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Favorite German Films

Movie list created by kathy

Sort by: Showing 45 items

Decade: Rating: List Type:

168

7.3

7.2

Aimée & Jaguar (1999)

Director: Max Färberböck
Starring: Maria Schrader, Juliane Köhler, Johanna Wokalek, Heike Makatsch, Elisabeth Degen, Detlev Buck, Dani Levy, Rosel Zech and Ulrich Matthes

Based on real life events. Felice is living a dangerous life: in the middle of World War II in Berlin, she is a Jew and a lesbian, and works undercover at a Nazi newspaper from which she finds information to take to the Jewish underground. One day she meets her lover, Ilse's employer Lilly, and falls in love with this bourgeois, Nazi-supporting hausfrau. Their affair is as intense as it is dangerous, with Felice in constant danger of discovery. In their own ways, each woman challenges what is expected of her.

kathy's rating:

4.7

5.9

Albert Schweitzer (2009)

Director: Gavin Millar
Starring: Jeroen Krabbé, Barbara Hershey, Judith Godrèche and Samuel West

1949 the early years of the Cold War. Albert Schweitzer has become one of the most admired men in the world, thanks to his philosophy of Reverence for Life which he lives out in his hospital in Lambarene, West Africa.

When he is urged by Albert Einstein to speak out against the hydrogen bomb tests, U.S. national security agencies consider this a denunciation of Western politics. A smear campaign is launched to discredit the septuagenarian's reputation and to silence him.

The investigative journalist Phil Figgis is sent to Lambarene to dig up dirt on Schweitzer and initiate a mutiny of some of the hospital doctors and local government representatives. Schweitzer is pressurized, the hospital might even be closed down. Will he resist, follow his conscience and still speak out against the nuclear weapons and the armaments race?

kathy's rating:

151

6.5

7.2

Amen. (2002) (2002)

Director: Costa-Gavras
Starring: Ulrich Tukur, Mathieu Kassovitz, Ulrich Mühe, Michel Duchaussoy and Sebastian Koch

Based on real life events. During World War II SS officer Kurt Gerstein tries to inform Pope Pius XII about Jews being sent to concentration camps. Young Jesuit priest Riccardo Fontana tries to assist him.

kathy's rating:

6.8

Annaluise and Anton (1999)

Director: Caroline Link
Based on the novel by Erich Kästner
Starring: Elea Geissler, Max Felder, Juliane Köhler, August Zirner, Meret Becker, Benno Fürmann and Sylvie Testud

Annaluise and Anton are the closest of friends. Being the daughter of a wealthy surgeon, young Annaluise lives in a great house. Her mother, who always travels the world, more for public relation reasons than for the social tasks she pretends to fulfill, is never available to her as a mother. Anton, son of a single and sick mother in financial trouble, does his best to help her out of it by working late.

Annaluise decides to help her only friend (as nobody else would anyway) and starts singing in public places. Trouble arises when Anton can’t resist stealing a golden lighter and Annaluise’s secret life is discovered by her parents. Two troubled families can finally see the need for actions to be taken.

kathy's rating:

330

7.4

7.3

The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

Director: Uli Edel
Starring: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Nadja Uhl, Stipe Erceg, Niels-Bruno Schmidt, Vinzenz Kiefer, Alexandra Maria Lara, Sebastian Blomberg, Heino Ferch, Bruno Ganz, Volker Bruch, Thomas Thieme and Alexander Held

A look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.

kathy's rating:

115

7.3

7.4

Before the Fall (2004)

[also known as 'Hitler's Elite']
Director: Dennis Gansel
Starring: Max Riemelt, Tom Schilling, Devid Striesow and Jonas Jägermeyr

In 1942, Friedrich Weimer's boxing skills get him an appointment to a National Political Academy (NaPolA) - high schools that produce Nazi elite. Over his father's objections, Friedrich enrolls, seeing this as his ticket out of factory life to university and a good salary.

