Ulrich Matthes

A group of young people sets sail for the Mediterranean to save the lives of refugees — a mission that puts their ideas of law and justice to the test.

At the tense 1938 Munich Conference, former friends who now work for opposing governments become reluctant spies racing to expose a Nazi secret.

A sea captain makes a bet in a cafe with a friend that he will marry the first woman who walks in.

Skalde lives in a small rural community, far from a world that may no longer exist. She is an interloper in her own home, having been born to an ‘outsider’ mother and therefore marked by a social stigma she cannot easily erase. Displaying a loyalty to the codes of the community, she has earned the respect of the village elder. However, when she encounters a mysterious girl in the local woods, Skalde risks everything by befriending her, eventually giving the girl a home.

A plot of land, a house by the lake, its changing inhabitants. This one plot of land reflects 70 years of German history from Weimar, the Nazis, the war, the Soviet occupation and reconstruction to the fall of the GDR.

Once again, a few years have passed when old friends Patrick and Maltemeet again. Patrick shows up completely unexpectedly at Malte's mobile home, which is parked on a cliff on the Baltic Sea, in the middle of a deserted restricted area.

In the distant future, in a monastery on the lonely Neptune moon of Athos, a mysterious crime unfolds. An artificial intelligence responsible for life support comes under suspicion of murder. An inquisitor specializing in artificial intelligence is sent to solve this mysterious case.

A teenage girl's family falls for a cosmic cult promising salvation in a higher existence on Jupiter. As flashbacks leading deeper into the past unravel the family's struggle to get a hold on life, the girl has to decide if to follow her parents or to make her own way on earth.

No synopsis available yet.

On the day of his wife's funeral, Patrick intends to take his own life. But suddenly Malte shows up at his home, his best friend from his youth, whom he hasn't seen in over 30 years. While Malte apparently wants to seamlessly continue the old friendship, Patrick remains distant at first and reproaches the unexpected visitor for his disappearance from the small town and out of his life at the time. He wonders what Malte wants from him and why he's back now of all times. Over the course of a day and night they spend at Patrick's parents' house, the scene of their youth, it turns out that Malte hasn't turned up again by accident. Things are said that were previously unsaid. The next morning, both men see their lives in a completely new light and nothing is the same anymore.

No synopsis available yet.

Documentary about former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s political ascent and mental strength, featuring interviews with her and a variety of notable politicians.

The 78-year-old former architect Richard Gärtner (Matthias Habich) wants to put an end to his life. However, this should not be done abroad, but quite legally with the help of his family doctor. For Dr. Brandt (Anna Maria Mühe), out of personal conviction, it is out of the question to get her elderly but healthy patient a fatal preparation.

The EU has fallen apart, and in Germany, far-right populists are forming a new government. War is imminent. Jonas has deserted; he and his sister go into hiding at the home of their father, Stuber, whom Jonas has not seen since childhood. But there, the situation escalates. A catastrophe occurs even before the war has begun.

From the translucent golden eggs of the Tibetan bearded vulture to those of the British guillemot with their Jackson Pollock-like splashes, German ornithologist Max Schönwetter (1874-1961) collected them all. He devoted his life to oology, the study of birds’ eggs. But while Schönwetter created order in his world of eggs, chaos broke out in the world around him on the eve of the Second World War.

In a world where humanity counts for nothing, a man has lost his value for society and is therefore to be transformed into an uncaring artificial intelligence.

The gynecologist Marta lives peacefully with her son Nathan in the run-down country house of the rich journalist and system critic Roland - until the poor migrant worker Valmir is called in as a handyman and brings forgotten secrets back to light. In this visually stunning chamber drama, which is also a socio-critical family thriller, author Karin Kaçi and director Sebastian Ko relentlessly expose the sins with which the privileges of prosperity are bought - and the price that must ultimately be paid for them.

Albert Gottwald is a retired dance teacher and has been a widower for three years. He misses his wife so much that he has lost all courage to face life, buries himself in his semi-detached house - and meticulously plans his death.

Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter faces the threat of execution for refusing to fight for the Nazis during World War II.

Travelling to a remote cabin in the Alps, a shy teenage girl has to decide whether to pursue her own path on Earth, or to follow her parents-members of a cosmic cult, through a fatal procedure into a higher existence on Jupiter.

In a village on the Hungarian border, two young brothers grow up during war time with their cruel grandmother and must learn every trick of evil to survive in the absurd world of adults.

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.

October 1941. Eighteen months into France’s occupation by German troops, young Communist members of the Resistance shoot dead an officer of the German Army. In retaliation, Hitler demands the deaths of 150 Frenchmen, as 'retribution'. The targets are to be mostly young men believed to share the assassins’ political convictions. Most of these men are taken from an internment camp for opponents of the occupation; a 35-year-old French rural administrator is ordered to select the victims. Although the parish priest appeals to their conscience and moral sensibilities, both the German military and their French helpers slavishly follow their orders.

