Based on Michel Houellebecq's controversial novel, Atomised (aka The Elementary Particles) focuses on Michael and Bruno, two very different half-brothers and their disturbed sexuality. After a chaotic childhood with a hippie mother only caring for her affairs, Michael, a molecular biologist, is more interested in genes than women, while Bruno is obsessed with his sexual desires, but mostly finds his satisfaction with prostitutes. But Bruno's life changes when he gets to know the experienced Christiane. In the meantime, Michael meets Annabelle, the love of his youth, again.
Christian is a presenter at a small radio station. His wife Katrin directs traffic in a car park. Both are friends with Uwe, who runs a fast food kiosk, and Ellen, who works in a perfume shop. Their four lives are stuck in a rut. Until the day Chris and Ellen sleep together and upset the balance of the two couples...
For Connie, things have been going to plan for many years, both professionally and in her private life. That is, until the son of the CEO takes over the business, forcing new demands on the workforce. In future, English is to be the business language. English? Fluently? Not wanting to lose her job, Connie immediately signs up for an intensive English language course in Ireland. But the perfectionist is totally unprepared for her teacher Gillian, the warm-hearted, yet slightly chaotic and young-looking woman, who sees her main job as funeral director as a vocation. Connie also has her problems with her co-student, Max, a Tom Jones imitator, who is currently in Ireland to visit his 16-year-old daughter, Amy. Much to Connie's displeasure, the bon vivant is not interested in rules and regulations. Connie soon realizes that she is missing something more in her perfect life than speaking perfect English. But can she leave her life behind and risk taking the plunge into the great unknown?
In 1944, a group of high command officers plot an attempt against Hitler, and one of the leaders of the conspiracy, Stauffenberg, goes to a meeting with the Fuhrer in charge of exploding the place. However, Hitler survives and the officers are executed. This unsuccessful operation was called "Valkyrie Operation", and this realistic movie discloses this true event.
In Brunnenberg prison for men, the new warden introduces a revolutionary convict re-socializing project: training guide dogs for the blind. The perks make all convicts volunteer for only seven slots. Except burly macho Moskowitch 'Mosk', who cares only for the manly work out contest. The warden blackmails him, he can only do the contest if his assigned pup passes the first test. All dogs must pass or the project is halted. Unlike the others, Mosk only starts caring for his canine when it gets sick.
Malchow, German Democratic Republic, 1980. 20-year-old Anne is hiding Juri, a deserter of the Red Army. The two fall in love with each other. But their love is threatened: there is an arrest warrant and possibly a death sentence waiting for Juri. The two leave the country and flee to the West, leaving Anne’s six-month-old daughter Inga behind. Inga grows up with her grandparents and thinks that her mother died during a swimming accident. 25 years later she meets the literature professor Robert, who sends her on the trail of her past. He met Inga’s mother Anne during one of his seminars. At first Inga is resistant, but then she asks for Robert’s help. Together they take off on a journey through Germany, in search of Inga’s mother Anne...
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is retired and lives with her husband and pug in a small town. She is bored with the quiet life. When a man is found murdered in a castle, she begins to investigate on her own, supported by her bodyguard.
On a Friday afternoon, there was an unexpected knock on the door of the staff room of a city high school. An ambitious father is willing to go to extremes to get his son admitted to high school. The six teachers who are still at school so shortly before the start of the weekend now have to find out the hard way. After some unexpected twists and embarrassing revelations, true abysses open up for everyone involved...
They want to get away from each other, but they clasp each other even more firmly. They seek to save appearances at all force. The more they laugh, the quieter it gets around them. The cracks in the family picture widen until an inescapable secret reveals itself.
Dito Tsintsadze's drama focuses on a loner whose life changes dramatically, when he gets to know a beautiful, but strange girl. Lukas, a young man doing "meals on wheels" instead of military service, doesn't have many friends and leads a boring life, until he meets Isabella. The fascinating girl soon becomes his best friend, but Lukas learns she has a sexual relationship to her stepfather. Thus, he is obsessed with the idea of delivering Isabella by killing the man..