During his year in seventh form, this innocence is altered as Friedrich encounters hazing, cruelty, death and the Nazi code. His friendship with Albrecht, the ascetic son of the area's governor, is central to this education; a night in the forest hunting for escaped Russian POWs brings things to a head.

kathy's rating:

6.5

5.5

Bella Australia (2012)

Director: Vivian Naefe
Starring: Andrea Sawatzki, Lotte Flack, Thomas Sarbacher and Juliane Köhler

Bella is now separated from her husband Martin and lives with her daughter Lena in a multi-ethnic Berlin neighborhood. Just when she thinks Martin, Lena and she might form a happy family again, Martin announces he wants a divorce and Lena reveals she’s off to Australia for a year as an au pair. Bella suddenly finds herself alone…

kathy's rating:

5.7

Bella Vita (2010)

Director: Thomas Berger
Starring: Andrea Sawatzki, Thomas Sarbacher, Lotte Flack, Tobias Oertel and Juliane Köhler

Bella’s husband couldn’t have picked a worse moment to cheat on her: at his 50th birthday party and in front of all their friends. With her world collapsing around her, Bella moves out with daughter Lena to start a new life. While landing a job isn’t easy for a woman in her late 40s, doing everything possible to find one opens new doors. She soon meets a variety of hardy originals and upbeat characters who show her that the best way to confront some setbacks and tragedies is simply to laugh them off...

kathy's rating:

7.2

7.4

Beyond Silence (1996)

Director: Caroline Link
Starring: Sylvie Testud, Tatjana Trieb, Howie Seago, Emmanuelle Laborit, Sibylle Canonica, Matthias Habich, Alexandra Bolz and Hansa Czypionka

Lara's parents are both deaf. Since she is the only member of her family who can hear and speak, she has served as a kind of foreign minister for her family from an early age, translating and negotiating for them in even the most absurd of situations.

When Lara's vivacious and temperamental aunt Clarissa gives her a clarinet as a present, the girl begins to discover the wonderful world of music. Her father observes this development with waxing unease, as he fears losing his daughter to a world he has no access to.

Torn between her love of music and her love of her parents, the growing Lara finally chooses a life of music. When she decides to go to Berlin and attend the music conservatory, the difficult and painful process of leaving home begins.

kathy's rating:

7.8

6.3

Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace (2000)

Director: Eric Till
Starring: Ulrich Tukur, Johanna Klante, Robert Joy, Ulrich Noethen, R.H. Thomson, Tatjana Blacher and Susanne Lothar

The story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German clergyman of great distinction, who actively opposed Hitler and the Nazis. His convictions cost him his life.

kathy's rating:

The Bridge (1959)

Director: Bernhard Wicki
Starring: Folker Bohnet, Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz and Frank Glaubrecht

A group of German boys is ordered to protect a small bridge in their home village during the waning months of the Second World War. Truckloads of defeated, cynical Wehrmacht soldiers flee the approaching American troops, but the boys, full of enthusiasm for the "blood and honor" Nazi ideology, stay to defend the useless bridge.

kathy's rating:

370

7.3

7.5

The Counterfeiters

Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Starring: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, August Zirner and Lenn Kudrjawizki

The Counterfeiters is the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history, set up by the Nazis in 1936.

Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch is the king of counterfeiters. He lives a mischievous life of cards, booze, and women in Berlin during the Nazi-era. Suddenly his luck runs dry when arrested by Superintendent Friedrich Herzog.

Immediately thrown into the Mauthausen concentration camp, Salomon exhibits exceptional skills there and is soon transferred to the upgraded camp of Sachsenhausen. Upon his arrival, he once again comes face to face with Herzog, who is there on a secret mission.

Hand-picked for his unique skill, Salomon and a group of professionals are forced to produce fake foreign currency under the program Operation Bernhard. The team, which also includes detainee Adolf Burger, is given luxury barracks for their assistance. But while Salomon attempts to weaken the economy of Germany's allied opponents, Adolf refuses to use his skills for Nazi profit and would like to...

kathy's rating:

1217

8.2

8.4

Das Boot (1981)

Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann and Hubertus Bengsch

It is 1942 and the German submarine fleet is heavily engaged in the so called "Battle of the Atlantic" to harass and destroy English shipping. With better escorts of the Destroyer Class, however, German U-Boats have begun to take heavy losses.

