German films about comedians

Dramatised origin story of one of Germany's most beloved contemporary comedians.

In 1938 Hans Zeisig, an apolitical comedian, impersonator and cabaret actor, flees with a Russian passport (instead of American, which he would have preferred) from Nazi-Berlin, and finds himself in the legendary Hotel Lux, the 'lost paradise' of the Comintern, in Moscow. Everyone believes that Zeisig is a man named Hansen, Hitler's personal astrologer. But Zeisig quickly realizes that he's gone from the frying pan into the fire. In the Hotel Lux he meets his friends Frida and later Meyer again, still passionate communists. For the three idealists an adventure between love and death begins to run his course.

Based on the book "Ich bin dann mal weg" by Hape Kerkeling where the author describes his journey on the Way of St. James, a pilgrimage route, and the people he encounters there.

It is the summer of 1980 in East Germany and, alone, Barbara is confined to living and working as a doctor in a small provincial town - her punishment for attempting to emigrate to the West. She has only one focus; to escape and for this, she has to wait patiently. Until Andre, her supervisor in the hospital, takes her off course. Are his motives of love or duty to the authorities? The day-to-day pretense, and content supervision slowly take their toll as the tension builds.

Run Boy Run is the true story of Jurek, an eight-year-old boy, who escapes from the Warsaw ghetto, then manages to survive in the woods and working as a farmhand, disguising himself as a Polish orphan. He encounters people who will betray him for a reward, who will beat him up or try to kill him, and he meets those, who will do and risk almost everything to help him. Jurek’s resilience is put to the ultimate test, when an accident cripples him, making it harder to find work. But he struggles on against all odds. Eventually the Russians reach his area and Jurek even finds a family where he could stay. Yet he is betrayed again, and a young man from a Jewish orphanage forcefully tries to bring Jurek back to his people and his faith.

"The Crocodiles" are celebrating the birthday of Hannes and the beginning of the best summer vacation they have ever had. Although the boys have grown and developed different interests, the band remains united against all odds. During a wild karts race that ends in a terrible accident, Frank is taken to hospital by ambulance. His life is in danger: he needs a transplant from a close relative to save his life. The only possible donor is his brother, Dennis, who was put behind bars by the Crocodiles with their teammate Kevin. Time is running out, but true friends never give up! With the help of Jenny and Hannes' mother , the band surprises us with a bold plan

Using unpublished and newly digitalised archive footage and film material, Bettina Böhler has brilliantly assembled this film about the life and work of the exceptional artist Christoph Schlingensief, who died in 2010.

Hanna and Simon are in a 20 year marriage with an unexiting relationship. By chance, they both meet and start separate affairs with Adam. Adam has no idea that his two lovers are married, until they are all found out when Hanna becomes pregnant, with the natural doubts stemming from their situation.

A Retrovirus, which was conceived as a tool for industrial genetic engineering, has gotten out of control and is spreading rapidly. While it crosses all organisms within our ecological system completely indiscriminately (mixing plant with animal and humans) most plants prove more resistant because of their complex DNA. However, the simple genes of the plants lead humans to become grotesque mutations, in most cases even to death. Within one week, 90% of mankind are either extinct or no longer human. However, a small fraction of the earth?s population remains immune to the virus and must survive in this new and constantly changing ecological system. Tom cellar is one the survivors and on an old military base in the Eifel he has entrenched himself. Further survivors come together and succeed in carving out a life in this new world. But the GMOs - the ?genetically modified organisms? - constantly develop themselves further, and soon the fence of the base offers no more protection.

Two brothers start a sportswear company in the 1920s, hoping to make the best shoes in the world. Their relationship deteriorates until they become bitter rivals.

Two university students gain insight into life and love as they get to know each other during a road trip across Europe.

In the aftermath of WWI, a young German who grieves the death of her fiancé in France meets a mysterious French man who visits the fiance’s grave to lay flowers.

