a modern portrait of a generation which appears to fail its own ambitions: After all, how do you combine a job, children, love and all the other challenges of everyday life – without giving yourself up in the process? And then what happens when positions become entrenched and a divorce seems inevitable?
A collection of gay short films. The 7 short films are: Poor Girl! [Pov' fille !] (2003); Oedipus N+1 [Œdipe - [N+1]] (2003); Piglets [Ferkel] (1999); Tommy Trips [Thomas trébuche] (1999); Breakfast? [Frühstück?] (2002); Sunday Morning (2001); The Case of O [Le cas d'O] (2003).
During their childhood, Hanna and Clarissa were best friends. They spent every vacation together in an old summer house on a small island. Shortly after Hanna’s 9th birthday, they suddenly lost touch and only meet again unexpectedly 25 years later. Hanna is now married, has a seven-year-old daughter and is the chief resident physician at the hospital where she reunites with Clarissa. Her old friend has been brought to the hospital ER for overdosing on sleeping pills. The two women pick up their friendship where they left off and spontaneously decide to spend a few days on the island, just like in the old days. When Hanna learns that Maria, a playmate of hers from the island’s village, disappeared as a child and was never seen or heard from again, she begins to search in the past. Something horrible must have happened on the island and they must have been involved.
The story of Venezuelan revolutionary, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the OPEC headquarters in 1975 before being caught by the French police.
After the death of her mother, Alice, who was born out of wedlock, learns that her father, who was thought to be dead, is still alive. Unopened letters from the estate put the 18-year-old on the trail of the composer Max Rab, one of her mother's ex-lovers. Under a pretext, Alice manages to move in with the supposed Rab father. When she falls in love with Max, things get complicated...
Friedrich manages to escape from East Germany to the West in the 1950s. On his arrival, he is greeted with the words Herzlich Willkommen, or "cordial, heartfelt welcome." However, once he finds employment, what he experiences is anything but a cordial welcome at his new job, where he is a teacher/counselor for "wayward children" located in a former castle. The institution is headed by a former Nazi who runs it with the help of the more criminal, bullying boys. Despite these obstacles, Friedrich manages to establish a rapport with a boy who wants to go "straight," and also begins to have an affair with an attractive female teacher at the school.
Anne leaves her childless countryside life when her husband refuses a family and moves in with actress sister Viola. Taxi driver Henrik accidentally rents Viola’s spare room and instantly bonds with Anne. While Anne and Henrik grow close, Viola’s whims lead to an unexpected pregnancy.
When four bodies are discovered among the industrial decay and urban grime of New York City, brash young detective Mike Reilly teams with ambitious Department of Health researcher Terry Huston to uncover the cause behind their violent and inexplicable deaths. The only common factor shared by the victims? Each died exactly 48 hours after logging onto a website called feardotcom.
Follows the lives of different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic few days before Christmas in Frankfurt, Germany.
A drama directed by Ralph Bohn.
A short directed by Marian Meidel.
In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.
Boris is smitten with Til. But when they are about to kiss for the first time an inter-loper joins them. Much to Boris' dismay and Til's delight. Will jealousy ruin everything?
Once Upon a Time there lived a brave man, Michael, who was unaware what fear is. At the same time, Princess Elisabeth lived with her father, the king, in a makeshift tent city, because their castle was uninhabitable and haunted by ghosts, its treasure cursed. If he wants to know how to shudder, he should visit this Haunted Castle.
An epic family saga told by the women around the famous architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
A love story between a former Olympic swimmer turned jewel thief and a pastry chef/sex worker.
While life in a provincial town in eastern Germany near the Polish border has virtually come to a standstill, a dynamic young entrepreneur, his wife, and a laconic, resigned dropout strive to make a new start. But their dreams of revitalizing the region with a train station bistro and spa business fade away in (self-)deception, hangovers, and small escapes.