"Das Boot" is the story of one such U-Boat crew, with the film examining how these submariners maintained their professionalism as soldiers, attempted to accomplish impossible missions, while all the time attempting to understand and obey the ideology of the government under which they served.

kathy's rating:

140

8.1

7.8

Diary of a Lost Girl

Director: G.W. Pabst
Starring: Louise Brooks, Josef Rovenský, Fritz Rasp and André Roanne

The naïve daughter of a prosperous pharmacist is shy and fawnlike. The wide-eyed innocent is made pregnant by her father's young assistant. To preserve family honor, she is sent to a repressive reform school from which she eventually escapes. Penniless and homeless, she is directed to a brothel where she becomes liberated and lives for the moment with radiant physical abandon.

kathy's rating:

1672

7.9

8.2

Downfall (2004)

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler, Heino Ferch, Christian Berkel, Matthias Habich, Thomas Kretschmann, Michael Mendl, Ulrich Noethen, Rolf Kanies, Thomas Thieme, Alexander Held, Devid Striesow and Julia Jentsch

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his Generals and advisers to fight to the last man.

"Downfall" explores these final days of the Reich, where senior German leaders (such as Himmler and Goring) began defecting from their beloved Fuhrer, in an effort to save their own lives, while still others (Joseph Goebbels) pledge to die with Hitler. Hitler, himself, degenerates into a paranoid shell of a man, full of optimism one moment and suicidal depression the next. When the end finally does comes, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

kathy's rating:

7.3

5.6

Effi Briest (2009)

Director: Hermine Huntgeburth
Starring: Julia Jentsch, Sebastian Koch, Thomas Thieme, Juliane Köhler and Misel Maticevic

Ambitious German imperial hussars veteran Baron Geert von Instetten takes office as a coastal district administrator, hoping to be promoted to the colonies. His childhood love, Luise, married local estate owner von Briest and now arranges for their daughter, Effie, to wed the Baron, rather then her beloved cousin Dagobert.

In the Baron's creepy home, built and filled with exotica by an navy captain whose Chinese servant is said to haunt it, Effie believes she sees ghosts. She then starts an affair with married, dashing Major von Crampas.

kathy's rating:

7.2

6.4

Entrusted (2003)

Director: Giacomo Battiato
Starring: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Claire Keim, Stephen Moyer, Ken Duken, Gottfried John, Thomas Heinze and Giovanna Mezzogiorno

Hoping to entrap Maria von Gall, who runs a courageous underground railroad for Jews in France, the Nazis kidnap her son Thomas, a brilliant 11-year-old chess master. An exchange arrangement goes awry and he sees her die in a hail of bullets; but he is rescued by his American father, whom he has never met before, and who plans to flee with him to Spain.

However, Queen Maria had solemnly entrusted her little pawn Thomas with a precious secret and a terrifying mission, and it was time for him to move. A pawn may become an important piece by slowly, quietly advancing all the way through the enemy's ranks. Or a pawn may die trying. Retreat is what a pawn can never do.

kathy's rating:

6.4

Forever And A Day (2006)

Director: Markus Imboden
Starring: Heino Ferch, Fritz Karl, Martina Gedeck, Claudia Michelsen, Enno Hesse, Ludwig Trepte, Anja Knauer, Juliane Köhler, Henry Hübchen, Anna Schudt and Gundula Petrovska

September 11th 2001 - German broker Jan Ottoman watches the disaster on TV, shell-shocked: his partner Gregor is in the North Tower of the World Trade Center - where Jan sent him on business.

It seems 9/11 is the price of their lust for fame and wealth, which corrupted their 30-year friendship. Jan looks back at a long story of a rich boy and a poor boy - but two of a kind. In the inferno Gregor faces a decision: to die or regain his dreams and their friendship. Forever...

kathy's rating:

7.3

5.9

Hansel and Gretel (2005)

Director: Anne Wild
Story: Jacob Grimm
Starring: Sibylle Canonica, Nastassja Hahn, Johann Storm, Henning Peker, Claudia Geisler, Christian Habicht and Christian Steyer

Money is scarce and there are too many mouths to feed. To solve the problem, Hansel and Gretel’s stepmother convinces their father to abandon them, in the deepest forest.

