In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
A high school teacher's experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.
For two weeks, 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards in a prison. The "prisoners" have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the "guards" are told to retain order without using physical violence.
Director:
Oliver Hirschbiegel
Stars:
Moritz Bleibtreu,
Christian Berkel,
Oliver Stokowski
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director:
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Stars:
Ulrich Mühe,
Martina Gedeck,
Sebastian Koch
A look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.
Director:
Uli Edel
Stars:
Martina Gedeck,
Moritz Bleibtreu,
Johanna Wokalek
A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
Director:
Marc Rothemund
Stars:
Julia Jentsch,
Fabian Hinrichs,
Alexander Held
With the intention to break free from the strict familial restrictions, a suicidal young woman sets up a marriage of convenience with a forty-year-old addict, an act that will lead to an outburst of envious love.
A group of kids grow up on the short, wrong (east) side of the Sonnenallee in Berlin, right next to one of the few border crossings between East and West reserved for German citizens. The ... See full summary »
Director:
Leander Haußmann
Stars:
Alexander Scheer,
Alexander Beyer,
Robert Stadlober
East Germany, the year 1989: A young man protests against the regime. His mother watches the police arresting him and suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Some months later, the DDR does not exist anymore and the mother awakes. Since she has to avoid every excitement, the son tries to set up the DDR again for her in their flat. But the world has changed a lot.Written by
Benjamin Stello
In one sequence in the background you can see the Berolina-Bulidung at the Alexanderplatz. On the roof you can see the sign of the bank company "Bankgesellschaft Berlin". In the time between the fall of Berlin-wall (Nov.1989) and Germany's reunion (October 1990) there was no Bankgesellschaft Berlin situated in East-Berlin. The Company bought the Berolina Building in 1993. See more »
Quotes
Alexander Kerner:
On the evening of October 7, 1989 several hundred people got together for some evening exercise and marched for the right to go for walks without the Berlin Wall getting in their way.
See more »
Crazy Credits
Renowned German actor Jürgen Vogel plays the chicken in the supermarket and is credited as "Das Küken" ("young chicken"). See more »
Last night I watched it for the second time. I'd seen it at the cinema two years ago, then last night my boyfriend, who hadn't seen it, decided to rent it. I loved it first time round, I loved it second time round, maybe even a tad more than I did originally. With wonderfully engaging characters all round, the film is endowed with a great sense of humour, both visual and verbal (and those Europhobic old Brits keep going on about how the Germans have no sense of humour!), it's socially relevant yet easier to watch than a straight comedy. The script is intelligent yet accessible to anyone, even a shallow teenager with no attention span whatsoever... yet IT is never shallow. And most of all, it's a deeply moving little gem of a film which however never abuses its secure grip on the heart-strings. I could see even my boyfriend was dewy-eyed at some points! And so was I, even more than two years ago. A small but perfectly formed film, it's actually not as small as one might think at first impact. Love (specifically, filial love) is its main theme, treated in a schmaltz-free, fresh, non-superficial and a non-clichéd manner.
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Last night I watched it for the second time. I'd seen it at the cinema two years ago, then last night my boyfriend, who hadn't seen it, decided to rent it. I loved it first time round, I loved it second time round, maybe even a tad more than I did originally. With wonderfully engaging characters all round, the film is endowed with a great sense of humour, both visual and verbal (and those Europhobic old Brits keep going on about how the Germans have no sense of humour!), it's socially relevant yet easier to watch than a straight comedy. The script is intelligent yet accessible to anyone, even a shallow teenager with no attention span whatsoever... yet IT is never shallow. And most of all, it's a deeply moving little gem of a film which however never abuses its secure grip on the heart-strings. I could see even my boyfriend was dewy-eyed at some points! And so was I, even more than two years ago. A small but perfectly formed film, it's actually not as small as one might think at first impact. Love (specifically, filial love) is its main theme, treated in a schmaltz-free, fresh, non-superficial and a non-clichéd manner.