Eric leads a carefree life in Berlin. He loves his girlfriend Verena, but family, attachment and responsibility are foreign words for him. When he learns of the death of his brother, who lived as a dairy farmer in Saxony-Anhalt, Eric wants to wind up the insolvent farm as quickly as possible and deport Christoph's children to foster parents. When he realizes that the price dumping of the milk cartels drove his brother to his death he tells the big dairies to fight.
Berlin, the vibrant life. Only cashier Emma feels really lonely. There is nothing wrong with her, she just goes underground in the big city. Her desire to meet people has brought Emma to a strange idea: she lets go in the supermarket purses of customers and later presents herself as a hospitable finder, who invites you to pick up at the laid table. Unfortunately, the visit remains short. Only the shrewd homeless August who sees through her starts to get interested in Emma.
The perfect world of a small family breaks, when Can discover that his mother works in a brothel. In a maelstrom of anger, guilt and despair Mother and son are forced to forgive himself.
In a powerful story about teamwork, acceptance and finding one's calling, little Raven and his friends take part in an exciting and tumultuous race through the forest.
A great mosaic, a labyrinth of scenes, dialogue splinters, interviews, portraits of people surrounding Hamlet and wanting to be part of his story.
Sam and Anna are part of the hip, vegan, green, eco-friendly, upper-class subculture of Berlin. Anna is a successful doctor, and Nick works in advertising. However, life in Germany's capital is fast-paced and stressful, so the two of them decide to take the next step towards the ideal "eco lifestyle" and move out to the country. As they arrive, they find that life in the country is much less relaxing than they expected, as the rather eccentric locals keep them on their toes.
Cleaning plans, empty beer crates and an exploding coffee machine are the least of the problems in the Kreuzberg shared apartment of Julian Meier, Kasimir Müller and Max Schmidt - the three boys couldn't be more different.
NORDSTRAND tells the story of two brothers, Marten and Volker, who meet in their parents' now empty house on the coast. Older brother Marten would like to pick up together their mother from prison where she has been since the death of their violent father years ago. But Volker seems only to have come in order to sell the house. He apparently can't forgive neither his mother nor his older brother for the fact they didn't protect him from the abuse committed by the head of the family.
Annegret, is a mentally handicapped woman in her mid-thirties who falls in love with Res, an oldish slightly peculiar rocker. Annegret's family however is not happy with the relationship and they want to stop her seeing her lover. Annegreth fights back.
Peggy Rosinski lives in a shabby neighborhood in Frankfurt/Oder. The patchwork mom has three children, but only one of them is from her current husband Torben. She also works two different jobs to make ends meet and reduce her mountain of debt. Meanwhile, the eldest of the Rosinskis, Angelique, only hangs out with her new boyfriend Devid and the youngest, Finn, is teased by his classmates because of his family's poverty. When Torben loses his job, Peggy is at a loss. Her mother Angelika knows what to do, as she has been earning a few cents for years through illegal activities. But does Peggy really want to get involved in this kind of business?
Nick, an actor, is a clown in traffic, hoping for better times. Charlie, Robin’s mother, is in a police car, about to go to jail, desperate to escape with her son. Joe, a madman, robs banks, hoping for media attention. Robin, still a child, needs his mother. Nick’s clown costume causes confusion when two police officers mistake him for the robber. Charlie escapes, leaving Nick behind. Charlie wants to escape quickly, but Nick doesn’t want to leave. Joe escapes from a mental institution and is angry that someone else is getting credit. Charlie arrives at the children’s home, but the police are already there. Inspector Fuchs believes Nick and Charlie are accomplices and has Robin watched to catch the mother. Nick saves Charlie and hides with her in the broom closet. They begin to understand each other, but a crazy day ends, and a long year lies ahead.
Two amateur circus kids from a poor Ukrainian village, ten-year-old Barbu and his older sister Mimma, are sold to a circus artist called Caruso who promises them a career in the West.