On a beautiful spring day, a small village full of eccentric characters wake up to hear Selma has had a premonition: she dreamt of a rare animal again – an okapi. All the village knows this means someone is about to die. Selma’s granddaughter, 11-year-old Luise, and her best friend Martin look on as fears of being the victim of the prophecy throw the village into a frenzy of confusion. But when the premonition comes true, it is young Luise’s world that is suddenly turned upside down. Ten years on from the event that changed her life, Luise lives a quiet life working in a bookstore, until the arrival of an unexpected guest enables her to rediscover how powerful and life-giving love can be.
After a blow to the head, Gilles wakes up in the hospital. He knows that his wife Lisa caused the injury. The act is the result of years of accumulated desperation and shows the extent of the rift in the marriage. So he decides to fake amnesia for everyone to explore what went wrong in his marriage.
Rainer Berg is a frozen food delivery man who has been let down by life. He has withdrawn from the world in order to avoid emotional trauma. His outlook on life is shaken when he is assigned a new colleague, ex-hairdresser Moerer, who turns out to be a pain in the neck. "This van is too small for two!" But it's no use, Berg can only get rid of his annoying co-driver once he has turned him into a good salesman, according to the new boss. Team spirit is suddenly required from the cold-ass misanthrope Berg.
Success is a question of confidence, particularly in times of crisis. Life would be unbearable if there weren’t beautiful things to brighten it up a little, including pretty faces. Frank Knöpfel constantly flirts with life with his beguiling bright blue eyes. He buys a complete stranger an expensive coat in a designer boutique just because he feels like it. He disguises himself as a businessman from Oslo, a Mafia boss, a stock exchange specialist and an estate agent, whatever it takes to bring in the cash. He is the type of person who enjoys looking in the mirror, and delights in what he sees there. A flirtation with a customer in a boutique leads to Frank’s undoing.
Annika's life and experiences as a young woman include peculiar sex, an unfortunately cold best friend, a terrible tutor/boyfriend, and a sensible and beautiful boyfriend (Kai). Her family life and lie collide in such a way that it is impossible for her to tell the truth even when she desperately wants to.
The Hotel Lunik is a refuge for a group of radical utopists. In the center of it all, are the Siblings Franz and Babette, who through their anti-capitalist guerrilla campaigns call into question the basis for a money-based society. On the other side Franz's cousin Toni, is setting up a nightclub on the ground floor of the hotel with an entrepreneurial spirit in diametric opposition to it's surroundings. Guests are to be lured with a high-class lounge act along with a quiz show developed by Franz's own father, Alfons. Toni and his loyal bartender Viktor have their hands full contending with the difficulties of an unmotivated workforce. Among Lunik's odd population are Tom, the bellman with a screw loose, Nora, the pretty cook peeling potatoes and dreaming of a world in show business, and Emilia, the chronically sick photographer who wants to spend her last weeks singing in the company of friends...
In the German comedy Jagdsaison, a wellness weekend for three friends is in danger of derailing: Marlene is in a serious midlife crisis and is looking for a sex date. She accompanies the divorced Eva and her ex-husband's new wife to protect them from stupid things. Unfortunately, the three seem to attract chaos almost magically.
Emily (8) is terminally ill. Her parents ask the new CEO of a small pharmaceutical company, Dr. Julia Schemmel, for the early release of a drug that is not yet ready for the market. Dr. Julia Schemmel is to consolidate the company. The young company has to invest hundreds of millions of euros for each drug and is planning to go public. At the same time, Michael and Nicole Wagner receive the diagnosis that their daughter is suffering from incurable childhood dementia. During extensive internet research, Michael finds out that the pharmaceutical company "Berner & Braun" is researching a cure that has already been tested on people in Asia. It is said to slow down the progression of the disease, possibly even stop it. Together with other affected parents, the Wagners demand a study for children in Germany and the release of the drug.
Lena, 17, is restless and desperate. In a few weeks she will finish school, but she doesn't have any definite plans for her future. She wants to make music, that's the only thing she knows. Will she be able to resist the pressure that comes from the people around her - parents, teachers, and society? Will she make her way?
