German Filmmakers and Movies

The new film from Edgar Reitz, Die andere Heimat. Chronik einer Sehnsucht comes out in German theaters on October 4th 2013. We spoke with the director about how the cycle of leaving and returning has influenced his life.More ...

Hans Jürgen Syberberg is one of the most controversial chroniclers of Germany cultural history – not least because of the influence of Richard Wagner on the work of this German film-maker and artist.More ...

Enchanted stretches of land like the Curonian Spit hold a magical attraction for documentary filmmaker Volker Koepp. Curonian Spit looks back at this past, while at the same time looking ahead to the future.More ...

The German director Andreas Dresen is particularly interested in the concept of critical examination – in his films about grassroots democracy, as a lay judge, jury member and in everyday life.More ...

Over the decades, cinema has again and again succeeded in making captivating comedies out of complete idleness, from Charlie Chaplin‘s Tramp to Federico Fellini‘s “Vitelloni”.More ...

Love triangles, police genre, essayistic items: Dominik Graf’s television and cinema films always stand out from the rest. This exceptional filmmaker turned 60 in September 2012.More ...

Most people only know Werner Herzog as the director who worked with Klaus Kinski. Almost unnoticed by much of the German public, however, Herzog has spent the last 25 years of his life becoming a world-famous documentary filmmaker.More ...

The pioneer of the German gay movement turns 70. He shook up West Germany with his outing actions and made numerous, mainly queer films.More ...

It is summer 1992 and two men lie dead in a field near the German-Polish border. The case drags on for years and is eventually closed – unsolved. Nearly 20 years later, a documentary film called “Revision” is looking for some answers.More ...

By the mid-1980s, teenagers from the former East Germany (DDR) had discovered the skateboard. It gave them a sense of liberation from the old rules and rivalries. “This ain’t California” is a film about friendship and youth.More ...

All that glitters is not gold. In her documentary Work Hard – Play Hard, Carmen Losmann takes a look behind the scenes of an ostensibly attractive world of work - a film worth seeing.More ...

Margarethe von Trotta speaks in an interview about her new film “Hannah Arendt”. The project takes Trotta on-location in different countries and sees her teaming up with Barbara Sukowa.More ...

Twenty-five years after his cult TV series, Kir Royal, director Helmut Dietl has now come released a sort of “sequel” for the big screen. Zettl focuses on the high-flying career of a ruthless media man in Berlin. As satire, however, the frigid figures in Zettl fail to warm up to viewers.More ...

Halt auf freier Strecke is a moving work by much-accoladed film director Andreas Dresen in which he deals with dying and saying goodbye. And once again, he shows an impressive ability to devote himself unflinchingly to sensitive subjects.More ...

The Soviet Union came to an end 20 years ago. What brought about the system’s sudden collapse? “Farewell Comrades!” traces the extraordinary stories of ordinary people.More ...

He is one of Germany’s greatest comics. Loriot never really wanted to make cinema films, but allowed himself to be persuaded at the age of 65.More ...

“Under Control”, a film by Volker Sattel, celebrated its premier in February 2011, uninfluenced by the incidents in Fukushima. It is a documentary that takes a closer look at nuclear power plants. We interviewed the director about his film.More ...

Youtube can be a suitable platform for young, still unknown filmmakers, enabling them to present their projects and get themselves known.More ...

Michael Verhoeven financed his medicine studies with his work in theatre and films. Afterwards he even worked for a while as a doctor and a film director.More ...

Plato’s Academy, made by the Greek director Filippos Tsitos, is not just a remarkable film but also a laconically tragic comedy on a rather serious subject – xenophobia.More ...

Philipp Stölzl’s feature film “Goethe!” portrays the young poet and philosopher - his passion and his pain.More ...

After the success of his “Heimat” (Homeland) trilogy the early films of author and director, Edgar Reitz, sank into oblivion. For the Arthaus Edited Collection however his most important early feature and short films have now been superbly restored.More ...

An interview with Hans Günther Pflaum about the life and times of Werner Herzog, his work and a joyride on a motorbike.More ...

He has been dead for over 30 years. What have we been left with anyway?More ...

“The White Ribbon” (Das weiße Band) has been nominated for an Oscar in the category of “Best Foreign Film”.More ...

In her first novel, “Soul Kitchen”, Jasmin Ramadan recounts the events that lead up to Fatih Akin’s new film.More ...

Sung-Hyung Cho, the Korean-born filmmaker, uses the German word “Heimatfilm” - a sentimental film in an idealised regional setting - to describe the documentaries she makes. She has lived in Germany for 20 years now. Her award-winning debut film, “Full Metal Village”, was set in the German provinces. Her new film is called “Endstation der Sehnsüchte” (English title: Home From Home). It is about a German village in South Korea. Sung-Hyung Cho talked to goethe.de about the quest to find one’s homeland.

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They started shooting in the East German provinces back in 1961 and carried on until 2008 and the whole project turned out to be a milestone in cinematic history. Barbara and Winfried Junge spent more or less their whole professional lives filming the trials and tribulations of a school class in the GDR, opening up new documentary vistas for audiences all over the world.More ...

After films like “Rosenstrasse” (2003) and more recently “I Am The Other Woman” (2006), as well as an episode of the German detective series “Tatort” set in Frankfurt (2007), Margarethe von Trotta has now succeeded in bringing the life and times of Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179) to the screen with Barbara Sukowa in the leading role.More ...

If anybody has mastered the art of adapting literature to the silver screen, then it surely has to be Volker Schlöndorff. He can look back at a creative output of almost 30 films and there are most definitely still a few more to come. On 31st March 2009 he turned 70.More ...

In her films the Munich director and Oscar winner, Caroline Link, places great emphasis on the subject of family. She has now made her fourth feature film called “Im Winter ein Jahr” (international title - A Year Ago In Winter) – an intense family drama.More ...