Alexander Scheer

Autumn 1979: 15-year-old Motte’s world is turned upside down when his best friend Bogi falls seriously ill, his parents separate, and he falls in love with Jacqueline, the most beautiful girl in the world. Torn between lovesickness and guilt toward his friend, he experiences an emotional rollercoaster. Yet all Motte really wants to do is listen to David Bowie, play soccer, and finally work up the courage to jump from the ten-meter diving board — his sanctuary whenever things get to be too much. Steffi, a self-confident chimney sweep, also throws his world into disarray with her zest for life. Many years later, Motte — now a structural engineer — is commissioned to demolish the ten-meter diving tower at the weather-beaten outdoor pool. But this place, which holds such deep significance, is filled with memories of the events from that year that changed his life.

Leonora Carrington, an outstanding figure of surrealism, along with Frida Kahlo, was one of Mexico's most famous painters. As the long-time partner of Max Ernst and close friend of André Breton and Jean Miró, she continually struggles with her visionary imagination, which often triggers serious psychological crises.

The true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organize the greatest solo concert in music history: Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert.

In Berlin 1942, Hilde is a member of an anti-Nazi group. She falls in love with another member, Hans. The two spend a summer together until they get caught by the Gestapo and Hilde is imprisoned, eight months pregnant.

Andreas Dresen is one of the most successful German directors. The documentary accompanies him through the year 2023 until the opening evening at the Filmmuseum Potsdam, which is honoring him and his team with an exhibition and film series. The portrait looks at his career, his artistic work and social commitment. Numerous companions have their say.

Marga is a forty-two-year-old actress who seems to have already passed the peak of her career. After starting her career in theater on the country's major stages (Volksbühne Berlin, Berliner Ensemble, Maxim Gorki Theater), it is becoming increasingly difficult for her to find work. Not only in theater, but also in film, it seems to be getting harder to get roles as she gets older and as a woman, especially a woman with a migrant background.

At the end of World War II, a German soldier is looking for his daughter while an SS troop is looking for a Jewish treasure.

The war in the Ukraine has changed the way many European countries view Russian politics. Suddenly it became clear how dependent countries had become on Russian gas imports for decades and what Vladimir Putin was up to. However, no country needs more gas than Germany. It was only after Russia's invasion of the Ukraine that the German government realized that Russia had long used gas as a weapon to impose its will on states. The instrument created for this purpose is the natural gas production company GAZPROM. So how did Germany become so dependent on Russian gas? The documentary shows how, over several decades and several changes of government, a broad alliance of politicians and business representatives did everything possible to secure Germany's energy supply with cheap Russian gas, while the Kremlin's foreign policy became increasingly aggressive and the warnings of experts went unheeded.

The true story of an operation which was a revolution, not only for the world of medicine. Frankfurt 1967. A young doctor called Lisa Scheel is trying to get a foothold in the male-dominated world of transplant surgery. But after she is passed over by her main professor in favour of a male applicant, on the spur of the moment Lisa heads off to Cape Town. Here, she starts work for Dr. Barnaard, who, like his colleagues in Frankfurt, is planning a heart transplantation. Together with the surgeon Hamilton Naki, who due to apartheid can only join the team secretly, Lisa is a major contributor to the first heart transplant in history.

East Berlin, early 1980s: Ludger is hired by the Stasi to spy on the oppositional arts scene in Prenzlauer Berg. But when he falls in love with the mysterious Nathalie, he has to choose between a life as a celebrated underground poet and his career as a Stasi agent. A choice that will turn back on him 30 years later.

Desperate to help her son, Rabiye Kurnaz, a housewife and loving mother from Bremen, goes to the police, notifies authorities and almost despairs at their impotence and in the end, against all the odds, something truly remarkable happens.

A woman with a mysterious illness is forced into action when a group of terrorists attempt to hijack a transatlantic overnight flight. In order to protect her son she will have to reveal a dark secret, and unleash the inner monster she has fought to hide.

When 22-year-old Rainer Werner Fassbinder storms the stage of a small, progressive theatre in Munich 1967, and seizes the production without further ado, nobody suspects this brazen young rebel to become one of the most important post-war German filmmakers. Despite early setbacks, many of his films breakout at the most renowned films festivals and polarise audience, critics and filmmakers alike. His radical views and self-exploitation, as well as his longing for love, have made him one of the most fascinating film directors of this time.

