Family Idiots

German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR regime.

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. During his year in seventh column, 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.

In 1943, as Hitler continues to wage war across Europe, a group of college students mount an underground resistance movement in Munich. Dedicated expressly to the downfall of the monolithic Third Reich war machine, they call themselves the White Rose. One of its few female members, Sophie Scholl is captured during a dangerous mission to distribute pamphlets on campus with her brother Hans. Unwavering in her convictions and loyalty to the White Rose, her cross-examination by the Gestapo quickly escalates into a searing test of wills as Scholl delivers a passionate call to freedom and personal responsibility.

A promising career with the police, a baby on the way... Marc's life seems to be right on track. Then he meets fellow policeman Kay and during their regular jogs Marc experiences a never-before-felt sense of ease and effortlessness – and what it means to fall in love with another man.

Richthofen goes off to war like thousands of other men. As fighter pilots, they become cult heroes for the soldiers on the battlefields. Marked by sportsmanlike conduct, technical exactitude and knightly propriety, they have their own code of honour. Before long he begins to understand that his hero status is deceptive. His love for Kate, a nurse, opens his eyes to the brutality of war.

On July 19–21, 2001, over 200,000 people took to the streets of Genoa to protest against the ongoing G8 summit. Anti-globalization activists clashed with the police, with 23-year-old protester Carlo Giuliani shot dead after confronting a police vehicle. In the aftermath, the police organized a night raid on the Diaz high school, where around a hundred people between unarmed protesters—mostly students—and independent reporters who documented the police brutality during the protests had took shelter. What happened next was called by Amnesty International "the most serious breach of civil liberties in a democratic Western country since World War II."

A 9th century woman of English extraction born in the German city of Ingelheim disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks.

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.

Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp and the crew competition. Then the gay team from Berlin arrives and Tobi is totally confused. The evening before the races begin, the storm that breaks out is more than meteorological.

Set in a warm summer in 1990 in former East Germany, it follows a young woman who begins a relationship with a charismatic farmer who is twice her age.

Mother Lissy, father Gerd, son Tom and daughter Ellen: the members of the Lunies family are estranged. But confronted with death, they finally meet each other again.

In 1956 Stalinstadt, East Germany, during the Hungarian uprising against Soviets is taking place, local teenagers perform a seemingly harmless act that causes unexpected consequences.

It is the late 1950s. Flourishing under the economic miracle, Germany grows increasingly apathetic about confronting the horrors of its recent past. Nevertheless, Fritz Bauer doggedly devotes his energies to bringing the Third Reich to justice. One day Bauer receives a letter from Argentina, written by a man who is certain that his daughter is dating the son of Adolph Eichmann. Excited by the promising lead, and mistrustful of a corrupt judiciary system where Nazis still lurk, Bauer journeys to Jerusalem to seek alliance with Mossad, the Israeli secret service. To do so is treason — yet committing treason is the only way Bauer can serve his country.

Andreas is a journalist covering a story on Larissa, a patient with tuberculosis. At the hospital he meets a nurse called Yvonne. The encounter with the two women moves Andreas more than he wishes to admit. A short film about luck and its inevitable slipping away.

Barbara and her partner Heli are professional clowns, living out their dream of an alternative, joy filled life with their two children, laughing at what doesn't work out. But when a tragic car accident takes Heli and the children, Barbara is left alone. In the face of unspeakable loss, her belief in humor, hope, and humanity is put to the ultimate test. Can her way of seeing the world — through both its light and shadow — help her find a way back to life? She bets she'll laugh again.

Rome in 65 AD, Emperor Nero's tyrannical regime has reached its zenith, Nero's self-indulgence and excessiveness brings up the opposition against him, conspiracies threaten his power. By all means Nero tries to defend his despotic claim of sovereignty. The famous philosopher Seneca has been Nero's teacher, mentor and close advisor since childhood, he is significantly involved in his ascent. Nevertheless, Nero gets weary of Seneca and Nero uses a foiled attack on his life to falsely accuse Seneca of being an accomplice.

A love triangle forms between post-Enlightenment writer Friedrich Schiller and two sisters -- one who became his wife, and the other, his biographer.

A woman tries to survive the invasion of Berlin by the Soviet troops during the last days of World War II.

