Zen For Nothing

Undine is a historian who works as a museum guide in Berlin. She knows all about the Humboldt Forum, and has the knack of choosing just the right blouse and suit. She is nonchalantly beautiful, and the way she imparts her knowledge about the city that was built on a swamp is as professional as it is graceful. And yet, time and again, her gaze wanders over to the courtyard café at the Stadtmuseum to see if he is there, or is still there, or if he’s there again. Him. But Johannes is leaving, leaving her, and Undine’s world is collapsing. The magic has gone... Christian Petzold reworks the myth of the mysterious water spirit as a modern fairy-tale in a disenchanted world. His Undine defies her role as a powerless and spurned woman and falls in love anew, with Christoph, who dives into the sunken world of a reservoir. Petzold’s deeply assured work reimagines this legend by way of his own cinematic vision, in which precise everyday gestures are combined with ghostly hyperrealism. The story of a life-or-death love, splendidly and effortlessly told.

On the way from Berlin to Portugal in her rusty '303' camper van, young biology student Jule picks up hitchhiker Jan. While having intense conversations about the society, the world and the nature of man, they try not to fall in love.

She is small, but dangerous. Wherever Benni ends up, she is immediately expelled. The wild 9-year-old girl has already become what child protection services call a “system crasher.” And she is certainly not looking to change her ways. Because Benni has one single goal: to be back at home with her mommy! But Bianca is scared of her own daughter. Mrs. Bafané from child protection services is trying her best to find a permanent placement for Benni. She hires the anger management trainer Micha as Benni's school escort and suddenly there is a seed of hope. Will Micha be able to succeed where all others failed?

Alma is a scientist at Berlin's famous Pergamon Museum. In order to obtain research funds for her studies, she accepts an offer to participate in an extraordinary experiment. For three weeks, she must live with a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence designed to allow it to morph into that of her ideal life partner. Enter Tom, a machine in human form, created to make her happy.

Winfried is a charming music teacher with a social consciousness, and a penchant for silly jokes. His daughter Ines, on the other hand, is an ambitious career woman. When the father appears unannounced in the lobby of her company in Bucharest, Ines tries to grin and bear it. But because of his jokes and the subliminal criticism of her lifestyle, the two inevitably soon start to quarrel. A multi-layered and ingenious comedy about a father-daughter relationship and at the same time about modern capitalism, which is sometimes serious, sometimes bitter and sometimes really funny.

Christian, a reclusive young man from Leipzig, gets a job working the night shift at a big-box store. He's trained to stocks goods and operate a forklift by Bruno, a wistful former truck driver, who introduces Christian to a colorful group of overnight workers, including Marion, with whom Christian develops a troubled infatuation.

A colourful and particularly authentic film about the extraordinary journey of a young couple who sets off for the East to return home from the West three and a half years later - with a baby. Without flying and with a small budget in their pockets, they explore the world, always accompanied by curiosity and spontaneity. Very successful in arthouse cinemas in Germany and Switzerland. Let us take you on an unforgettable journey.

Summer, 1980. Barbara, a doctor, has applied for an exit visa from the GDR (East Germany). Now, as punishment, she has been transferred from Berlin to a small hospital out in the country, far from everything. Jörg, her lover from the West, is already planning her escape. Barbara waits, keeping to herself. The new apartment, the neighbors, summertime, the countryside – none of that means anything to her. Working as a pediatric surgeon under her new boss Andre, she is attentive when it comes to the patients, but quite distanced toward her colleagues. Her future, she feels, will begin later. But Andre confuses her. His confidence in her professional abilities, his caring attitude, his smile. Why does he cover for her when she helps the young runaway Sarah? Does he have an assignment to keep track of her? Is he in love? But as the day of her planned escape quickly approaches, Barbara starts to lose control. Over herself, her plans, over love.

