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First hand witness to the infamous World War II fire bombing and destruction of his hometown, Dresden, Germany, 15-year-old Diether Warneck lost his girlfriend and bicycled to the front-lines of the war, enlisting in the German army under Hitler’s rule. This single decision would haunt him for the rest of his life. Recalling the series of events that lead to his survival, Diether shares the extreme guilt he hid for seventy years while experiencing a life filled with love, family, intrigue, art and personal accomplishment.
Into the White is an anti-war movie. High above the harsh Norwegian wilderness, English and German pilots shoot each other to the ground after a violent chance encounter. Isolated, they must fight to survive the brutal winter. Though war has made them enemies, antagonism is hard to maintain as days go by. Through mutual need, unlikely friendships bloom. Somehow, they become comrades. War, after all, is absurd.
East Germany. Summer, late 70’s. Three years after her boyfriend Wassilij’s apparent death, Nelly Senff decides to escape from behind the Berlin wall with her son Alexej, leaving her traumatic memories and past behind. Pretending to marry a West German, she crosses the border to start a new life in the West. But soon her past starts to haunt her as the Allied Secret Service begin to question Wassilij’s mysterious disappearance. Is he still alive? Was he a spy? Plagued by her past and fraught with paranoia, Nelly is forced to choose between discovering the truth about her former lover and her hopes for a better tomorrow.
Lt. Franta Slama is a top pilot in the Czech Air Force who is assigned to train a promising young flier, Karel Vojtisek, and they soon become friends. When Nazi Germany invades Czechoslovakia in 1939, they both reject the authority of their new leaders and escape to England where they join other Czech exiles in the RAF. While flying a mission over England, Karel crash lands and happens upon the farmhouse of Susan, a young woman whose husband is in the Navy. Karel soon falls head over heels for Susan but, while they enjoy a brief fling, in time Susan decides she prefers the company of the older and more worldly Franta. As Franta and Karel struggle to maintain their friendship despite their romantic rivalry.
What is art and how does it relate to society? Is its value determined by its popularity or originality? Is the goal profit or expressing one’s personal vision? These are some of the questions raised as we follow fiercely independent New York artist Robert Cenedella in his artistic journey through decades of struggling for creative expression. A student, protégé and friend of German artist George Grosz, Cenedella is now passing on the legacy of Grosz’s approach to art, in the very same room where Grosz taught. In portraying Cenedella’s determination to buck the system of what’s popular while critiquing that popularity in his attempt to turn the art world upside down, ART BASTARD is a funny, touching, and insightful look inside the maverick mind of a true original.
Andreas Dresen’s adaptation of Clemens Meyer’s novel about a group of East German friends right after the fall of the Wall.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was designed to kill. Four gas chambers murdered thousands at a time, belching out smoke and human ashes. Starvation, thirst, disease, and hard labor reduced the average lifespan to less than three months. More than 1-million people perished in the largest German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. Seventy years after her liberation, Kitty Hart-Moxon makes a final return to Auschwitz-Birkenau to walk among the crumbling memorial with students Natalia and Lydia, who, at 16, are the same age now as she was then. As Kitty tells them her story of daily existence, themes begin to emerge: the ever-present threat of death, resilience, friendship, human strength, resisting the Nazis’ constant lethal intent, and living like an animal while still remaining human. Natalia and Lydia ask questions; Kitty provides answers, passing her legacy to the next generation.
The film follows the story of Jamie, a struggling butch lesbian actress who gets cast as a man in a film. The main plot is a romantic comedy between Jamie’s male alter-ego, “Male Jamie,” and Jill, a heterosexual woman on set. The film’s subplots include Jamie’s bisexual roommate Lola and her cat actor Howard, Lola’s abrasive butch German girlfriend Andi, and Jamie’s gay Asian friend David.
HANNAH ARENDT is a portrait of the genius that shook the world with her discovery of “the banality of evil.” After she attends the Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem, Arendt dares to write about the Holocaust in terms no one has ever heard before. Her work instantly provokes a furious scandal, and Arendt stands strong as she is attacked by friends and foes alike. But as the German-Jewish émigré also struggles to suppress her own painful associations with the past, the film exposes her beguiling blend of arrogance and vulnerability — revealing a soul defined and derailed by exile.
Jacek loves heavy metal and his dog. He converts the country lanes outside his door into a racing track and bombs down them in his little car. When he and his girlfriend Dagmara take to the dancefloor, everyone runs for cover. He enjoys his existance as a cool misfit in an otherwise stuffy environment, and keeps his muscles toned working on a building site close to the Polish-German border where the world’s largest statue of Jesus is being constructed. But then his life is thrown badly off course by a terrible accident at work that completely disfigures him. Eagerly followed by the Polish media, Jacek becomes the first person in the country to receive a face transplant. He may be celebrated as a national hero and martyr, but he no longer recognises himself in the mirror. Meanwhile, the statue of Jesus grows taller and taller. Whilst events around Jacek come thick and fast, the film never loses sight of the bigger picture and instead brings things even more into focus.
After five failed attempts to go to the United States, 18-year-old Ramón decides to look for a friend’s aunt in Germany, but never finds her. With no papers or money, and without knowing the language, he barely survives living on the street until he meets Ruth, an old retired nurse who doesn’t speak Spanish. Beyond language barriers and prejudices, they discover that solidarity and humanity make life bearable.
Paolo, an Italian tour bus driver living in Paris, has just summoned up the courage to propose marriage to his German girlfriend Greta. However, a chance encounter with a French woman on a bicycle the very next day turns Paolo’s life upside down.
Best friends Cliff and Otis plan to get rich quick by stealing from some of the most dangerous foes in the business: drug dealers. Going against the plan, the two spend the night partying, allowing the audience to see that, in a certain light, the “bad guys” weren’t really all that bad to begin with. Simply put, this film is just your everyday druggie, dramedy, indie musical that’s filled with Germans, Jesus, banjos, bongos, beers, and bongs.
Pia’s life, a girl from a small German town, changes when surprisingly, finds in her garden a huge black monster. She soon discovers that the mysterious creature, which called Yoko, is actually a kind yeti spiritually protecting animals and children worldwide. Yoko is constantly showing his friends Pia and their unique qualities, but children are not the only ones who want the Yeti. Its great value calls attention to two hunters who want to take advantage of the yeti.
After living with her drug-addicted mother, 10-year-old Lizzy’s adopted by career woman Juliana and her boyfriend Greg. Julianna buys Lizzy an online genetics test and they discover that Lizzy’s related to a royal German family, but as Lizzy’s fascination with being a princess grows, the girl begins to lose her sanity, blurring fantasy & reality.