Marc’s world unravels when a secret affair with fellow officer Kay forces him to choose between the life he built and the truth he can no longer deny. Free Fall – Who You Are is a reimagined recut of the 2013 cult film Freier Fall. Expanding beyond a coming-out story, Free Fall - Who You Are asks a deeper question: what happens when an honest life truly begins?

Anna is 60 and her acting heyday is now behind her. She lives on her own but has a friend and confidant in her downstairs neighbour Michel, who is also single. Reluctantly, Anna accepts a job as a language coach for 17-year-old Adrian who has a speech impediment and is something of a misfit. She recognises him as the boy who recently snatched her handbag in the street.

Isabelle, a geneticist recovering from a toxic marriage, is raising her only daughter, Zoe, with her contentious ex-husband. Zoe means everything to her mother and so when tragedy strikes the fractured family, Isabelle travels to Russia in seeking the help of a world-renowned fertility physician who Isabelle believes can help bring back her little girl.

Taking place at the Concentration camp Buchenwald at the end of March 1945, prisoner Hans Pippig discovers in a carrying case of an incoming prisoner a Jewish child. If reported the three-year-old is sure to die. On the other hand, a violation of the rules of the camp would threaten the long prepared uprising of the concentration camp prisoners against the SS.

The young Friedrich Schiller begins his life as a poet with a dramatic escape. After the sensational success of his first drama "The Robbers", he deserts from the Duke's army. At the Mannheim Court and National Theatre, he initially receives a friendly reception, but his new play "Fiesko" is not well received by the artistic director Dalberg. In the successful actor and author August Wilhelm Iffland, Schiller finds a strong competitor for the position of in-house playwright and vies with him for the love of the same woman. The young poet's situation becomes increasingly precarious; he has no money, suffers from hunger and falls seriously ill. Nevertheless, he works feverishly for recognition and success with no regard for his own health.

September 1989 in the GDR. With the change of the general mood in the country, the life of 12-year-old FRITZI changes as well. Her best friend Sophie has fled with her mother through Hungary to West Germany and the only thing Fritzi has left is Sophie's little dog Sputnik. But Fritzi misses Sophie just as much as her little four-legged friend does. Therefore, she decides to bring Sputnik to Sophie. But there is only one way to get there: over the strictly guarded border. A very dangerous adventure for a 12-year-old girl and a small dog...

Beate is an ambitious executive working at Europa, a mysterious corporation looking to expand into the Balkans region. Seemingly promoting philanthropy and investment in underdeveloped areas, Europa actually needs to buy off lands from locals in a remote valley in Southern Albania using Beate as the main negotiator for the ambiguous mission. But things don’t go as planned when she is challenged by Jetnor, a stubborn and spiritual farmer who refuses to leave the land of his ancestors.

Drama about the tragic Nanga Parbat expedition by the two Messner brothers in 1970, on which Reinhold Messners younger brother Günther died.

After a 13-year-old student disappears without a trace for a week and suddenly reappears, his mother and teachers are confronted with existential questions that change their whole view of life.

Sports writer Mark is baffled when he receives romantic text messages on his cell phone. What he does not know: His new number once belonged to the deceased boyfriend of Clara, who continues to send text messages in order to cope with the loss. When Mark's girlfriend discovers the texts, she is understandably upset. Along with his best friend David, Mark sets out to find the mysterious writer.

When Bertha dies, her granddaughter Iris inherits her house and finds herself back in the home where she and her cousin used to play dressing-up in the summer holidays. While she wanders from room to room, she gropes her way through memories and things she had forgotten: What did her grandfather really do before he went to war? Which men were Bertha’s daughters in love with? Who ate his apple with the seeds?

1928: Lyovuschka, a Soviet worker, is cast in the role of Trotsky for Eisenstein‘s latest film, but quickly finds his dreams of an actor‘s life shattered when Trotsky falls into Stalin‘s disfavor. Exiled from his homeland, he poses as a wealthy baron and finds himself stuck in a glamorous seaside resort in Germany awaiting a barge that will take him to Hollywood. A summer romance kicks off when he meets the eccentric factory owner Octavia Flambow-Jansen - it's just too bad there are vampires around.

Joseph Komalschek was sentenced to 30 years in prison for cruelly murdering a young mother and her newborn baby. He never confessed his crimes and the bodies could not be found. After being released from prison, he returns to his hometown. People there treat him with distrust and disdain.

