Karl-Ernst Sasse

Movies

The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld
Music
The life story of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a German Jew, who as a physician established the field of sexology, and fought militantly against German anti-sodomy laws in the late 19th century. The script reveals main characters in Hirschfeld's life including impossible love interest Baron von Teschenberg, and Hirschfeld's aids- young Karl Giese and guardian angel, the transvestite Dorchen, as they establish the First Institute of Sexual Sciences in Berlin in 1920, and follows their struggles to keep it open, up to the rise of the Third Reich in the mid 1930s.
Der Menschenfresser
Music
The Tigress
Original Music Composer
It's the roaring twenties in Berlin. The Tigress, a gorgeous, wild, and very independent street walker, falls for a handsome grifter. When one of her lovers gets jealous, she betrays him and has to skip town. The grifter reveals he has what it takes to move in upper class circles and suggests they flee to Carlsbad, a spa in Czechoslovakia. Does he love her or is he only using her? Is the Tigress madly in love with him or does she want to satisfy her vanity and drop him once he falls for her? The ancient cat and mouse game between a man and a woman unfolds amidst sensual seduction, the scheme of robbing a rich Texan and the jilted lover arriving from Berlin, gun drawn.
Stein
Music
Actor Ernst Stein, having abdicated from the stage in 1968 in protest of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, has long since retreated from the world around him. In a remote house encircled by an overgrown garden, he lives in a world of dreams and memories. Suddenly, in 1989, an out-of-kilter society sends forth its progeny. Young people, tramps and characters of all sorts take refuge with Stein for a short span, carrying the turmoil of the times into his house.
Der Hut
Original Music Composer
Erster Verlust
Music
Monolog für einen Taxifahrer
Music
Schulmeister Spitzbart
Music
Ich, Thomas Müntzer, Sichel Gottes
Music
Zwei schräge Vögel
Music
Frank and Kamminke study informatics in Leipzig and have developed a program that enables a computer to automatically find and correct errors in its software. Freshly graduated, they are relocated to a remote Thuringian village after causing a computer breakdown. There, they are supposed to work in a small company that has no clue of economic management. The rather helpful computer system from West Germany plainly lacks compatible software. But Frank and Komminke are not allowed to work with the hardware , although it is them who could make most out of the complex system. Eventually, and with the help of consultant Petra whom both are in love with, they break into the system control room on New Year′s Eve and start up the computer with their special program.
Blessed Misfortune!
Music
A creature bearing the ominous name "Mishap" is hot in pursuit of an unfortunate lumberjack and eventually decides to live with him. It soon gets bored, however, and asks the lumberjack to hand it over to the rich merchant Habermoos. Habermoos manages to sell Mishap to the king, although he is being attacked by robbers. The king is bankrupt and threatened with war by other countries. Young Michael has to go to war for the king. The creature tries to secretly join him. When Michael gets hold of the situation, he manages to get rid of Mishap once and for all. After all, he has more important things to do. At the last moment, he prevents his girlfriend Kathrin from getting married to the pompous merchant Habermoos.
Zum Teufel mit Harbolla
Music
Even the military academy can't stop kind-hearted officer Gottfried Engelhardt from seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. Everything in the young GDR is blooming: Engelhardt's career, the socialist state, the black market, and maybe even a chance at love.
Battle on Canvas: The Creation of a Monumental Painting by Werner Tübke
Music
In 1987, after over ten years of work, Werner Tübke (1929-2004), one of East Germany’s most important painters, completed the monumental, oil-on-canvas painting The Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany. Painted in the Renaissance styles of Albrecht Dürer and Albrecht Altdorfer, the painting—measuring 14 meters high and 123 meters wide—is in the Panorama Museum in Bad Frankenhausen, Thuringia, the site of the last battle of the German Peasants’ War. The museum was specifically built for the painting, one of the most figurative in recent art history.Interspersed with interviews with the artist, the documentary follows the complicated and elaborate creation of the monumental work, from signing the contract in 1976 to the last brush stroke on September 11, 1987. In 2011, the Panorama Museum was awarded the European Seal of Cultural Heritage.