Left to their own devices, the siblings don’t know how to find their way back home. They have no food and they are very hungry. Lured by the delicious goodies on the outside walls of a small cottage, they accept an old lady’s invitation to eat and spend the night. She promises, after all, not to eat them...

The next morning the children find out they are trapped: Hansel is locked up in a cage and the evil old lady makes Gretel slave away for her. Will they be able to out-wit the evil old witch?

kathy's rating:

7.1

7.2

John Rabe (2009)

Director: Florian Gallenberger
Starring: Ulrich Tukur, Daniel Brühl, Steve Buscemi, Anne Consigny, Dagmar Manzel, Jingchu Zhang, Teruyuki Kagawa, Mathias Herrmann, Christian Rodska and Gottfried John

Based on a true story, John Rabe tells the story of a German businessman who rescued more than 200,000 civilians during the so-called “Nanking Massacre” in China. Drawing from John Rabe’s 1937 diaries as source material, the film is a portrait of a man revered as a saint in China to this day and yet never rewarded for his courage during his lifetime.

kathy's rating:

5.3

6.9

Life Actually (2006)

Starring: Ulrich Noethen, Katja Riemann, Josef Mattes, Volker Bruch, Martin Feifel, Alexander Held, Juliane Köhler and Hannah Herzsprung

Roland Spatz, his wife Sybille, teenager Linus and son Charles enjoy orderly, happy lives. Father Roland has an important job as risk manager. Well-groomed Sybille runs a successful art gallery in town and meets with friend Hannes at the gym in her spare time. Dutifully she sees to the boys’ breakfast, though Linus would prefer his calcium and vitamin pills instead of freshly pressed orange juice and milk from happy cows, as offered by his mom. Charles thinks he has fallen in love with a guy in the army (he is serving his term) and is busy fighting his confused feelings.

Then father Roland loses his high-powered job. At first, the family reacts rather coolly, remarking, “Do we have to sell the house?” “Oh, no!” is the self-assured answer. Instead Roland intends to modernise the house, eagerly starting to demolish the living room wall. Everyone’s schedule and “peaceful” routine is disturbed. He annoys every member of the family and even clashes with his wife.

One feels sorry for this stranded manager, who had not shown any interest in his family during the past 20 years, who does not know what kind of art his wife is selling or which subjects his son takes at school. He means well but is turning into a helpless and hopelessly clumsy husband and father. He is totally out of his depth. As his next job offer is lost, he seeks help from the influential new neighbours, only to learn that the grass is not greener on the other side.

Son Linus builds bombs in his room and blows up the bird house in the garden (no one in the family seems to notice) as well as an ugly sculpture in the neighbourhood (which is noticed and immediately followed by a chase). Eccentric Florina, a rebellious, exotic looking 16-year old, fascinates Linus. A tender relationship develops, soon resulting in turbulent scenes involving the whole family. Dramatic situations alternate with comical scenes. The film ends literally with a blast – but it feels like a happy end with room for hope and positive feelings.

kathy's rating:

1607

8.1

8.4

The Lives of Others (2006)

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Starring: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme, Herbert Knaup and Hans-Uwe Bauer

East Berlin, November 1984. Five years before its downfall, the former East-German government ensured its claim to power with a ruthless system of control and surveillance.

Party-loyalist Captain Gerd Wiesler hopes to boost his career when given the job of collecting evidence against the playwright Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend, the celebrated theater actress Christa-Maria Sieland.

After all, the "operation" is backed by the highest political circles. What he didn't anticipate, however, was that submerging oneself into the world of the target also changes the surveillance agent.

