Stroszek
With actors Bruno S., Eva Mattes, Clemens Scheitz Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck. After they are harried and […]
Otobüs
With actors Tunç Okan, Tuncel Kurtiz, Björn Gedda The film is about a handful of Turkish people from rural areas who are driven to Stockholm where they will find a job. They are deceived by the driver and left all alone trapped in the bus in an open area in Stockholm. The rest of the […]
Dar Ghorbat – In der Fremde (Far from Home)
With actors Parviz Sayyad, Cihan Anasai, Muhammet Temizkan, Hüsamettin Kaya Der Türke Husseyin kommt nach West-Berlin, um sich hier, “in der Fremde”, eine neue Existenz aufzubauen. Er findet eine Stelle als Fabrikarbeiter und lebt gemeinsam mit einigen türkischen Kollegen in einer heruntergekommenen Wohnung in Kreuzberg. (Summary from filmportal.de .) Links: IMDB Genre(s): Drama, Melodrama; Theme(s): […]
Alice in den Städten (Alice in the Cities)
With actors Rüdiger Vogler and Yella Rottländer German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer’s block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The […]
Angst essen Seele auf (Ali: Fears Eats the Soul)
With actors Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin Available on VHS with English subtitles in USA Rainer Werner Fassbinder, already the director of almost twenty films by the age of twenty-nine, paid homage to his cinematic hero, Douglas Sirk, with this updated version of Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows. Lonely widow Emmi […]
Pane e cioccolata (Bread and Chocolate)
With actors Nino Manfredi, Johnny Dorelli, Anna Karina A comic but poignant portrait of an Italian immigrant working odd jobs in prosperous Switzerland and trying desperately to fit in. Though his work becomes increasingly degrading, he tenaciously refuses to give up and go home. This hapless Everyman is eternally rejected yet ever-hopeful. Links: IMDB Genre(s): […]
Jagdszenen aus Niederbayern (Hunting Scenes from Bavaria)
With actors Martin Sperr and Angela Winkler Abram returns to his small village and although his repairing skills are needed, people’s suspicion about his sexual preferences make his life hard. (Summary from imdb.com) Links: IMDB Theme(s): Exoticism or Orientalism; Migration and Mobility;
Katzelmacher
Produced by Peer Raben With actors Hanna Schygulla, Lilith Ungerer, Rudolf Waldemar Brem, Elga Sorbas available on DVD in the US and Germany Katzelmacher documents life in a seemingly lifeless Munich and the sudden arrival of a Greek worker, played by Fassbinder himself. The majority of the film consists of inert sequences in which the […]
Abschied von Gestern (Yesterday Girl)
With actors Hans Brammer and Ursula Dirichs Anita G. is a young East German woman who comes to West Germany in hopes of a better life. With no real home and no job, she gets into trouble with the law when she steals and is sent to prison. After her sentence, she has difficulty adjusting […]
Der geteilte Himmel (The Divided Heaven)
With actors Paul Berndt and Renate Blume Die Büroangestellte Rita Seidel aus Halle findet durch die Liebe zu dem zehn Jahre älteren Chemiker Manfred Herrfurth die Kraft, aus ihrem Beruf auszubrechen und zu studieren. Nach einem Besuch in Westberlin kehrt die DDR-Bürgerin Rita Seidel freiwillig in ihre Heimat zurück, wo sie einen Nervenzusammenbruch erleidet und […]