After his daughter died of cancer, former French foreign legionnaire "Straight Shooter" alias Volker Bretz threatens those who financed, built, favoured and now work the nuclear power plant Atar II to kill one of them each day until the plant is shut down. His former drill sergeant, Frank Hector, who now owns several night clubs and brothels, is the only one who might be able to stop the maniac killing specialist. Frank is flown in instantly, but soon has to find out that his former comrade's actions might be a result from an event long ago.
After a chance encounter with a wanted man, a woman is harassed by the police and press until she takes violent action.
Toftlund-Holst, the tranquil place on the Baltic Sea, just before Christmas: everything could be so contemplative, but the mood in the Torkelsen house is cloudy. The lease of the restaurant "Four Mermaids" expires and the new owner Nick Winter does not want to extend it ...
Nine fictitious documentaries and films reflect the mood of late 1970s Germany, particularly the two-month period in 1977 when a businessman was kidnapped by the RAF (Red Army Faction). The kidnap had been made to orchestrate the release of the original leaders of the RAF, aka the Baader-Meinhof.
Emotions and feelings should not be confused with sentimentality. Emotion is ancient and more powerful than any artistic expression. The film observes young couples facing difficulties while trying to move their love experiences towards clear decision making. A film full of ideas, details and associations, fictional scenes, documentary footage, archival materials and opera music.
A young circus director ends up going into television after her father, a trapeze performer, dies in a circus accident.
A film by german playwright Tankred Dorst about a case of incest in a rural community.
Hamburg student Gabriele constantly dreams of her boyfriend in Australia. The reality is different, because while she sits in lecture halls during the day, she is a dancer in a peep show at night. The place is run by the mysterious Arnold, who not only has his eye on Gabriele, but is also carrying around a secret that he soon lets Gabriele in on: his strip joint is just a pretext for a much more lucrative business, in which a certain Mrs. Lohmann is pulling the strings. Her boss Arnold, with whom she is having an affair, is doing dirty business. He is threatened by a killer because he wants out.
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.
Swede Mikkel Nordergren unexpectedly inherits a lakeside property with a house in Brandenburg from his deceased father. Much to the chagrin of his neighbor Marlies Gottlieb, who lives in seclusion on her property, alone with herself and her songbirds. Mikkel is now disturbing her peace. Not only is he looking for a buyer for his house and hires Marlies' daughter Lia, of all people, who is an estate agent, but in the best Swedish tradition of 'everyman's right', he also wants to reopen the old riverside path, which Marlies had closed years ago, to the general public. The dispute between the two neighbors rekindles an old argument with the village community about access to the lake.
Willi endeavors to survive in a world where annihilistic galactic battles rage, by taking a job at the centre of power. But it's the wrong side that he takes in this civil war...
Zigeuner is on the hunt for the woman of his dreams, a woman who should also play the main role in the film. Meanwhile, ruthless producer Oskar Reiter wants to buy the film rights at all costs - and he is struggling for the love of the beautiful Valerie.
When his parents go away and he has to stay behind alone with an unloved housekeeper, a boy retreats into a dream—into a fairy-tale adventure story like something out of "1001 Nights," in which people from his everyday life reappear as fairy-tale characters. Every night, Lippel dreams the dream a little further until it reaches a happy ending, thereby also solving the problems of his everyday life...
A wide-ranging, energetic period piece tracing the rise of the Protestant Henry of Navarre as he goes from battlefield warrior to France's beloved King Henri IV. Director Jo Baier's epic is a classically entertaining adventure, albeit one with more than a little bloodshed and frequent bawdy sexual interludes. In late 16th-century France, Catholics and Protestant Huguenots were at war. Seemingly seeking peace, the French dowager queen, Catherine de Medici summons Henry to her court to have him marry her daughter, uniting the two warring factions. However, the Catholics slaughter the Protestant wedding guests in what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and Henry-now married-must use all his guile to both stay alive and maneuver for the throne. [Written by Palm Springs International Film Festival]
Student Philip grew up with his grandma, now he has to look after her: Dementia! Philip moves Grandma into his shared flat. His friends play along, Grandma blossoms - at first... Complex characters, the courage to face uncomfortable truths: The drama portrays the problems of people with dementia and their relatives sensitively and honestly.