With the Third Reich is at his peak in 1942, the Czech resistance in London plans the most ambitious military operation of WWII – Anthropoid. Two young recruits are sent to Prague to assassinate the most ruthless Nazi leader – Reinhardt Heydrich – head of the SS, the Gestapo and the architect of the Final Solution.

Two girls from very different social backgrounds discover, at the age of 25, that they had been switched at birth.

A sperm donor becomes impotent - and so he searches for the woman, who got his sperm, to become a father after all...

Lore leads her four younger siblings across a war-torn Germany in 1945. Amidst the chaos she encounters a mysterious refugee who shatters her fragile reality with hatred and desire.

A "romantic comedy" based loosely on the suicide of the poet Henrich von Kleist in 1811.

When Banker Till (Axel Stein) is kidnapped during a bank robbery, he has the time of his life...

Vincent, a young man who suffers from Tourette's syndrome, has just lost his mother. His father, a successful politician, does not want to take care of him and therefore places him into a mental institution. He is put into a room with Alexander, a guy with a compulsive disorder, and is shown around by Marie, an anorectic girl.

Sonia breaks the perhaps most exciting time of her life, because the 20-year-old moves to Berlin for a mathematics study. Once there, she soon began to build up a new circle of friends, and then she fell in love with the kind, but irresponsible Ladja. There is only one big catch: the dear money is a bit scarce and therefore Sonia one day, financially, but also from curiosity, the path to prostitution. From now on, it leads a brisk double flight, which can fly at any time. Her experiences are ambivalent, as part-time she often gets into difficult situations, but also gets to know nice people, while she enjoys life just as a student. But how long can it maintain the double game?

Miguel and Johnny know each other since childhood. They are dedicated to skate and have fun. To earn easy money and continue skating, they sell their own blood to a clandestine contact in a hospital. The activity becomes business until a large transaction is not as they imagined.

A young lawyer stumbles upon a vast conspiracy while investigating a brutal murder case.

A young Spanish woman who has newly moved to Berlin finds her flirtation with a local guy turn potentially deadly as their night out with his friends reveals a dangerous secret.

It is a Saturday in autumn, and Karin and Simon are visiting their parents and youngest sister Clara. This family gathering provides the occasion for a dinner together, at which other relatives appear over the course of the day. While the family members animate the apartment’s space with their conversations, everyday activities and cooking preparations, the cat and dog range through the various rooms. they too become a central element in this quotidian familial dance that repeatedly manifests stylized elements, disrupting any naturalistic mode of presentation. In this way, adjoining spaces open up between family drama, fairy tale and the psychological study of a mother.

A promising career with the police, a baby on the way... Marc's life seems to be right on track. Then he meets fellow policeman Kay and during their regular jogs Marc experiences a never-before-felt sense of ease and effortlessness -- and what it means to fall in love with another man. Torn between his family and his new feelings for Kay, Marc sees his world careening more and more out of control. Suddenly, his life is in free fall and Marc realizes that try as he may, he can't make everyone happy. Least of all, himself.

A girl who always tends to fall in love with the wrong guy meets one who believes the world is coming to an end next Tuesday.

After losing his brick laying job, Christian begins to work at a supermarket.

A pair of Tactical Units Police Officers from different walks of life come together to rescue an ambassador's daughter.

Erik has is own motorbike workshop in a sleepy little town. He may have the telling word ‘scoundrel’ tattooed onto his lower arm but he nonetheless creates an impression of a well-behaved average Joe. His relationship with his girlfriend Julia is going well and her daughter Linda is very fond of her new Dad. But then all of a sudden the mysterious Henry appears and begins following him about like a sinister shadow. The more Erik tries to shake off his diabolical guest the more Henry intrudes into his life. But then when a violent gangster named Keitel enters the fray and threatens not only Erik but Julia and Linda, Erik’s seemingly ideal world begins to run off the rails.

