Es steht der Wald so schweigend

A gay man's return to his family in East Germany begins a series of tragic events.

After the death of their father, 18-year-old Helene Raupe (“coccoon”) and her younger sister Asta come under the guardianship of the youth welfare office in East Berlin. Helene fails miserably as a fishmonger, fashion assistant and bus conductor, all jobs ordained for her by the authorities. The young woman really only “emerges” in her fantasies, where she can escape from her dull, normal life.

Paul Bacher is in crisis. If he could feel in the past as one of the most influential writers of his generation, he has long lacked ideas and impetus for a new great work. His reading tours are becoming more and more a sad affair with too much alcohol and too little public. Then Paul overflows in a drunken hitchhiker, flees first scared and later removes the body, without talking to anyone about the experience. But something is flowing in its interior. Paul starts to write again. The criticism is done, but the story about the death of a hitchhiker also arouses suspicion.

Felix is at an impasse in his family life and his job. His wife Bianca wants a separation, his children are moving away from him and his hair is falling out. When he also loses his job, Felix finds himself on the edge of the abyss. That's when a mysterious stranger offers him three wishes.

18-year old Georg and 13-year old Barbara have been playing together as children. Play becomes love later, which leads to a catastrophe , as their parents are hostile leading to file a report to the court, as Barbara is still under age.

Felix is on the edge. He has got just one thing on his mind: Valerie - his wife, who has recently left him. He returns to the place of their final break-up. Valerie's ex-lover Thomas is also here, but not for sentimental reasons. By chance the two men meet in a restaurant. By chance Felix discovers who he is facing. And then starts the inscrutable game.

After aspiring poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe fails his law exams, he's sent to a sleepy provincial court to reform. Instead, he falls for Lotte, a young woman who is promised to another man.

Katja and Johann are two teenagers who are the best of friends. They spend most of their time in a ruined fort, fantasizing about an ideal world. Their relationship becomes threatened when Johann is taken ill with leukemia, and Katja's mother is undecided on whether to stay with her husband or leave with her lover.

Edith and Wolfgang have led a fairly harmonious family life for many years, together with their son Danilo. Edith has long since got over Wolfgang's infidelity twelve years ago, which resulted in a daughter. Every now and then he visits 12-year-old Sandra, simply fulfilling his fatherly duties. But suddenly the girl appears at the door.

The furniture mover Stefan is on the verge of serving his time in the military. He has always been a guy with distinctive civil courage who cannot stand injustice. Now he has ten days left in which he plans to make a lot of decisions, not least the decision with which woman he wants to spend his life. Stefan is picky, however, and none of them seems good enough for him.

Hans Fallada tells in his published after the war novel "The drinker" the story of the agricultural wholesaler Erwin Sommer, who flees from his narrow bourgeois relations under the burdens of the new times in the kingdom of the king alcohol, whose liberty and independence promises prove a lie - the only truth of the alcohol. On behalf of the WDR television play Ulrich Plenzdorf has adapted Fallada's 1944/45 novel for a film adaptation by Tom Toelle with Harald Juhnke in the main role of Erwin Sommer.

The movie's plot is based on the true story of a group of young computer hackers from Hannover, Germany. In the late 1980s the orphaned Karl Koch invests his heritage in a flat and a home computer. At first he dials up to bulletin boards to discuss conspiracy theories inspired by his favorite novel, R.A. Wilson's "Illuminatus", but soon he and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers. Pepe, one of Karl's rather criminal acquaintances senses that there is money in computer cracking - he travels to east Berlin and tries to contact the KGB.

Kerstin, daughter of a Stasi officer, escaped East Berlin life but is pulled back when her father secretly manipulates her career. After the Wall falls, she and former West programmer Reginald use forged documents and hidden cash to build new identities and jobs, but old loyalties, secret pasts, and resurging temptations threaten their fresh start.

Radical West German terrorist Rita Vogt abandons the revolution and settles in East Germany with a new identity provided by the secret service. She lives in constant fear of having her cover blown.

