This 2016 comedy is currently available on Netflix. Olaf Schubert plays himself, kind of. Fans of German stand up and other such comedy may recognize him. His father is played by Mario Adorf, a Swiss-born…
Another 2020 Netflix film, this social drama is rated TV-MA and covers the political spectrum of Germany. One member of the cast has been in several Netflix shows German film lovers may have seen. Playing…
This 2021 Netflix film is marketed as an action/horror/thriller and is currently rated #2 in the US market! This film uses a variety of languages for the full global effect this film calls for, but…
This 2014 social drama is available on Netflix. It covers the events of 1992 in Rostock, during which xenophobic riots attacked Vietnamese refugees. Using a variety of film art techniques, this film can be analyzed…
Marketed on Netflix as a teen film, this 2018 film is a story of the devil and his daughter Lilith. The friend (/target) is played by Janina Fautz. Early in her career in film she…
This 2018 Netflix film handles itself with a sensitive subject, namely rape, and the consequences of keeping it secret. This film has several scenes that may be triggering to some viewers. There are some great…
This 2007 is a drama comedy of WWII and is currently available on Netflix. The premise pulls a Jewish acting professor from a concentration camp in order to help Hitler’s image in the later years.…
This 2016 adventure comedy centers around teenage gaming culture and has is currently available on Netflix. There are significant ties to World of Warcraft both in game style as well as gamer life. Moritz Jahn…
This 2020 Netflix film is a film from an earlier TV series, using the same actors as the series. Felicitas Woll has been in a range of roles, many centering in the rom-com realm. Wir…
This 2020 Netflix film, otherwise known as Christmas Crossfire, stars Kostja Ullmann. Merlin Rose also joins the cast. He may look familiar from Hot Dog, an episode of Dark, or the TV series Das Boot.…
Rated TV-MA, this Netflix film from 2020 is a rom-com. It’s pretty much a typical rich girl, poor boy story, really. Isi is played by Lisa Vicari, who we may recognize from Dark. Ossi is…
Currently available on Netflix, this 2017 comedy merges an underground German culture with the international culture of Dubai. Moritz Bleibtreu and Lucas Gregorowicz are our main characters – old friends and complete opposites. Of course…
This 2020 Netflix film is rated TV-MA. It should be known before considering this film for practice or education that from the first moments of the film, there is nudity, sexuality, and drug use. As…
This 2003 Sönke Wortmann and Rochus Hahn film is already a staple in many German classrooms. Teachers cite the slow pace and focus on soccer and family as top reasons to show this in class.…
This 2006 film in two parts is an adventure film with a theme of pirates in the 14th century. It is split into two parts, each an hour and a half long. Parts of this…
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 2014 documentary centers around stories of DDR escapes. There are many interviews with those who risked their lives to do so, as well as several original clips from the era. Sebastian Dehnhardt and Matthias…
This 2016 historical drama is currently available on Amazon. Kästner is played by Florian David Fitz, who we’ve seen and discussed already. Among the cast is also Katharina Lorenz, who we may recognize from her…
This 2020 film, currently available on Amazon Prime, is rated 16+ there. It would easily be rated R, were it to be rated in America. Robin Czerny is a face we may recognize from Kokowääh…
This 2015 comedy is currently available on Netflix! Ekram Bora (AKA the Türkish-German rapper Eko Fresh as well as Elektro Eko) plays one of the three brothers in this film. This was his first time…
This 1961 drama-thriller, currently available on Amazon, was a West German production centering around farmers leaving East Germany to flee the collectivization that was taking place. Being a post-war older film, the actors may not…
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 2001 German short film is currently available on Amazon prime. This film uses stop motion. One of the voices is done by a voice actor who we hear in the German version of Asterix…
This 2016 short film is currently available on Amazon Prime. It features Heike Makatsch, who we know from films such as Hui Buh, Tom Sawyer, Anatomy 2, and even Love Actually. Not actually in German…
