Günter Rüger

Film by Kläy and Brauer.

He could have had women, he could have climbed the ladder of his accountancy career, and he could have stood on the podium next to the highest in the land. If only he had wanted to! But Farssmann, shaken by divorce and unwilling to better himself, wants to remain what he is: an ordinary bookkeeper like you and me. And so the dollar deal with Mr. Osbar from Utah (USA) is not the first time he comes into conflict with the very palpable unreality of a country called the German Democratic Republic.

Three people from very different walks of life meet at a large construction site. Young, unmarried, self-confident construction manager Linda Hinrichs dedicates herself completely to her work and enjoys living more independently then most women. Daniel, a student works on the construction site to make money during his summer holiday, and impresses Linda with his spontaneous energy and idealism. Brigadier Böwe, an older, divorced man works his way from one construction site to the other and has lost his own personal happiness on the path to developing what was seen as officially suitable social standards. Both men try to win Linda over, not realizing that they are taking her freedom away from her.

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.

A story about massive robbery from the safe of German railways set in 1946.

The year 1933: Successful actress Maria Rheine is in love with her Jewish colleague Mark Löwenthal. When the Nazis implement the racist Nuremberg Laws, their relationship is severely endangered. Defiant Maria decides to stay together with Mark and ends her promising career: She assumes a Jewish identity and continues to work under the name Manja Löwenthal. She and Mark perform at the Jewish Theatre in Berlin, until they become victims of an intrigue: Their colleague Judith, who has a crush on Mark, denounces them to the secret police.

Two years ago, cinema poster painter Jonathan had agreed in his divorce to leave the sole custody for his son David to David′s mother Ruth. But at the boy′s ninth birthday, Jonathan all of a sudden returns to their house. In the meantime, Ruth has found a new Partner, Franz, whom David has accepted as his surrogate father. Although everybody tries to solve the new situation with a lot of tolerance, Franz and Jonathan become rivals. But this rivalry comes to an end when David has an accident. Now, the boy is allowed to visit his father Jonathan on the weekend whenever he wants to. But before that, David goes on one last adventure: On a trip to a vacation camp, Jonathan "kidnaps" his son to spend several days hitchhiking alone with his son. Then, he gets him back to the vacation camp.

Young construction worker Ralf Reider leaves his home village Katzsprung in the Rhön mountains during the "Berlin Initiative". In the capital, he wants to earn enough money in construction to build his own house for his wife and his child. But Ralf is an unconventional character who soon becomes an outsider because of his behaviour.

Film by Roland Oehme.

Film by Evelyn Schmidt.

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.

While studying in Moscow, the GDR resident Christiane falls in love with Hatem, a fellow student from Syria. The two become a couple and even have a child together. When their study draws to an end, Christiane and Hatem have to decide if they want to share their future together. After Hatem explains to Christiane that as a woman she will not be able to work in Syria, Christiane suggests moving to the GDR together. For Hatem, however, this is out of the question, since he considers it a betrayal of his country. Thus, the two young people are forced to go separate ways.

In a small village in West Prussia in the 1870s, Germans, Poles, Gypsies and Jews live together as neighbors. One night Johann, a German mill-owner, secretly opens the dam gates and floods the mill of his Jewish rival Levin. After his business is ruined and his calls for justice go unanswered, Levin leaves town.

Film by Bernhard Stephan.

On the eve of the German Peasants' Revolt, painter Joerg Ratgeb is occupied by a crisis of his own: finding a model for a Christ figure. He sets off on a journey to consult with his artistic role model, Albrecht Dürer. Although Ratgeb has always tried to stay out of the political conflict, his journey brings him face-to-face with peasant revolutionaries and the brutality and violence of their daily lives.

Berlin at the end of the 1940s. Anneliese Weyher is working as a switchboard operator. She is living with her aunt after losing her parents in the war – a stroke of fate that has thrown the young woman off course emotionally. Indifferently, she is doing her work; her private life consists of an affair with a black-marketeer. Even when Anneliese witnesses an armed robbery, committed by infamous Wollnick and his gang, she stays lethargic and apathetic – she keeps silent instead of helping the inspector who is a friend of her aunt. It is not until Anneliese by coincidence meets her former lover, the watchmaker Kurt, that her life seems to take a positive turn.

A story about Ulrike, a ten year old girl who is looking for a new father with energy and determination.

When Dr. Schmith's proposal for international research on infant mortality is rejected, he decides to leave East Germany and strikes a deal with an escape agency that promises him a leading position at a children's hospital in West Germany. But then the decision is reversed: the project is approved and his international colleagues want Dr. Schmith to head the GDR section. Moreover, he falls in love with his new colleague, Katharina. Schmith initially tries to ignore the arrangements he made with the escape agency, but they blackmail him. Things soon turn deadly...

Young lieutenant Riedel, the leader of a motorized unit of NVA riflemen, is always concerned about his men. Thus, he is all the more happy that everything is running smoothly with the new recruits when he returns from his honeymoon. It seems to him that lance corporal Weißenbach, who is not only the oldest of the men but also a formidable armoured personnel carrier driver, has been a reliable stand-in for him. Thus, Riedel is all the more surprised when he learns that Weißenbach boosts the squad's performance with partly questionable methods.

