Tolle Tage

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.

Kati: A Freestyle That Stays

July 2024 •German

Four years after the end of the German Democratic Republic, Katarina Witt, two-time Olympic champion, is planning her comeback to prove to herself and to a united Germany that she still has what it takes. To do this, she has to team up with her former coach Jutta Müller and complete the toughest training of her life.

Trace of Stones

June 1966 •German

Bad planning and shortages prevail on an East German construction site. Foreman Hannes Balla uses unconventional methods to overcome the problems. New Socialist Unity Party secretary Werner Horrath is charged with bringing the rough-and-ready builder crew into line. The task seems doomed to fail as the two men compete for the affections of young engineer Kati Klee. But when she gets pregnant by married man Horrath, he is in danger of being expelled from the party, and Balla takes his side...

Sugar Sand

June 2017 •German

End of the 1970s in East Germany: Fred and Jonas are close friends. The 10-year-olds live near at the German-German frontier. After the mother from Jonas has made an exit application, the boys have to recognize that they are soon separated from each other. But they want to dig a tunnel to Australia to meet there themselves again. When Jonas should leave the country with his mother this night changes everything.

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.

Westwind

August 2011 •German

Set in the Summer of 1988 and based on real events, the film tells the story of East-German twins Isabel and Doreen, two aspiring oarswomen, whose lives are changed dramatically during a training camp at Lake Balaton in Hungary. There, the girls make the acquaintance of West-German friends Arne and Nico. The holiday flirt soon turns serious when Doreen and Arne fall in love. As the end of their stay approaches, Arne asks the inseparable sisters to flee to the West with him…

The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz

January 1968 •English

A beautiful East German Olympic hopeful pole-vaults over the Berlin Wall to freedom.

Das Wunder von Berlin

January 2008 •German

East Germany, 1988: working as a state security service agent, Jürgen Kaiser is loyal to the party line, but worried about his son Marco, a punk. As he is arrested after a concert, Marco is forced to join the army, where he surprisingly identifies with socialism and believes he has to defend his country against the capitalist enemy. While Jürgen is astonished, his wife Hanna and Marco's girlfriend Anja, supporting the civil rights movement, don't like his new attitude...

Two to One

July 2024 •German

An East German community finds millions in soon-to-be-worthless marks during 1990s reunification, and take what they can carry.

Meier

May 1986 •German

Meier, a paperhanger in East Berlin, inherits from his father in West Berlin. With this money he wants to fulfil himself the dream of his life: a journey around the world. He buys a forged West German passport and pretends to go on a trip to Bulgaria while he really is off to see the free world. When he wants to return to East Berlin he finds himself in an unbelievable predicament and his double life begins. He can't keep away from his East German friends. As with all the best comedies, the action builds up to an eventual crisis. It's a light comedy, which won several national Film Academy Awards. The film is very political, with lots of political jokes/innuendos which only Germans will understand. One is left feeling what a total obscenity that stupid Wall was, dividing one people for 30 years (1-2 Generations) simply by the coincidence on where you just happen to be in the early morning on the 13th August 1961.

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.

Sushi in Suhl

October 2012 •German

One evening in the mid-sixties, Rolf Anschütz, a chef who runs a small restaurant in a town called Suhl in the middle of the East German province of Thuringen offers his guests a unique and exotic meal - Japanese Sukiyaki. It was intent to be a surprise for some of his best customers and it became a great success. Even the local paper wrote about it - and this should change the life of Rolf Anschütz forever.

Karl Marx und seine Erben

April 2018 •German

Changing Skins

September 1997 •German

Inspired by West German terrorists, two pupils kidnap a teacher in East Germany.

Das Romeo-Prinzip

November 2015 •German

Tom does not have it easy. At the student theater, his friend Jan and his beloved Annelie play the leading roles; the inconspicuous Tom, on the other hand, makes the prop. When he realizes that he must finally take his life, and especially love, into his own hands, he turns to his janitor, Mr Müller. What Tom does not know: Müller was once a psychologist of the Stasi! In the so-called "Romeo" program, he prepared male agents to address women in Germany and make them available as a source.

Fischzüge

July 1975 •German

Das verhexte Fischerdorf

July 1962 •German

Mauritius Halbermann, nicknamed "Mauts", works as an advertising manager for Gravo-Druck, a state-owned print company. Mauts, a man obsessed with his work, incessantly percolates with marvelous ideas - and now that he has once again come up with another brilliant idea, he naturally wants to present his proposal to his boss. As it happens, his supervisor along with his entire family and some of Mauts's colleagues - including Lore who Mauts secretly fancies - have gone on a holiday trip.

Das Ist Nicht Amerika.

May 2023 •English

East-Germany, 1990. The first summer after Germany's reunification and Olli is eager to explore this new freedom. But for someone who has never left his small village in East Germany, he has high expectations. On top of that, he is not the brightest candle on the cake. So when he's suddenly convinced that the glorious US is just a stone throw away, across the lake, his sister Peggy knows not to stop her brother but rather see where this adventure might lead them. And to Peggy's surprise New York's subway is closer than she thought.

Mit Herz und Hilde

September 2024 •German

Hilde's restaurant is booming! Hilde and her colleagues can look forward to plenty of customers with their unusual meatball creations. But the cash register is not doing well at all: too many free burgers for the needy call the tax office into action. Hilde goes into a tailspin when Angie and Lore throw in the towel.