Sonja Wigert, Scandinavia's most acclaimed female movie star, enlists as a spy for Swedish intelligence but ends up becoming entangled with the German Reichskommissar Terboven.

After two years, after a tip from Shukshin, Blochin finally got the chance to lure the child murderer Kyrill to Berlin. In addition, the self-proclaimed avenging angel takes his lover Pheline hostage, who is found shot shortly afterwards.

In the aftermath of World War II, a British colonel and his wife are assigned to live in Hamburg during the post-war reconstruction, but tensions arise with the German widower who lives with them.

The largest pinball event in Europe ever takes place. The largest hall that Gladbeck has to offer is used for this. There are approx. 150 devices in it. The documentary accompanies Gladbeck's Kevin Abramcyk and his friends. For them, the event will make their dream come true. There they run into Ralf Richter - a Ruhrpot icon. It couldn't get any better for the friends. The world's best pinball players fight for the title here.

Nobody captured the atmosphere of 1990s Berlin better than German photographer Daniel Josefsohn, who died in 2016 at the age of 54, leaving his mark in advertising with his irreverent aesthetic and punk sensibility. It was his spontaneous, imperfect images shot for an MTV campaign in 1994 that first made him famous.

Two friends want to stay awake as long as possible - without drugs. C. and Nike are 17, but pretend to be 20. They want to get out. Get out of the confines of the suburbs. They want to feel themselves.

The real life story of East German singer and writer Gerhard Gundermann and his struggles with music, life as a coal miner and his dealings with the secret police (STASI) of the GDR.

Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz 1992-2017. The end of the GDR gave rise to new artistic freedoms in reunited Berlin. Shortly after the fall of the Wall, rebel director Frank Castorf was appointed artistic director of the Volksbühne. His way of working altered the public’s perception of this theater. The chronological history of the Castorf era between 1992 and 2017 is told here in excerpts from the productions and in a series of conversations conducted on the long sofa in the theater's foyer.

Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Capt. Jack Sparrow feels the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost sailors led by his old nemesis, the evil Capt. Salazar, escape from the Devil's Triangle. Jack's only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, but to find it, he must forge an uneasy alliance with a brilliant and beautiful astronomer and a headstrong young man in the British navy.

26 year-old Karl Marx embarks with his wife, Jenny, on the road to exile. In 1844 in Paris, he meets Friedrich Engels, an industrialist’s son, who has been investigating the sordid birth of the British working class. Engels, the dandy, provides the last piece of the puzzle to the young Karl Marx’s new vision of the world. Together, between censorship and the police’s repression, riots and political upheavals, they will lead the labor movement during its development into a modern era.

With a t-shirt sale the two friends Günther and Wolfgang finally want to turn their backs on unemployment benefits. But this plan is not as easy to implement as expected and in the end, almost everything is different than it initially looks. But one thing is certain: there is always time of a Schnitzel.

After several strokes of fate ends a rage eruption of the otherwise so quiet power engineering technician Felix Grünler with a criminal complaint for assault. A grateful affair for his sister-in-law Karin, who forges an intrigue to gain the inheritance of her mother-in-law. She succeeds in having Felix admitted to psychiatry as incompetent. He is determined not to get into therapy. For doctors, this confirms the picture of the labile patient. But in the other patients Felix gives his consistent anti-attitude in the long run benevolent recognition.

Maik, a fourteen-year-old teenager, sets out on a road trip during summertime with Tschick, a new classmate, in a stolen car. The two share life changing experiences during the eventful journey.

Lou Andreas-Salomé, the woman who enraptured 19th century Europe’s greatest minds, recounts her life to Ernst Pfeiffer in this German film directed by Cordula Kablitz-Post. A published novelist, poet and essayist, Salomé’s desire to live a life free from convention scandalized society but spurred genius and passion in others, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Rée and her lover, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Under the tutelage of Sigmund Freud, she became the first female psychoanalyst.

