Thorsten Merten

In 2012 German Bundespraesident Christian Wulff declares his resignation in the great hall of Bellevue Palace. At the side of his wife, he had to face the pressure of the media for 68 days while struggling for office of head of state of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In Berlin 1942, Hilde is a member of an anti-Nazi group. She falls in love with another member, Hans. The two spend a summer together until they get caught by the Gestapo and Hilde is imprisoned, eight months pregnant.

Based on Michel Houellebecq's controversial novel, Atomised (aka The Elementary Particles) focuses on Michael and Bruno, two very different half-brothers and their disturbed sexuality. After a chaotic childhood with a hippie mother only caring for her affairs, Michael, a molecular biologist, is more interested in genes than women, while Bruno is obsessed with his sexual desires, but mostly finds his satisfaction with prostitutes. But Bruno's life changes when he gets to know the experienced Christiane. In the meantime, Michael meets Annabelle, the love of his youth, again.

Micha unwittingly becomes a German hero when a journalist portrays him as the mastermind behind the mass exodus from East Germany.

Violin teacher Anna Bronsky detects remarkable talent in a student, Alexander. Anna becomes obsessed with mentoring him, neglecting her family and spiralling under mounting pressure. As her fixation overtakes her, all is staked on exam day.

Clumsy peculiar pupil Alfons Zitterbacke dreams of being an astronaut and wreaks havoc anywhere he goes but against all odds wants to proof everyone who is teasing him wrong especially his father who wants him to be more of a 'normal' kid.

A lighthearted look at the opening of the border crossing of Bornholmer Straße in Berlin from the point of view of the confused border guards.

Walter is a 60-year-old removal man for forced evictions. He recognizes in one of the tenants about to be evicted his estranged son, Jan. In order to help Jan, Walter has to confront not only his crooked boss but also his own past.

Four men’s destinies slam into each other and intertwine on four balmy summer nights. Old wounds are reopened, new ones appear, unexpectedly there is a new closeness. And, when the sun rises over the city and the striking garbage men, finally ensure German order again, nothing is the same for these four men.

Described as a high-concept anthology thriller; an exploration of the universal processes that can turn peaceful individuals into people capable of violence, examining the thin line between civility and brutality.

Taking place at the Concentration camp Buchenwald at the end of March 1945, prisoner Hans Pippig discovers in a carrying case of an incoming prisoner a Jewish child. If reported the three-year-old is sure to die. On the other hand, a violation of the rules of the camp would threaten the long prepared uprising of the concentration camp prisoners against the SS.

Nora is fourteen and lives with her parents in a quiet Berlin suburb. She is a romantic introvert who spends her day retreated into her own enchanted dreamworld. Her parents, Anette and Uwe, are busy trying to handle reality; both are wrestling with unrealized hopes and dreams along with the added troubles caused by Anette's return to her studies and Uwe's struggling business. When Thomas, a former lover of Anette's and his family move in next door, the already fragile foundations of Nora's family are rocked.

On a Friday afternoon, there was an unexpected knock on the door of the staff room of a city high school. An ambitious father is willing to go to extremes to get his son admitted to high school. The six teachers who are still at school so shortly before the start of the weekend now have to find out the hard way. After some unexpected twists and embarrassing revelations, true abysses open up for everyone involved...

In the historic Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, despite the cruel war that has been raging since 2014 between the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and the Ukrainian government, people try to survive in the rotten heart of chaos, where violence disguises itself as peace, propaganda becomes univocal truth and hatred reigns in the name of love.

