Meike Droste

When 22-year-old Rainer Werner Fassbinder storms the stage of a small, progressive theatre in Munich 1967, and seizes the production without further ado, nobody suspects this brazen young rebel to become one of the most important post-war German filmmakers. Despite early setbacks, many of his films breakout at the most renowned films festivals and polarise audience, critics and filmmakers alike. His radical views and self-exploitation, as well as his longing for love, have made him one of the most fascinating film directors of this time.

Two-year-old Paulina is suddenly no longer in her crib, and everything points to an abduction. But the hijacker does not answer.

A parcel carrier who has nothing to do with Christmas accidentally crosses paths with a petty thief and a mysterious little boy who doesn't speak. Nelly is stunned when Filou Sonny steals two bottles of whiskey and a vintage car from the petrol station where she has a second job. Nick, who suddenly appears between the shelves and doesn't say a word, distracts Nelly during the theft. Since she has to assume that Nick is Sonny's accomplice, she grabs the boy and takes him with her on the chase, receiving support from the elderly cab driver Gesine, who had just filled up her car at the gas station. When Nelly discovers the stolen vintage car by chance outside a villa, she sends Gesine back and asks her to look after the filling station while she is away.

Three years ago, Benedikt caused a car accident in which a child died. Now he returns to the scene of the accident, to the small Upper Bavarian village of Baching. Benedikt's return opens up wounds that have only healed superficially. Six people, all involved in the accident back then, desperately struggle to live with their shared history. A movie about love, death and home. Told with human warmth and staged with astonishing ease.

While his wife Juliana commutes to Zurich as a doctor, Freddy is at home in Constance looking after their 13-year-old daughter Zoë and little Niko. Freddy believes that dropping out of medical school to work as a nursery teacher is the best decision of his life. When Juliana is offered the position of head of pediatric oncology, she wants to move to Zurich with the whole family. For her, this would mean an end to the exhausting commute, finally more time with her family and a higher income. Freddy, however, doesn't want to leave his familiar surroundings. Even he is not entirely without ambition in his poorly paid job, because Freddy has his own educational ideas - and has the prospect.

Paul leaves home with his best friend Max on the first day of summer vacation. Following in the footsteps of Paul’s missing father, the boys venture into the forest of the Swabian Alb and into a mysterious cave. For the first time in their lives, they truly feel carefree surrounded by forest and mountains. But the adventure challenges that await them are much bigger than they thought.

Christmas Eve. Airport Santa Thorsten has his hands full: An accident and bad weather lock everyone in as they are trying to make it home last minute! Small dramas play out under the eyes of Thorsten’s tyrannical boss, the airport manager: Secret lovers Martin and Eva are in a tight spot, when Martin’s family shows up. A retired couple can’t spend Christmas with their loved ones. Waitress Anja’s boyfriend suddenly falls for her old school mate. Helicopter mom Jette keeps fighting with her husband, when her son runs away. In the middle of it all is Thorsten, and it’s his job to keep them all happy. But that’s what Santa's are made for!

Following the phenomenal success of “The Threepenny Opera”, the film industry wants to win over the celebrated author. But Bertolt Brecht is not prepared to play by their rules. His concept of the “Threepenny Film” is radical, uncompromising, political, and incisive.

Freddy Kleemann from Constance, who has moved to Berlin involuntarily, doesn't get much of the capital city feeling. While his heavily pregnant wife Juliana feels abandoned by him, his business partner Lara wants more commitment from her daycare center. Not only do the children need to accept the innovative concept with quiet rooms more readily, but the parents' tempers are also running high, much to Freddy's chagrin. His father Fritz, who suffers from dementia, worries him greatly. Freddy senses that the joint search for the right facility could be the last conscious father-and-son project. Accordingly, he wants to take his time and savor the intense moments. Freddy's mother-in-law Regina is supposed to provide relief for the Kleemanns. She likes to be there for others, but would like to be pampered again herself. Perhaps a new acquaintance would do her good? That's what her grandchildren Zoë and Niko think when they secretly register their grandma on a dating platform...

Empathy is a two-edged sword, especially for Martin. Tormented by the past, haunted by the present, the chief inspector is a brilliant investigator and, together with his team, solves the most convoluted cases. From kidnapping to hostage situations, to murder. Unable to eat or sleep until a case is solved, they all take their toll.

A kidnapping case starts a dangerous game of cat and mouse for Berlin detective Martin Brühl in the world of illegal car racing. 19-year-old Tim Jatzkowski doesn't come home. At first this is nothing to worry about. But then his father, luxury car dealer Heiner Jatzkowski, receives a ransom demand. Martin Brühl and his team encounter a shocked mother and a rather shirt-sleeved father who thinks the police should do their job and find Tim. The detective tries to convince Jatzkowski to pay the ransom. Among Jatzkowski's regular customers, whom he supplies with tuned luxury sports cars, there are plenty with contacts to the Berlin clans. He decides against paying the ransom.

The Berlin State Opera is back at its place of origin: Unter den Linden! After extensive renovations, it was reopened with Schumann's scenes from Goethe's Faust under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. Staged by Jürgen Flimm and with the stage design by the renowned German artist Markus Lüpertz

42-year-old Anna is happily single and doesn't want to be tied down for life. Her best friend Daisy, who wants nothing more than a marriage proposal, and Anna's daughter Clara, who is planning her lavish dream wedding, are completely different. All the hustle and bustle unexpectedly throws Anna into an identity crisis.

A crew from the U.S. intends to film a war drama at an abandoned sugar factory on the remote outskirts of a German city, making the nearby town, which had been a pool of stagnant water, seem to come to life. The residents are excited, each making their own little plans, until a tank pulls up in front of the mayor's house and a sudden power outage disrupts all plans.

Katharina Bruckner, 50, has to deal with many serious cases in the youth welfare office. Even at home she is under stress: Her husband, a surgeon, she sees arm in arm with a younger. And her daughter, who has to go to Marrakech for work, quickly incurs her grandson. In this situation, school psychologist Schubert asks her for help: The city-renowned architect Bremer has appeared with him with her seven-year-old son because of its over-activity in school. The boy looks scared, claims that the Bremer is not his mother, suddenly seems to have disappeared.

Sophie Haas and her team are forced to state everything they know about the committed crime in the nearby village.

Freddy and his wife Juliana leave the comfort zone of Constance and move to Berlin. With Grandpa Fritz in tow, the Kleemanns move in with Grandma Regina. Unlike his sister Zoe, little Niko is happy to be living with his grandparents. While Freddy and his trusted colleague Lara finally want to implement their own concept as daycare center managers, Juliana sees an unexpected stop sign in her career as a doctor: she is unplanned pregnant! Now a difficult life decision has to be made: a third child does not fit into the current family and couple concept of two full-time professionals.

When his partner Susanne Koch is not lying in bed next to him as usual in the morning, Inspector Martin Brühl knows immediately that something is wrong. What he doesn't know is that Susanne has witnessed a crime on her way home at night. She was seriously injured when an ATM was blown up and was quickly taken away by the perpetrators.

The happening of a ceremonial robing of the youngest daughter as a novice in a Swabian convent screws up the values of a modern family. As if life wasn't complicated enough anyway. And how are you supposed to be happy without new clothes?

An in-depth look at how fascism hides behind facades of a tolerant, intellectual and open-minded society.

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