In Hamburg, the police are faced with a mystery after a series of burglaries: there are no clues at the crime scene except for a Japanese character. The characters are soon found all over the city. A retired detective and a journalist finally uncover a huge conspiracy that goes back to the Japanese Middle Ages.
In 1917, the boys from Irish club Avondale United parade through the town with the cup they have just won.
11-year-old Nina and her mother Birgit move to the countryside. But while Birgit seems to cope very well with the upheaval, the shy young girl only feels accepted when she joins a girl guide group. Nina's new teacher for Religious Education, the organizer of the group, and the parson belong to the fanatically pious "Legion Of The Holy Angels", a sect preparing its members for the final battle between demons and angels. As Birgi's behaviour doesn't conform to her daughter's ideas, Nina sacrifices a black kitten which allegedly has a bad influence on Birgit. But this only makes things worse, for Birgit eventually forbids her daughter to go to the scouts' sessions and thereby loses her trust. Nina's friend Miriam is having a hard time being accepted by the scouts and leaves them when she isn't allowed to participate in an important ceremony. Nina is faced with a difficult decision...
The cop Kahnitz wants to finish off the little gangster Ben. The young undercover policewoman Melody is supposed to tempt him to make his final break. What Melody doesn't know is that Kahnitz and Ben are connected by a dark chapter in their past, and Melody is supposed to help Kahnitz settle his old scores. But the intriguing game of love, hate, crime and betrayal inevitably drags everyone involved into a bloody showdown...
Early retired principal Helmut Lürzer takes off to Italy with his mistress without a sound, leaving behind an unsuspecting and confused family. His wife Luise, their four grown-up children and even the grandchildren search for their grandfather. Helmut, who feels exploited and controlled by his domineering wife, remains true to his vow not to contact her for a year.
The body of a homeless man is found in Cologne not in the Dark Ages, but in the year 2000, where an autopsy reveals that he died of the plague. Doctor Martin Brügger sets out to find the cause and discovers masses of dead rats in the sewers. The population of the Rhine metropolis is in danger - but the authorities do not want to cause panic and keep the case a secret.
Things are going wrong in the life of unsuccessful 30-year-old penny dreadful novelist Juliane. Her fiancé Jürgen has split up with her. She is rescued by her uncle Hans, who hires her as a temp for his dental practice in Berlin. Here she meets Büffel and Jean, a Swiss man with whom she immediately falls in love. Büffel falls in love with Juliane and the entanglements begin...
At the end of the 19th century, an educated white-collar worker finds himself in the employ of an inventor. As he is neither a "worker" nor an "owner," his position in the inventor's household and in the world at large is equivocal. Despite the difficulties he encounters, he tries to hold onto his job in order to support his family, but is eventually fired. This Swiss movie is based on a novel written around 1900 by Robert Walser.
With the offer to work for a major manufacturer of security software, hacker Alissa finds herself in a hermetically sealed high-tech world.
Poor but confident and resourceful tailor David trusts, after killing seven flies in one swat, he's a match for any challenge and sets out to prove himself in the wide world. After luck and cunning help him deal with giant Lothar, he arrives at the castle of petty king Ernst, who is ruled by constant migraine and his ambitious, manipulative court counsellor Klaus, who desires to succeed by winning brat princess Paula's hand and claims to be the only saviour who can rid the land of three supernatural dangers.
A 12-year-old boy withdraws completely after his father's accidental death and only regains his zest for life through his encounter with a down-and-out musician.
Christa Seeliger is proud and happy to work as a secretary for the boss of the traditional Hamburg company Hansecker, because his chocolate factory is famous for having invented the smiling chocolate Santa Claus. It would never occur to her that her boss would much rather be cruising the world's oceans than running his company. So she unsuspectingly allows herself to be used for his purposes when Hansecker secretly sells off the company.
The film is set in a modern day 'Berlin Republic' liberated from all irrelevancies. It's about artistic production, the creative industries and above all film and cinema - a political manifesto in feature film format. It centres on Asta, tough, hardened by theory and immaculately styled right down to the emblems on her leather jacket, with current art scene jargon flowing elegantly from her lips.
1980: 19 year old Robert, fed up with Hippy phoniness and bourgeoise narrow mindedness alike, flees the German provinces for West Berlin. A tour de force through the glorious dirt of West Berlin ensues. Full of sex, drugs, love and PUNK.
