Patrick Orth

Convinced that his daughter has forgotten how to laugh, a father shows up unannounced while she's living abroad and bombards her with outrageous jokes.

A young Saudi doctor campaigns for a seat on the municipal council, finding confidence as she combats prejudice.

A character study of a family on vacation. The emotional abyss and problems are behind the seemingly nice facade of an intact family as they experience guilt, love, and jealousy.

On the set of a turbulent shoot of a Medea adaptation in Senegal, Maja seeks solace in a love affair with her co-star Nourou. Months later, they meet again at the film’s premiere in Berlin. Old feelings resurface, but a racist incident unsettles their reunion. Tensions rise as everyone tries to do the right thing. While the ancient tragedy plays out on screen, a contemporary drama unfolds.

Canada, the summer of 1898. A group of German settlers travel towards the far north in covered wagons with packhorses and their few possessions in tow. The seven travellers set off from Ashcroft, the final railway station. Along with their leader, flamboyant businessman Wilhelm Laser, they are hoping to find their fortune in the recently discovered goldfields of Dawson, but they have no idea of the stresses and dangers which lie ahead on their 2,500 kilometre journey. Before long uncertainty, cold weather and exhaustion begin to take their toll and conflicts escalate. The journey leads these men and women deeper and deeper into a menacing wilderness. (Berlinale.de)

Hamburg. Baran, a Kurdish orphan, and Chernor, a refugee from Africa, are living in the shadows of a city that barely registers their existence. Bound by statelessness and survival, they carve out a fragile friendship on the margins, stealing glances of freedom in a country that denies them belonging.

Armin, in his fourties, is a freelancer with lots of time and little money. He’s not really happy, but can’t picture living a different life. One morning the world looks the same as always, but mankind has disappeared.

Cesare used to be a star, a long time ago. The venues have become smaller and the audiences more cruel. Cesare is on his way to his next performance with his keyboarder Joe but their way ends at a fork in the road.

Iran 1979. The Islamic Revolution is shaking up the country. Dissident Omid, who lived for several years in the German Democratic Republic with his wife, chemical engineer Beate and their mutual daughter, hears the call from his homeland and returns to Teheran with high hopes and best intentions, bringing along his family.

Ebbo and Vera Velten have spent the better part of the past twenty years living in different African countries. Ebbo is the manager of a sleeping sickness programme. His work is fulfilling. Vera, however, feels increasingly lost in Yaounde’s ex-pat community. She can’t bear the separation from her 14-year-old daughter, Helen, who is attending boarding school in Germany. Ebbo must give up his life in Africa or he risks losing the woman he loves. But his fear of returning to a land now remote to him increases with each passing day. Years later. Alex Nzila, a young French doctor of Congolese origin, travels to Cameroon to evaluate a development project. It’s been a long time since he set foot on this continent, but, instead of finding new prospects, he encounters a destructive, lost man. Like a phantom, Ebbo slips away from his evaluator.

A young German soldier named Paul goes AWOL and returns to his childhood home in the countryside. Over a few summer days, Paul evades the responsibilities of everyday life and falls in love with his brother’s girlfriend, disrupting the lives of everyone in his circle.

A film crew from Germany, filming in a remote village in northeastern Turkey, interviews an elderly Kurdish woman. She performs an ancient ritual to keep alive the memory of the son she lost years ago. The young woman, who helps the German crew with the Kurdish translation, is also the caretaker of seven-year-old Melek. Melek's father is a member of a shadowy organization whose true purpose is unclear. The result of all these people coming together will be devastating.

Jonas (Benno Fürmann) and Marit (Maja Schöne) lead an unconventional relationship. They moved from Cologne to Berlin because Marit got a lucrative job there. This makes Jonas temporarily unemployed - but one has to take care of children and household.Talking together, being open and honest and making music together is the basis of this family, where everyone can make their own thing and feel at home at the same time, a family where parents see themselves as life-long companions of their children. This modern family code is put to the test when the couple meets a pioneering agreement after 14 years of relationship -both of them do not want to miss family as it is now , but they do not want to give up their sexual needs completely for the sake of domestic peace.

A new house in a new town could mean the beginning of a phase of domestic bliss for a small family. Nina, a doctor, has taken a few days off. Her husband Frieder is busy laying tiles, while their daughter Charlotte plays in her new room. But Nina is having her doubts; she stands about in the half-empty rooms, feeling thoroughly alienated. Suddenly, without saying a word, she decides to leave...

The film tells the story of a steel worker named Karger who is living in the Saxon town of Riesa. Personal as well as professional changes force him to turn his back on his home town that he had never left in his whole life and to enter unknown territory. On his way into the unknown, Karger has to bid many painful farewells. However, he faces them in his characteristic indifferent manner.

Wanting to start a new life, 40-year-old Heli has found an institution in which she can put her younger, mentally disabled sister. Her three egocentric brothers have agreed to the plan and come to share their sister's final weekend at the house where they all grew up on the outskirts of Berlin. They find that the "baby of the litter" has turned into an unpredictable "monster". The fallout brings them closer together than they'd expected.

Father and mother are thrilled: So now their teenager son has a girlfriend. And what a fabulous young woman she is! In contrast to his older sister Milli, 17-year-old Franz was previously an introverted, quiet, shy loner. His parents are all the more impressed when he brings home the pretty, self-confident Zoe one night. Zoe quickly finds her way into the heart of Franz’s family. Or is this young woman just telling people what they want to hear because she sees their hidden desires? After an ecstatic night in the clubs of the city of Munich with a little too much drugs, Zoe has disappeared and Franz's heart is broken. He absolutely has to see her again and goes looking for his first great love.

Two married couples are murdered by an unknown person, including the restaurant owners Sardini, whose daughter is the only survivor. She can't remember anything, but criminal psychologist Annett Schuster and profiler Jan Kawig think she is the key to solving the case.

Jürgen likes Lisie. And Lisie also has a crush on Jürgen. Anton, Lisie's little boy, frankly doesn't like Jürgen. But Lisie just puts the boy in Jürgen's Passat. When he begins to tell a moralizing anecdote, the world outside the car changes unexpectedly...

Thirteen German directors present short films exploring the state of their country.

Encouraged by her father who hopes to save her from a life in the provinces, Jette is about to spend a year volunteering overseas. But love stands in the way of her father's plans, and she no longer knows what she wants.

Police officer Harry Österreich is a first responder at a traffic accident. Despite his best efforts, an entire family dies at the scene. Harry is shaken by the experience and increasingly obsessed by the fate of the extinguished family.

Luks Glück is a tragicomedy about the dubious happiness of a Turkish family between Hamburg and Istanbul, whose life by a lottery win out of joint.