In the early 1950s, in a seaside town, Isabelle, a girl in her late teens,is about to spend an apparently eventless summer between her mother, her friends and a small job for a photographer whose business is lagging. But Isabelle is not the mentally balanced young lady she seems to be. In fact she...
Lara was severely traumatised as a child and every day this trauma catches up with her. During a photo session, she falls in love with Conrad, a writer who has just been released from prison. What Conrad doesn't know is that everyone around her knows the burden Lara lives with. Her uncle Markus...
This drama is taken from Thomas Mann's 1903 semi-autobiographical novel. Tonio (Jean Claude Brialy) is an aspiring writer and the son of a rigid aristocratic father and a music-loving mother. Wandering throughout Germany and Italy to "find himself," Tonio frequently remembers his childhood...
A young man, the soldier and bachelor type, is looking for Anima - the eternal unattainable female who alternately appears as a virgin, harlot, mother, saint but also as a witch. In his illusions and visions made up of images which are multi-layered and ambiguous, Anima changes from a romantic...
Wolfgang (13) lives on the street. One night, by chance, he finds the head of a statue for which a large reward is being offered. To collect the reward, he goes to the specified address - a beautiful, old house on the outskirts of the city - and meets with an elderly woman. Because of the...
Friedrich is a wealthy, handsome German soldier fighting in World War II. His unit is stationed in Poland and occupies the estate of Countess Elzbieta. Forced to remain in her presence, Friedrich begins to pursue Elzbieta out of boredom.
Matthieu Carriere, who once starred in German director Volkor Schlondorff's breakthrough film Young Torless, turns director himself for Fool's Mate. Michael Marwitz plays a once-famous concert pianist and chess whiz. He compromises his talents by casting his lot with a group of self-destructive...
Dad is dead. For years he wanted nothing more to do with his children because they didn't agree with his lifestyle. Now daughter Linda alerts the three brothers Joschi, Jakob and Uli, and they all gather together with their spouses Fred and Franziska at the deathbed, which in this case is a new red...
Anne divides her time between her children, a 16-year-old son and twins Lili and Lolotte and her work as an editor. Her life is turned upside down by the reappearance on the scene of Arthur, one of her first loves, whom she never wanted to see again. He doesn't know that he is the father of the...
In this melodrama about love in wartime, Angela (Ida-Lotta Backman) is a Finnish nurse in Lapland who begins a torrid affair with Thomas Schmidt (Mathieu Carriere), a wounded German army captain. Their love for each other is verboten in Finland, where the Germans occupy northern Lapland until the...
1958. In the cell of the condemned, seven men await the signs of an approaching execution. All of them recall their pasts and envision their wish-dreams.
