Axel Block

Birth : 1947-07-13, Velbert, Germany

Movies

The Misplaced World
Director of Photography
By chance Paul Kromberger discovers on the internet a photograph of the US opera diva Caterina Fabiani who is the spitting image of Evelyn, his dead wife. His unease and growing sense of alarm are transferred to his daughter, Sophie. Filled with curiosity, she leaves Germany and journeys across the Atlantic to make contact with this stranger.
Die Schwester
Director of Photography
Vision – From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen
Director of Photography
Hildegard von Bingen was truly a woman ahead of her time. A visionary in every sense of the word, this famed 12th-century Benedictine nun was a Christian mystic, composer, philosopher, playwright, poet, naturalist, scientist, physician, herbalist and ecological activist.
Zwerg Nase
Director of Photography
German TV adaptation of Wilhelm Hauff‘s fairy tale “Dwarf Nose“.
I Am the Other Woman
Director of Photography
Successful architect Robert has a one-night stand with a mysterious lady in red. The next day they meet again, but Carolin is now a corporate lawyer working on a major contract for Robert ...
Auf den Spuren der Vergangenheit
Camera Operator
Many years ago Thaddeus Hartington quarreled with his son David. Now he is seriously ill, but only wants to undergo a risky heart surgery, if he had the opportunity to reconcile with David. His dedicated doctor Kate sets out to find the missing person. She finds him in a small south English town, where he lives with his son Jeffrey. With charm and openness, Kate manages to win David's trust and eventually his heart. However, when he learns that Kate is on his father's behalf, this puts the young love to the test.
Bibi Blocksberg and the Secret of Blue Owls
Director of Photography
Poor Bibi - due to her bad marks in maths she has to spend the whole summer in the boarding school of Altenberg to scrape through a series of exams - otherwise she'd stay down in school, being forced to repeat the year. No camping, no white-water rafting, no vacation at all. So it doesn't surprise anyone that the young witch is quite disgruntled when arriving at Altenberg Castle. Her roommate is a touchy unpleassant fashion victim and headmaster Quirin Bartels is so muddle-headed that he can't even remember the names of his students properly. But then Bibi makes friends with Elea, a girl wheelchair-bound since a terrible accident where she also lost her beloved parents. Now Bibi is determined to help the sensitive Elea, searching a way to heal her from her palsy legs.
Die Klasse von '99 - Schule war gestern, Leben ist jetzt
Director of Photography
No More School
Director of Photography
The last three weeks of school life have begun: After the Abitur, Germany's leaving certificate, the friends and schoolmates of Gymnasium Kerkheim (Kerkheim High) will not see each other again so soon. It is a hard time for Markus and his girl Sandra from a lower grade, as he wants to hang out with his old friends, whereas she wants him to be there for her. It's an even harder time for Dirk, who is to be expelled from school if he fails the math exam that is coming up around midday, and it is the hardest time for Michael, who is a perfect pupil, but has no fun in life at all - and doesn't even know it yet. When Steven calls out a party to celebrate his letter of exemption from the army, they all get together for one of the last real cool events ever.
Alles auf Anfang
Director of Photography
Movie-making cliches are parodied in this German comedy which features to warring actresses, meddling producers, indulgent directors, and an ignored writer. Not only must they contend with each other, they must also deal with the bankers who have the power to shut them down at any moment. The story begins at the premier of director Viktor Rote's newest film "The Tin Cat," which stars his popular wife Riki Rote. The film's writer and Viktor's brother Richard is miffed when he is not allowed into the screening. Viktor's ambitious mistress and aspiring star the Nina is also not invited in. The film is a hit so Rote is allowed to begin his new film by producer George Kuballa. George is also head of the studio. His rich and frequently rejected wife is Lore, a major financial studio backer who prefers spending her time consorting with her handsome young chauffeur.
The Film Narrator
Director of Photography
Germany in the Thirties. A movie teller realizes that his profession is not longer needed. Silent movies are not produced any longer. Telling stories is the only thing the man was ever good in, so he does not know what to do now. As political circumstances are changing dramatically these days in Germany, he gets new hope that things will again be going better for him...
Go Trabi Go 2 - Das war der wilde Osten
Director of Photography