Mirko Talhammer is beyond himself when two strange guys show up in his noble insurance office and remind him where he really comes from: from a scrapyard in the provinces, where careers are not what counts, other things are more important: scrapping things, the family, and every once in a while, a nice fist fight. Mirko left all that behind, but his father messes things up big time when he dies and leaves his son the run down scrapyard - together with his brother Letscho. And Letscho is still ticked off that Mirko deserted the clan. But soon the brothers realize that the Talhammers only have a future if they can pull themselves together and fulfill their father's last wish: to rob a train like real professionals! The coup itself is like a suicide mission, but then Kercher, the Talhammer's biggest nemesis, gets wind of things...

After a massive party one evening, 17-year-old Tina begins experiencing nightmares in which she is haunted by an unusual creature.

1980: 19 year old Robert, fed up with Hippy phoniness and bourgeoise narrow mindedness alike, flees the German provinces for West Berlin. A tour de force through the glorious dirt of West Berlin ensues. Full of sex, drugs, love and PUNK.

Life could be so good for the children of Bollersdorf if the town had not been discovered by the Society for Consumer Research because of its mediocrity. New products are to be tested here. The market researchers know that what the people of Bollersdorf like sells well everywhere. But while the local parents enthusiastically take part, their children quickly get fed up with the annoying product testers. Even more so when they want to send their beloved grandmas and grandpas to a care home to bring the average age back into line. This is a case for the coati gang! Together with the clever coati Quatsch, the children hatch a clever plan: With adventurous inventions and crazy world records, they want to prove Bollersdorf's uniqueness so that the consumer researchers finally disappear again...

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.

The two friends Nora and Isabel, both disabled, try to lead normal lives. Strangely enough, it is their family, well-meaning friends and care workers who appear not to want normality at all. When Nora decides to marry her immigrant lover Amadou, her family does everything in its power to stop her.

Mona is fed up: while she keeps herself and her baby Bobby afloat with mini-jobs, Bobby's father celebrates his new girlfriend at every party in town. When Eddy announces his wedding, Mona sends him a smelly diaper - anonymously. Eddy catches on and sets off in search of the sender.

Chlodwig Pullmann is a tax inspector and is involved in a thousand little deals and tricks - with the knowledge of Mayor Karsten Leimer, who has a lot more dirt on him. Pullmann's wife Jenny, on the other hand, fights against corruption in a citizens' initiative and is of course not allowed to know anything about her husband's deviations. When Pullmann gets a new superior who keeps a close eye on him, things get tight - and in order not to jeopardize his marriage, he decides to go straight. The only question is whether he will succeed.

Christmas is just two weeks away, it is pouring with rain, and Ben is struggling to get into the Christmas spirit. Suddenly, Bens life takes a turn for the better when Santa Niklas Goodfellow and his Christmas caravan come crashing down to Earth in the middle of thunderstorm and land in Foggy Lane. Santa is on the run from the ruthless Gerold Geronimus Goblynch and his army of nutcrackers who have outlawed all of the old magical ways and have transformed the bright and peaceful Christmas world into a dark and hostile place, governed by greed and money. Goblynch has banned work for all Santas and confined the Christmas angels to tiny prison cells, where they can no longer hear the dearest wishes of children. Goblynch also wants to force Santa Niklas Goodfellow, the last real Santa, to work for his commercialized Christmas company and forces him to do hard labour in the ordering department of the Christmas Palace.

Hanna and Simon are in a 20 year marriage with an unexciting relationship. By chance, they both meet and start separate affairs with Adam. Adam has no idea that his two lovers are married, until they are all found out when Hanna becomes pregnant, with the natural doubts stemming from their situation.

A German flight attendant's life spirals downward after she leaves her husband, quits her job, and joins a radical group of animal rights activists.

The story of Venezuelan revolutionary, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the OPEC headquarters in 1975 before being caught by the French police.

While searching for a serial killer in Berlin's tunnel system, investigator Maik Brunner is hit by a subway train. He wakes up in hospital - in the GDR, in 1984! Lieutenant Kempe is already waiting for him - she is working with him on a series of murders very similar to the one in 2009. Here, too, the perpetrator has poisoned his victims. And here, too, he knows his way around the underground. If Brunner catches the perpetrator in 1984, he could save his girlfriend. In 2009, she is in the hands of the madman...

The young prince decides to take revenge:putting himself insane, he wants to enlighten the murder of his father. Hamlet travels to England for a year and returns to kill the 11 uncles and save his mother.