Vienna, 1813-1819: Beethoven (played by Donatas Banionis) is at the peak of his fame. Orchestras all over the world play his music, but he lives modestly and is dependent upon private patrons. Nagged by his patronizing brothers, spied upon by officials for his republican beliefs and faced by his progressive hearing loss, the composer becomes more and more isolated. Seeman’s poetic film explores the joys, heartbreak and artistic spirit of the great composer as he works on his Ninth Symphony.

This episodic comedy explores love in all its varieties.

For thirty years, Karl Achilles has been working at the chemical collective in Bitterfeld. But now his last day as a master at the plant has come. He is about to retire; even if Karl, who finds ending his working life difficult, wanted to stay on, it would not be possible. Karl’s colleagues have arranged a farewell dinner for the retiring master at an outdoor restaurant. But on his last day of work, before the farewell dinner, he meets all sorts of people: both colleagues and people, who do not work at the plant. A mosaic of the biography of a person who found fulfilment in his work and now has to look for the meaning of his life anew.

Film by Bernhard Stephan.

At the textile company, everyone appreciates the work of 18-year-old Susanne, but nobody really considers her a woman—including Lutz, with whom she is in love. She sets about to make a change, but it is only when she realizes that she is being taken advantage of that a more self-confident Susanne emerges.

In this film, Wolf and scriptwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase explore the role of art and the artist in socialist society. A sculptor questions the reception and value of his work, in a delicately nuanced narrative interweaving personal memories, historical dilemmas, and political defeats.

Film by Toman and Gajer.

Helmut Kamp, the construction brigade leader, a man no longer young, life immediately confronted several difficult and woeful problems. The birth of a son, the tragic death of his wife, the relationship of his daughter Ingrid with Dr. Beißert coincided with the need to move to an uninhabited area where a nuclear power plant will be built. Kamp, Ingrid and the members of the friendly brigade decide to act as the duty and the feeling of partnership prompts them, and gradually they all become participants in the new construction...

Comedy about the "Husarenstreich", the 1757 Berlin raid during the Seven Years' War.

Electronic data processing is an absolute must in the Information Age. Karl Hoppe, the director of a large plant, is aware of this need for modernization and hires mathematician Dr. Jochen Bernhardt to install computerized systems which are supposed to calculate ways in which the plant could be run more effectively. Dr. Bernhardt is so focused on efficiency that he forgets about the human side of work, causing his girlfriend to leave him and several dissatisfied employees to quit their jobs.

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.

In Scotland in 1751, young David Balfour is shanghaied aboard a ship where he meets Jacobite rebel Alan Breck Stewart with whom he escapes to the Scottish Highlands, dodging the redcoats.

This comedic musical tells the story of Gabi, a young hairdresser from the Baltic coast who desperately wants to be a jockey. One day, she packs her bags, drives to Hoppegarten, and is soundly rejected by the head coach. Gabi doesn't want to give up, and in order to at least have a roof over her head, she rushes into a marriage with the seemingly nice Freddie. However, this marriage soon proves to be her second rejection, as Freddie openly dislikes the fact that she wants to be a jockey.

Based upon Shakespeare′s "Twelfth Night", the movie tells the story of the Duke of Illyria who is in love with the Countess Olivia. Olivia, however, keeps eluding him. When the Duke sends her a page to bring her a message, Olivia falls in love with the messenger who is in fact a woman called Viola. After she was shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria, Viola assumed the role of her missing brother. She cannot return Olivia′s love because she, in turn, adores the Duke.

Film by Jindrich Polák.

History teacher and coin collector Karl Schneider wants to track down an ancient coin while on vacation in Bulgaria. When he meets a group of musicians, he finds out that their singer Jana Christova is wearing this coin around her neck. He falls in love with her, but the young love soon faces some unexpected troubles. His travel companion, the pop singer Theobald, accompanies the events with music.

After the second World War, Dresden has a lot of reconstructing to do. To get the cigarette factory he once worked for running again, Kalle has to travel to Wittenberg - the only place where carbide can be found. Once there, Kalle find himself in the unfortunate situation of having to hitchhike his way back to Dresden, transporting seven heavy barrels of carbide. However, his inventiveness and optimistic attitude help transform the grueling task into an adventurous, entertaining, and funny journey.

Based on a true story of inmates at KZ Buchenwald that risked their lives to hide a small Jewish boy shortly before the liberation of the camp.

A Saturday evening dance in the village pub is interrupted when the barn of local farmer Paul Gäbler catches on fire. The farmer himself is soon found – hanged. Sawmill owner Züllich claims that Gäbler committed suicide because he was forced to join an agricultural production cooperative, but others are convinced Gäbler was murdered. Officers Schneider and Anders must navigate their way through a complex maze of personal and political motivations in order to reconstruct the crime.

After their successful May party, now the Lehmann family want to throw a New Year's Eve part with punch. Wilhelm's sons Franz and Paul are brigade leaders at a chemical factory. One of their brigades consists largely of fanatics of high culture, while the other consists of sports fanatics. But the rival brigades must work together in order to throw a successful New Year's Eve party for the factory, since the occasion requires both elements: sports and culture.