Goethe on Demand

Heists gone wrong, chance encounters, and lots of clubbing—there’s no end to what happens when the lights turn off (or stay on) in Berlin after dusk. With German cinema classics like The Murderers Are Among Us (1946), to incredible anecdotes about fabled nightlife haunts in Berlin Bouncer (2019), to lovers crossing the Berlin Wall in Westler (1985), and contemporary gems like Elbow (2024), “Berlin Nights” provides a sweeping survey of the iconic city’s nocturnal potential and the range of characters who find themselves at the center of it all.

Free streaming December 22 through January 31.

Adapted from the 2025 film series at the Goethe-Institut Chicago and presented as part of AMONG FRIENDS – UNTER FREUNDEN, a campaign of the Goethe-Institut USA to celebrate and strengthen transatlantic friendship.

Program

The Murderers Are Among Us (1946)
Dir. Wolfgang Staudte
After three years in a concentration camp, artist Susanne returns to Berlin to find that Hans, a traumatized German officer, has taken up residence in her apartment. Under Susanne’s care, Hans gathers his strength and decides to take revenge on his former captain.

The Endless Night (1963)
Dir. Will Tremper
A thick fog rolls into Berlin’s Tempelhof airport, preventing all planes from taking off or landing. Unlikely stories of lies, adultery, and failure unfold as a diverse collection of passengers—a Polish jazz band, a broke starlet, a farmer, a shady businessman—find ways to kill time.

Ticket of No Return (1979)
Dir. Ulrike Ottinger
An enigmatic, unnamed woman buys a ticket to Berlin with the goal of drinking her way into oblivion. Decked out in eye-popping couture, she downs cognacs while wading through a city populated by rockers, punks, writers, artists, taxi drivers, and—of course—fellow drunks.

Tonight and Tomorrow Morning (1979)
Dir. Dietmar Hochmuth
Bored with the day-to-day, a 30-something dentist in East Berlin decides to spend Friday night out for a change. The whimsical characters that she encounters in the streets, with lives so different from her own, stay with her as she and her husband savor the next lazy Saturday morning.

City of Lost Souls (1983)
Dir. Rosa von Praunheim
Led by trans icon Angie Stardust, a raunchy group of eccentrics can be found flipping burgers and singing the blues at the Hamburger Queen diner: a big-dreaming Southern belle, an erotic trapeze artist duo, an occultist spiritual therapist, and a nymphomaniac giving English lessons.

Westler (1985)
Dir. Wieland Speck
West Berliner Felix takes a day trip to East Berlin, spots Thomas on the sidewalk, and quickly falls for him. A few rounds of drinks turn into a star-crossed romance, threatened on both sides of the Wall by government surveillance, strict curfews, and the forbidden desire to challenge borders.

Coming Out (1989)
Dir. Heiner Carow
East German high school teacher Philipp is engaged to his colleague, Tanja. When he falls for Matthias one night at a gay bar, Philipp finds himself torn between his affection for Tanja, his long-repressed homosexuality, and his fear of showing the world who he truly is.

The Drifter (2010)
Dir. Tatjana Turanskyj
Recently unemployed and separated from her husband, 40-year-old Greta wanders trance-like through the city and its job centers, call centers, bars, and suburbs. In a globalized, post-modern Berlin, the flexibility of 21st-century work seems to offer her only booze-filled precarity.

In the Shadows (2010)
Dir. Thomas Arslan
Fresh out of prison, steely and exacting professional criminal Trojan must start over from scratch. He plans an armored car robbery with the help of an old girlfriend, but a corrupt cop and a former boss force him into increasingly dangerous and desperate acts to secure his livelihood.

Berlin Bouncer (2019)
Dir. David Dietl
Sven, Frank, and Smiley have all found themselves in the most important position at Berlin’s famed clubs: the front door. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the emergence of the 90s underground scene, to their own middle age, they reflect on their place as the guardians of the city’s nightlife.

Elbow (2024)
Dir. Aslı Özarslan
On her 18th birthday, Turkish-German Hazal and her friends hit the clubs to escape the pressures of adolescence. When a harassment incident on the subway escalates to deadly consequences, Hazal is forced to flee Berlin for an uncertain future in Istanbul, a city she doesn’t know.