Johanna Penski

Wings of Desire

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.

Männersache

During the day Paul works in a Berlin pet shop and in the evening he works on his career as a comedian. Things are going really badly until he cracks jokes about his best buddy Hotte and his girlfriend Susi. The audience goes wild with excitement! But Hotte and Susi are p* off. Paul has to decide: friendship or career?

Move

Eleven moving dates, eight friends: Philipp, Wiebke, Jessica, Maria, Swantje, Michael, Thomas, Dina – all in their twenties and mutually lonesome. And always searching: For a new city, a new job, an own apartment, a new, or even an old love. The search is never-ending, and so they repeatedly find themselves at a ritual gathering: someone moving. Boxes are shifted from one side of Berlin to the other, or the length and breadth of Germany, from one abode to the next as one life is exchanged for another. In 3 ZIMMER/KÜCHE/BAD, director Dietrich Brüggemann portrays existences in which relationships, social networks and backdrops are in a constant state of flux; where best friends are the only, and therefore the most valuable constant. Humorous sketches of the self-conception of a generation for whom moving has become the symbol of a life on the go.

Happy End

You live and spend your time, but what remains is the question posed by the coffin maker: pine or mahogany? In the case of the deceased aunt, the answer is clear in the opinion of the almost bankrupt gravedigger: the appropriate coffin is one made of mahogany with silver fittings, which the deceased tried on during her lifetime.

Faraway, So Close!

A group of angels look longingly upon the life of humans. Berlin now is a very different place: unified in name but overrun with crime, corruption, and—in what turns out to be a key theme here—Americans.

Toyland

On a winter morning, a mother goes to waken her son Heinrich; his bed is empty. She leaves her flat to find him. The neighbors' door, with a Star of David painted on it, is ajar, the furnishings in disarray, the family gone. She asks passersby, runs to the police then on to the rail yard. Flashbacks show that Heinrich and the neighbors' son Paul are six years old and best friends. Paul's family's deportation is expected soon; Heinrich's mother tells her son that they're going to Toyland. Heinrich wants to go with them, has a bag packed, and listens for their departure. His mother realizes he's joined them, and her resolve becomes more urgent. Will she arrive in time to save Heinrich?

1½ Ritter - Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde

The story of Lanze who is in love with the princess. One day the princess is kidnapped by the Dark Knight and Lanze starts his journey to rescue her. But he is not alone because Erdal, a turk, joins him on his journey.

Hotel Lux

In 1938 Hans Zeisig, an apolitical comedian, impersonator and cabaret actor, flees with a Russian passport (instead of American, which he would have preferred) from Nazi-Berlin, and finds himself in the legendary Hotel Lux, the 'lost paradise' of the Comintern, in Moscow. Everyone believes that Zeisig is a man named Hansen, Hitler's personal astrologer. But Zeisig quickly realizes that he's gone from the frying pan into the fire. In the Hotel Lux he meets his friends Frida and later Meyer again, still passionate communists. For the three idealists an adventure between love and death begins to run his course.

Wings of Desire

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.

Männersache

During the day Paul works in a Berlin pet shop and in the evening he works on his career as a comedian. Things are going really badly until he cracks jokes about his best buddy Hotte and his girlfriend Susi. The audience goes wild with excitement! But Hotte and Susi are p* off. Paul has to decide: friendship or career?

Move

Eleven moving dates, eight friends: Philipp, Wiebke, Jessica, Maria, Swantje, Michael, Thomas, Dina – all in their twenties and mutually lonesome. And always searching: For a new city, a new job, an own apartment, a new, or even an old love. The search is never-ending, and so they repeatedly find themselves at a ritual gathering: someone moving. Boxes are shifted from one side of Berlin to the other, or the length and breadth of Germany, from one abode to the next as one life is exchanged for another. In 3 ZIMMER/KÜCHE/BAD, director Dietrich Brüggemann portrays existences in which relationships, social networks and backdrops are in a constant state of flux; where best friends are the only, and therefore the most valuable constant. Humorous sketches of the self-conception of a generation for whom moving has become the symbol of a life on the go.

Happy End

You live and spend your time, but what remains is the question posed by the coffin maker: pine or mahogany? In the case of the deceased aunt, the answer is clear in the opinion of the almost bankrupt gravedigger: the appropriate coffin is one made of mahogany with silver fittings, which the deceased tried on during her lifetime.

Faraway, So Close!

A group of angels look longingly upon the life of humans. Berlin now is a very different place: unified in name but overrun with crime, corruption, and—in what turns out to be a key theme here—Americans.

Toyland

On a winter morning, a mother goes to waken her son Heinrich; his bed is empty. She leaves her flat to find him. The neighbors' door, with a Star of David painted on it, is ajar, the furnishings in disarray, the family gone. She asks passersby, runs to the police then on to the rail yard. Flashbacks show that Heinrich and the neighbors' son Paul are six years old and best friends. Paul's family's deportation is expected soon; Heinrich's mother tells her son that they're going to Toyland. Heinrich wants to go with them, has a bag packed, and listens for their departure. His mother realizes he's joined them, and her resolve becomes more urgent. Will she arrive in time to save Heinrich?

1½ Ritter - Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde

The story of Lanze who is in love with the princess. One day the princess is kidnapped by the Dark Knight and Lanze starts his journey to rescue her. But he is not alone because Erdal, a turk, joins him on his journey.

Hotel Lux

In 1938 Hans Zeisig, an apolitical comedian, impersonator and cabaret actor, flees with a Russian passport (instead of American, which he would have preferred) from Nazi-Berlin, and finds himself in the legendary Hotel Lux, the 'lost paradise' of the Comintern, in Moscow. Everyone believes that Zeisig is a man named Hansen, Hitler's personal astrologer. But Zeisig quickly realizes that he's gone from the frying pan into the fire. In the Hotel Lux he meets his friends Frida and later Meyer again, still passionate communists. For the three idealists an adventure between love and death begins to run his course.

Men in the City 2

The sequel of the "Men in the city" movie which reunites all the characters.

Heil

An African-German Author loses his memory and is used by a modern National Socialist Party as promotion-figure for more political power over Germany.

Better than Nothing

The 17-year-old Tom filled out a questionnaire for the Employment Agency at a vocational guidance office in his school. He falls in love with the trainee, which distributed the questionnaires. In the evaluation he gets out a job as an apprentice at a funeral home as a funeral professional.

Dogfood

Chris and Raffi two 16 year olds rebelling boredom, decide to break into an elderly woman's house. Instead of stealing something of worth, they decide to take the false teeth out of the sleeping woman's mouth. This leads to unexpected consequences...

Das Blaue vom Himmel

Johanna can't find any friends. Not in the lecture hall, in the cafeteria or in the student club. That's why she creates a lie: she has cancer. Had she known what she was doing, she would rather have remained invisible forever.