Wolfgang follows a ransom note from his supposed illegal kidney donor Irina back to Istanbul, the city which he would love to erase from memory. Donor and recipient collide and struggle for a fair solution after which there is a bitter new beginning

The Hotel Lunik is a refuge for a group of radical utopists. In the center of it all, are the Siblings Franz and Babette, who through their anti-capitalist guerrilla campaigns call into question the basis for a money-based society. On the other side Franz's cousin Toni, is setting up a nightclub on the ground floor of the hotel with an entrepreneurial spirit in diametric opposition to it's surroundings. Guests are to be lured with a high-class lounge act along with a quiz show developed by Franz's own father, Alfons. Toni and his loyal bartender Viktor have their hands full contending with the difficulties of an unmotivated workforce. Among Lunik's odd population are Tom, the bellman with a screw loose, Nora, the pretty cook peeling potatoes and dreaming of a world in show business, and Emilia, the chronically sick photographer who wants to spend her last weeks singing in the company of friends...

In 1944, a group of high command officers plot an attempt against Hitler, and one of the leaders of the conspiracy, Stauffenberg, goes to a meeting with the Fuhrer in charge of exploding the place. However, Hitler survives and the officers are executed. This unsuccessful operation was called "Valkyrie Operation", and this realistic movie discloses this true event.

Just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the birthday celebrations of an East German family turn into a tragicomical moment of political and personal breakdown.

Malchow, German Democratic Republic, 1980. 20-year-old Anne is hiding Juri, a deserter of the Red Army. The two fall in love with each other. But their love is threatened: there is an arrest warrant and possibly a death sentence waiting for Juri. The two leave the country and flee to the West, leaving Anne’s six-month-old daughter Inga behind. Inga grows up with her grandparents and thinks that her mother died during a swimming accident. 25 years later she meets the literature professor Robert, who sends her on the trail of her past. He met Inga’s mother Anne during one of his seminars. At first Inga is resistant, but then she asks for Robert’s help. Together they take off on a journey through Germany, in search of Inga’s mother Anne...

17-year-old Cyril is funny, smart and an all-round good guy. Just his somewhat overlarge nose spoils the picture. On a school trip to Berlin with Roxy, a stunning new classmate, Cyril is not the only one taken with her. Benno, the class Casanova has his eye on the girl too and makes a nasty wager. Roxy is more interested in the introverted Rick, who is not only shy but also slow. Cyril hastens with his spoken word skills to Rick's aid, and falls head over heels in love with Roxy himself. So whose brave heart will win the fair lady?

Dito Tsintsadze's drama focuses on a loner whose life changes dramatically, when he gets to know a beautiful, but strange girl. Lukas, a young man doing "meals on wheels" instead of military service, doesn't have many friends and leads a boring life, until he meets Isabella. The fascinating girl soon becomes his best friend, but Lukas learns she has a sexual relationship to her stepfather. Thus, he is obsessed with the idea of delivering Isabella by killing the man..

On 24th August 1992 in the eastern German city of Rostock, a rampaging mob, to the applause and cheering of more than 3,000 bystanders, besieged and set fire to a residential building containing, among others, more than 120 Vietnamese men, women, and children on what has since become known as "The Night of the Fire." The riots became a symbol of xenophobia in the just-reunited Germany. This film recounts the incident from the perspectives of three very different characters.

In the middle of his life, Paul Gompitz from Rostock makes the decision to travel to Syracuse in Sicily. He is driven to follow in the footsteps of the poet Johann Gottlieb Seume. But: Paul lives in the GDR, behind the most annoying border in the world. His plan is impossible by legal means. So he has to prepare an escape.

Leipzig, December 1734: Christmas brings the Bach family together. The first snow has fallen and the children Gottfried and Elisabeth are delighted about the arrival of their older brothers Friedemann and Emanuel. The Thomaskantor has retired to his music room. Anna Magdalena supports her husband, as there are only a few days left and his latest work, the six-part "Christmas Oratorio", must be finished on time. It is awaited with suspicion by the city council and the gentlemen of the consistory, who have long found Bach's waywardness a thorn in their side and fear that, after the premiere of the St. Matthew Passion a few years earlier, the St. Thomas Church will once again be filled with "operatic" music. With the oratorio, Johann Sebastian Bach hopes that he will finally become court composer in Dresden. And, as always, he demands that all members of the family join forces to help him. But differences of opinion are increasingly delaying the completion of Bach's most famous work.