In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
A high school teacher's experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.
For two weeks, 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards in a prison. The "prisoners" have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the "guards" are told to retain order without using physical violence.
Director:
Oliver Hirschbiegel
Stars:
Moritz Bleibtreu,
Christian Berkel,
Oliver Stokowski
A look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.
Director:
Uli Edel
Stars:
Martina Gedeck,
Moritz Bleibtreu,
Johanna Wokalek
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director:
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Stars:
Ulrich Mühe,
Martina Gedeck,
Sebastian Koch
With the intention to break free from the strict familial restrictions, a suicidal young woman sets up a marriage of convenience with a forty-year-old addict, an act that will lead to an outburst of envious love.
A dramatization of the final days of Sophie Scholl, one of the most famous members of the German World War II anti-Nazi resistance movement, The White Rose.
Director:
Marc Rothemund
Stars:
Julia Jentsch,
Fabian Hinrichs,
Alexander Held
Friedrich's boxing skills gets him in an elite Nazi high school in a castle in 1942. He enrolls against his dad's wish as it promises a brighter future. It's not what he expected.
East Germany, the year 1989: A young man protests against the regime. His mother watches the police arresting him and suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Some months later, the GDR does not exist anymore and the mother awakes. Since she has to avoid every excitement, the son tries to set up the GDR again for her in their flat. But the world has changed a lot.Written by
Benjamin Stello
In one of the cut scenes Lara (Chulpan Khamatova) introduces herself as "Lara, like in Dr Dzhivago," a movie which incidentally also depicts "a futile struggle to preserve the past." See more »
Goofs
Denis wears a "digital rain"-style T-shirt in 1989 because he has developed the idea himself and has come up with an idea for a film exactly like The Matrix, which he describes in a deleted scene (the letters are not identical to the Matrix scheme.) The joke is that the idea originated in East Germany; compare the claim in one of Denis's fake news shows that the Coca-Cola formula was invented there. It also ties in to the film's main theme of keeping people in a simulated reality. See more »
This story has it all : family tragedy, growth (from child to adult and even growth as an adult), dealing with political and social change, and romance. I think the story gives one a good idea of just how much change occurred when the Iron Curtain fell over Eastern Europe and the difficulties and opportunities it brought. The story revolves around Alex, his sister and their mother. Their mother has a heart attack and then goes into a coma. During her coma, communism fell and then she wakes up. Advised by her doctor that she cannot take any form of excitement, Alex goes about creating the illusion that communism is alive and well. This often takes a comical twist on the differences between the communist east and capitalist west. There is also the subtle hint of discrimination by both sides against the other. In the end the story is about family and loved ones and what we are willing to do to make those around us happy. Go out and rent this movie.
-Celluloid Rehab
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This story has it all : family tragedy, growth (from child to adult and even growth as an adult), dealing with political and social change, and romance. I think the story gives one a good idea of just how much change occurred when the Iron Curtain fell over Eastern Europe and the difficulties and opportunities it brought. The story revolves around Alex, his sister and their mother. Their mother has a heart attack and then goes into a coma. During her coma, communism fell and then she wakes up. Advised by her doctor that she cannot take any form of excitement, Alex goes about creating the illusion that communism is alive and well. This often takes a comical twist on the differences between the communist east and capitalist west. There is also the subtle hint of discrimination by both sides against the other. In the end the story is about family and loved ones and what we are willing to do to make those around us happy. Go out and rent this movie.
-Celluloid Rehab