Tom Sawyer
Released in 2011, this is a German adaptation of the famous Mark Twain novel, so most of you don’t need a plot summary… I would hope! Benno Fürmann plays Indianer Joe and Joachim Król is…
Lissi und der wilde Kaiser
This 2007 animated film is an adaptation of skits originally found in Bully Parade years earlier. It is a parody of Sissi stories for those who understand the popularity of Kaiserin Elisabeth and the stories…
Homies
Known as HipHop Express in the American market, this 2010 film is basically a mixture of Step Up and 8 Mile, but in a PG version. Jimi Blue Ochsenknecht plays the main character, a boy…
Pünktchen und Anton
This 1999 version of Erich Kästner’s novel centers around a young boy and girl who are best friends with completely different home lives. Anton’s situation (single mother who is sick and unable to work) may…
7 Zwerge: Männer allein im Wald
This spoof on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 2004. Otto Waalkes, Martin Schneider, Nina Hagen and her daughter Cosma Shiva Hagen, Atze Schröder, and many many other German comedians came together…
Otto’s Eleven
Released in 2010, this movie is a parody of Ocean’s Eleven, filled with famous German comedians, including Otto Waalkes and Sky du Mont. This film is enjoyable whether or not you have seen Ocean’s Eleven.…
Sommer
Another Jimi Blue Ochsenknecht project with his dad playing his dad, this 2008 film follows a military kid who has to move in with his grandmother due to his father’s next post being in Somalia.…
Go Trabi Go, 1 and 2
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…
Der rote Baron
Released in 2008, this film takes place during World War I, following the famous Baron von Richthofen. Der rote Baron is filled with modern stars: Til Schweiger, Matthias Schweighöfer, and even Lena Headey (of Game…
Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland
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…
Schuh des Manitu
This 2001 film is a comedy western that was inspired by skits from the show Bullyparade. It centers around Abahachi and his friendship with Ranger. Abahachi’s twin brother Winnetouch (see Karl May’s stories of Winnetou for…
Nosferatu (1922)
The band Type 0 Negative wrote a modern soundtrack for this film and it was re-released as a TV-Movie in 1998. The modern soundtrack fits the movie very well and adds to the suspense built…
Das fliegende Klassenzimmer
This 2003 version is a story of a boys’ boarding school of music and their rivalry with another school. It is winter in Berlin and the schools are preparing their Christmas performances. Some of the…
Hilfe
At 92 minutes long, this 1991 film is labeled as a short film, which is quite interesting considering most movies meant for children are around this length. This is marketed as a “Freaky Friday” movie…
Ostwind 1 und 2
Ostwind, released in 2013, has become a series of films, as of 2019 sitting at four. This post covers the first two. Hanna Binke plays our main character throughout the series. While she hasn’t been…
Gloomy Sunday – ein Lied von Liebe und Tod
This film is a story of a love triangle, surrounding a pianist, a restauranteur, and a woman who once dreamed of and studied to become a concert vocalist. The film takes place during WWII, though…
Stauffenberg
Known in the U.S. as Operation Valkyrie, this 2004 film is a German version of the Tom Cruise film, which came 4 years later. And it’s even rated PG-13, so it is viewable in most…
Freche Mädchen
Disclaimer: this film has a sequel. This post is strictly about the first film, released in 2008. Much of this film takes place in school, in the 8th grade. It includes thought processing during a…
Die wilden Kerle
Disclaimer: this is the first film in a series of 6, released between 2003 and 2016. This post covers only the first film. Actor brothers Jimi Blue Ochsenknecht and Wilson Gonzalez star in this film,…
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
This 1920 film is not rated in the U.S. strictly because movie ratings didn’t exist until long after its release date. It was a suspenseful horror in its day and does involve murder, so one…
Das Leben ist eine Baustelle
Released in 1997, this film is a drama-comedy featuring Jürgen Vogel and Christiane Paul, both of whom we also know from Die Welle, among many other great films. Beyond these two, there are a couple…
Harmonists
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…
Bin ich schön?