New Year's Eve, shortly after five. Ten travelers have missed the last ferry to Copenhagen and are lured aboard the small steamer "Esperanza" by the stewardess. At first, guests like Anna, Franz and Natascha are treated to delicacies and classical dance music. When the captain gets lost in the fog, the passengers admit to their life's lies.
Anneliese is living together with her son Florian on a run-down farm. But her exaggerated demands drive him mad. The 14-year-old son is supposed to fulfill his mother’s dreams and become a chemist. The boy fits his wishes, but he secretly dreams of becoming a farmer. Then, the situation escalates.
Devi, in her mid-thirties, is in the midst of a life crisis. She walks dogs in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district and has neither a husband nor a child nor a successful career to show for herself. She is also searching for her great childhood sweetheart, Jonny Miller, with whom she lived in a shared apartment, but all she knows is that he lives in New York. Her search proves fruitless. Devi decides to leave everything behind, sublet her "apartment with stove heating," and go straight to New York to look for Jonny Miller. But everything turns out differently...
Struggling to cope with his sick brother, a boy makes a macabre bargain with a monstrous stranger.
Somewhere in the majestic Chinese highlands of our days: The Pandas' survival is severely endangered as the bamboo is becoming scarce, and humans continuously expand into their habitat. And laziness being one of the Pandas' most significant character traits, what the community now requires is someone to rouse them. Manchu, with the help of his friends, stands up to all the trials. The group has nearly reached their destination when suddenly the humans unleash the floods of their newly-built dam, aimed at the Pandas' valley!
The subject of this historical drama is a splintering Berlin in the years of 1948 and 1949. Played against the backdrop of social upheaval, the characters in the drama come to epitomize the best and worst of each pole of the political sphere. A 17-year-old hoodlum by the name of Gladow works hand-in-glove with a local white-collar criminal to rob and pillage every day and night, defying capture. While he and his gang of thugs are terrorizing the people of Berlin, the Soviets are trying to make the blockade of their region of control impermeable. The future casts long shadows over the drama, as Berlin's problems take the shape of times to come.
Based on Sheridan Winn's book series "Sprite Sisters" about the magical adventures of sisters Flame, Sky, Flora and Marina.
Little Raven and his friends embark on a big treasure hunt. Competing against the beavers they have to solve riddles and navigate great dangers in order to finally find the most surprising of all treasures. Based on the books by Nele Moost and Annet Rudolph.
Docudrama telling the story of a building with a breath taking career that began in the empire, flourished in the Weimar Republic, perished in the Nazi dictatorship, and was rebuilt after its partial destruction.
Guesthouse landlady Sophie and Barthl, her unloved stablemate for life, have unusual holiday guests come to their house. Janine Brieschke from Berlin is traveling with her three children from three fathers and her current partner “Zecke”. Barthl would like to immediately chase the capital city residents who are making a lot of noise and trampling his beloved meadows off the farm.
After the body of an escort girl is found in a mountain lake, the case quickly turns personal for the lead investigator.
In the 2024 elections in the eastern German states of Saxony and Thuringia, the right-wing extremist party AfD and the socio-culturally right-wing but socio-economically left-wing party BSW performed strongly. A similar result is predicted for Brandenburg. What will the enormous voter support for AfD and BSW mean for the economy, society, culture and local politics in eastern Germany in the future? Will the east of the country become increasingly ungovernable due to the decline of the established parties and the electoral successes of AfD and BSW, will the social mood change or can new compromises be found? In search of answers, the filmmakers accompanied people from Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg for several months, who presented their personal perspectives and life situations and gave insight into their worries, fears, wishes and expectations.
Katharina Thalbach is one of the few Germans to hold the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. This highest award from the French Ministry of Culture was bestowed on the actress and director in 2019. This award is no coincidence, as Katharina Thalbach and France have had a long relationship. The documentary shows her eventful life and work.
