RBB

"Frankfurter Tor" is the name of a huge parking lot for trucks on the A12 Berlin-Frankfurt freeway. For many years, this asphalted spot in the Mark Brandenburg served to pre-regulate border traffic. It is named after the Frankfurter Tor in Berlin. Thousands of trucks passed through this border every day, and over 700,000 drivers got off here every year and waited to continue their journey towards Poland.

Documentary on conductor Herbert van Karajan, focusing on his early adoption of audio and video recording technology and his impetus to make use of it to preserve his musical legacy for future generations.

The anti-psychiatric Socialist Patients' Collective (SPK) was founded in Heidelberg in 1970 and attributed individual suffering to society’s capitalist structures. It began as a self-organised experiment in group therapy led by doctor Wolfgang Huber with psychiatric patients, featuring Hegel readings and individual agitation, before subsequently radicalizing, which ended in criminal proceedings against its members, some of whom went underground with the Red Army Faction.

Startups are using AI to create avatars that allow relatives to talk with their loved ones after they have died. An exploration of a profound human desire and the consequences of turning the dream of immortality into a product.

“Whatever falls from heaven, you may keep.” So goes the unwritten law of the Kazakh steppes. A law avidly adhered to by the inhabitants of a small village, who collect the space debris that falls downrange from the nearby Baikonur space station. The last two youthful members of the village are the radio operator Iskander, known as Gagarin, and the spirited Nazira. While Nazira finds it increasing difficult to conceal her love for Iskander by means of her unconventional behaviour, Iskander is evidently not only crazy about Baikonur and the vastness of outer space, but also deeply smitten with the beautiful French astronaut Julie Mahé, whose journey to the stars he wistfully follows on television.

Police chief Horst Krause and his sister Elsa have been looking after the inn in Schönhorst in Brandenburg since his well-deserved retirement. It would be all good if Elsa wasn't suddenly so forgetful.

Berlin is a metropolis, a big city with international flair and at the same time the habitat of countless raccoons, foxes, bats, squirrels, hedgehogs and beavers. There is at least one pair of birds for every human inhabitant of Berlin, and nowhere else are there so many sparrows and nightingales. Swarms of bees harvest honey from almost half a million city trees, a badger roams through a backyard, and praying mantises lurk for prey in railroad tracks.

Mifti is a teenager as beautiful as she is reckless. Mentally unstable, fed up with her dysfunctional family, oblivious to the youthful world, and aware of the sexual magnetism she gives off with her peculiar appearance, she wanders through the dark path of several bohemian adults with questionable lifestyles.

Between 1933 and 1945 roughly 1200 films were made in Germany, of which 300 were banned by the Allied forces. Today, around 40 films, called "Vorbehaltsfilme", are locked away from the public with an uncertain future. Should they be re-released, destroyed, or continue to be neglected? Verbotene Filme takes a closer look at some of these forbidden films.

The last years of Heinrich George's life are reconstructed with documentary footage and play scenes. His son Götz, named after Heinrich's favorite role of the peasant war hero from Goethe's play "Götz von Berlichingen", plays scenes from his father's life and allows his enormous creative power to shine through. Nothing is left out, nothing glossed over in this story of a man with many facets. Götz George, one of Germany's best-known actors, is at the center of this homage, which is also a reappraisal of the contradictions in his father's life. As the only follower from the acting profession, Heinrich George had to pay with his life. He was not officially rehabilitated until 1998.

Twelve-year-old Martin is a little too small for his age. Too thin and too quiet, as his mother is unfortunately always reminding him. He and his blue baseball cap are joined at the hip, or rather, at the head. Martin and his parents have just moved to the quiet little town of Bellbach. A new home, a new school, but no new friends. Even on his first day, there’s trouble...

The 78-year-old former architect Richard Gärtner (Matthias Habich) wants to put an end to his life. However, this should not be done abroad, but quite legally with the help of his family doctor. For Dr. Brandt (Anna Maria Mühe), out of personal conviction, it is out of the question to get her elderly but healthy patient a fatal preparation.

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates launched an unusual campaign in June 2010: both agreed to donate half of their fortunes to charity. The filmmakers followed multi-billionaire Warren Buffett for 18 months, investigating his motives and talking to supporters and opponents of his initiative.

Advertising manager Wilms has strangled a girl – possibly. At the airport, he tries to escape his memories. When he is suspected of a crime he probably did not commit, he involuntarily becomes the investigator of his own case...

Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz 1992-2017. The end of the GDR gave rise to new artistic freedoms in reunited Berlin. Shortly after the fall of the Wall, rebel director Frank Castorf was appointed artistic director of the Volksbühne. His way of working altered the public’s perception of this theater. The chronological history of the Castorf era between 1992 and 2017 is told here in excerpts from the productions and in a series of conversations conducted on the long sofa in the theater's foyer.

A hijacker threatens to bring down a passenger plane to a crowded football stadium. Fighter pilot Lars Koch decides to shoot down the machine. The court of Berlin should decide whether Lars Koch is a hero or a murderer. The viewers become jurors, and their decision determines the outcome of the film.

Sarah and her parents celebrate her confirmation. But instead of eating the lobster on her plate, Sarah hides it under the table. When her father finds the lobster there, he draws the consequences.

In the Druze mountain villages between Syria and Israel, Kamel, a respected sheik, must make an impossible decision between family and duty when his estranged brother returns to the Golan Heights after 47 years in exile.

The film explores the only known case in the history of post-WWII era of concentration camp survivors helping the SS Commandant of the Auschwitz and Ravensbruck camps to escape prison and justice in Nazi trial.

Romek is a Polish railway worker and Guido is a German soldier. They are both 17, in love with jazz and the same pretty girl. But it's 1943 somewhere in German-occupied Poland, and their lives are bound to change soon.