The German troops are just outside Paris. Georg escapes to Marseille at the last moment. His luggage contains the legacy of a writer named Weidel, who took his own life out of fear of persecution. This legacy comprises a manuscript, some letters and the Mexican Embassy’s assurance of a visa. Only those who can prove that they will leave are allowed in this port town, and this means you need an entry permit from a potential host country. Assuming the identity of Weidel, Georg tries to obtain one of the few scarce passages on a ship. Talks between refugees take place in the corridors of his small hotel, the waiting rooms of consulates, and the cafés and bars down at the harbour. Georg befriends Driss, the son of his late comrade Heinz, who died whilst trying to flee. But when he meets the mysterious Marie, his plans change. Transit is based on Anna Seghers’ eponymous novel which she wrote in exile. The film is set in contemporary Marseille where these characters from the past move around. And so, refugees from back then meet refugees from today, history meets the present, and all of their stories combine to create one eternal transit space.

A small holiday house by the baltic sea. The days are hot and it hasn’t rained in weeks. Four young people come together (Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Paula Beer and Enno Trebs), friends old and new. As the parched forests around them begin to ignite, so do their emotions. Happiness, lust and love; but also jealousies, resentments and tensions. Meanwhile the forests burn. And before long, the flames are there. Christian Petzold’s «Roter Himmel» was the winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Painting is an unacceptable vocation for a woman in provincial Germany in 1900, but the artist Paula Becker is determined to make her own rules. The exuberant 24-year-old woman rejects the conventional and explores her unique style. She flourishes in the countryside art community of Worpswede, where she develops friendships with the artist Clara Westhoff and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. By marrying the painter Otto Modersohn, she hopes to find a creative soulmate, but five years of domesticity take its toll on Paula’s spirit, and she travels alone to Bohemian Paris, where she embarks on a long-awaited period of creative fulfillment and self-realization...

Left to fend for herself when her SS officer father and mother, a staunch Nazi believer, are captured by the victorious Allies at the end of World War II, Lore, a fourteen-year-old German girl (striking newcomer Saskia Rosendahl,) must lead her four siblings on a harrowing journey across a devastated country. When she meets the charismatic and mysterious young refugee Thomas, (Kai Malina, The White Ribbon,) Lore soon finds her world shattered by feelings of hatred and desire as she must put her trust in the very person she was always taught to hate in order to survive.

A model family's happy life unexpectedly goes off the rails when the carefree Hedi suddenly starts having panic attacks. First mental illness and then drug dependency – the happiness that these happy-go-lucky thirty-somethings once took for granted suddenly seems unattainable, and their world fragile and uncertain.

One of the world’s greatest living painters, the German artist Gerhard Richter has spent over half a century experimenting with a tremendous range of techniques and ideas, addressing historical crises and mass media representation alongside explorations of chance procedures. Infamously media-shy, he agreed to appear on camera for the first time in 15 years for a 2007 short by filmmaker Corinna Belz called Gerhard Richter’s Window. Her follow-up, Gerhard Richter Painting, is exactly that: a thrilling document of Richter’s creative process, juxtaposed with intimate conversations (with his critics, his collaborators, and his American gallerist Marian Goodman) and rare archive material. From our fly-on-the-wall perspective, we watch the 79-year-old create a series of large-scale abstract canvasses, using fat brushes and a massive squeegee to apply (and then scrape off) layer after layer of brightly colored paint. This mesmerizing footage, of a highly charged process of creation and destruction, turns Belz’s portrait of an artist into a work of art itself.

A former resistance fighter who is elected president of Uruguay and donates almost 90 percent of his salary to social projects: Pepe Mujica, one of Latin America's most charismatic personalities, has become known as "the poorest president in the world". He has always remained true to his ideals, having spent many years in prison for political reasons. His modest lifestyle - he lives in a small finca instead of a government palace - and his unconventional appearance underpin his credibility with young and old. Pepe Mujica represents his concerns with humour, intellect and passion, and his political commitment to a more just society attracts international attention and encouragement. Filmmaker Heidi Specogna and her cameraman Rainer Hoffmann often visited Pepe Mujica and his wife Lucía Topolansky and accompanied them with their cameras. This is how the portrait of an extraordinary person was created, who, at almost 80 years of age, has retained his courage, his wit, his humanity and his strong hope for change. "Pepe Mujica - el presidente" is an optimistic and moving film that inspires courage.

Rike is forty, she is a successful doctor whose job demands everything of her. She intends to use her much-needed annual holiday to fulfil her long-cherished dream of sailing single-handedly from Gibraltar to Ascension, a small tropical island in the middle of the Atlantic. Her desire for a carefree holiday seems to be coming to pass but then, after a storm, her beautiful adventure suddenly turns into an unprecedented challenge when she spots a badly damaged, hopelessly overloaded refugee boat nearby. More than a hundred people face drowning. Rike tries to organise help, but she increasingly feels that humanitarianism has deteriorated into mere wishful thinking. Wolfgang Fischer’s film depicts a struggle for survival at sea which makes palpable the cruelty of the situation for people in dire straits whose fate is determined by others. The ocean becomes the scene of an allegorical, existential drama.

Based on the bestselling children's book by Daniela Kohl, the movie tells the story of six-grader Lotte and her best friend Cheyenne.

Carla Nowak, a dedicated sports and math teacher, starts her first job at a high school. She stands out among the new staff because of her idealism. When a series of thefts occur at the school and one of her students is suspected, she decides to get to the bottom of the matter on her own. Carla tries to mediate between outraged parents, opinionated colleagues and aggressive students, but is relentlessly confronted with the structures of the school system. The more desperately she tries to do everything right, the more the young teacher threatens to break. "The Teachers' Lounge" by award-winning director İlker Çatak shows how quickly a social conflict can escalate. Çatak holds up a mirro to society by critically examining the current culture of debate and values such as truth and justice through the microcosm of school. Leonie Benesch's passionate portrayal of a young teacher who gets caught between the fronts creates a dense atmosphere that captivates from the very beginning.

Rabiye Kurnaz is someone you might generally call an ordinary woman, except that she is a real dynamo. Taking care of her children and much more, she is the one running the show in her terraced house in Bremen. Shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, her son Murat is accused of terrorism and is (one of the first) shipped off to Guantanamo prison camp. This marks the beginning of a journey into the heart of world politics for this resolute German-Turkish woman. Together with human rights lawyer Bernhard Docke, whom she soon has completely on her side (like almost everyone around her), she battles for the release of her son – using her very own brand of self-taught English – all the way to the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Cologne-based comedienne, author, presenter and much more Meltem Kaptan is the perfect fit for Andreas Dresen’s special talent for combining explosive topics (in this case based on actual events) and the everyday concerns of the average citizen. Kaptan’s, or rather Rabiye’s, performance is overwhelming, and not just for the lawyer (played by Alexander Scheer) who quickly becomes a friend. A portrait of a passionate woman who holds the steering wheel of her beloved vehicle as firmly in her hand as she does the reins in this turbo-charged film.

Where does one feel at home? In Stadtallendorf, a German city with a complex history of both excluding and integrating foreigners, genial teacher Dieter Bachmann offers his pupils the key to at least feeling as if they are at home. Aged between twelve and fourteen, these pupils come from twelve different nations; some have not quite mastered the German language. On the brink of retirement, Bachmann is eager to inspire these citizens-in-the-making with a sense of curiosity for a wide range of crafts, subjects, cultures and opinions. Watching this absorbing, sensitive documentary, one is overwhelmed with the realisation that, if only all children were blessed with such emotionally intelligent, ever-patient educators, conflict would be mitigated via discussion and John Lennon’s “Imagine” could be our reality. Those who, like filmmaker Maria Speth and her cinematographer Reinhold Vorschneider, are able to recognise and highlight so beautifully not only the importance of education but also what a quietly spectacular process it can be, are heroes in their own right, too.

June 1945. Seriously disfigured, singer Nelly Lenz (Nina Hoss), the only survivor of a family deported to Auschwitz, returns to a Berlin. She is accompanied by her faithful friend, Lene (Nina Kunzendorf), an employee of the Jewish Agency. Just after recovering from a facial reconstruction operation, Nelly goes looking for her husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), despite Lene's warnings. Johnny is convinced that his wife is missing. When Nelly finds him, he sees only a disturbing resemblance and cannot believe that it is really her....

The old man Petterson is trying to sleep but his cat Findus is keeping him awake, so they both agree that Findus shall have his own house. With great attention to detail, "Pettersson and Findus - Findus moves" tells a humorous and at the same time touching story about friendship, family and growing up, which will not only conquer children's hearts.

1942. Gilles, a young Belgian man, is arrested by the SS alongside other Jews and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but then Gilles is assigned a seemingly untenable mission: to teach Persian to Koch, the officer in charge of the camp's kitchen, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Gilles finds himself having to invent a language he doesn't know, word by word. As the unusual relationship between the two men begins to incite jealousy and suspicion, Gilles becomes acutely aware that one false move could expose his swindle.

For the German artist Joseph Beuys, art was used for provocation and he wanted to "provoke" discussions with his works. He was a sculptor, performer and draftsman.

David Sieveking left home years ago to make films. Now he has returned – and for a reason: To help his mother, Gretel, who has Alzheimer’s, and relieve her long-time carer and his father Malte for a few weeks. The filmmaker takes on the role of carer and documents this encounter with his camera. Gretel no longer knows the people around her, but her puns and charm have not faded. The time spent with his mother becomes a journey into David’s unexpected family history. Once active in Zurich’s left-wing scene, David’s parents enjoyed a lifelong “open relationship”, characterised by a loving distance and mutual respect. VERGISS MEIN NICHT is a film about dementia, but it’s first and foremost a declaration of a love of life and family.

An international smash hit and the world's most popular film about klezmer music, A TICKLE IN THE HEART captures the story of the Epstein Brothers (Max, Willie and Julius) klezmer legends on a joyous and hilarious international tour. The Epsteins are natural performers, and their sense of life, music and family as they tour through places they loved (from Poland to Brooklyn to Florida) is as life affirming and intoxicating as the joyous music they play.

1956. During a visit to a cinema in West Berlin, East German high school pupils Theo and Kurt see disturbing newsreel footage of the uprising in Budapest. Back in Stalinstadt, one of the GDR’s flagship workers’ settlements, they have the idea of holding a minute’s silence in class for the victims of the Hungarian struggle for freedom. Neither the boys, nor their parents, nor the school’s administration are prepared for the minor and major reactions that their expression of solidarity unleashes. The school principal tries to dismiss the incident as juvenile mischief and deal with it internally, but the pupils find themselves snared in the political machinery of a state determined to make an example of them. Condemning their act as counter-revolutionary, the education minister demands that the pupils name their ringleader. They are faced with a decision that has dramatic consequences for their future. Director and screenwriter Lars Kraume has cast up-and-coming actors in the leading roles and established actors in supporting roles for his adaptation of Dietrich Garstka’s eponymous book in which Garstka recounts his own personal experiences and those of his 18 classmates. A moving chapter in German post-war history.

The love story of an elderly couple. Having arrived at the end of their lives, the two 74-year-old protagonists take the liberty of making their own decisions concerning life and death. They stage their demise exactly as they staged their lives. After fifty years spent together, they don’t go because they have to, but because they want to.

In 1988 Cynthia Beatt and the young Tilda Swinton embarked on a filmic journey along the Berlin Wall into little-known territory. The film CYCLING THE FRAME is now an unusual document. 21 years later, in June 2009, Beatt & Swinton re-traced the line of the Wall that once isolated West Berlin. THE INVISIBLE FRAME depicts this poetic passage through varied landscapes, this time on both sides of the former Wall.

The filmmaker explores the life and work of the Austrian novelist, playwright and political activist, Peter Handke. The titles of his books sound like the tunes in a jukebox: Offending the Audience and Other Spoken Plays, The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick or A Sorrow Beyond Dreams. In the 1960s, he was the definition of a “pop star” author. Yet as soon as he started making the bestseller lists, he turned his back on stardom and went travelling, taking his readers along with him, dragging them into the rhythm and precision of his language and into his own examination of reality. As a young man, and still now, in his daily life, Peter Handke never stopped asking: “Where are we now?” and “How should we live?”

After most of her family is murdered in a terrorist bombing, a young woman is unknowingly lured into joining the very group that killed them.

The story of the man who brought high-ranking German Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann to justice.

Pettson and Findus find themselves snowed in their house. The little cat is scared that Christmas is ruined, but Pettson promises that they will celebrate "the best Christmas ever".

This film is only available in German --- When Conni travels with her kindergarten group, she discovers that her tomcat Mau has arrived as a stowaway. As pets are not allowed in "Schloss Funkelstein", Conni has to hide the tomcat. A crazy adventure begins.

Argentina in 2016: in a remote region in the north of the country live about 700 Mennonites from Germany as in the 18th century. They speak old German and live from agriculture and cattle breeding. But is it really possible to refuse development?

Asli first sets eyes on Saeed in the mid-1990s at a fairground as he is anxiously stepping off a merry-go-round just before the ride begins. They get to know each other while spinning bottles at a party in their student hall of residence. Asli is fascinated by Saeed’s charisma and self-confidence. The two students marry secretly even though Asli’s mother is against the relationship. In a mosque in Hamburg, they promise to stay together and keep each other’s secrets. Caught between asserting herself, conforming to her traditional parental home and her self-sacrificing love, Asli tries to find her own way in life. Then Saeed disappears. His decision changes Asli’s life – before it shakes the whole world. Anne Zohra Berrached’s film comprises several layers that are all of equal importance. It is a love story, but it is also an exploration of cultural differences, truth and faith, trust and delusion. After Two Mothers and 24 Weeks, the director once again demonstrates her particular ability to reveal the private lives that exist behind the politics, as well as her great sensitivity when working with actors

Theres and Kenneth are both young when they first meet whilst on holiday. They fall in love but are unable to prevent themselves from losing each other. Thirty years later, in another country, another couple: Ariane leaves her husband David because she no longer loves him. The paths they both take lead them to Kenneth and Theres.

Alice Schwarzer has always been a polarizing force. As a well-known television personality, she has divided couples on the sofa in German-speaking countries and encouraged women to emancipate themselves. The film shows a side of Schwarzer that goes beyond the influential feminist and journalist we know from her autobiography.

Gottfried Böhm is considered to be one of Germany’s most important architects. The Pritzker prize-winning father learned his trade from his father. At the age of 94, Gottfried still works every day on construction projects with his sons, Stephan, Peter and Paul, who are also architects. But then the family loses its emotional centre: Elisabeth – who was also an architect – wife, mother and their most important source of inspiration. Gottfried Böhm embarks on a journey to the significant buildings and milestones in his life.

The little witch (Karoline Herfurth) is only 127 years old – too young for the annual assembly of witches. If she is not yet old enough to be a real witch she wants to become a real good one. This decision causes trouble within her magic world. Live-action adaptation of Otfried Preussler's classic children's book «The Little Witch» starring Karoline Herfurth.

A strange encounter with a wild wolf at the edge of Ania's cold, mundane town sets off a deep-seated passion within her, shattering the drudgery of her dull days. Determined to hunt the untamed creature, she finds herself pulled to the natural world as a fearless lust for the wolf grows, eliciting a desire for her own sexuality and a disregard for social graces, repulsing yet attracting everyone around her. As the balance between the natural world and modern civilization begins to tip, so too do Ania's inhibitions, forcing her to question the glaring hypocrisies closing in on her.