The immersion in the lives of others: in love, literature, free thinking and speech makes Wiesler acutely aware of the meagerness of his own existence and opens to him a completely new way of life which he has ever more trouble resisting. But the system, once started, cannot be stopped. A dangerous game has begun.

kathy's rating:

7.9

7.6

Maidens in Uniform

Director: Leontine Sagan
Based on the novel by Christa Winsloe
Starring: Dorothea Wieck, Hertha Thiele, Ellen Schwanneke and Emilia Unda

Manuela von Meinhardis is a spirited and independent teenager sent to a Prussian boarding school when her mother dies. The principal runs the school with an iron hand, believing that discipline and hunger strengthen a girl's character.

Like the rest of the girls, Manuela develops a crush on Elizabeth Von Bernburg, a young teacher who believes it's important to be the children's trusted friend. Manuela's mistake is to announce her love in front of guests and students at a party following a school play.

How will the principal discipline Manuela and how will Fraulein Von Bernberg, Manuela and the other girls react to the principal's decisions?

kathy's rating:

2014

8.3

Metropolis (1927)

Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich and Rudolf Klein-Rogge

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

kathy's rating:

6.3

Moon Calf (2007)

Director: Sylke Enders
Starring: Juliane Köhler, Axel Prahl, Leonard Carow and Ronald Kukulies

Love hurts, as 39-year-old Alexandra, who has just been released from a two-year prison sentence for assaulting her ex-husband, knows only too well. With her faith in human relationships destroyed, Alex survives by withdrawing emotionally from life. She tries to find her psychological balance in solitude. But when a man and his young son cross her path and plans, she is forced to take a stand. Alex dares to leave her self-imposed exile and discovers once again just how thin the ice can be and how fragile happiness is, no matter how small it is.

kathy's rating:

6.8

7.2

Mostly Martha (2002)

Director: Sandra Nettelbeck
Starring: Martina Gedeck, Maxime Foerste, Sergio Castellitto, August Zirner and Sibylle Canonica

When a headstrong chef takes charge of her equally stubborn 8-year-old niece, the tensions between them mount... until an Italian sous-chef arrives to lighten the mood.

kathy's rating:

5.3

7.2

My First Miracle (2002)

Director: Anne Wild
Starring: Henriette Confurius, Juliane Köhler, Leonard Lansink and Gabriela Maria Schmeide

While vacationing on the North Sea coast with her single mother Franziska, 11-year-old Dole accidentally meets fellow vacationer Hermann and each recognizes an odd kinship in the other - while also realizing they live in the same hometown, Mannheim.

After both families' vacations end, Dole and Hermann meet frequently and their friendship blooms, until one fateful day when Dole learns of her mother's intentions of moving to France. The youngster promptly decides to run away from home, and convinces Hermann to join her on a return trip to the same North Sea resort where they met, leaving Dole's and Hermann's families in a panic as they scramble to locate the missing duo.

kathy's rating:

7.2

NewFoundLand (2003)

Director: Georg Maas
Starring: Jochen Nickel, Anna Loos, Axel Prahl, Bruno Cathomas, Juliane Köhler, Lu-Lana Nickel and Albrecht Götte

Robert, a recently widowed engineer from Cologne, decides to change his life. He invests all he has in a new business in Southeast Germany - a network of coin operated telescopes, hoping to profit from the breathtaking vistas of the Saxon "Switzerland" area of the East.

Once in that region, Robert meets Christiane, who uncanningly resembles his deceased wife. Christiane is also at a crossroads. She has a secret plan to recover something of great value lost after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Robert, who is increasingly attracted to Christiane, turns out to be just the person to help her carry out her plan.

Though they both believe they are constructing a good, lasting relationship, they start arguing frequently. They realize they have to overcome their past traumas in order to create the relationship they want. Is this a case of "lost and found" in a newly found land?

kathy's rating:

6.9

7.4

North Face (2008)

Director: Philipp Stölzl
Starring: Benno Fürmann, Florian Lukas, Johanna Wokalek, Florian Lukas, Ulrich Tukur, Simon Schwarz, Georg Friedrich, Erwin Steinhauer and Branko Samarovski

Based on a true story, North Face is a suspenseful adventure film about a competition to climb the most dangerous rock face in the Alps. Set in 1936, as Nazi propaganda urges the nation’s Alpinists to conquer the unclimbed north face of the Swiss massif — the Eiger — two reluctant German climbers begin their daring ascent.

