Martin Boosfeld

Golden Years begins with a farewell that is not a farewell. No goodbye is forever, is it? Tocotronic are concerned with the self-contradictions of our existence in an ever more refined way. For the 75th edition of the Berlinale, Tocotronic celebrates the start of its fourth decade as a band at the Columbia Theater.

Based on the bestselling biography: Entertainer Horst Lichter has barely had time to relax on his holiday when his mother calls him. In her own dry way, she tells him that she has been diagnosed with cancer and that things are not going well for her. Immediately Horst returns to his hometown with his wife Nada. Returning home brings back childhood memories - of a loving father and a mother who held the reins firmly in difficult situations. Horst tries his best to support his mother Margret - he organises doctor's appointments and tries to provide a little variety into her daily life, even though the relationship between mother and son has been strained for a long time: he counters his mother's edgy, frosty manner as he had learned to do when he was young. He emphasises the positive side of any situation and is always ready to respond with a snappy retort. When Margret learns how serious her illness really is, Horst begins to rethink his own life as well.

After years of being rejected by a famed dance university, Malou gets unexpected help to prove, that she's destined for a career as a dancer - despite every obstacle she encounters.

Life in the GDR was not only documented on behalf of the state, but also by photographic artists and journalists. The documentary goes on a journey through time with some of them and shows little-known aspects of the GDR from its foundation to the fall of the Wall. Photographers in the GDR had a surprising amount of freedom; there was no explicit censorship of images. This allowed them to make visible what the state wanted to hide. This documentary presents two photographers who observed life in the GDR and whose work has been rediscovered in recent years.

An electrifying performance by German band Get Well Soon to celebrate the 74th Berlinale. Every year, the German capital hosts one of the world's biggest film festivals: the Berlinale. For the 74th edition, in February 2024, the band Get Well Soon—formed around singer-songwriter Konstantin Gropper—headlined the "ARTE Berlinale Party" music event, which took place at Schwuz, an iconic Berlin club. In addition to his studio albums, Konstantin Gropper has created the music for three episodes of the German series How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast). He also contributed to the soundtrack of Detlev Buck's film A Very Bad Plan (2020). His cinematic streak made his band the ideal candidate to rock the Berlinale.

Immanuel Kant is one of the most famous philosophers of modern times. Born in 1724 in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), then the capital of East Prussia, he spent most of his life in his native region, bringing many books to him from France and England. The originator of the categorical imperative, this key figure of the German Enlightenment revolutionized Western thought by shedding new light on the notions of reason, tolerance and freedom. To mark the tercentenary of his birth, Wilfried Hauke presents a unique portrait of this emblematic thinker.

Raphaela Holy is a passionate pasta apostle. As a gourmet and full of dedication, she embarks on a long journey through the pasta universe. - Her eyes are always fixed on the perfectly tempered pasta water.