Don't Lean Out the Window

Almeida On Screen: Spring Awakening

November 2023 •English

A group of late 19th century German teenagers – silenced and controlled by a censorious society – discover a new world of feeling and freedom outside the classroom, with beautiful and devastating consequences.

Jenny's War

October 1985 •English

This fact-based story follows a woman who launches a rescue of her Royal Air Force pilot son, who was shot down over Germany in 1941. Getting no help from the underground, she sets up her own rescue mission.

Buffalo Soldiers

October 2002 •English

A criminal subculture operates among U.S. soldiers stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin wall.

Grand Illusion

June 1937 •French

A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.

M

May 1931 •German

In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.

Pope Joan

October 2009 •English

A 9th century woman of English extraction born in the German city of Ingelheim disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks.

The Reader

December 2008 •English

The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.

It's Winter

February 2006 •Persian

Unemotional, restrained cinematographic poem, situated in a wintry and poor suburb of Tehran. A man is dismissed and his lack of prospects for the future make him decide to seek his happiness abroad. He leaves his wife and child behind and for a long time nothing is heard of him. Then a stranger turns up, a car mechanic looking for a job. The attractive single mother can’t resist his attentions. Very subtly, a struggle ensues that reflects that of a whole generation of young doubting Iranians who may want to leave the country, but hardly know how to start.

Snipers Valley

November 2007 •German

Young Bundeswehr soldiers Tom and Charly are stationed in Kosovo with the KFOR peacekeeping force. Their mission is to secure peace. Although the brutal war between the enemy Serbs and Albanians is officially over, the hatred between people continues to smoulder. When Tom and Charly rescue the young Serbian Mirjana from the fatal shot of the young sniper Durcan, they get caught between all fronts. They lose their professional distance due to the resulting closeness to Mirjana - who has to learn that her father was a war criminal - but also to Durcan - whose entire family was wiped out. Soon they are entangled in a conflict about guilt, manipulation, love and revenge...

Grande école

February 2004 •French

Paul and Agnes have been going out for quite a while and Agnes is shocked to learn that he'd rather live with two roommates on campus than move in with her. As soon as he meets one of his roommates, Louis-Anault, Paul's behavior changes - he is attracted to Louis without realizing so himself. Agnes, on the other hand, gets quite jealous and offers a bet: Whoever gets to have Louis-Anault first, wins... If she does, Paul will no longer explore his homosexual desires, if he does - she'll walk away. Meanwhile, Paul meets Mecir, a young Arab worker, who shows him there's more to life than elite colleges...

Import/Export

October 2007 •German

A nurse from Ukraine searches for a better life in the West, while an unemployed security guard from Austria heads East for the same reason. Both are looking for work, a new beginning, an existence, struggling to believe in themselves, to find a meaning in life...

Der Rücktritt

February 2014 •German

In 2012 German Bundespraesident Christian Wulff declares his resignation in the great hall of Bellevue Palace. At the side of his wife, he had to face the pressure of the media for 68 days while struggling for office of head of state of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Paths of Glory

October 1957 •English

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

Nowhere in Africa

December 2001 •German

A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, bringing with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown. While Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor.

Golden Door

September 2006 •Italian

The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century in Sicily. Salvatore, a very poor farmer, and a widower, decides to emigrate to the US with all his family, including his old mother. Before they embark, they meet Lucy. She is supposed to be a British lady and wants to come back to the States. Lucy, or Luce as Salvatore calls her, for unknown reasons wants to marry someone before to arrive to Ellis Island in New York. Salvatore accepts the proposal. Once they arrive in Ellis Island they spend the quarantine period trying to pass the examinations to be admitted to the States. Tests are not so simple for poor farmers coming from Sicily. Their destiny is in the hands of the custom officers.

Der Eiserne Gustav

December 1958 •German

On the Beach at Night Alone

March 2017 •Korean

Young-hee, an actress reeling in the aftermath of an affair with a married film director, escapes to Hamburg. But when she returns to Korea and meets with friends for drinks, startling confessions emerge.

Der Letzte macht das Licht aus

January 2007 •German

"The Last One Put Out the Light" - The Berlin construction workers Micha, Silvio and Norbert are out of work. The way out spells - Norway. Because over German craftsmen are in demand. The three with 17 other desperate people are bawling Norwegian and preparing themselves for "it's always just salmon" and fearing the darkness. Too bad that their wives have other plans.

All Quiet on the Western Front

November 1979 •English

At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.

The Devil’s General

February 1955 •German

The adaptation of the eponymous play by Carl Zuckmayer tells the story of renegade general Harras of the German Luftwaffe, who during WWII openly criticizes the Nazi regime. As a consequence, he is put under surveillance, and even imprisoned for a brief period of time. Still remaining outspoken, Harras realizes the horrific dimensions of this hopeless and injust war waged by Germany.