MDR

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.

Documentary about a farmer's wife in former East Prussia.

Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, sits down with filmmaker Werner Herzog to discuss his many achievements. Topics include the talks to reduce nuclear weapons, the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of his country.

Set in the period prior to the revolt in Timisoara in December 1989 and mirroring the events that led to the downfall of the dictator Ceausescu.

November 9, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall came down. A 10-year-old girl and her friends attempt to use their teleportation device to beam her uncle back to East Germany but instead, as they witness on TV, end up beaming everyone in their town into West Germany! They have to race against time to undo the experiment before the nasty border guards open fire...

The pakistani hairdresser, Haroon, has immigrated illegally to Germany, the German in- surance broker, Mark, dreams of emigrating. The consequences of a car accident throw these two entirely different people together for one night. At the end of an odyssey through the alien world of illegality, they both discover that something bonds them: a desire to be far away...

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.

On December 23, 2013, former Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt will be 95 years old. As the second Social Democratic head of government in the Federal Republic of Germany, he shaped the country like few other chancellors. Even 30 years after the end of his time in government, he is still a highly esteemed expert whose advice and opinions are in demand. He is one of the most popular chancellors among the population and is held in the highest esteem by his party; even his political opponents at the time pay him the greatest respect.

"Kruso" tells of the last summer before the Wall came down on the small island of Hiddensee in the Baltic Sea. Beyond state-organized tourism, the isolated island became a kind of artist colony every year and a place of longing for dropouts and alternatives. Due to its proximity to Denmark, Hiddensee was also the starting point for the flight across the Baltic Sea.

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.

Valentin, a destitute vagabond, seeks his fortune in the rat-infested city. It just so happens that Master Argus, the great wizard of the land and advisor to the queen, is in need of an apprentice. Valentin is sure that magic is just the thing for him. Although his amazing talent is revealed during the test, he is tricked by Katrina, the only competitor, and doesn't get the job. Instead, he finds shelter in the pharmacy of old master Zacharias. However, due to a terrible accident of his own making, he no longer works magic and for the time being only teaches Valentin the secrets of herbalism and medicine. Deeply dissatisfied with this, Valentin sets about learning the art of magic on his own. Beginning with the plague of rats that has appeared and disappeared overnight, he discovers a series of secrets that are all miraculously interlinked.

A Hungarian youth comes of age at Buchenwald during World War II. György Köves is 14, the son of a merchant who's sent to a forced labor camp. After his father's departure, György gets a job at a brickyard; his bus is stopped and its Jewish occupants sent to camps. There, György find camaraderie, suffering, cruelty, illness, and death. He hears advice on preserving one's dignity and self-esteem. He discovers hatred. If he does survive and returns to Budapest, what will he find? What is natural; what is it to be a Jew? Sepia, black and white, and color alternate to shade the mood.

A former East German boxing champion reduced to working as a bouncer and debt collector is forced to reflect on his life when he is diagnosed with a fatal disease.

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?

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.

A drama directed by Martin Buchhorn based on the novel by Günter Grass. At the center of the film is artist Marcus Frank, who is informed by a talking rat about the imminent end of the world. Unfortunately, he does not take the signs of time seriously and rats conquer the earth, which cannot be stopped even by atomic bombs..

It's a hot, dry summer in Klein-Schappleben. Micha, a pretentious video game designer, wants to turn his late parents' dilapidated guesthouse into a luxury hotel with a wellness oasis. The villagers are skeptical, even though Micha loudly promises new jobs and prosperity. But his plans start to falter when the groundwater in the village dries up.

In love with a girl that smells of oranges while in a complicated relationship with his father, Darek is gentle, strong and devoted to his little sister and their herd of horses. Darek's world is a story about the joy and pain of growing up in the isolated yet beautiful Lusatian Mountains. Here, horses are not expensive specimens of racing stables but beings you should care for and love. Not even that is enough in life though, as Darek finds out nearing the Summer's end, closing his childhood definitely. However, just like any ending, this is a start of something new.

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.

Former East Germany, punk music, the wall, betrayal, jail, exit for the West: a film confronting these things on the offensive – and seeing its view of them as a balancing act.