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?
Maren Eggert and Matthias Brandt star in this drama about a family, trying to start a new life, which fails because of the mother's mental disease. After a difficult time, Martina and Stefan Schneider move into their new house. Although the couple and their son Daniel seem to be happy, Martina suffers from a mental disease. When Evelin and Klaus Garbers become their new neighbors, they soon make friends with the Schneiders. However, Martina thinks that Evelin and Stefan have an affair, so she gets into a panic when Evelin announces her pregnancy. Martina believes that her husband is the baby's father...
Deep in the Bavarian countryside Kleist’s historical drama Michael Kohlhaas is being shot. But instead of shooting a huge epic with impressive costumes and extraordinary props, grown-up men in suits fight with imaginary weapons. What has happened? Young director Lehman is fighting for his film, although all funds have been canceled. He’s convinced that the actor’s play and the fantasy of the audience will be sufficient. He fights for his vision as much as Kleist’s Kohlhaas fights for his rights. This film has to be finished. Whatever may come. Even if he has to go too far.
Silvi is in her late forties. Her husband has just left her. Until this point, she was fairly content with her life, but now everything is in ruins. A friend advises her to make a fresh start. But how is that supposed to work? Especially if you see yourself as a team player and there’s no team in sight you would want to join. Driven by a sense of longing, helplessness and curiosity, Silvi tries to make new friends and, in her own, touchingly earnest but also naïve and charmingly uninhibited way, starts to take control of her life. Anonymous sex, cosy romanticism and bondage games catapult her from one emotional disaster to the next. But, thankfully, Silvi is indestructible.
A young financial auditor, promoted to his first serious position, soon finds himself following in the fatal footsteps of his predecessor.
A nameless man receives phone calls intended for someone else and ends up pretending to be that person, while a female character rebels against her author.
Four men’s destinies slam into each other and intertwine on four balmy summer nights. Old wounds are reopened, new ones appear, unexpectedly there is a new closeness. And, when the sun rises over the city and the striking garbage men, finally ensure German order again, nothing is the same for these four men.
In 2012 German Bundespraesident Christian Wulff declares his resignation in the great hall of Bellevue Palace. At the side of his wife, he had to face the pressure of the media for 68 days while struggling for office of head of state of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Katja Winzer lives with her eight-year-old son Tobias and her partner Jürgen in a small town near Bremerhaven. When Tobias does not come home one evening after playing games, and broadcasts remain fruitless throughout the circle of friends, Katja turns on the police. For Katja begins a nightmare of waiting, hope and fear, where she threatens to break. Only weeks later, the terrible idea that Tobias could have become a victim of a violent crime, to the certainty.
Bettina and Martin meet again, one year later on New Year's Eve. This time, they are trapped in the backroom of Moosbach's sports hall since Martin risks being beat up once he comes out.
A lighthearted look at the opening of the border crossing of Bornholmer Straße in Berlin from the point of view of the confused border guards.
On 24th August 1992 in the eastern German city of Rostock, a rampaging mob, to the applause and cheering of more than 3,000 bystanders, besieged and set fire to a residential building containing, among others, more than 120 Vietnamese men, women, and children on what has since become known as "The Night of the Fire." The riots became a symbol of xenophobia in the just-reunited Germany. This film recounts the incident from the perspectives of three very different characters.
Omer and Carine move restlessly from place to place and keep their heads above water with tournaments at the pool table. Both are on the run from their past: Omer as an African refugee, Frenchwoman Carine as an ex-junkie who was in danger of sinking into the drug scene. Now the couple have ended up in Berlin, where Omer senses a big coup: he wants to challenge the notorious billiards player Sultan to a tournament. With the winnings from this match, he and Carine could finally move on and perhaps even fulfill Carine's dream of opening a beach bar. But things turn out differently, because the shady Sultan has also devised a plan to pull the wool over Omer's eyes.