In the final years of World War I a retired German field medic is sent to a remote sanatorium for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic mental disorders. There he encounters a strange, dreamlike state of existence that challenges his own war-torn mind.

It was a devastating day for Arnold and his wife, Karen when their son, Christian, a soldier in the German armed forces, told them he was going to be deployed abroad. Everything is different now. Arnold has decided to retreat to a secluded mountain hut in Tirol along with his dog in order to finally find some peace of mind. Barely has he reached his snow drenched destination, when he discovers the threatening traces of an intruder. While ruminating over the news of his son and the conversations he had with his wife, Arnold must also battle against an unknown fiend if he wants to save his own life.

In no less than 180 minutes the film showed frenzied dashes of wild colors and idyllic natural images, of wonderful music and powerful lyricism, which, among others was flawlessly recited by star actors such as Corinna Harfouch, Angela Winkler and Ulrich Matthes. The work treats of the consciousness-defining echoing thunder of modern rock music, of the rock inscriptions of the ancient Egyptians, of the Merseburg magic spells, the author’s childhood impressions, in the latter’s homeland in the forests of the Upper Palatinate, and the ghosts of the Nazi era, who today continue to haunt us in the most vivid manner.

An insecure drama student is given the lead role in a play by her director, but the role she is supposed to play is at odds with her real personality. The fusion of her stage persona and her real life persona becomes a psychological tour de force for the young woman, changing her private life.

NARRATION analyzes the principle of storytelling not only through artistic practice, but also as a form of interpersonal communication. In six connected Topics divided - The Setting, The Situation, The Narrator, The Approach, The Past, The Construct - NARRATION narrates of the elements that allow words and pictures and any Structural feature to form every form of a story.

An award-winning performer trio and a sophisticated story characterize the thrilling TV thriller "The Missing Woman". From the naive betrayed to the tough revenge angel Corinna Harfouch turns into the lead role. At her side, Ulrich Matthes silently plays a professional killer, who does not look at the cards. Never laying an excuse, is the Dortmund crime scene commissar Jörg Hartmann in the role of a shameless swindler. Because all three want to cash in on the life insurance, begins a game of fraud and extortion, in which also the red light milieu interferes.

Freya Deichmann's life undergoes a radical change when she meets Helmuth James von Moltke at the age of 18. "I saw him and my heart stood still." He is the love of her live, a love which begins in the summer of 1929 and has to withstand the Third Reich. The dramatic climax is Helmuth's arrest. It is a time torn between hope and parting. Every day could be the last. Her great happiness: almost everyday they write each other letters, smuggled by the prison chaplain Harald Poelchau. A love in resistance, one which doesn't end with the execution of the beloved.

Director Claudia Muller follows the career of conceptual artist Jenny Holzer in this documentary that's as illuminating as her trademark LED displays. For over 30 years, Holzer has used a variety of unusual backdrops for her text installations.

"The theme of the film HIDDEN CITIES is personal urban perceptions, which we call 'the city'. The city, as a living organism, reflecting social processes and interactions, economic relations, political conditions and private matters. In the city, human memories, desires and tragedies find expression in the form of designations and marks engraved in house walls and paving slabs. But what the city really is under this thick layer of signs, what it contains or conceals, is what we are researching in the HIDDEN CITIES project. The source material for the film are 9 sequential photo works created by Gusztáv Hámos between 1975 and 2010. Each of these 'city perceptions' depicts essential situations of urban experiences containing human and inhuman acts in a compact form. The cities in which the photo sequences have been made are Berlin, Budapest and New York – places with a traumatised past: Wars, dictatorships, terrorist catastrophes."

After some faked medicine is found, an Interpol agent searches for evidence against high rank chairmen of medical companies.

Freelance journalist Jan Schulte hopes for a job at the online portal of Berlin newspaper “Die Republik” when he discovers a potential scandal. Federal minister of health Elisabeth Stade apparently helped her brother’s search for a heart transplant by moving him up the waiting list illegally. But then Schulte’s colleague Britta claims the compromising material is a fake. Editor-in-chief Weishaupt and publisher Winter refuse to run the article. As Jan keeps on digging into the scandal, investigating state secretary Katharina Pflüger and political advisor Frank Gruber, his evidence is suddenly stolen from the newspaper office, and soon a competing tabloid breaks the story...

Frank Lehmann, 20, still lives with his parents in the dreary high-rise housing project "Neue Vahr" in Bremen. It's the year 1980 and Frank gets drafted to the army even though his friends assure him that "he's not really the guy for it". When he gets back home, after his first week at the army, his Dad has turned his room into a TV repair shop, so Frank has to move out. Luckily his old friend Martin is starting a commune with two other Punks in Bremens leftist borough "Viertel". Frank, without further ado rents the unlivable walk-through room. From now on Frank is a traveler between the Worlds. Each week he goes from the Army, with all the unconditional rules and regulations to the commune where his friends are preaching the world revolution. Frank is trying to avoid to stick out, but fails miserably, in both worlds.

