Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds)
With actors Ronald Zehrfeld and Mohamad Mohsen. Ronald Zehrfeld and Mohamad Mohsen star as Jesper, a German soldier in Afghanistan, and his interpreter Tarik, whose friendship is tested by the bitter realities of the conflict in Afghanistan and by the demands of their respective cultures. When Tarik’s sister is threatened, Jesper is caught between his duties […]
Willkommen bei den Hartmanns
color, Germany, Simon Verhoeven, 116 Min, 2016 With actors Erik Kabongo and Elyas M’Barek. A wealthy Munich family decides to take in a Nigerian refugee, Diallo (Erik Kabongo), but their open hearts have not prepared them for the reality of Germany’s intolerance. This highly topical comedy attempts to bring both levity and insight to the pressing nexus of […]
Wir sind jung. Wir sind stark (We Are Young. We Are Strong)
With actors Devid Striesow and Jonas Nay. Director Burhan Qurbani’s drama presents a fictionalized version of the events of the 1992 Rostock-Lichtenhagen riots, in which xenophobic mobs attacked migrant living quarters while thousands of onlookers cheered them. The film’s nuanced characterizations present a complex picture of the participants in the riots, illustrating how the moral fabric […]
Victoria
With actors Laia Costa and Frederick Lau. Shot in a single take, Victoria follows the title character, an adventurous young Spanish woman who moves to Berlin after failing in her career aspirations as a concert pianist. There, she becomes entangled in the criminal schemes of four men who enlist her help as a getaway driver in […]
Tschick
With actors Alexander Scheer and Uwe Bohm. Director Fatih Akin’s film is an adaptation of Wolfgang Herrndorf’s 2010 novel Tschick (Why We Took the Car), widely considered unfilmable. The film follows two teenagers (Alexander Scheer, Uwe Bohm) who steal a car and take a road trip through Eastern Germany, discovering the country and themselves in a touching and comical […]
Vor der Morgenröte (Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe)
With actors Josef Hader and Barbara Sukowa. This European coproduction chronicles the exile of Stefan Zweig, the Austrian Jewish author who fled Austria to Brazil in 1936. In South America, Zweig (Josef Hader) struggles to carve out his own nuanced perspective on Germany and the war, independently of the polarization of the political extremes. At the same […]
Nicht ohne uns! (Not Without Us!)
color, Germany, Sigrid Klausmann-Sittler, 87 Min, 2017 Documentary filmmaker Sigrid Klausmann travels around the world to tell the different stories of children seeking education. Spanning five continents, the film takes us through the disparate, arduous, and sometimes perilous routes young people take in navigating their disparate circumstances, including crime, exploitation, and war, on the way to […]
Morris from America
With actors Craig Robinson and Markees Christmas. When his father (Craig Robinson), a widower and soccer coach, moves to Germany for a job, 13-year-old Morris (Markees Christmas) must adapt to life in a totally new environment. He tries to fit in at his new school, but faces social rejection from his peers. As his father, […]
Meyer aus Berlin (Meyer from Berlin)
With actors Ernst Lubitsch and Ossi Oswalda. This early silent classic stars director Ernst Lubitsch as Sally Meyer, a young Jewish playboy in Berlin who devises a ruse to convince his wife that he is ill while he pursues erotic adventures in the Swiss Alps. In a twist, he ends up in the Bavarian Alps by mistake, donning […]
Fack ju Göhte (Suck Me Shakespeer)
With actors Karoline Herfurth and Elyas M’Barek. In the blockbuster romantic comedy Fack ju Göhte, Karoline Herfurth and Elyas M’Barek play Lisi Schnabelstedt and Zeki Müller, polar opposites whose paths cross when small-time crook Zeki, just released from prison, takes a job at the Goethe-Gesamtschule as part of a scheme to recover an unsavory creditor’s lost loot. Ms. Schnabelstedt’s […]