The life of a taxi driver is to not judge or get involved. It's to go where he's told to go, for a price. One day, Thomas gets a group of odd passengers with a ravenous dog. They have money, and they have places to be. How far will he go?
Young 19-year-old Hajo wrestles with caring for his 6-month-old son and finding both work and his role of being a father.
What does inclusion mean for classmates, teachers, parents and for the people themselves? The inclusion of Steffi and Paul at the Rousseau School is proving difficult. Class teacher Albert firmly believes in the program. But Steffi bullies her classmates and makes little effort in class - while the retarded Paul tries hard but achieves little due to his slow comprehension skills. Overburdened teachers and concerned parents oppose the project. They believe that the more advanced pupils are being held back in their development. The situation comes to a head. Then an incident occurs.
Actually, the young Berlin doctor Jan Büchner wanted to go directly to the Baltic Sea for a week. But a detour forces him to drive over land. And then his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, just behind a small town called Marienhagen. The residents of Marienhagen take care of Jans Wohl and make the stay as pleasant as possible. A comedy about rural doctors and people who fight for their pride and self-respect and take their destiny in their own hands in their own hands.
One evening in the mid-sixties, Rolf Anschütz, a chef who runs a small restaurant in a town called Suhl in the middle of the East German province of Thuringen offers his guests a unique and exotic meal - Japanese Sukiyaki. It was intent to be a surprise for some of his best customers and it became a great success. Even the local paper wrote about it - and this should change the life of Rolf Anschütz forever.
The story of a seemingly settled bank employee who breaks the shackles of his everyday life and becomes a wanderer between worlds. Frederik is an up-and-coming young bank employee who lives an ordinary life. When a bank customer, whom Frederik has denied a loan in the face of the bank crisis, shoots himself in front of Frederik, he snaps. Together with ex-con Vince,he begins to live out a new, dark side of himself. He robs his rich bank customers' homes and gives the money to the needy. The initial rush of crossing social boundaries soon develops into an addiction to ever greater thrills.
Taking place at the Concentration camp Buchenwald at the end of March 1945, prisoner Hans Pippig discovers in a carrying case of an incoming prisoner a Jewish child. If reported the three-year-old is sure to die. On the other hand, a violation of the rules of the camp would threaten the long prepared uprising of the concentration camp prisoners against the SS.
Wolfgang follows a ransom note from his supposed illegal kidney donor Irina back to Istanbul, the city which he would love to erase from memory. Donor and recipient collide and struggle for a fair solution after which there is a bitter new beginning
Griesenow, 2013: The hairdresser Marianne Voss is found dead in the forest by her daughter Heike. Shortly afterwards, her husband Karsten comes under suspicion of murder. But he protests his innocence.
Another murder takes place in tranquil Klein-Freudenstadt. And Angela Merkel is in the middle of it again.
A poor peasant woman lives in a cabin in the woods. She grows two rose-trees in front of her house, one with white roses and one with red. When the flowers bloomed she had two children, both girls. She named them both after the trees, Snow White and Rose Red respectively. They have an adventure involving a bad dwarf and a bewitched bear.
In Berlin 1942, Hilde is a member of an anti-Nazi group. She falls in love with another member, Hans. The two spend a summer together until they get caught by the Gestapo and Hilde is imprisoned, eight months pregnant.
A young, naive and enthusiastic theater director named Kai comes to a grim provincial town to put on Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Although the lethargic theater company shows no interest in the play, his spirit remains undaunted.Meanwhile, it is fall 1989. The world is changing and somewhere, far away in the capital, a revolution is taking place and it seems that wishes might come true. Great hopes emerge in the little town and unexpected events overtake Kai's mutating production.
Plum out of luck, Swabian farmer Huber’s farm goes under. Then his girlfriend Birgit takes over her father’s newly-acquired firm – in former East Germany. That's reason enough for Huber to bail on his debts and head out on a road trip through southwest Germany.