At the beginning of the 50s, two extremely disparate men meet in a private sanatorium for consumptives: an officer in the People's Police, Josef Heiliger; and a young Protestant curate, Hubertus Koschenz. On account of their consumption, they have to share a room. Initially, this is the only thing they have in common. The film explores Hubertus's struggle with his sexuality within the context of both the church and the socialist state.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the paths of three people on the run cross by chance in the small Baltic Sea port of Rerig: Gregor, a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD); Judith, a Jewish woman; and a pastor who wants to save an Ernst Barlach sculpture classified as degenerate art. All those involved share a common fate and the dream of a fisherman's boy from Zanzibar, which is less a real goal than a utopia of a better future. Adaptation of Alfred Andersch's novel.

When Dr. Schmith's proposal for international research on infant mortality is rejected, he decides to leave East Germany and strikes a deal with an escape agency that promises him a leading position at a children's hospital in West Germany. But then the decision is reversed: the project is approved and his international colleagues want Dr. Schmith to head the GDR section. Moreover, he falls in love with his new colleague, Katharina. Schmith initially tries to ignore the arrangements he made with the escape agency, but they blackmail him. Things soon turn deadly...

The democratic Munich journalist and editor-in-chief of the "Südkurier" newspaper, Alexander Steinhorst, has reached the pinnacle of social reputation and private wealth. He can rent a theater for his son and women are at his feet. He then takes the liberty of publishing a newspaper with revelations about the dubious sources of the CSU election fund. CSU lawyer Dr. Fabricius sets a photographer on Steinhorst's private life to bring him down. He is charged with "fornication with addicts", but is acquitted due to a lack of evidence. Steinhorst, however, is ruined socially. Friends and colleagues turn their backs on him out of fear for their own careers and his assets are confiscated. Steinhorst commits suicide.

The fifty-four year old Dora, formerly a vegetable cleaner in the village and now cook in a holiday home, drinks her two glass of beer daily after work - one of the few amenities she allows. Her job as a senior cook takes her very seriously. With her endearing zeal, she writes in her free evenings on a manuscript about mistakes and possibilities of the large kitchen.

The fun-loving, 26-year-old architect Franziska Linkerhand (Simone Frost) works for a famous professor. Yet, she feels restrained by her dependence on him and longs to take risks. When her marriage falls apart, she moves to a small town for a fresh start. Franziska approaches her new life with vigor and idealism. Many of her colleagues have given in to the dictates of economic restrictions and prefabricated apartment blocks; but Franziska hangs onto her ideals and, as in her private life, is not willing to compromise…

In November of 1939, the British consulate in Norway receives documents saying that the Nazis are conducting secret rocket research in Peenemünde. But the British doubt the authenticity of the so called "Oslo report". Thus, the Germans continue their experiments unimpeded. At the same time, resistance groups from France, England, Poland, and Germany try to find and to sabotage the secret Nazi research base. When the first "V 2" rocket is successfully launched, the Allied commanders finally become interested in the "Oslo report".

Ralf Paeschke is a film student who has to make a documentary film about a group of women working in a lamp factory. There is brazen Susie, mischievous Kerstin, lonely Anita, single Ella, withdrawn Gertrud and the imposing forewoman. When Kerstin is suspected of stealing, tension among the women mounts. Ralf demands that things be clarified, and his film plays an unexpected role in the matter.

The years of the tsar’s adolescence and youth were permeated with deadly danger coming from some of the Boyars, the rebellious Streltsy and Tsarevna Sophia who aspired for power. But already at that early time Peter demonstrates a profound, bright intellect, a strong will and the sense of purpose, which help him disarm both his open and secret enemies.

After a breakdown, Rita returns to her childhood village in 1961. As she recovers, she remembers the past two years: her love for the chemist Manfred, ten years her senior; how his enthusiasm about his new chemical process turned to bitter disappointment in the face of official rejection; how he escaped to West Berlin a few weeks before the Wall was built and hoped that she would follow him …

In 1945, Ernst Machner returns home from the war in his mid-20s. Tuche would like him to weave for a living, but his comrades persuade him to become a young teacher instead.

The Lübeck merchant Friedemann owes his crippled figure to a wet nurse "devoted to drink". He lives a secluded life with his three simple-minded sisters and his bedridden mother, loving only the theater and music. Only Gerda, the unhappy wife of the district commander of Rinnlingen, makes him blossom...