The celebration of the 50th anniversary of “Capitol-Insurance” is due – that's what the bosses thought. All employees are invited to join the party in a hotel. However, rumors say the company's not doing very well. To avoid unemployment due to the possible shutdown of the smaller branch office the only option is to move to the headquarters. Now that's the ultimate challange for Stromberg, who is notoriously trying to be the example of a department manager, gathering all of his employees behind him.

Germany in the early 19th century. "Die Vermessung der Welt" follows the two brilliant and eccentric scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss on their life paths.

Germany, Baltic Sea coast, May 1945, a few days before the end of World War II. A small Soviet patrol arrives at an isolated house where an elderly baroness gives shelter to a group of orphan girls and a boy who is determined to continue the fight.

Confirmed bachelor Paul falls for Iris, who’s unfortunately as good as married. Although his friends have women problems of their own, and all end up moving into Paul’s apartment, they concoct a daring plan to help Paul save Iris from marrying the wrong man.

Adolf Hitler wakes up in a vacant lot in Berlin, with no knowledge of anything that happened after 1945. Homeless and destitute. Although everyone recognizes him, nobody believes that he is Hitler; instead, they think he is either a comedian, or a method actor.

A young man goes on a road trip with an old lady he saves from a hospital.

Juliane's happiness seems perfect. She is head over heals in love and has just begun a new life with August. One morning, however, she wakes up to find that she has been unexplainable thrown back into her past - to the time before she met her new love. Is what seems at first glance a cruel setback in reality actually a second chance?

A road movie about two very different brothers who have not seen each other for 20 years: city manager Christian and cabinetmaker Georg, who never left their hometown and took care of their father until his passing. After their fathers funeral, the brothers decide on a whim, and with some help from the alcohol, to fulfil their old dream: travel trough Germany together on their mopeds.

Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel’s son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the ‘Führer’ and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat.

A love triangle forms between post-Enlightenment writer Friedrich Schiller and two sisters -- one who became his wife, and the other, his biographer.

What a man is a comedy that tells the story of a young professor, Alex (Matthias Schweighofer), which after being left by his girlfriend Caroline (Mavie Hörbiger), begins a journey to know himself. But how do you overcome the difficulties of a man today? Or rather what is it that makes a man a man?

Benjamin, a young German computer whiz, is invited to join a subversive hacker group that wants to be noticed on the world's stage.

A young man struggles with the pressure of caring for his terminally ill father while trying to unlock a secret that his father seems determined to keep from him. The story takes another dramatic turn when Ron, Burghardt’s long-lost friend from his youth, re-appears — and a well-kept family secret is uncovered.

Master filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) transforms a portrait of the world-renowned museum into a magisterial, centuries-spanning reflection on the relation between art, culture and power.

Faust inhabits an earthy, 19th-century world of primitive autopsies and medical rituals. He becomes obsessed with the beautiful Margarete and desperately turns to a physically grotesque moneylender to conjure their union.

Hartmut Mackowiak, a German taxi driver, tries to help 6 year old Turkish girl to find her mother.

After aspiring poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe fails his law exams, he's sent to a sleepy provincial court to reform. Instead, he falls for Lotte, a young woman who is promised to another man.

"I do not care if we go down in history as barbarians." These words, spoken in the Council of Ministers of the summer of 1941, started the ethnic cleansing on the Eastern Front. The film attempts to comment on this statement.

An actor's career takes a "Tootsie"-like turn when he lets himself be cast as a woman in a movie.

Before Snowfall starts with a dramatic escape: Eighteen year-old Nermin runs away from her wedding in a village in Iraqi Kurdistan. Being the elder of the family, her younger brother Siyar becomes responsible for finding her and restoring the family reputation. The mission proves a dangerous one for the inexperienced Siyar. First stop is Istanbul, where he meets Elvin, a young girl who becomes his travel companion. On the way from east to west, through Europe and all the way to Norway, Siyar comes to realize his own need for respect, and for love.

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