A metropolis sometime in the future. The entire underground rail system is in the hands of a totalitarian transport corporation. Herold used to work as an engine driver for the corporation, but was fired following an accident. The ex-driver wants nothing more than to go back to work; one day, a young man named Karl who was a former colleague, gets in touch. The cor-poration's infallible computer has seconded Herold for a suicide mission: he is to dare the impossible and drive the train through the city's prohibited sector. When the engine breaks down on the underground railway, Herold begins to suspect what he has let himself in for.
A portrait of a young woman who can’t find stability in her life. Lena’s relationship has turned into a power struggle; for her, love is all about bargaining, rivalry and transgression. The film’s fragmentary narrative reflects the protagonist’s state of mind, and the natural beauty of the idyllic small east German town of Brandenburg provides a stark contrast to Lena’s dark inner struggle.
Tobias and Flasche are childhood friends. However, their alcoholic friendship is doing more harm than good to Tobias, who realizes he should focus on his family and career. Everything changes when Tobias tells this to Flasche.
A woman travels by train. She is trapped between her memories of a love affair she had ended and her search for freedom. Her destiny depends on the imagination of a scrip writer who is writing a story for a film.
At the age of thirteen, Monette is already forced to realize that money plays an important role in life. As a result of the economic crisis, her father Frank becomes unemployed from one day to the next. This has unexpected consequences for the whole family. They have to say goodbye to their detached family home and move into a much smaller apartment. In contrast to her sister, who finds the new circumstances very difficult, Monette is a modest girl. What really bothers her, however, is that there are suddenly a lot of arguments in the family, almost always about money, and mutual recriminations. Monette doesn't want her family to suffer and thinks back and forth about what she could do to get money. In the end, she comes up with the abstruse idea of auctioning off her virginity to the highest bidder on the internet.
Just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the birthday celebrations of an East German family turn into a tragicomical moment of political and personal breakdown.
Simpleton is a poor carpenter's apprentice. Everyone makes fun of his naivete. His greatest wish is to make the sad Princess happy. When he gets a Golden Goose as a gift, he resolves to give it to the Princess...
"All Quiet On The Western Front" made the Osnabrück native world-famous in 1929. In 1930, Hollywood made a film of the novel, the Nazis defamed it as "treason against soldiers", Remarque had to flee to Switzerland...
An African-German Author loses his memory and is used by a modern National Socialist Party as promotion-figure for more political power over Germany.
Best friends Nini and Jameelah are both 14 years old and live in the same housing complex in Berlin. Jameelah's family is from Iraq and might be deported if their application for citizenship isn't approved, but right now, the girls try not to worry about these existential problems. They look forward to the Berlin summer and the school holidays.
The real life story of East German singer and writer Gerhard Gundermann and his struggles with music, life as a coal miner and his dealings with the secret police (STASI) of the GDR.
The mountain spirit Rübezahl falls in love with the young maid Rosa. Blind with love, he does not notice that the Baroness of Harrant wants to plunder his gold treasures in order to build a sawmill in the Giant Mountains.
Four former classmates, Philipp, Leonie, Timo and Yasmin arrange reunion over the weekend in one of Philipp's properties. Philipp's wife and daughter are also present. The weekend ends in bloodbath however, with three people dead and the suspect in coma. Two years later Leonie's mother asks the former classmate of the alleged murderer, Doro Kagel, to reopen the case. She would never trust her daughter to do such an act, and even Doro starts having doubts that are only reinforced by the silence of the survivors.
Hanni works around the clock as a cleaning lady. She has to because her husband, whom she loves, has not exactly shown himself to be a support financially. They also have their son Viktor. One day Hanni witnesses an attempted murder on an old lady. The killer now has an involuntary confidante and must eliminate her. But it doesn't come to that because Hanni uses her cleaning agents at the right moment, with her presence of mind. The killer falls unhappy and falls into a coma.
A young man is searching for his place in the world. He finds his way, religion and his "brothers" in the radical Islam. What begins with the wish of helping people in Syria leads Jan through religious murder as an ISIS-soldier and back to his home county Germany.
