Friedrich Schiller – Der Triumph eines Genies

Gaslight

May 1944 •English

A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.

Alarm

February 1951 •Bulgarian

The action takes place in the last years of the Second World War, immediately before the socialist revolution in Bulgaria. It centers on the life of the middle-class family of Lazarov, which is torn by the sharp political contradictions taking place against the background of the popular struggle against fascism. The father Vitan goes through terrible mental traumas, which are the price, he has to pay for his illusions that in such clashes one can remain neutral and free from politics. The partisans execute the son Boris - a fascist officer, a sadist and a murderer. The daughter Lily is forced to search for her place in the conflict between the representatives of two hostile worlds - that of fascist brother and her husband - a communist and a revolutionary.

Kalin The Eagle

March 1950 •Bulgarian

Constantinople, 1883. During an outing to the Black Island Edith, the adopted daughter of the French ambassador, is saved by Kalin the Eagle. She learns that he is a Bulgarian revolutionary from the April Uprising of 1876. With her help Kalin the Eagle escapes and returns to the liberated Bulgaria, where he is drawn to the socialist movement. Edith finds out that Kalin is in fact her father, and sets out in search of him. Kalin the Eagle is notable as the first movie made by the nationalized film industry after World War II in the newly formed People's Republic of Bulgaria.

The Heroes of September

April 1954 •Bulgarian

The film is dedicated to the uprising, which broke out in Bulgaria in September 1923. All characters, with the exception of the leaders of the uprising Georgi Dimitrov and Vasil Kolarov, are symbolic characters. The central figures, Stefan and Peter, impersonate the motive forces behind the uprising - the workers and the peasants. They are involved in worker's strikes, in the stormy events of the First World War and the Soldier's uprising in 1918. They also participate in the bloody clashes of the September uprising and suffer its defeat after they have seen too late the need for concerted action by communists and agrarians.

Morning Over the Motherland

October 1951 •Bulgarian

The university student Bobchev joins a youth brigade. The commander's council entrust Bobchev with a literacy course for members of the brigade. Velizarov and Monkata arrive in the camp to carry out sabotage. They place explosives on the dam, and attempt to win Bobchev over by means of intrigue. There is a storm: the camp is put on the alert. Everyone joins the rescue work at the dam. After a long struggle with Velizarov, Bobchev cuts the burning fuse of the explosive. The dam does not yield to the pressure of the flood. Everymen sing in Jubilation.

White Mane

March 1953 •French

In the south of France, in a vast plain region called the Camargue, lives White Mane, a magnificent stallion and the leader of a herd of wild horses too proud to let themselves be broken by humans. Only Folco, a young fisherman, manages to tame him. A strong friendship grows between the boy and the horse, as the two go looking for the freedom that the world of men won’t allow them.

The Life and Loves of Beethoven

January 1937 •French

Lyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantic hero, an accursed artist.

Silent Barricade

May 1949 •Czech

A fiction piece centered around the Czech resistance to the Nazis.

Whom the Gods Love

December 1942 •German

Biographical film about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mitrea Cocor

January 1952 •Romanian

Fury

June 1936 •English

Joe, who owns a gas station along with his brothers and is about to marry Katherine, travels to the small town where she lives to visit her, but is wrongly mistaken for a wanted kidnapper and arrested.

Titanic

November 1943 •German

This little-known German film retells the true story of the British ocean liner that met a tragic fate. Ernst Fritz Fürbringer plays the president of the White Star Line, who unwisely pressed the Titanic's captain (Otto Wernicke) to make the swiftest possible crossing to New York.

Divá Bára

April 1949 •Czech

This is a romantic story about a brave, self-made girl, despised daughter of a shepherd. She is not afraid of anything - neither night nor swimming. But the superstitious villagers are telling weird stories about her and about all sorts of strange things, even her conjunction with the powers of hell.

The Grapes of Wrath

March 1940 •English

Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully.

The Wages of Fear

April 1953 •French

In a run-down South American town, four men are paid to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin into the jungle through to the oil field. Friendships are tested and rivalries develop as they embark upon the perilous journey.

Die Regimentstochter

July 1953 •German

A Tyrolean rifle regiment adopt a young baby girl they have rescued and she becomes the "Daughter of the Regiment". In 1811, as a full-grown woman she falls in love with one of the new recruits while the regiment battles French forces during the Napoleonic Wars.

Bicycle Thieves

July 1948 •Italian

Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.

Paracelsus

March 1943 •German

The story of the Renaissance-era Swiss physician, alchemist and astrologer Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known to the world as Paracelsus.

The Queen's Lover

February 1948 •French

Exiled from the court of Spain, Don Salluste, the chief of police, wants to take revenge on the Queen. One day he meets Ruy Blas, a young student who happens to be a lookalike of Don Cesar, his nephew. Salluste disguises Ruy Blas and presents him as Don Cesar. It doesn't take long before Ruy Blas, intelligent, virtuous and generous as he is becomes popular and the Queen, who has fallen in love with him, appoints him Prime Minister. All seems for the best in the best of worlds but Salluste has not forgotten his revenge, far from that ...

Modern Times

February 1936 •English

A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time..