Schwein gehabt
Music
Altes Herz geht auf die Reise
Music
Tillebille
Music
Die Weihnachtsklempner
Music
Die Irrfahrten des Odysseus
Music
Hilde, das Dienstmädchen
Music
In 1938, a young woman leaves Germany to search for her love, Erich, in Reichenburg, Bohemia. Erich is secretly fighting the fascists, so Hilde ends up becoming a housemaid in the home of a German joiner in order to carry on their relationship. The joiner's son notices the passionate love shared between Hilde and Erich. To him, the young lady embodies the feminine ideal. When Hilde receives news of Erich's death, she descends into an uninhibited lifestyle in an attempt to forget.
Jorinde und Joringel
Music
Ernst Thälmann
Music
Der Haifischfütterer
Music
The furniture mover Stefan is on the verge of serving his time in the military. He has always been a guy with distinctive civil courage who cannot stand injustice. Now he has ten days left in which he plans to make a lot of decisions, not least the decision with which woman he wants to spend his life. Stefan is picky, however, and none of them seems good enough for him.
White Cloud Carolin
Music
It's no big secret that twelve-year-old Hannes is in love with his classmate Carolin, who he compares to a beautiful white cloud in the sky. But when Carolin spends most of her time exploring the village's history with Benno, Hannes becomes increasingly jealous of his rival. The only person who is happy about this situation is Kerstin, who is in fact interested in Hannes. In order to impress Carolin, Hannes takes her and several others out for a boat ride in the nearby Bay of Greifswald, but his plan takes a deadly turn as a storm approaches.
Es steht der Wald so schweigend
Music
Ach du meine Liebe
Music
Klassenkameraden
Music
The criminalist Hannes Bergemann tries to blackmail the city where he spent his youth. After many years returning to the familiar places of his childhood, he hopes to meet again his old friends, especially Fred, Helmuth and Richard, with whom he had a close childhood friendship. When confronted with a murder shortly after his arrival and given the task of investigating it, he has the painful experience that his friends are involved in the case.
Isabel on the Stairs
Music
Twelve-year-old Isabel and her mother, who was a famous political singer, had to escape Chile after the 1973 military coup. Isabel’s father stayed behind fighting in the underground. For six years, they have lived in a new apartment building in East Berlin. At first, the neighbors made an effort to welcome them, but later became more distant. Isabel does not feel at home in the strange country. Not even her friendship to Philip, the neighbors’ son, can change her mind. Almost every day, Isabel sits on the stairs waiting for a letter from her father, from whom she has not heard for many years.
Der Mann mit dem Ring im Ohr
Music
Film by Joachim Hasler.
The Farmer's Clever Daughter
Music
Puppet animated film based on a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm.
Moritz in der Litfaßsäule
Music
No one has any time for Moritz. And at school, things are not exactly the greatest either. Moritz runs away and moves into the inside of an advertising pillar. A speaking cat, a circus girl and a street sweeper become his new friends. Gradually, they help the young boy to realize that running away does not solve anything.
Martin Luther
Music
Automärchen
Music
This quirky episodic comedy weaves together three plotlines centered around the employees of a car garage, with some unexpected fairytale elements to get things moving. A woodland fairy convinces shy bookkeeper Piel to suddenly start driving his Trabi far above the speed limit. Manager Neumann sells his soul to a black cat in order to purchase a more respectable vehicle. And a spirit named "Car Accident" offers to warn owner Sengebusch about upcoming traffic accidents so he can make money by always being the first on the scene.
The Scout
Music
1877, the tribe of the Nez Percés Indians are driven into the reservation by a white cavalry force. So that they can not escape, their horses are requisitioned. Sub-chief "White Feather" has no choice but to make a scout with the cavalry and retrieve the stolen horses through his life.
