Max Stricker, an old anti-fascist, informs a class of eighth graders before their planned visit to the former concentration camp in Buchenwald. But the boys and girls are not very interested in Max′s lecture and instead stop his lecture with their constant interferences. On the trip to...
Married couple Peter and Felicitas Kallweit are facing an extraordinary marital test: at the same time, the purchase of a new, more prestigious car and a trip abroad seem possible. They have to make a choice between the two.
A border region village between the Czech Republic and Germany tells the love story of TOMMY (19) from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and JULIA (18) coming from a wealthy family. Julia is getting unexpectedly pregnant. Against their parents opinion Julia and Tommy want to build a future with...
East Berlin, 1989: 30-year-old photojournalist Georg follows a beautiful, mysterious dancer Miss Albena. Blinded by love, he dreams about her. His imagination and reality – a world in the midst of radical social change – get mixed up.
Ella Talbach lives a settled, middle-class life alongside her husband Manfred, who is currently campaigning for re-election as mayor. On her 60th birthday, her granddaughter Lili arranges a surprise visit from the Viennese musician Franz, of whom she only knows that he recorded a tango record with...
A film about the time of the blast furnaces – 1917–1933 – about the development of an industry, about perfect machinery which had to run itself to the point of its own destruction.
When rail lines are cut and workers laid off, Kurt Grantke sabotages the Commercial Railway to protect his town. Despite no injuries or evidence, the line to Storchenroda closes. Caught by Commissar Stahl, Kurt is freed by friends and, with his new wife, joins fellow railway workers in emigrating...
Seventeen-year-old apprentice Jonas, struggling with his ailing, proud father, pours himself into restoring a decaying ship on a Mecklenburg lake. Neglecting all else, he loses his girlfriend and support at work. After the boat burns, a reconciliatory vocational ceremony reunites him with his...
Young construction worker Ralf Reider leaves his home village Katzsprung in the Rhön mountains during the "Berlin Initiative". In the capital, he wants to earn enough money in construction to build his own house for his wife and his child. But Ralf is an unconventional character who soon becomes...
Eighteen-year-old Wolfgang has just passed his A-levels and still has a few months to go before he has to start his military service. Instead of sitting around lazily, he wants to experience something during this time before the serious side of life begins. Wolfgang decides to hitchhike to Poland....
A village has to be destroyed for coal mining. Henning, a 15 years old boy, who wants to visit his grandfather one more time, realizes that nothing will be the way it used to be.
Irka and Raya are best friends, one always knows immediately what the other wants. Irka is young, lively and a girl, Raya is old, blind and a proud mare who had great times as a show horse. The two are inseparable. But when Raya has a foal, Irka turns her attention to the small, helpless and cute...
Jessi finds the petrified talking heart of a pirate who died centuries ago. The pirate's dream image increasingly becomes a substitute for her father. When her father turns up one day, she has to decide between her childish hopes and her burgeoning adulthood...
The writer Sofie lives with her daughter, her son and her motherly friend Rosa in a pretty Leipzig city villa. Her life seems to have a firm grip on the single mother - if it were not for this writer's block that prevents her from completing her new romance novel. To make matters worse, her...