Lotte and Louise meet at a summer camp. Everyone who sees the two falls open in surprise, the girls look so much alike. It doesn't take long before they find out that they are actually twins.

Karen, a maths teacher, finds herself involved in a traffic accident for which she is not to blame. The accident causes the death of a girl on a scooter. Although innocent, the young woman is distraught, more so when she discovers that the dead girl – Miriam – is none other than the sister of her pupil, Lukas. The more everyone around her assures her that she is not to blame for the girl’s death, the guiltier Karen feels. To her, the accident is like an equation that just doesn’t add up. In an attempt to make up for her actions at least in part, she begins to give Lukas extra maths lessons. But, consumed by his pain, the boy wants much more from her.

In this biopic, Marlene Dietrich leaves Berlin for Hollywood, where she establishes herself as an international star through various film roles.

Hagen von Tronje, the Burgundian master-at-arms, holds his troubled kingdom together while hiding his dark past. The arrival of the unpredictable dragon slayer Siegfried threatens to upend the old order. As King Gunter seeks Siegfried's help to win the fierce Valkyrie Brunhild, Hagen faces a tragic choice between loyalty to the king and his own identity.

A 14-year-old orphan named Krabat flees the horrors of the 30 Years War by becoming an apprentice to an ominous master of a mysterious mill. Krabat is not only taught the craft of milling, but is also instructed in the sinister world of the darker arts. When the life of his friend and protector is threatened, Krabat must struggle to free himself from an evil sorcerer's control in a gripping fight for freedom, friendship and love.

Young journalist Sebastian Zöllner is writing an article on artist Manuel Kaminski. Zöllner hopes that Kaminski dies soon, so that he can cash in on his article.

Horst Schlämmer is back—and he's fed up. People all over Germany are in a bad mood. So he leaves Grevenbroich and sets off in search of happiness. It must be somewhere!

A hiking trip into the wild turns into a desperate bid for survival for five friends on the run from a mysterious shooter.

The doctor and soccer player in the leisure time Jo Hauser decides to move to Berlin and be an intern in a famous clinic, expecting to increase his knowledge and expertize, and help his handicap brother Willi Hauser. He joins a secret fraternity of doctors, under the leadership of Prof. Muller-LaRousse, who is researching the use of bionic muscles in human beings without any ethics or respect to the laws. The team is also volunteer to the experiences, and is under investigation of Paula Henning. When Jo gets close to a Filipino nurse, and becomes addicted in the drugs used in experience, he realizes the truth hidden in the methods used by the secret society in the development of science.

Senior teacher Frank Fauster actually has every reason to be happy: he has a responsible job as a high school principal, a nice house with a garden, an understanding wife and a bright son. Nevertheless, he is plagued by the first symptoms of a mid-life crisis. His marriage to Elisabeth is on the rocks and he doesn't get on too well with his son Noah.

For the music historian Jakob collapses his well-ordered, quiet world, when he realizes that he can earn no more money with his original work. When he hears that a Türkpop label is looking for a summer hit, he sees his chance. Although this genre of music is completely alien to him, he decides to expand his knowledge in this area in order to find "the" summer hit and be able to pay his rent again. Out of necessity, the lover of Bach cantatas and dark concert halls exchanges his old Berlin apartment for an extended weekend for an apartment in Istanbul

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.

Paula knows exactly what she wants to do after her studies. She wants to marry her long-term boyfriend Michael, start a family and earn money. Her only problem is her fountain pen kleptomania. She compulsively takes her writing instruments everywhere. During an auction, she steals a fountain pen from an auction guest. A short time later, this man, Fabian, is invited to dinner: He is a friend of Michael's. Paula falls deeply in love with Fabian and her plans for the future begin to falter. In the end, she decides against security and follows her passion. She flees into uncertainty with Fabian.

Psychologist Kara Bischoff and LKA Commissioner Sibylle Deininger, once a couple, are reunited by a brutal murder case.

Occupation, children and marriage - everything is right with Merrit. But on the day when she wants to go on vacation with the family and her best friend Bea, she learns that her father has suffered a heart attack. Instead of going to Italy she drives to the Eifel. The father is the circumstances, but with her idiosyncratic mother Iris Merrit gets back together again. And then suddenly her husband Immo and the children are standing in front of the castle gate. Her daughter Jule is completely disturbed - she has caught her father in bed with Bea.

Three young women from the country go to Berlin to find true love.