The Airship
Music
Franz Xavier Stannebein, a young boy at the turn of the 20th century, wants to do nothing more than fly. He carries this dream through his years at an orphanage and into adulthood as a merchant in Spain. He eventually invests everything he has into building his own version of an airship. He later meets some industrialists in Germany who want to support his idea, and they ask him to build an airfield in Spain. When he sees the Nazis use the field during the Spanish Civil War, however, he feels betrayed and goes to Germany to protest. There he is thrown into an insane asylum in Leipzig. After WWII, his grandson and other survivors of the family searches for him, only to find the empty asylum... Based on the novel Das Luft-Schiff. Biografische Nachlasse zu den Fantasien meines Grossvaters (1974) by Fritz Rudolf Fries. The non-camera animation in the film was created by internationally known director Lutz Dammbeck.
Bahnwärter Thiel
Music
A Long Way to School
Music
A young boy fantasizes his way to school into a battle between cowboys and Indians, where the bad guys want to steal some gold medals. Real events and fantasy interacts in his mind.
Das hässliche junge Entlein
Music
Animated short film based on Andersen's tale.
Endlich fliegen
Music
My Father Alfons
Music
Ten years old Ernst and his father Alfons are traveling to the family event on their bikes.
Wie wär's mit uns beiden
Music
In three episodes about six people, the film takes on the topics of relationships, difficult social engagements , and love in the German Democratic Republic.
Die Stunde der Töchter
Music
A life-threatening heart attack confines Richard Roth to the hospital bed. There, Richard, who is in his late fifties, asks himself what will remain of him and his life. What happened to his four daughters? Do they take after him? How have they developed? His youngest daughter Nanny, who is still living with her father, gets her three other siblings to Weimar to visit their father.
Gevatter Tod
Music
Der Direktor
Music
The Fiancee
Music
The wrenching story of a woman sentenced in 1934 to ten years in prison for antifascist activities. The love between her and her fiancée enables her to survive the tribulations of her time in prison, where she is one of few political prisoners.
Don Juan, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 78
Music
In a backwater town, opera director Andrej Wischnewsky is supposed to put on a production of Mozart's "Don Giovanni".
The Lion Carpenter
Music
The successful entertainment artist Ralf Keul must develop his land on the Baltic Sea or else ultimately give it up. Inexperienced yet courageous, he hurls himself into the undertaking, which spares him no unpleasantness. He battles over the transportation and procurement of materials, constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, while his craftsmen offer little additional assistance.
Anamnese
Cinematography
Anamnese
Music
Alma schafft alle
Music
Am grauen Strand, am grauen Meer
Music
Adaptation of Theodor Storm's novella "Hans and Heinz Kirch".
Nicki
Music
After the accidental death of her mother, 12 year old Nicki must care for the family particularly her two young siblings.
Coded Message for the Boss
Music
Wolf Brandin is in his mid-twenties and lives with his wife and child in East Berlin at the end of the 1950s. In West Berlin, the student of electrical engineering is recruited by the American secret service CIA. But Brandin immediately notifies the State Security of the German Democratic Republic and from then on lives a dangerous life as a double agent. When Brandin reaches the breaking point, his marriage starts to unravel because Brandin is not allowed to tell his family about his double life.
Abschied vom Frieden
Music
Lachtauben weinen nicht
Music
The film tells the story of the smelter brigade of a steel mill whose members are connected by a strong comradeship. Among the workers are, for instance, young Rolf, whom everybody just calls "Lachtaube" and who always comes through for his co-workers, or the likable Hubert, who works as a simple smelter again after being dismissed as the head of the steel mill. Then, there is also the stubborn Manfred, who should have become a brigadier long ago because of his experience and his competence, but this privilege is refused to him because Manfred is not a party member. Ironically, it is Manfred who hears by accident about the plans of the mill to close down the old Martin furnaces – and to lay off the smelters. When the other men learn about the plans they enter the barricades for their jobs and force the plant′s management to face the workers′ demands and criticism.
The Thing in the Castle
Music
A senior professor is kidnapped in the park by residents of a veterans home. Once there, he is asked to invent a "rejuvenating machine" to restore their youth.
