SWR Fernsehen

Prequel to the upcoming feature-length film METAL TRAIN.

Germany, 1946. Hunger, rubble, returning soldiers. Charlotte is pregnant, but her beloved returnee does not want her or his child. In order to win him over and escape the impending shame, she enrolls in the "missing course" of actress Gloria Deven, who was an up-and-coming film star under Fascism and is now banned from working. But Gloria, with her merciless lessons, is not interested in reviving the coquetry of girls that became superfluous in the war. Instead, she awakens in Lotte a longing for something too long denied her: Freedom.

The temple complex of Banteay Chhmar in Cambodia is half-ruined, but of enchanting beauty. It is the last major temple of the old Khmer empire. The people of the village are rediscovering it: as a place of spiritual inspiration and the center of cultural life. With almost no outside help, the inhabitants of the small village are fighting to preserve and restore the complex.

Cuckoos are brood parasites who they lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species, a clever trick that spares the rearing and feeding of their own offspring. Why do other parent birds let this happen? Are they too stupid? Too inept? Or simply clueless? None of the above!

At the age of 64, Margot Flügel-Anhalt gets on a motorcycle for the first time in her life – and gets on and off: It starts in her village in northern Hesse and then 117 days and 18,046 kilometers through Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Karl Windhammer has inherited a brewery and wants to enter world trade as a great strategist. His long-time friend and best beer representative Oskar puts the brakes on his flight of fancy with realistic arguments and is dismissed. Karl risks losing his family, his friends and the love of his mother. But Oskar has an idea how to bring the megalomaniac brewer back down to earth. With ingenuity and wit, will the family succeed in turning the "Napoleon" of beer back into a human being?