Ex-policeman Eddie is a dedicated private detective blessed with a healthy dose of audacity. His scruffy appearance and unconventional investigative methods are garnished with curiosity and clever remarks that lead him into unusual situations. At the airport, for example, he stumbles unsuspectingly into a staged bomb attack and becomes the only witness to an alleged murder. But the victim has disappeared. Eddie sets out to follow the trail of the crime. He ends up with Katharina, a smart fashion entrepreneur and wife of the missing victim. When she learns that her husband Heinz has obviously been deceiving her for a long time, she starts her own investigation with Eddie's help.
Flower seller Leni Bluhm is kind-hearted, but illiterate and not very bright. That's why the single mother can't help her son Dominik at school. His teacher Steiner is worried and calls in the youth welfare office. The narrow-minded authorities make sure that Dominik is placed with a foster mother - Mrs. Steiner of all people! But Leni fights for her child and finds an ally in the arrogant lawyer Zörnig of all people...
17-year-old Cyril is funny, smart and an all-round good guy. Just his somewhat overlarge nose spoils the picture. On a school trip to Berlin with Roxy, a stunning new classmate, Cyril is not the only one taken with her. Benno, the class Casanova has his eye on the girl too and makes a nasty wager. Roxy is more interested in the introverted Rick, who is not only shy but also slow. Cyril hastens with his spoken word skills to Rick's aid, and falls head over heels in love with Roxy himself. So whose brave heart will win the fair lady?
West Germany, 1983. Seventeen-year-old Ursula wants it all and is thus too much, although all she's looking for is love. Enter Siegfried Grimm, the charismatic new teacher who finally recognizes Ursula's true potential. She falls for him, head over heels. A pity that Grimm sexually liberates the entire village - except Ursula. While the Grimm acolytes fight for the favor of their idol, Ursula resorts to more radical measures. Whatever it takes, she'll get back at Grimm.
Walter is a 60-year-old removal man for forced evictions. He recognizes in one of the tenants about to be evicted his estranged son, Jan. In order to help Jan, Walter has to confront not only his crooked boss but also his own past.
Germany, 1967. Ruby & Martin, a young couple, are rehearsing their uprising. The price is high: expulsion from school, parental violence, and ultimately institutionalization. But they are ready to take on the cause of love.
Frank and Simone have fulfilled a dream and live with their two children in a row house in the suburbs. They are a happy couple, until the day Frank is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. The family is suddenly confronted with death.
In the historic Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, despite the cruel war that has been raging since 2014 between the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and the Ukrainian government, people try to survive in the rotten heart of chaos, where violence disguises itself as peace, propaganda becomes univocal truth and hatred reigns in the name of love.
The full attention of everyone - just for a moment in time. Maya is sixteen and tries to find online-fame and understanding through a selfie-live-vlog of suicide notes. She streams constantly to a forum of like-minded users. Her many last words are sometimes narcissistic, sometimes poetic and sometimes very honest. She suffers from depression. When Maya travels to Prague with her parents - a trip, that is supposed to somehow cheer her up - she plans for her suicidal fantasies to become reality.
Nora is fourteen and lives with her parents in a quiet Berlin suburb. She is a romantic introvert who spends her day retreated into her own enchanted dreamworld. Her parents, Anette and Uwe, are busy trying to handle reality; both are wrestling with unrealized hopes and dreams along with the added troubles caused by Anette's return to her studies and Uwe's struggling business. When Thomas, a former lover of Anette's and his family move in next door, the already fragile foundations of Nora's family are rocked.
Although he already has searched Iraq unsuccessfully for weapons of mass destruction as a member of a UN mission, German bio-weapons expert Arndt Wolf is still obsessed with the idea that Saddam Hussein is hiding something. Nobody around him is interested in this topic any more. This changes abruptly when an Iraqi asylum seeker claims to have been involved in the manufacture of chemical weapons. The German Federal Intelligence Service summons Dr. Wolf to ascertain the legitimacy of the claims made by the informant, who has been given the code name “Curveball”.
A kidnapped musician and his missing violin are the prelude to a series of murders whose victims were deeply involved in business connections between the GDR and Austria. The investigators of SOKO Vienna and Leipzig are working together.
