Abgehauen

Eine Pyramide für mich

December 1975 •German

A conference is to be held once again to discuss the construction of a new dam, which Professor Paul Satie rejects. During a train journey, he spontaneously leaves the train. Here in Wolfsgrün, from 1948 to 1950, he helped build the old, now far too small dam as a youth brigadier. He and the others who helped build it have erected a monument to this. A monument with his name on it. Is that perhaps why he is against the new dam?

Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie

September 2007 •German

Based on a true story, Miguel Alexandre's two-part drama focuses on an East German woman and the fight for her children. Spring 1982: Sara Bender, living with her daughters Silvia and Sabine in the East German town of Erfurt, wants to marry her colleague Peter, but shortly before the wedding, her father is killed in a road accident. As the funeral takes place in West Germany, she isn't allowed to got there, so she starts planning to leave her communist home country forever. Trying to flee via Romania, she is caught by the secret service. After years in jail, Sara is ransomed by the West German government, but without her daughters. To draw the world's attention on her desperate situation, she starts demonstrating at the Berlin border crossing Checkpoint Charlie

Hostess

February 1976 •German

Jette and Johannes have been living together for two years when Johannes suggests that they "legalize" their relationship. Jette loves him, but the proposal of marriage terrifies her.

Forbidden Love

April 1990 •German

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.

Until Death Do Us Part

May 1979 •German

Scenes from an East German marriage. A young couple, Sonya and Jens, are very much in love; they get married and have a child. When Sonya wants to go back to work after her maternity leave, they clash for the first time; Jens insists that she remain a full-time wife and mother. Until Death Do Us Part turns an actual police report into a gripping drama, as the director explores the depths of his characters' emotions, driving the conflict to a catastrophic climax.

Paths in the Night

November 1999 •German

Set against the backdrop of post-unification Germany, the film explores the breakdown of relations in a decaying social structure.

Farewell

October 1968 •German

In August of 1914, amidst the public ecstasy surrounding the impending war, Hans Gastl, the young son of a Munich bürger, makes a decision: he will not take part in this war. This resolution signifies a turning point in his life; a farewell to his class and his family.

Der Direktor

December 1980 •German

The school authorities want to read success stories in director Joachim Faber's reports. But they cannot simply be produced on an assembly line. Pupils, for example, use the wrong tone. The matter draws circles until the superiors finally talk about refusal to work. Director Faber is caught between the efforts to resolve the conflict with pedagogical means and the pressure from above.

Silent Country

May 1992 •German

A young, naive and enthusiastic theater director named Kai comes to a grim provincial town to put on Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Although the lethargic theater company shows no interest in the play, his spirit remains undaunted.Meanwhile, it is fall 1989. The world is changing and somewhere, far away in the capital, a revolution is taking place and it seems that wishes might come true. Great hopes emerge in the little town and unexpected events overtake Kai's mutating production.

The Baldheaded Gang

February 1963 •German

August 1961. The former Foreign Legionnaire, King, has collected a gang of hooligans, with whom he creates mischief in the GDR. After some careless work on a construction site, an event during which two people lose their lives, they move to a campsite on the Baltic Sea. With sputtering mopeds, loud radios, and occasional outbursts, the gang makes the vacationers' lives living hell. Unfortunately for them, Lieutenant Czernik discovers the connection between them and the accident at the construction site. To stop them from fleeing to West Berlin, Lieutenant Czernik and the police need to arrest them, one at a time, with King as the last.

Das Geständnis

September 2015 •German

In 1988, the East Berlin homicide squad again and again encounters crimes that - according to the opinion of party leadership and state security - do not exist in socialism.

Rapunzel, or The Magic of Tears

December 1988 •German

Adaptation of the classic fairytale. Rapunzel lives alone in the woods, in a tower with no doors. Then, one day, a mysterious stranger comes for a visit.

Divided Heaven

October 1964 •German

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 …

Plantagenstraße 19

May 1979 •German

Normal everyday life in an apartment building on Plantagenstraße in East Berlin is disrupted when a truck pulls up with the new tenants' furniture. And they include two small children - now, of all times, when old Matuschke's wife has just died and consideration should actually be shown for the widower. Even worse for Mrs. Tillack, however, is the fact that the entire male world seems to be after her 16-year-old daughter Katrin.

Ete and Ali

May 1985 •German

Ete and Ali are discharged from the army. Since Ete knows that his wife is having an affair, he doesn't want to go home. Ali tries to persuade his friend to stand up for himself and to kick the other man out. But since Ete obviously lacks courage, Ali himself goes into action and gets rid of the rival lover. At first, Mary and Ete seem to reconcile, but repairing their marriage won't work.

Der blaue Oskar

November 1982 •German

Verzeihung, sehen Sie Fußball?

April 1983 •German

A high-rise building in the center of Berlin in the GDR on July 11, 1982. The final match of the soccer World Cup is being broadcast on television. Five episodes revolve around this event: Soccer fanatic Kneutzsch is torn between the exciting match and the rather irritated woman by the unexpected visit of a lady to whom he has written a marriage announcement ... Dr. Kobermann - on painkillers - has mistaken the bathroom door for the corridor door and locked herself out. Her husband is sitting in front of the TV with headphones on and doesn't hear her ringing, so she seeks refuge in her nightgown with a neighbor, a flautist. After his ex-love Carmen leaves him and wants to return home, the exiled Andrés follows the game - in the knowledge that his father, thousands of kilometers away, is also watching...

Ich liebe dich - April! April!

May 1988 •German

The law student Caroline and the assistant professor Tom are husband and wife, but they keep their marriage a secret. While Caroline is afraid of annoying her mother Hella who ever since her divorce twenty years ago distrusts men in general, Tom dreads the criticism of his professor, a family law specialist who objects to the concept of marriage. By chance, Caroline gets hold of some juicy information: Her mother and the professor used to be a couple and she is their child. With almost missionary zeal she addresses herself to the task of convincing the two grown-ups to get back together. In the process, however, she steers both her academic studies and her own marriage into a crisis.

Dresden Oktober '89

December 1989 •German

Comrade Couture

February 2009 •German

This film undertakes a journey into the amazing parallel universe of East Berlin’s fashion designers and experts in the art of survival. For, in the midst of the constraints of life in the GDR, there existed a fantasy world where it was possible to dance to another tune, be individual and even provocative. The most important characteristic of this bohemian scene was one’s per- sonal style. But this certainly wasn’t something that could be bought off the peg in the GDR. In this parallel universe it was up to you to create your own individual image – with your own hands. This film tells the story of the desires, the passion and the dreams that were tried and tested, lived and performed in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.