No synopsis available yet.

The local theater in Armstadt has to take a step back; the budget gets cut due to less audience. However, the actors try their best to prepare for a new piece.

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

Countless valuable info of Der Untegang's production as choice of St. Peterburg, how the German producers have been envisioned this upper-class movie as final world about all happenings carried out at bunker upon Traudl Junge's notes.

During WWII, head priest Henri Kremer is mysteriously freed from Dachau. He learns that he can return home to Luxembourg, for only nine days, during which he'll have to face a persuasive Gestapo chief who will put his faith to the test.

The secret of a mystery island called Vineta.

No synopsis available yet.

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...

After work, only the canary is waiting for Rosi. Even her friend secretly giggles about the "old bag who's missed out."

Early German Romanticism was not only an era of great poetry, but also developed a spiritual world view that anticipated much of what people today seek in esotericism, shamanism and Far Eastern religion: the combination of thought and intuition, reason and emotion, science and religion, as well as a view of nature as a living organism that cannot be understood solely through rational dissection. In artistic independence, the early Romantics developed highly individual forms of spirituality that have lost none of their fascination and inspiring power to this day. With texts by Hölderlin, Novalis, Goethe, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff and others, we travel to magical landscapes in Germany to explore this side of European intellectual history that has been little illuminated to date.

Filmmaker Richard Dindo's unique documentary uses historical reenactments and speculative "interviews" of historical figures to paint a fascinating portrait of one of the most influential writers of modern literature, renowned author Franz Kafka. Best known for his novel The Metamorphosis, Kafka was famously secretive and eccentric, and the details of his private life have become just as captivating to his fans as his work.

Eight people on a journey across Germany. Each has a destination in mind, each has worries as well as wishes. Fate brings them together. The carpooling agency throws them together in three cars. They have to spend several hours together in a very confined space. A shy wallflower, a pushy swimwear salesman, a boy who wants to get out of the provinces for a weekend... Their lives become intertwined for a few hours during the trip. But how do such different people fit together at all? This question is the source of the movie's suspense.

In 1943, while the Allies are bombing Berlin and the Gestapo is purging the capital of Jews, a dangerous love affair blossoms between two women – one a Jewish member of the underground, the other an exemplar of Nazi motherhood.

Young blonde translator Rebecca lives with her boyfriend ski instructor Marco in a mountain villa owned by her friend, nurse Laura. Rene, local cinema projectionist, steals Marco's car and gets into a car crash with local Theo, whose daughter, after being in coma for a time, dies. Rene suffers from partial short term memory loss and starts a relationship with Laura. Meanwhile Marco is looking for the man who stole his car and Theo - for the man who killed his daughter...

The former waiter Ernst Held believes himself to be called higher and seeks self-realization as a poet. When he recites poems to his wife's beautician in an ambiguous situation, his wife puts him out the door. Completely destitute, the thwarted poet must therefore return to the lowlands of life and become the head in the Munich pub "Goldener Löffel".

No synopsis available yet.

On the outside, Martin Dreyer looks like the nice neighbor next door. He lovingly looks after his paralyzed brother and his friends have never noticed him in a negative way. Nobody sees what a monster lies dormant inside him. No one suspects the incomprehensible. Martin suffers from a terrible burden: an obsessive desire for young girls. When Martin meets the young, petite Sonja one day and falls in love with her straight away, he believes in a new life. He asks her to marry him. She is surprised at his quick decision, but then agrees. What Martin doesn't know until then is that Sonja has a little daughter.

Feuerreiter is an elegant period drama that begins in Frankfurt in 1796. Through his friend, Baron von Sinclair, romantic and rebellious poet Friedrich Hölderlin secures the position of a private tutor in the home of a banker named Gontard. He is soon torn between his passion for poetry and his love for Susette, the lady of the house. To top it all off, Baron von Sinclair is in love with him. Hölderlin's most beautiful poems are written during this trying time. However, he becomes a total recluse when he loses Susette. The film examines the effects of conflicting demands, both emotional and sensual, that may inspire art. Feuerreiter was screened as part of the New German Films at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999.

The movie tells a true story in the life of well-known German actor Manfred Krug. Living in the German Democratic Republic he is forced to leave the country after protesting against the expatriation of singer/songwriter Wolf Biermann in 1976.

The story of a Leipzig family from 1987 to the Monday demonstrations in 1989. After the death of her father, a high-ranking officer in the People's Police, the daughter joins the resistance movement around St. Nicholas Church. Phenomena such as obedience, followership, spying and resistance are illustrated in this haunting film based on individual people. A film that provides food for thought for the discussion about the fall of the Berlin Wall and recapitulates contemporary history.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

A man is raped and robbed in Paris on Christmas Eve. Completely traumatized, he tells everyone he comes into contact with about what happened.

Considered in Germany as one of the country's greatest film and theater actors, Ulrich Matthes discusses his career, his choices, and his political commitments.