Clumsy peculiar pupil Alfons Zitterbacke dreams of being an astronaut and wreaks havoc anywhere he goes but against all odds wants to proof everyone who is teasing him wrong especially his father who wants him to be more of a 'normal' kid.
Comedy drama about one of life's perennial losers who finally strikes it lucky with a beautiful woman, but not before experiencing the usual seemingly endless pitfalls.
After 14 years of prison Nabil is released and thrown back into his life.
Year 2047: "Inifinitalk" is the AI developed by some guys, offering possible eternal life through digitization of peoples mind and when they want to sell it they get into major trouble.
White gold is buried in Beelitz, Brandenburg, but after initial successes, former BND agent Sven (Herold Vomeer) is targeted by a dangerous organization. A war soon breaks out and the violence threatens to escalate. And Sven can no longer run away from his past in Knorx.
Anna teaches violin at a music school, her husband is an instrument-maker. They have a 10-year-old son, Jonas. At school, Anna champions young Alexander, in whom she alone sees great talent. She devotes much energy and attention preparing him for the next stage exam to prove she was right. Soon Anna devotes more time to him than to Jonas, bringing the two boys into rivalry. At the same time her marriage is collapsing, she withdraws increasingly from her own family and starts an affair with her colleague Christian, who is encouraging her to join a quartet. When she fails during their joint concert, the pressure mounts. With Alexander now her vehicle, she drives him ever onwards and upwards. Come the day of the exam, events take a tragic turn...
Leipzig, December 1734: Christmas brings the Bach family together. The first snow has fallen and the children Gottfried and Elisabeth are delighted about the arrival of their older brothers Friedemann and Emanuel. The Thomaskantor has retired to his music room. Anna Magdalena supports her husband, as there are only a few days left and his latest work, the six-part "Christmas Oratorio", must be finished on time. It is awaited with suspicion by the city council and the gentlemen of the consistory, who have long found Bach's waywardness a thorn in their side and fear that, after the premiere of the St. Matthew Passion a few years earlier, the St. Thomas Church will once again be filled with "operatic" music. With the oratorio, Johann Sebastian Bach hopes that he will finally become court composer in Dresden. And, as always, he demands that all members of the family join forces to help him. But differences of opinion are increasingly delaying the completion of Bach's most famous work.
All his life, Michael Hartung, owner of a hopelessly debt-ridden video store, has bet on the wrong horse. When an ambitious journalist confronts him with the results of his research, everything changes for the charmingly melancholy Micha. Many years ago, as an employee of the Reichsbahn, he is said to have organized the largest mass escape in the GDR. Stasi files prove the case. He was apparently even imprisoned and then deported to an open-cast lignite mine. Seduced by a lavish salary, Micha confirms the story, although only fragments of it are true.
A group of young, ambitious candidates for a special police unit in Baden-Württemberg are driven to perform at their best. One of them is 23-year-old Rebecca Henselmann, who will soon be deployed in undercover operations. She works hard and is ambitious, just like her colleague Christoph Laurin, whom Rebecca is getting to know. The young policewoman is highly motivated in her operations against drug and arms trafficking. In the process, she encounters abuses of power and encounters right-wing extremist attitudes in the police force too.
The story of a friendship between two dissimilar women: On the one hand, single mother Anja, who tries to keep herself and her daughter afloat with various jobs. On the other, Isabell, who looks after her parents in need of care and whose relationship with her husband Philipp is put to the test.
The story of André, a bohemian and loser of the reunification era, who gets by with small odd jobs in Leipzig. When his adolescent daughter has to stay with him for three weeks, the two initially struggle to connect with each other.
Lou Caspari is confronted with a client whose defense she is strongly advised against. Mario Lenzi is notorious as a professional killer who works for the Mafia and has managed to wriggle out of all charges in the past. Now the public prosecutor's office believes it has watertight evidence and is charging Lenzi with the murder of a mafia boss and his family. However, Lenzi insists that he had nothing to do with the murder and that he has been set up.