Pensioner Erich Zarling loves two things: his daughter Ulrike and his dog sports club, of which he is chairman. But this position is in danger, so he wants to make himself indispensable with a daring move: He wants to build a sports clubhouse. He has come up with a curious idea to raise the funds: the sale of thirty state-owned trees from Berlin's Puschkinallee. His daughter Ulrike, who loves to sing and dance, is a chambermaid at the "Stadt Berlin" hotel. And against her father's wishes, she dreams of the boards that mean the world. A guest, the pop singer Balter, hires her as a replacement for his absent partner at the "Night of the Celebrities". He promises her more, but disappoints her. Father Zarling comforts her and they sing the "Rose Song" together in his tricked-out sportsman's home.

Anna has a dreary job as a cashier at the airport snack bar. Christmas is anything but a celebration of love for her, as she has no family or friends. Only an elderly customer tries to cheer Anna up. In vain: she has planned to commit suicide on New Year's Eve. But on Christmas Eve she meets bus driver Eddie by chance. While he instills a new zest for life in her, his own life suddenly collapses on him...

In 1896 the Berlin noble doctor Dr. Wilhelm Holtfreter takes over his well-to-do wife Mathilde and takes over the country doctor's office in the Prussian district of Westprignitz from the late Dr. Tochtenhagen. His decision was met with incomprehension everywhere.

In the last house just behind the western borders of Russia, between Paris/Texas and Korleput/Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Cindy Sherman, Dogma 95 and Duma 2000, Frank Castorf directs his virst video production "Dämonen" ("Demons") as a sort of post-Soviet-panslavistic panopticon in his own dramaturgy based on Dostojewski's "Demons" and Camus' "The Posessed". All that in set designer Bert Neumann's industrial-designed bungalow (with swimming pool) built onto forbidding landscape.

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.

Claudia, with her son and his new partner, undertake an idyllic holiday in the Greek islands. Ominous clouds the relationship of the couple when, after an argument, he disappears into the night. Claudia then began a desperate search for her boyfriend ...

Princess Elisabeth, the beautiful only child of a widowed queen is sent off to marry the prince Leopold to whom she is betrothed. Before she leaves, her mother presents her with a small token. This token provides her with magical protection. However, the maidservant Magdalena, who accompanies the princess treats her very brutishly, and when circumstances cause the princess to lose her token, the maid seizes the opportunity to force the princess into trading places. She makes the princess switch clothes with her.

A new pupil has joined the seventh grade and - as is often the case - is met with scepticism. What is more: Mathias' classmates are angry because he is frequently late, goes home early and, on top of it, performs badly at school. They have to acknowledge, however; that he is very gutsy. This proves especially true when it becomes a question of passing a dangerous test: who can hold out longest in the ice cellar?

Everyone dreams of a horse - and especially four Kulman family children...

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...

For decades, "Soups Hansen" was on everyone's lips, but now threatens the old-established operation of the end. The reasons for the decline are homemade: in modern times the tastes have changed, the soup of the idiosyncratic manufacturer unfortunately not. The bank wants to save the traditional house, but the new loan is subject to one condition: company boss Theo Hansen must hand over the business to his son, who now cooks his own soup ... Edzard Onneken staged this comedy with Günther Maria Halmer in the role of aging patriarch who can not let go.

A funny story about fifth grader Ottokar who is always ready to fight for justice.

A dramatic teenage love story set against the backdrop of the Berlin Love Parade.

The opera singer Ludwig Löwenhaupt wants a proper festive roast for Christmas, so he buys a goose in advance to feed the whole family. What he doesn't realize, however, is that the children, Elli, Gerda and Peterle, will grow fond of the animal, which is christened Gustje, and will no longer want to eat it. After the "liberation", the "five kilos of meat", which were initially locked up in the cellar, become a pet that the children take to bed with them and communicate with. But shortly before Christmas, father Löwenhaupt still wants to slaughter them. However, as his family protests and his conscience gets in the way, he can't slaughter the goose after all. So Gustje only has to leave a few feathers as proof that she has been plucked, and the opera singer is given another goose that has already been cut up.

Young Johanna dares to make a fresh start: she buys a run-down house in a small village on the former German-German border and starts her job in the local daycare center. With her charming manner, she quickly dispels the mistrust of most of the long-established residents. But some of the residents soon realize that Johanna has not moved to their village by chance: she is on the trail of a story from the pre-reunification era that many would rather keep in the dark...