This 1998 film is labeled as a comedy/drama. We start in Spain. We don’t really know the characters’ stories, though we slowly learn pieces as we go. The characters all simply want to feel beautiful.…
Europa Europa
Released in 1990, this film is a story of WWII, based on the book of the same title, which is a true story. Solomon Perel plays himself in the present day pieces. It’s the story…
Tannöd
This 2009 film is an interesting suspense/mystery. We hear the difference in the ways of speech between generations, which is in itself an intriguing study. The older the generation, the more likely they are to…
Im Juli
Released in 2000, Im Juli is a romantic comedy. Moritz Bleibtreu plays a student teacher named Daniel. Single and without much luck in love in the past, he meets a couple women who surprise him…
Bibi Blocksberg
This 2002 movie is a family-friendly film about growing up a witch. Bibi’s mother is a witch, but her father isn’t. One might be reminded of Bewitched, mixed with a little Sabrina the Teenage Witch.…
Liebe Mauer
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…
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes
This Werner Herzog film from 1972 is categorized as adventure-drama and features Klaus Kinski as Don Lope de Aguirre. Kinski was a key player in German film, especially back in the 1970s. He played Nosferatu…
Kebab Connection
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…
Alles auf Zucker
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…
Zettl
This 2012 film is a comedy in the form of satire, created by the same man who gave us Bullyparade, Traumschiff Surprise, Lissi und der wilde Kaiser, and Schuh des Manitu. We follow Max Zettl,…
Jakob der Lügner
This 1975 film takes place in 1944 Poland in a Ghetto. It was remade in Hollywood with Robin Williams in 1999. It’s meant to be a comedy, but even the Robin Williams version is classified…
Bella Martha
Known as Mostly Martha in the States, this 2001 movie was redone only a few years later in Hollywood as No Reservations, which starred George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. We meet Martha, an uptight chef…
Der Fall Gleiwitz
This 1961 film is in black and white and shows Germany at the beginning of WWII, as Germany was justifying the invasion of Poland. This film is from East Germany. Given the release year, this…
Friendship!
This 2010 film takes place shortly after reunification, with a short introduction in the DDR past. We follow two young men from East Germany who decide to fly to America with their new-found freedom. They…
Winterschläfer
Released in 1997, this film is rightly classified as a romantic drama. The story focuses on a ski instructor and a translator, a car accident, and death. This film is directed by Tom Tykwer, the…
Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken
This 2004 film featuring Daniel Brühl as Paul is based on the true story, the 1927 Steglitz student tragedy. Daniel Brühl is a well-known German actor. Many may recognize him from such movies as Goodbye,…
Friedrich, ein deutscher König
Released in 2012, this docu-drama features two actresses as Friedrich: Katharina and Anna Thalbach. Katharina Thalbach has been acting since she was very young, in East Germany. Her voice is easy to recognize. Even though…
Die Kirche bleibt im Dorf
This 2012 film is noted as a Schwäbisch comedy, and with that comes the dialect and the stereotypes. We get to hear a conversation between a Schwäbisch speaker and a Hochdeutsch speaker, and those who…
Der blinde Fleck
This 2013 film is a true story of a journalist who investigated the terror attack at Oktoberfest, September 1980. With that, the knowledge that we are viewing a murder investigation. Most of the deaths were…
Agnes und seine Brüder
This film, released in 2004, is a drama-comedy filled with big names: Katja Riemann, Moritz Bleibtreu, Til Schweiger, and Herbert Knaup all take part. We begin by following Moritz Bleibtreu’s character, Hans-Jörg Tschirner, into his…
Nicht mein Tag
This 2014 film with Moritz Bleibtreu and Axel Stein follows a bank employee through his everyday problems and a hostage situation, which leads to a bit of Stockholm syndrome. Perhaps one of the most amusing…
Marmor, Stein, und Eisen
This 2000 film has a backdrop of the Drafi Deutscher hit Marmor, Stein, und Eisen bricht, but it is put in a context of stalkerish feelings that have escalated to kidnapping. Stephan Kampwirth, who plays…
Der Nanny
Starring Matthias Schweighöfer (who also served as co-director), this 2015 film is a comedy featuring humour reminiscent of the original Home Alone movie. Matthias Schweighöfer is a favourite actor of many of my current students.…
Soul Kitchen
Released in 2009, Soul Kitchen is a drama-comedy featuring Moritz Bleibtreu. It is also one of the movies Monica Bleibtreu (his mother) was in that was released after her death. Soul Kitchen has many ties…
Sophie Scholl – den letzten Tagen
This 2005 film is based on the true story of Sophie Scholl, an anti-Nazi activist during WWII. She was a member of the resistance group the White Rose. This film is based on a collection…
Die Brücke
This film was originally released in 1959 and was nominated for Golden Globes and Oscars in 1960. The year: 1945. The final days of the war, and only the youth are left to fight. The…
Blueprint
This 2003 film featuring Franka Potente as two main characters, Iris and Siri, centers around the ethical questions of human cloning. With that, it is an intriguing option for an AP level or AP prep…
Die Welle
This 2008 film is a thriller based in the classroom. A teacher, who himself is an anarchist, decides to create a social experiment, mimicking what it is like under a dictatorship. It’s like a high…