Plantagenstraße 19
Music
Für Mord kein Beweis
Music
After a fierce argument Steffi Zinn′s husband leaves the joint flat and stays away from home over night. The next morning, his wife Steffi has disappeared and is reported as a missing person. Captain Lohm takes over the case and at first looks for signs of a murder, but to no avail. Then, Steffi′s body is found in a lake. After her funeral, a stranger who had attended Steffi′s funeral for a short time is also found dead in a lake, and the connection between the two cases becomes apparent.
Hochzeit in Weltzow
Music
Fleur Lafontaine
Music
Sabine Wulff
Original Music Composer
Sabine Wulff is almost 18 when she is released from the juvenile detention center. She doesn't want to return to her unsupportive parents or to her former boyfriend Jimmy, who got her into trouble by persuading her to steal cigarettes. She instead chooses to begin an honest life by getting a job and renting her own room.
Ursula
Music
Switzerland 1523. The mercenary Hansli Gyr returns with his soldiers from Italy to his home in the Oberland. They have fought for the Pope and now find a religious upheaval in Switzerland.
Oh, diese Tante
Music
Heinz is a well-stocked veterinarian in Klückow and his Jana in quite firm, although not always present hands. And now - as Aunt Alma is slowly getting rid of the concern for her beloved nephew - Dr. Kröpelin finally got his chance: he makes a marriage proposal to Alma. She would not be averse if it had not been his "bloodthirsty" hobby, the hunt. A get-together on the high seat is still not a desirable prospect for Alma. But the more she refuses, the tighter Kröpelin bites into his intention to marry her anyway, whatever the cost.
Goldene Zeiten - Feine Leute
Music
Sein letzter Fall
Music
In the Dust of the Stars
Original Music Composer
A retro '70s vision of the future, IN THE DUST OF THE STARS was made by the DEFA film studio. A radio signal attracts a team of astronauts to a mysterious planet. Once there, they are warmly welcomed by an alien race, but are soon suspicious of what is really occurring on this strange land.
Concert for Frying Pan and Orchestra
Music
For the "Festival of good ideas" that is to take place in their residential quarter the musically enthusiastic young Bum wants to rehearse a music show along with his friends. With pans, cans, hooters and other junk they make music. Some adults get angry about that. Others like the second-hand dealer Dohlenei and Mr. Kling from the symphony orchestra help the children to make their fantastic idea come true.
Blood Brothers
Music
In 1864, American soldiers massacre a Cheyenne village at Sand Creek. Disgusted by the massacre, Harmonika, one of the soldiers, deserts the army and is captured by the Indians. At first, the Cheyenne hold him responsible for the murder of the wife and the son of their chief Grauer Esel, but soon Harmonika obtains the tribe′s confidence.
Zwischen Nacht und Tag
Music
Film by Horst E. Brandt.
Am Ende der Welt
Music
Film by Hans K.
Kit & Co.
Original Music Composer
The adventures of Kit Bellew and his friend Shorty during the gold fever at the end of the 19th century.
The Elective Affinities
Eduard and Charlotte live an isolated and idyllic life together. But soon Eduard feels that something is missing and he invites his friend Otto to come stay. Charlotte, meanwhile, decides that her foster daughter Ottilie should come live with them. Complex and passionate relationships between the four people begin. Based on Goethe's novel of the same title.
The Elective Affinities
Music
Eduard and Charlotte live an isolated and idyllic life together. But soon Eduard feels that something is missing and he invites his friend Otto to come stay. Charlotte, meanwhile, decides that her foster daughter Ottilie should come live with them. Complex and passionate relationships between the four people begin. Based on Goethe's novel of the same title.
Ulzana
Music
This rather unconventional Western movie is set in the middle of the 19th century in Arizona. The film portrays an Indian tribe, the Mimbreno Appacheans, who are celebrating their Thanksgiving, building an irrigation plant, carrying on commerce, and trying to settle down in a rather constricted territory. But the confrontation with the white Americans changes their situation as the mercantile "gentlemen" want to prevent the Indian tribe to become independent from the white men′s business practices. Thus, they destroy the irrigation plant and chase the Indian tribe in an inhospitable territory where they cannot survive. Led by their chief Ulzana, the Appacheans thus start a bitter fight to preserve their habitat.