kathy's rating:

7.3

6.7

November Child (2008)

Director: Christian Schwochow
Starring: Anna Maria Mühe, Ulrich Matthes, Christine Schorn, Hermann Beyer and Juliane Köhler

Inga’s mother is gone. She is raised by her grandparents. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a stranger shows up at their door, claiming to have met her mother. Slowly the truth comes to light: her mother is not dead but escaped from East Germany years before. An extraordinarily intense and emotional family drama. Anna Maria Mühe is utterly convincing in the double roles as both mother and daughter.

kathy's rating:

7.1

7.5

Nowhere in Africa (2001)

Director: Caroline Link
Based on the book by Stephanie Zweig
Starring: Juliane Köhler, Merab Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo, Lea Kurka, Karoline Eckertz, Anthony Bate, Andrew Sachs and Diane Keen

A German Jewish refugee family flees Nazi Germany moves to and adjusts to a farm life in 1930s Kenya.

kathy's rating:

7.4

7.7

Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty (1938)

Director: Leni Riefenstahl
Starring: Glenn Morris, Sheigo Arai, Jack Beresford, Ralf Berzsenyi and Ferenc Csík

In Part 2 of Olympia, director Leni Riefenstahl captures the grace of athletes during field hockey, soccer, bicycling, equestrian, aquatic and gymnastic events. Highlights are the Pentathlon and the Decathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris; it ends with the triumphant conclusion of the games.

kathy's rating:

Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations

130

7.3

7.8

Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (1938)

Director: Leni Riefenstahl
Starring: Jesse Owens, David Albritton, Arvo Askola, Jack Beresford and Erwin Blask

After being commissioned by the 1936 Olympic Committee to create a feature film of the Berlin Olympics, director Leni Riefenstahl shot a documentary that celebrates the human body by combining the poetry of bodies in motion with close-ups of athletes in the heat of competition. Includes the marathon, men's diving, and American track star Jesse Owen's sprint races at the 1936 Olympic games.

The production tends to glorify the young male body and, some say, expresses the Nazi attitude toward athletic prowess. Includes the lighting of the torch at the stadium and Adolf Hitler looking on in amazement as Jesse Owens wins an unprecedented four Gold Medals.

kathy's rating:

392

7.9

7.8

Pandora's Box (1929)

Director: G. W. Pabst
Starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz, Krafft-Raschig, Alice Roberts, Daisy D'Ora, Gustav Diesel, Michael von Newlinsky and Sig Arno

Sensationally modern, the film follows the downward spiral of the fiery, brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu, whose sexual vivacity has a devastating effect on everyone she comes in contact with.

kathy's rating:

6.3

Promising The Moon (2011)

[Also known as 'The Blue of the Sky']
Director: Hans Steinbichler
Starring: Hannelore Elsner, Juliane Köhler, Karoline Herfuth, Niklas Kohrt, David Kross, Rüdiger Vogler, Matthias Brandt and Juta Vanaga

A woman with Alzheimers leaves her nursing home and wartime family secrets are uncovered. Set in Germany and Latvia this movie traverses the past and present as well as the countries themselves.

kathy's rating:

125

6.3

6.9

Requiem (2006)

Director: Hans-Christian Schmid
Starring: Sandra Hüller, Burghart Klaußner, Imogen Kogge and Anna Blomeier

An epileptic girl suffers a breakdown during her first year at university, then decides to seek help from a priest in battling the troubles associated with her strict upbringing.

kathy's rating:

6.3

6.8

Rosenstrasse (2003)

Director: Margarethe von Trotta
Starring: Katja Riemann, Maria Schrader, Svea Lohde and Jutta Lampe

A young woman travels from New York to Berlin to discover what is behind her mother’s silence about her childhood and to meet the woman who saved her from the Nazis. While learning about the past she learns of her mother’s involvement in Rosentrasse where Jews married to Germans were rounded up and held in 1943. An extraordinary act of courage that would ultimately thwart the Nazis.

kathy's rating:

7.5

The Silence (2010)

