MDR

Mueller is a young and unsuccessful actor who has one big problem. He does not have time. He does not have time for his little daughter Elina and he does not have time for Petra who actually just wanted to make an interview with his room-mate Willy. Mueller is busy, always busy in every kind of situation. All his problems seemed to be solved when he realizes that Willy has invented a time-machine. Everything could be fine now, if just Mueller had listened better to Willy's warnings about the rules of time travelling.

The film shows the apparently intact world of a middle class family, whose harmonious façade crumbles due to the unexpected visit of their relative Paul, a young man of 16 years. Paul arrives looking for love and support after the suicide of his father.

Almost 15 years, the unequal sisters Mia and Susanne have not seen each other. But after her mother's death, Mia returns to her family. Problems are preprogrammed. But the fight for the family business and the memory of an old unfortunate pact connect the freedom-loving Mia and the family man Susanne.

As a test subject in a clinic, the unemployed Dominique takes part in increasingly dangerous tests in order to finance the dream he shares with his girlfriend Janine: their own house in the countryside. But while Dominique struggles with the physical consequences of the medical experiments, Janine slowly loses faith. A new car is supposed to save their relationship - but Dominique has to go to the clinic again for tests.

At the death of her mother, Aga decides to leave her life in Germany with her partner Maja to look after her younger brother in Poland. To do this, she has to hide her love for another woman from the authorities. Closely following its protagonists, Silent Love delicately narrates their discreet struggle against a prying and viscerally homophobic society.

15-year-old Elise is longing for a happy family life, but her mother Betty is weak and egocentric. She drowns her problems in alcohol. Everything seems to turn out good when they meet Ludwig. But he does not fall in love with Betty, he loves Elise.

A therapist dies under mysterious circumstances. No one knows how or why. At the Russian-Jewish funeral service, his daughter, relatives and former patients gather to come to terms with the loss together. However, no one seems to have known the deceased well. The question increasingly arises as to who the guests are actually mourning: the deceased, their lost home or simply themselves?

In the face of an impending catastrophe, a family holes up in their house. The mother, Anna, has dedicated her life to housework and the children. She tries to create a warm home for her family in the cramped and dark isolation. But the threat draws inexorably closer. When supplies run out and her husband sets out to get supplies, Anna's only support falls away.

For the first time since the legendary Apollo missions over 50 years ago, humans are once again setting out for the Moon on April 1, 2026. NASA’s Artemis II mission marks the beginning of a new era in space exploration, and Germany will play a key role. This documentary follows the four astronauts during their preparations and offers exclusive insights into the Orion spacecraft. German astronauts Alexander Gerst and Matthias Maurer, along with other space experts, explain how the mission will proceed and why it is being undertaken. It's a journey that blends science, adventure, and the fundamental question: Why do people risk their lives to reach other celestial bodies and distant worlds?

A documentary that offers an intimate portrait of Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s former Vice-Chancellor, balancing his political career with his groundbreaking role as a gay pioneer. Released for the 10th anniversary of his death, the film explores the sharp contrast between his polarizing public persona and his private vulnerability. The narrative anchor consists of never-before-heard audio recordings from 2014, captured in Mallorca by journalist Dominik Wichmann as Westerwelle battled acute leukemia. The movie weaves these raw archives with emotional interviews from his husband, Michael Mronz, and key political rivals. It charts his rise within the FDP, his historic 2004 public coming out, and his legacy as Germany’s first openly gay cabinet minister. The plot highlights the unique diplomatic challenges he faced visiting nations hostile to LGBTQ+ rights, his sudden fall from political grace, and his final fight against cancer alongside Mronz.

The river Oder: A historical and cultural land-scape churned again and again by the tide of events of the past century. A tale told in concentric circles about a region which was and still is the scene of the beginning, end and open middle of voluntary and involuntary migrations. Virulent issues of daily life and politics that, asked with confident casualness, provide a robust account of the present.