The era of the feared sea pirates Klaus Störtebeker and Gödeke Michels is coming to an end. After a long period with no booty at last a bulging ship appears on the horizon. However, Störtebeker is badly wounded in the attempted capture and the pirates suffer ignominious defeat. Not only their ship is down the drain - Störtebeker himself is suddenly plagued by anxiety and doubt about his very existence as a pirate. He is drawn to the beautiful country girl Bille, while Michels gets rebuffed by the friesian princess Okka. In the very moment that the crew have mutinied and co-captain Michels is literally at the end of his tether, they discover on board their ramshackle old tub a most unique wonder weapon. Glory days are quickly revived - until the mighty Hanse consolidate their power and weaponry and go to war against the pirates. Störtebeker and Michels are forced to decide: To live as a farmer or to die as a pirate.

Amira, an aspiring young dancer, is cast out of her uncle's home in Tangiers when she refuses to either get married or become a housemaid. She finds refuge in the apartment of some girlfriends who earn their living as prostitutes. Pia and Tom, a young German couple, have come to Morocco seeking musical inspiration. When they meet her in a nightclub, Amira's sensual dancing inspires the thought of a potential love triangle that might help stimulate Pia's stagnant relationship with Tom. Amira, with ulterior motives, embraces the idea of an affair with Tom, hoping this might provide an opportunity to change her fate.

My foreign subsidiary: TV-drama about a retired civil servants (Götz George) who wins a new relationship with his unloved son by the sudden death of his daughter.

Based on a true story, Mrs. Ratcliffe's Revolution is the tale of a family from Bingley in Yorkshire, who defect to East Germany. Here they find a nightmare of rationing, censorship and the most spied upon people in history rather than the Marxist utopia they were expecting. But if they thought getting in was difficult wait until they try to get out.

Achim Bornhak's movie focuses on the restless life of Uschi Obermaier, the icon of the 1968 movement in Germany and groupie. At the age of 16, Uschi is bored by her job in a photo lab, but soon becomes the "it girl" of Munich's club scene. When she gets to know Rainer Langhans, they move to Berlin and live in "Kommune 1", the first politically-motivated commune in Germany. While the other occupants claim she isn't political enough, Uschi just wants to have fun, works as fashion model and leads international music stars in temptation.

Everyone is addicted to Lulu. As a symbol of the seductress, she drags everyone around her into the abyss: the elderly Dr. Goll, the mediocre painter Schwarz, her foster father Dr. Schön and the lesbian Countess Geschwitz - all succumb to her beauty and pay with their lives.

A great mosaic, a labyrinth of scenes, dialogue splinters, interviews, portraits of people surrounding Hamlet and wanting to be part of his story.

Josh is about to turn 30; he's mentally retarded, and likes to play at being a vampire. His sister Nicole is 15, and dealing with her impending womanhood; middle brother Mike is the "normal" one, but in some ways the most childish - his latest conquest is Nadine, who runs the dog kennel at his security guard job. Nic is fixated on getting laid, and watches Mike and Nadine through the skylight with Josh. Josh also gets fixated on sex, though he has no clear idea what it's all about, and in particular on Nadine; to Mike's chagrin, she seems more interested in Josh than in him.

A man's wife has disappeared; her diary gives the police detailed account of their sexual life.

Edward Kaminsky, an aging ad man, wants a golden parachute from his agency; he must first land the Opel auto contract. Rosa, a youth with wealthy parents, wants to establish herself as an artist. The clumsy and enthusiastic Viktor, not quite honest, wants work. When he wanders into Kaminsky's meeting with Opel and says something about irony, the Opel director wants him in on the campaign. Then he steals an idea from Rosa that the Opel director loves. Before Rosa discovers he's expropriated her idea, Rosa and Viktor become lovers. Father-son feelings materialize between Kaminsky and Viktor. Can the impulsive Viktor hold it together before Rosa learns the truth and flies away?

A group of kids grow up on the short, wrong (east) side of the Sonnenallee in Berlin, right next to one of the few border crossings between East and West reserved for German citizens. The antics of these kids, their families, of the "West German" friends and relatives who come to visit, and of the East German border guards, all serve to illustrate the absurdity of everyday life on the Sonnenallee, and therefore throughout the former East Germany.