Castles and Cottages

The Murderers Are Among Us

October 1946 •German

After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds a traumatized ex-soldier living in her apartment in bombed out Berlin. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.

The Good German

December 2006 •English

An American journalist arrives in Berlin just after the end of World War Two. He becomes involved in a murder mystery surrounding a dead GI who washes up at a lakeside mansion during the Potsdam negotiations between the Allied powers. Soon his investigation connects with his search for his married pre-war German lover.

Luz, Câmera, 50 Anos: Presença de Anita - O Filme

January 2015 •Portuguese

Adapted from the series aired in 2001. Looking for inspiration during the holidays, Nando sees Anita as the ideal character for his novel. She lives in a townhouse where a passionate crime happened in the past. Intense, Anita seduces Nando and awakens to

Warten ist der Tod

November 1999 •German

The Lenz Papers

October 1986 •German

Four-part german limited serial about the baden revolution in 1848 and 1849.

Requiem

February 1982 •Hungarian

When a young boy comes in to see a doctor abourt a red mark on his face, the doctor's wife welcomes him into the consulting room instead. As they talk, she offers him something to eat and then notes that his manner of eating is just like that of her previous husband, who died in prison many years earlier. It turns out that the young man had been his cell mate for a year, and he tells her the story of how her husband died. She then remembers (in flashbacks) how she had helped her first husband rid himself of his sexual repression, and how she had promised him she would marry her current husband if she were widowed. It seems her doctor-husband was a man who could remain untouched through any political climate, and was much admired by her first husband. Now that her memories have been awakened by the young man's account, she ignores the repeated phone calls of her current husband and decides to rid this young man of his own sexual repressions.

A Season of Giants

November 1990 •English

At the turn of the sixteenth century, Michelangelo (Mark Frankel), Raphael (Andrea Prodan), and Leonardo Da Vinci (John Glover) create their masterpieces, while dealing with religious persecution, political turmoil, and the discovery of America.

M/S Gustloff

March 2008 •German

Joseph Vilsmaier Two-part TV movie focuses on the tragic events surrounding the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German passenger ship, at the end of World War II. On 30 January 1945, Captain Hellmuth Kehding was in charge of the ship, evacuating wounded soldiers and civilians trapped by the Red Army. Soon after leaving the harbor of Danzig, it was hit by three torpedoes from the Soviet submarine and sank in less than an hour.

Radetzkymarsch

April 1965 •German

The story of the Trotta family during the rise and fall of the Austrian-Hungary empire. Based upon the novel by Joseph Roth.

Tommy

March 1975 •English

After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him

April 2005 •German

What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)

Holding the Air

June 1985 •

The story of a war-orphan, who remembers first post-war days, his stay in Home for war-orphans, his teachers, friends, and mostly his "only brother".

Collin

December 1981 •German

The Assault

February 1986 •Dutch

At the end of WWII the Dutch resistance kills a German officer in front of the house of a Dutch family. Years after the war the young boy who witnessed the killing runs into the members of the resistance who committed the killing.

Forbidden Games

May 1952 •French

Orphaned after a Nazi air raid, Paulette, a young Parisian girl, runs into Michel, an older peasant boy, and the two quickly become close. Together, they try to make sense of the chaotic and crumbling world around them, attempting to cope with death as they create a burial ground for Paulette's deceased pet dog. Eventually, however, Paulette's stay with Michel's family is threatened by the harsh realities of wartime.

Ashes and Diamonds

October 1958 •Polish

A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.

Man Down

September 2015 •English

When a U.S. Marine returns home from Afghanistan, he finds that the place he once called home is no better than the battlefields he fought on overseas. Accompanied by his best friend, he searches desperately for the whereabouts of his estranged son and wife. In their search, the two intercept a man carrying vital information about his family.

Paparazzo

August 2007 •German

Unschuldig

October 2018 •German

A condemned man comes out of prison and does his utmost to find the true murderer of his wife in order to get his children back. This is the starting point for the touching crime drama "Innocent" with crime scene commissar Felix Klare in the lead role. He plays with great intensity the family man who wants to bring the truth to light on his own. For relatives, witnesses and even the police, this could be a problem. Between the fronts, Britta Hammelstein becomes an indomitable commissioner, exposing a fatal network of false statements and investigation errors.

The Oppermanns

January 1983 •German

History of a Jewish family, the Oppermanns, in Berlin at the end of 1932, after Hitler has become the leader of Germany's strongest political party.