Comedian Harmonists tells the story of a famous, German male sextet, five vocals and piano, the "Comedian Harmonists", from the day they meet first in 1927 to the day in 1934, when they become banned by the upcoming Nazis, because three of them are Jewish.
Kurt and Lydia are planning a relaxed vacation at the Gripsholm castle in Sweden . What Lydia does not know is that for Kurt, a well-known publicist, the journey is actually a flight from encroaching fascism and a direct threat from the Nazis.
Lake Lucerne in 1868: a passionate and forbidden affair flares up between the gifted composer Richard Wagner and the much younger Cosima von Bülow - the aristocrat is already married and the mother of four children. Contrary to all conventions, the two publicly confess their love - and break a...
The true story of the Bavarian Tailor Albrecht Berblinger who, after a strange encounter with a balloon starts building a flying machine. Although not an engineer by profession, he never gives up. No matter how many obstacles are put in his way nor how many failures he endures, his ardour is never...
The wealthy industrialist Ernst Schmitt has to take a step back for health reasons. But first he wants to arrange his succession, as he doesn't trust the manager of his chocolate factory. Without further ado, he pretends that his chauffeur is his millionaire boss and that he is his own driver. This...
Die Ausgesperrten revolves around an unlikely group of 4 youths in Vienna who band together, each for different reasons, to mug people. Two are fraternal twins, the third a blue-collar worker, the fourth the privileged daughter of wealthy parents who "needs a little dirt in her life". The story...
On the Faroe Islands, people eke out a meagre existence by catching birds. Merchant Brause pays them little and does a good business. This comes under threat when Dr. Sten Horn suspects that the dangerous annual plague, which kills dozens of inhabitants, is transmitted by birds. Brause forces the...
A poetic attempt to show the state of mind of people critical of the regime in Prague who vacillate between their love of their homeland and their desire to emigrate, illustrated by the example of a philosophy professor who has to work as a gravedigger and luggage transporter at the airport.
The Jewish antiques dealer Siegfried Rabinovicz is on his way from New York to Hamburg where he is about to testify as the principal witness in a murder case. During a stop-over, an airport hostess talks him into giving up his seat on the connecting flight to another passenger. While Rabinovicz is...
Sophie "inherits" her uncle's preserved whale and finds out that whoever sleeps in the whale's belly with her will be granted one wish, causing chaos and hatred in the village.
Set in an old suburb of Vienna traversed by the local railway line and full of old dilapidated houses. In this district, and old man lives and when his neighbour dies and new tenants move in his existence is transformed.
Based on the many observations made during his extremely interesting and far from dull life, Dr. Döblinger relates four episodes in which he wants to give us a picture of the loneliness and incomprehensibility of mankind.
Following a man's confession of the murder of a prostitute and the arrest of an innocent man, a Catholic priest finds himself in a profound moral dilemma because he is bound by the seal of confession. In order to help the wrongfully arrested man, the priest takes up the investigation and puts...