Elated by the Italian attitude to life, family Struutz returns to Bitterfeld and experiences a shock: In the turmoil of the reunification her house must give way to a golf course. Hope Udo teacher, his wife Rita and daughter Jacqueline through the surprising inheritance of a factory near Dresden. But of market economy, the staid Saxons unfortunately have no idea. Help comes in the guise of adventurer and condoms dealer Charlie, who works as a "business consultant" and gives Udo a Rock & Roll crash course in capitalism - with unsurpassed success.
Go Trabi Go
Director of Photography
Family Struutz lives in Bitterfeld (GDR). After the fall of the wall, they take the opportunity to go on holiday with their car, an old Trabant. They simply want to visit Italy. But there are some incidents during their journey. (IMDb)
The Eighth Day
Director of Photography
The VW Complex
Director of Photography
Documentary about the history and the fabrication of Volkswagen.
The Girlfriend
Director of Photography
Since childhood, Raquel and Maria have been close friends. Now all grown-up, Raquel has fulfilled her dream of becoming an actress, while Maria has married a handyman, given birth to three children and runs the family household. In the wake of the Argentine military coup of 1976, Maria's oldest son Carlos is abducted. Desperate, Maria turns to her prominent friend for help. Yet the more Raquel gets involved in the search for Carlos, the more she becomes herself a target of the junta. Finally, she flees from Argentina to Berlin. Meanwhile Maria joins a group of women who investigate the fate of their disappeared relatives. In 1983, after the fall of the dictatorship, the two friends meet again.
The Passenger – Welcome to Germany
Director of Photography
An American filmmaker travels to modern day Berlin to make a film based on a real-life incident from 1942 in which 13 Jewish prisoners from a concentration camp were promised freedom if they appeared in a German propaganda film. Unfortunately, the Germans lied. The psychological process undergone by the modern filmmaker while shooting the story provides the basis of this arty and challenging film.
Flight North
Director of Photography
Johanna (Katharina Thalbach) has fled Nazi Germany to visit a friend in Finland, and from there she continues on to her friend's family's estate. Once at the estate, Johanna passionately argues with her friend's pro-Nazi brother and at the same time, falls for the second, good-looking brother who shares her own anti-fascist feelings. The two are soon engaged in an active sexual relationship that continues as they travel north to an Arctic port.
Der Schlaf der Vernunft
Director of Photography
Dea, gynecologist and scientist, and her colleagues have for the last few months been preparing a campaign against the local pharmaceutical industry. A campaign, which is linked to Dea's published findings concerning harmful side effects of the pill. For years Dea and her husband Rheinhard have been defending opposing sides as to the culpability of the company. Rheinhard, who is also a leading scientist like Dea, is a high-ranking employee of the concern. In the meantime Reinhard and Dea's 2 daughters have grown up. The daughter of the company's boss, Johanna, is Dea's assistant and Reinhard's lover.
Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl
Director of Photography
Anna is a Jewish girl in Germany. When the Nazis come to power in the 1930s, her family has to flee the country without being able to bring any of their belongings. Even young Anna's pink toy rabbit has been confiscated along with the family's other possessions. Initially the family lives in Switzerland, but even here they come to feel the antisemitism. And when money becomes scarce, and Anna's father can't find work as a journalist and Jew, they move on to France, where they are no long submitted to racial discrimination, but struggle financially. Eventually the entire family manages to go to England.
Invitation to the Dance
Director of Photography
Theo Gromberg is a bon vivant, apparently with built-in guarantee to failure. Faithful to his side is his friend Enno, an Italian guest workers. Both have a dream: to which they want to get into the trucking business its own trucks.
Die Ilse ist weg
Camera Operator
About Narration
Director of Photography
Interdisciplinary studies put into practice is a plane on which HaF's interests and mine coincide. Ideas of fictional research projects in films emerge very early on, or of film as research device, allowing people from different disciplines to come together and discover something, to pursue a line of thought, or just be adventurous. These ideas correspond to a tendency we both have of accumulating knowledge from different sciences, for example so as to bring exact sciences like medicine together with subjects which aren't directly aimed at application, such as religious studies or anthropology.
Kampf um ein Kind
Director of Photography
A West Berlin doctor, married with a two-year-old child, leaves her husband to go to Munich to work in the birth clinic of a hospital. Her husband doesn’t know that she’s pregnant with their second child. Will she have to choose between motherhood and her career?