Tobias, aged 13, lives in an East German city and has learned to get by on his own. Then Max moves into the neighboring apartment, and he keeps it just like Tobias. He likes to determine how things should go by himself. Without further ado, Tobias decides to pass Max off as his father!

Born in 1960 in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Nena, whose real name is Gabriele Susanne Kerner, grew up under the influence of a father who encouraged her from childhood to follow her instincts. As a teenager, she tried her hand at music. It wasn't long before a band was formed, The Stripes. 99 Luftballons, their second single, launched Nenamania in Germany and around the world.

In the Cold War years of the 1970s, an American patrol boat meets a Soviet ship off the east coast of the United States for talks about fishing rights in the Atlantic. In the midst of this, while Russian commanders are aboard the U.S. Coast Guard vessel where the talks are being held, a Lithuanian sailor jumps across the ten feet of icy water separating the boats. Crash-landing on the deck of the American ship, he desperately begs for asylum. Though they try, the Americans ultimately fail to provide protection and the Soviets are allowed to capture him and brutally return him to their vessel. Thus begins a stranger-than-fiction story of imprisonment, discovery, fame, and freedom. Through rare archival footage and a dramatic first-person re-enactment of that fateful day by Simas Kudirka, the would-be defector himself, this tale of one of the biggest Cold War muddles takes us on a journey of uncanny twists of fate, and the emotional sacrifices of becoming a universal symbol of freedom.

In Febuary 2026 the world's best ice hockey players will descend on Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo for the most eagerly awaited XXV Olympic Winter Games in living memory. For German national coach Harry Kreis the twelve months leading up to the final nominations of his olympic squad are equally exciting and stressful - a period plagued with difficult decisions and sleepless nights. A young team falters at the world championships, struggling under the pressure of the big stage, while older statesmen wait in the wings ready to replace them. The start of the domestic season offers a chance to impress the head coach, but the intense schedule heightens the risk of injury. Ultimately it's up to coach Kreis to make the final cut: who will play and who will be left at home?

A 9th century woman of English extraction born in the German city of Ingelheim disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks.

Cats are the most popular pets in Europe, with twelve million living in Germany alone. And yet: hardly anyone knows how they live and what they do as soon as they leave their home. Where do they go? Martina Treusch's documentary takes a closer look at the nature and fascination of these popular animals.

In her documentary, director Sabine Michel revisits her own experiences during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and Germany's subsequent reunification, as well as those of her four friends Claudi, Vera, Claudia and Veruscha. The five women were about 18 years old at that time, and belonged to the last school class in Dresden to graduate in the German Democratic Republic. The country and society school had prepared them for suddenly ceased to exist, thus they had to completely start anew. More than twenty years later, the five women travel to Paris together. During the train ride, they talk about their former dreams and aspirations, and how different their lives turned out to be.

The market regulates everything! Diligence and work create prosperity! Capitalism needs growth! What is the truth behind the great principles of capitalism? And how do they work in Eastern Germany - a region that has been a capitalist test laboratory for around 30 years? It is symbolic of various places in the world that are going through similar processes. Renowned economic experts answer questions. How does a large-scale settlement of a global corporation like DHL take place and what must politics make possible for this? What happens when investors pour around a billion euros into one of the largest real estate projects in Europe in the Baltic Sea resort of Binz (Prora) on the Island of Rügen and no place is created that is worth living in? And how are the people in places like Zeitz, which capitalism has obviously forgotten? The film takes you through various stations, through the strongholds of Eastern German capitalism and the places where capitalism has not yet arrived.

Young Polish filmmaker Michal Wnuk finds an Agfa box of 120 photographs and 2 reels of 16mm film. For the first time, he gets to see World War II through the eyes of his grandfather, who served in the Wehrmacht. Soon Michal discovers that the box didn't belong to his grandfather but to his great-uncle Elek - an anti-German fighter and a decorated war hero. Michal uncovers the intriguing story behind the Agfa box, traveling across Poland and Germany in a journey that leads him back to the last summer days of 1939.