Die klugen Dinge
Music
Wolz – Life and Transfiguration of a German Anarchist
Music
Soldier Ignaz Wolz returns from WWI with an immeasurable hatred of capitalist war profiteers. He decides to start his own revolution, but tries to stay away from the organized class struggle. He steals from the rich men and divides the wealth among the poor. One day, Wolz is arrested and sentenced to life in prison; seven years later he is released due to mass protests. More than ever, it is hard for him to fit in. He severs ties with his former companions, who reject his ideas, and leaves Germany.
Erziehung vor Verdun
Music
Laut und leise ist die Liebe
Music
Following a training course, the 28-year-old Helga Baumann, a single mother of two children, meets up with her husband Fred again. They had separated a while ago because their ideas of marriage were completely disparate: The conservative Fred advocated the woman′s role of wife and mother, while Helga dreamt about an emancipated partnership between two employed persons. Now, her sister has brought them back together. At first sight, Fred seems to have changed and, once again, Helga cannot resist his advances. But when she meets with difficulties during a fair in Tashkent, Fred yet again proves to be a petty bourgeois by assuring her that they would get along perfectly without her working.
Janus Head
Original Music Composer
World-famous geneticist Professor Hülsenbeck is a man of integrity who refuses to mix science and political gain. When his findings are being used to harm humanity, he immigrates to the USA in 1933 in protest against Nazi racial politics.
Lützower
Music
During the Napoleanic Wars, members of the Prussian Lützow Free Corps steal a French war chest from the house of collaborator Kerstinn, but their captain Friesen is captured and sentenced to death. But Friesen is saved by French Sergeant Fleuron and they flee the occupied city together. Kerstinn's daughter Marie is disgusted by her father's disloyalty and has also fallen in love with Friesen. When she learns about a trap that is being set for Lützow Free Corps, she sets out to warn them with the help of her father's clerk Püttchen, a Lützow sympathizer.
I Will Show You
Music
A family comedy about thirteen years old Bernd and the problems he faces after his family moving to Rostock.
Her Third
Original Music Composer
In this East German film, the third one in The Third is Margit's third lover. After her mother's death, Margit has two affairs which don't work out, and one lesbian friendship which she retains. She is looking for a husband, though, and thinks she has spotted a candidate in her fellow factory worker. As she contemplates marrying him, her story is told in a series of flashbacks.
Filmemacher
Music
Du und ich und Klein-Paris
Music
When 17-year-old Angelika moves to Leipzig, she is forced to rent a room at Mrs. Häublein’s for a start, since her parents will not follow until a few months later. Fellow tenant Thomas, a philosophy student, is not at all enthused about his new, pretty housemate. Because of Angelika he has to move into a smaller room. Furthermore, he is annoyed at her many male acquaintances, without sensing that his aggression might be prompted by jealousy. When Angelika’s father comes for a visit, he asks Thomas to keep an eye on his daughter. Thomas takes this assignment very seriously and finally realizes that he has fallen in love with Angelika.
Anlauf
Music
Signals: A Space Adventure
Original Music Composer
In the middle of the next century, a spaceship loses its bearings, and the commander of another space crew, seemingly on a routine check flight, decides to investigate. The result is an unusual suspense adventure.
We Buy a Fire Truck
Music
Little Matti and his friends are restoring the old abandoned fire truck .
Die große Reise des kleinen Elefanten
Music
Botschafter morden nicht
Music
Verdacht auf einen Toten
Music
Film by Rainer Bär.
Seine Hoheit – Genosse Prinz
Music
Kasper Mai, an export merchant and comrade with a “clean” record, discovers he is the prince of Hohenlohe-Liebenstein. His royal grandmother designates him as the heir to her estate. A private trip to her reveals that she does not want a NATO airbase built on her land. The GDR and his grandmother thus find a common interest, and a clever lawyer from the East works against other family members looking to settle their debts with the estate money.