Director: Baran bo Odar
Starring: Wotan Wilke Möhring, Sebastian Blomberg, Katrin Sass, Ulrich Thomsen, Karoline Eichhorn, Roeland Wiesnekker, Jule Böwe, Burghart Klaußner, Claudia Michelsen, Oliver Stokowski, Anna Lena Klenke and Helene Luise Doppler

13-year-old Sinikka vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.

kathy's rating:

6.6

7.2

The Singing Ringing Tree (1957)

Director: Francesco Stefani
Story: Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
Starring: Eckart Dux, Christel Bodenstein, Charles Hans Vogt and Richard Krüger

A brave prince wants to win the heart of a stubborn princess by finding the singing, ringing tree for her. He finally locates it in the magical realm of an evil dwarf who offers him a deal: he can keep the tree if it starts singing before sundown - which it will only do if the princess truly loves him. Otherwise, he will be turned into a bear.

kathy's rating:

257

7.4

7.6

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)

Director: Marc Rothemund
Starring: Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Alexander Held, Johanna Gastdorf and André Hennicke

A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.

kathy's rating:

8.4

7.1

The Star Money (2011)

Director: Maria von Heland
Story: Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
Starring: Meira Durand, Juliane Köhler, Thomas Loibl, Rufus Beck, Axel Prahl and Eisi Gulp

A homeless orphan girl was so poor that she had only her clothing and a loaf of bread. She gave a hungry man the bread, 3 cold children her cap, her jacket and her dress and, in a forest where it was dark and she would not be seen, she gave a naked child her chemise. Then stars fell to earth before her. They became coins and she found herself wearing a fine linen chemise. She was rich thereafter.

kathy's rating:

336

7.2

7.3

Triumph of the Will (1935)

Director: Leni Riefenstahl
Starring: Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Max Amann, Martin Bormann, Baldur von Schirach and Rudolf Hess

Designed by Nazis, for Nazis and about Nazis. 'Triumph of the Will' was filmed by the German Propaganda Ministry in 1934 and covers the events of the Sixth Nuremburg Party Congress.

The original intention was to document the early days of the NSDAP so future generations could look back and see how the Third Reich began. In reality, 'Triumph of the Will' shows historians how the Nazi state drew in the masses through propaganda and also how Adolf Hitler had a unique and terrifying ability to entice crowds to his beliefs by the very power of his words.

kathy's rating:

6.6

6.8

The Wall (2012)

Director: Julian Pölsler
Starring: Martina Gedeck, Karlheinz Hackl, Ulrike Beimpold, Julia Gschnitzer, Hans-Michael Rehberg and Wolfgang M. Bauer

A woman inexplicably finds herself cut off from all human contact when an invisible, unyielding wall suddenly surrounds the countryside. Accompanied by her loyal dog Lynx, she becomes immersed in a world untouched by civilization and ruled by the laws of nature.

kathy's rating:

955

7.8

The White Ribbon (2009)

Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lardi, Fion Mutert, Michael Kranz, Burghart Klaußner, Steffi Kühnert, Maria-Victoria Dragus and Leonard Proxauf

A village in Protestant northern Germany. 1913-1914. On the eve of World War I. The story of the children and teenagers of a choir run by the village schoolteacher, and their families: the baron, the steward, the pastor, the doctor, the midwife, the tenant farmers. Strange accidents occur and gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Who is behind it all?

kathy's rating:

6.3

A Woman In Berlin (2008) (2008)

Director: Max Färberböck
Starring: Nina Hoss, Evgeny Sidikhin, Irm Hermann, Rüdiger Vogler, Ulrike Krumbiegel, Rolf Kanies, Juliane Köhler and August Diehl

Based on real life events. Set in 1945 during the Red Army invasion of Berlin. Women are victims of rape and devastation; one of them is Anonyma, who had been a journalist and photographer, and speaks several languages including Russian. In her desperation, she decides to look for an officer who can protect her. She meets a Russian officer Andrej - an encounter which develops into a complex symbiotic relationship that forces them to remain enemies until the bitter end. Anonyma records everything in her diary.

kathy's rating: