This 2008 drama-comedy stars well-known Michael “Bully” Herbig as Boandlkramer (Death). We follow a 70 year old as he begins seeing Death and how he handles interactions with him. Other familiar faces are Lisa Maria…
This 1992 romantic comedy features a young Jürgen Vogel (in fact, this film is credited as his turning point as prominent actor, though he had begun his career nearly 20 years earlier as a small…
This 2002 film is marketed as a drama comedy. There are pieces in the rom-com category, but in true German film nature, the drama pulls it back to reality. We know Max Mauff from Die…
This Matthias Schweighöfer film follows three young men as they move their lives from Moscow to Berlin. Filmed in 2012, it takes place just after the Berlin Wall fell. You can read more about Matthias…
This 2010 rom-com has a target audience of young teenagers and preteens. The plot brings an exchange student back to Germany from America and meeting a rockstar whom she doesn’t know. Kostja Ullmann plays our…
This 2010 rom-com has a target audience of young teenagers and preteens. The plot brings an exchange student back to Germany from America and meeting a rockstar whom she doesn’t know. Kostja Ullmann plays our…
This 2016 Drama-Comedy is already well-known by German teachers across the states. With a central theme of immigration, this film lends itself well to the topics our advanced students are expected to be able to…
This 2019 comedy is in Swiss German and revolves around conception and birthing as a woman in her 30s. German teachers don’t often have a ready supply of Swiss films to view, which may be…
This 2003 documentary discusses the common problems of food shortages during the DDR era. It includes footage of propaganda films and ads from East Germany. This film includes many interviews with Germans who had various…
Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Der Besuch der alten Dame has been filmed a few times throughout film history, dating back to the early years of the star actress’ career, actually. This particular version stars Christiane Hörbiger as…
This 2000 comedy with Daniel Brühl centers around the last few weeks of school before the Abitur. Besides Brühl, several other well-known faces show their younger versions here. Denis Moschitto, Axel Stein, Niels-Bruno Schmidt (of…
This 2014 short film (also available on Amazon), marketed as a Drama-Romance, shows us a likely familiar story – the views of the neighborhood and how one variable of this time affects our view. Some…
This 2000 drama centers around a partially paralyzed* teenager who transfers to a boarding school. We follow him as he learns how to settle in his new surroundings. Robert Stadlober is our main character, Benjamin.…
This 2002 film featuring Matthias Schweighöfer, Florian Stetter, and Jessica Schwarz, explores relationships of all types. There is some interesting styling in the video for this film, which may make for an interesting discussion in…
This 1997 film with Franka Potente is the story of a gay man who begins questioning his sexuality. Stefan Wink plays the Assistent/partner Lorenz. His career began in the early 1990s. He followed this film…
This 2003 film with Daniel Brühl sees the differences between East and West Germany through a different lens than most films. The premise of this one is a fragile mother who falls into a coma…
This 1996 TV movie is marketed as a historical drama. It focuses on the clash of classes, set in the 1950s. For a TV movie, this film does have some big-name actors. Then again, it…
Using the same cast and characters as the show of the same name, this 2012 film is not a continuation of the story, but rather a reinventing of it. It begins as sort of a…
The first film was released in 1991, shortly after the fall of the Wall. The first film explores the cultural differences between East Germans and western areas. Our main characters are taking a trip to…
While it’s not based on a true story, this 2011 film is a humorous look at Turkish immigration to Germany and the integration of the children of those immigrants. As you can imagine, there are…
This 1997 film is based on the true story of the musical group The Comedian Harmonists, who were very popular in the years before WWII. As some of the members were Jewish, the war meant…
Released in 2009, this movie is set in 1989 along the East/West Berlin border. We meet Franzi as she moves into an apartment right next to a crossing. She lives in the West and crosses…
This movie, released in 2004, is a comedy based in Berlin, largely focused on the German and Turkish-German cultures as they merge. Our main character, Ibo, is a Turkish German who is obsessed with Kung…
This movie, released in 2004, follows a journalist of Jewish descent, who is uncomfortable with the changes in Berlin since 1989. We meet the family as they go through the loss of his mother, and…