White Wolves
Original Music Composer
Farsighted Falcon, chief of the Lakota, seeks refuge in the Black Hills with his wife Blue Hair and two warriors, sole survivors of their tribe. When they are attacked by the outlaw Bashan, Falcon strikes out for the town of Tanglewood to take on Bashan's boss, mining magnate Harrington.
Hauptmann Florian von der Mühle
This story of the miller Florian, who gave all his money to the war against Napoleon, is loosely based on a true story. After the war, Florian's reimbursement is challenged, and he must also pay taxes on his destroyed mill. He resists the tax collectors and takes off to Vienna, where he intends to defend his rights. On the way, he rescues the Duchess of Guastalla from assault. She also wants to go to Vienna, as His Majesty Franz II is trying to contest an heir in her favor. With cunning, luck, and dagger, Florian fights his way through a slew of nobility and their secret police.
Hauptmann Florian von der Mühle
Music
This story of the miller Florian, who gave all his money to the war against Napoleon, is loosely based on a true story. After the war, Florian's reimbursement is challenged, and he must also pay taxes on his destroyed mill. He resists the tax collectors and takes off to Vienna, where he intends to defend his rights. On the way, he rescues the Duchess of Guastalla from assault. She also wants to go to Vienna, as His Majesty Franz II is trying to contest an heir in her favor. With cunning, luck, and dagger, Florian fights his way through a slew of nobility and their secret police.
Mord am Montag
Music
Trail of the Falcon
Original Music Composer
In the latter half of the 19th century, gold is discovered in the Black Hills, sacred land of the Lakota people. Gold diggers, profiteers and adventurers flock to the region. Among them is the hard-hearted land speculator Bludgeon, who tries to expel the Lakota using brutal methods. Lakota warriors retaliate, and soon the gold diggers' town becomes a battlefield.
Der Revolver des Corporals
Music
Film by Rolf Losansky.
The Journey to Sundevit
Music
Little Tim Tammer, the son of a lighthouse keeper, lives right on the Baltic Sea beach, but his remote home often leaves him feeling lonely. When Young Pioneers pitch their tents nearby, he is overjoyed and quickly makes new friends.
Hamida
Music
Directed by Jean Mailland (as Jean Michaud-Mailland) .
Karla
Original Music Composer
An idealistic teacher is shocked to discover her pupils are already cynical and opportunistic. Her colleague soon grows resentful when she uses new and challenging techniques to help her students overcome obstacles.
Tiefe Furchen
Music
Lot's Wife
Original Music Composer
The marriage of Katrin and Richard Lot has become a routine. She has a career and he, as a Marine officer, comes home only once every fourteen days. The children greet him with joy, but she greets him only with anxiety because their marriage is missing its key ingredient: love. She wants a divorce, but he refuses mainly out of comfort as well as due to pressure from the party. Katrin finds a strange solution: she shoplifts and is put on probation for three months. This is enough to force Richard into a divorce because he is concerned about the "moral liability" of his wife.
Blossom and Insect
Music
The film proves that the apparently ideally and extremely purposefully coordinated relationships between flowers and the insects that pollinate them are nothing other than the result of a very long period of natural selection and mutual adaptation. Phenomena that contradict the preservation of the species must die off. The example of the bee and the red clover illustrates that contradictory relationships can be cultivated artificially.
Alaska - Foxes
Original Music Composer
Carl von Ossietzky
Music
The film chronicles the last ten years in the life of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Carl von Ossietzky (1889-1938).
Auf der Sonnenseite
The story of the steel melter Martin Hoff, whose factory delegates him to a drama school, corresponds to the real life of the actor Manfred Krug. Like his (film) hero, Krug works as a steel melter, does artwork, sings and acts, and is sent to drama school. Like his hero, who behaves anarchically and conspicuously, Krug is soon expelled from school.
The Last Laugh
Music
An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious Hotel is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbours and society.