This 1988 German film, filmed in Südtirol, Italy, is an adventure film. Perfect setting for an adventure, really! Most of the actors in this film were only in this one, or in very few others.…
This 1984 family adventure film focuses on familial relationships of children and the adventures they have up near the North Sea. Most of the actors either only acted in this film or have only been…
This Wilhelm Busch work, read by the narrator Helmut Hansen, may be less well-known than Max und Moritz or Struwwelpeter, but popular enough to have been translated into English long ago. This story is a…
This simple audio-film uses the images from Wilhelm Busch’s Max und Moritz to tell the story. For those less familiar with the book, some of the Streiche (tricks, or in this case the chapters) may…
This audio-film uses images from Wilhelm Busch’s Struwwelpeter exclusively. It goes through each short story with a musical clip and a collage of images from the book. At times the music is distracting, as it…
This 1929 Fritz Lang film, written by his then-wife Thea von Harbou, was banned by the Nazis in 1937 due to a prop – the film shows in detail the first working rocket, and the…
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…
This 2007 comedy features Franz Dinda, Florian Lukas, and Axel Stein in a series of unfortunate events that brings a young high school graduate into the military. Franz Dinda is our main character. He’s also…
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 early Franka Potente film (1995) is a classic rom-com, focused on the issues of teenagers. This was Potente’s first professional film. Alongside Franka Potente is Axel Milberg. We may know him from the Fifth…
Narrated by Erich Kästner himself, this version’s screenplay was adapted from his book himself. Lotte and Luise are played by twins Isa and Jutta Günther. This was the first film for both girls, and they…
This 2005 film stars Matthias Schweighöfer as Friedrich Schiller. It is marketed as a biography-drama, which focuses on Schiller’s early life. Alongside Schweighöfer is Teresa Weißbach, whom we may know from Sonnenallee, Winnetous Weiber, and…
This 1996 comedy, directed by Sönke Wortmann, stars Veronika Ferres and Joachim Król. Richy Müller plays Papai. He can also be found in the Vampirschwestern series, Anleitung zum Unglücksein, Die Schatzinsel, Zwischen Nacht und Tag,…
Taking place during the 30 years war in Germany, this 2008 Thriller starring Daniel Brühl is a German remake of a Czechoslovakian film from 1978, where a boy learns of the dark arts from a…
Currently available on Amazon, this 2009 film stars Daniel Brühl as a shy waiter who claims to have written a popular manuscript. Alongside Brühl is Hannah Herzsprung, playing Marie. She’s been in a range of…
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 2000 Bullyparade-related film is one of several plots in the “Erkan und Stefan” line. In fact, John Friedmann’s acting stage name was Erkan Maria Moosleitner, until his real identity was discovered. His “partner in…
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 2016 Docu-Drama tells the story of two brothers, Adi and Rudi Dassler, whose brotherly relationship deteriorated in such a way that resulted in the formation of two popular athletic shoe companies. Adi is played…
This 2013 ZDF production is marketed as a historical documentary. It’s also currently available on Amazon Prime – get your Halloween viewing in while it’s available! This film is only 44 minutes long. It’s very…
This 2016 thriller (available on Amazon Prime in its original German!) centers around the story of the Whitechapel murders. Sonja Gerhardt, whom we know from Sommer and die wilden Hühner, plays our main character, Anna…
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 2017 historical drama focuses on the Jews still living in Germany in 1943, when Goebbels declared German “Jew-free.” This is based on 4 true stories, and the young people who survived this time were…
This 1993 documentary covers the life of Leni Riefenstahl, detailing not only her involvement in the propaganda of WWII, but also attempts to understand her as an artist without the bias of history. It is…
This 2007 Christmas comedy centers around a “patchwork” family, who all comes together to celebrate Christmas. Alongside Martina Gedeck and Heino Ferch, many other familiar faces show up in this film. Jazmin Tabatabai, whom we…