Emma Morschel, known as Lämmchen, is expecting a child. So she marries her boyfriend, Johannes Pinneberg. The young marriage gets off to a rocky start: Lämmchen's parents, class-conscious workers, are opposed to their daughter marrying the lowly clerk.
Outer space in 2034 is run by greedy corporations in a rundown bureaucracy. Two astronauts, who are not very smart, make their way with shady dealings, smuggling and spaceship wrecking.
The Indomitable Leni Peickert is a loose, half-hour sequel to Alexander Kluge's second feature film, Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed. This shorter work, seemingly assembled from leftover footage from the longer film, continues the story of the circus owner Leni Peickert after she first abandoned her idea of a radical circus in favor of a job in television. It opens where the previous film left off, at a TV station where Leni and her friends have gathered as employees, attempting to infiltrate the corporate establishment with their own revolutionary ideas.
The life and struggles of the German writer Heinrich von Kleist.
Heidi, is an eight-year-old Swiss orphan who is given by her aunt to her mountain-dwelling grandfather. She is then stolen back by her aunt from her grandfather to live in the wealthy Sesemann household in Frankfurt, Germany as a companion to Klara, a sheltered, disabled girl in a wheelchair. Heidi is unhappy but makes the best of the situation, always longing for her grandfather.
Former revolutionary Pat and sex worker Meg run a brothel in 1950s Dublin. In addition to five girls and two gay men, the old IRA general Musjö and Mr. Muleady also live in their establishment. One evening, two IRA fighters drag in a prisoner. The hostage is Leslie Williams, a young British soldier who was captured in Northern Ireland and is now to be exchanged for an IRA member...
Alexander Kluge’s News from Ideological Antiquity begins with Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein’s ambitious but unrealized plan to combine Karl Marx’s Capital and James Joyce’s Ulysses. For over nine hours, the film expands in concentric circles as Kluge, his guests, interlocutors and monologists make associative links on a range of topics that starts from a filmic discussion of Eisenstein’s notes.
Gabi Teichert, a history teacher, is unhappy with the way history is portrayed in textbooks and is looking for an alternative, more practical approach to 'uncovering' the past, quite literally digging with the spade and dissecting books with hammers and drills.
Ten-year-old Lena has been looking forward to Christmas for weeks. But three days before Christmas Eve, she falls onto the ice while ice skating and falls into a coma. Her distraught mother Marie spends day and night at her bedside. Two months later, Lena wakes up - she thinks it's just before Christmas. And because Marie has promised that this year's celebration will be extra special for Lena, Christmas has to come a second time - with all the trimmings...
A study of Alexander Kluge that also emulates his technique of seeking and linking. Kluge reads aloud, Kluge recounts, including stories from his childhood and youth, from the bombing of Halberstadt, his home town. “What you don’t understand as a child you will contemplate for the rest of your life.” Kluge does this as the author of films, books, TV programs. He has always had several professions at once. He is a legal advisor, director, author, founder of the television production company DCTP, and person in charge of its culture magazines. But if you think that these are all different jobs, you’re mistaken.
On a seniors ride a bourgeois widow meets a proletarian man. Out of despair they marry right away without getting to know each other. Moving in with her, he brings a cat, which is a thorn in her eye and a synonym for the rough relationship.
The writer, the publisher, the just-famous poet, the once-famous film director, the dreaded critic, the educated dentist and the half-educated goldsmith are at home in the culture industry, they know their way around, and they have learned to be wary of each other and of themselves: what they have in common is a secret fear that one day they will no longer belong, that one day they will no longer be able to keep up.
After World War II, an aging controversial Norwegian Nobel Prize winner must confront his past and the moral implications of his Nazi sympathies while being challenged by a man intent on holding him accountable.
The young sales presenter Nina Just is not respected in the slightest by her mother Rose, who lives in a farmhouse with her partner Werner. The young woman's life comes apart at the seams when her mother falls ill and needs a donor kidney to survive. She finally agrees to a transplant.
In conversations with his friends and colleagues, among them Bernd Upnmoor, Helmut Herbst, Alexander Kluge, Klaus Wyborny, Daniel Kothenschulte and Helge Schneider, Ulrike Pfeiffer takes us on a journey into the broad expanse of Nekes' cabinet of wonder and his cinematic works. At the same time, this documentary provides an insight into the history of experimental film in Germany.