Ten-year-old Lucy is well-behaved, honest, polite and always in a good mood. But one day, the ice cream machine in Lucy's family's gelateria breaks down. With no one willing to extend credit for the costly repairs, Lucy soon sees only one solution: she plans to rob a bank to save the family business from bankruptcy.

The war in Congo has caused more than six million deaths over the last twenty years. The population is suffering, but the offenders stay with impunity. Many people see this conflict as one of globalisation's crucial econimic distribution battles because the country has major deposits of many high-tech raw materials. Milo Rau, one of Europe's most acclaimed theatre directors, succeeds in gathering victims, perpetrators, observes and analysts of the conflict for a unique civil tribunal in eastern Congo. The documentary film brings these spectacular court trials to life on the big screen and creates an unvarnished portrait of the largest and bloodiest economic wars in human history.

David, a young filmmaker, follows his idol, David Lynch, into the world of Transcendental Meditation (TM). He traces the footsteps of the founder of the movement, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, to whom even the Beatles at one time had made the pilgrimage. The Indian guru developed TM into one of the largest esoteric organisations in the world that, with their study programs, promises world peace and yogic flying.

For generations, the Mucklas, cheerful little goblins, have made their home in Hansson's chaotic old grocery store. But since Hansson's successor is turning this paradise into a sterile nightmare, Svunja, Tjorben and Smartö set out to find the promised land. The great adventure begins.

For a long time, the little Ghost has been living in the attic of a castle. Its greatest wish is to see the world by the light of day, but its attempts are all in vain. Three children, Karl, Hannes and Marie, go on a nighttime hike to the castle, where they encounter the little Ghost. The following day, the little Ghost promptly wakes at noon. Its joy is short-lived, however, as, tinted black by the first sunbeam, the little Ghost scares the townsfolk and causes all kinds of chaos. Despairing, it turns to the children for help in trying to go home and return to its former existence as a night ghost.

In Berlin in the early 1930's, children are being lured to their death by a psychopathic killer. In the space of a year, 8 children have been murdered. The police have redoubled their efforts to find the guilty man but have yet to find him and citizens are beginning to dispense their own justice on otherwise innocent people. The heads of the city's criminal element are paying a high price due to the increased police presence and decide to find the psychopath on their own. They approach the beggars union to have their members blanket the city with spies. They're successful in finding the killer and put him on trial in their own special court but the police make progress and have their own views on how justice should be administered.

"Igor Levit - No Fear" accompanies the pianist as he explores his "life after Beethoven", as he searches for the next challenges, for his identity as an artist and a human being.

The surviver of the Fassbinder family meet on Potsdamer Platz for the shooting of the Last New German Film – a remake of Pasolini’s THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM. Chaos total: Director Schlingensief, degraded to a set manager, will be replaced by an unknown, who get’s the Bundesfilmpreis award. Film as a nightmare – or vice versa. Producer Volker Spengler sends an agent (Christoph Schlingensief) to Hollywood where he meets Udo Kier, Kitten Natividad and Roland Emmerich on a mission to raise money and get ex-Visconti superstar Helmut Berger to appear in the film. Depicting a German cultural scene at the turn of the century that still has not come to terms with the legacy of New German Cinema, Schlingensief tackles the topic once and for all: with endless references both open and obscure, Schlingensief takes the process of de- and reconstruction just far enough to both completely demystify and pay tribute to an era and its heritage. With appearances from the German film, TV and theatre scene, many actors, contributors and cultural icons appear as themselves; but Schlingensief is not afraid to resurrect some of the dead, only to kill them off again: part parody, part heartfelt homage, THE 120 DAYS OF BOTTROP gives New German Cinema its final coup de grâce.

Late in the 19th century, Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary – known as Sisi (Susanne Wolff) - is living in an aristocratic women-only commune in Greece. Countess Irma (Sandra Hüller) is sent there to be Sisi’s companion, and she is captivated by the eccentric and extravagant recluse. But the outside world is reaching out to break Sisi. And no matter how much Irma and Sisi resist, in the end they are left with only one fatal path that will bind the two women together forever.