Karim Sebastian Elias

The ambitious scientist Franz Walter doesn't hesitate when he is promised a professorship at the university. He immediately accepts, pledges absolute loyalty to the system and agrees to work for the GDR's foreign intelligence service until he can take up his new position. Together with his colleague Dirk, he is sent on foreign assignments to West Germany. Franz soon has to use blackmail to get innocent people to talk. But his superiors go even further: GDR refugees and their relatives are targeted to be psychologically destroyed, forged letters, medical diagnoses, surveillance and wiretapping are on the agenda. However, this is more than Franz can bear: he feels powerless and increasingly isolates himself. When he then decides to steal secret documents for a later defection to the West, this results in an unfortunate chain reaction leading to his arrest and ultimately to his execution...

Talal Derki returns to his homeland where he gains the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera focuses on Osama and his younger brother Ayman, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up in an Islamic Caliphate.

Toni and Marc want to divorce, because the great passion seems to be extinguished after 15 years of marriage. It should be a consensual separation, but the new beginning is not so easy: Both have just the chance of a job abroad.

William Wolff is nearly 90 and perhaps the most unconventional rabbi in the world. As the State Rabbi of North-East Germany, he looks after the Jewish Communities in Schwerin and Rostock, but still lives in a bungalow near Henley-on-Thames. Midweek he usually flies from Heathrow to Germany. After the services on Saturdays, he either makes his way home or on a leisure city trip. His annual highlight is betting at the Horse Race of Royal Ascot and joining a fasting-retreat in Bad Pyrmont. Willy Wolff leads a Jet-Set-Life, which he actually cannot afford, but dealing with money isn't one of his strengths. Naturally, that occasionally leads to quite temporal conflicts. Rabbi Wolff is the portrait of a fascinating character, a deeply religious man who, blessed with a tremendous joie de vivre, defies all conventions. More than that, it gives insight into the world of Judaism and introduces us to a uniquely German biography.

The life of gay 16-year-old Daniel goes completely off track as he is being held responsible for the killer of a small boy who was abused and killed.

In the north of Berlin, tucked away in a residential area surrounded by walls, there is a jungle of trees, rhododendrons and ivy. In between the rampant foliage are thousands of stones – large and small, some artistic-looking, others simple, some magnificent and crumbling; some nameless and others with indecipherable inscriptions. Weißensee is the largest Jewish cemetery still in use in Europe. It is so large that it could contain approximately eighty-six football pitches. Walking through the cemetery is like taking a walk through history and the list of famous artists, philosophers, lawyers, architects, doctors, teachers of religion and publishers who are buried here is long indeed. Not many are aware that in a few years’ time, this protected area will officially be listed as one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites.

Berlin, 1989. Sascha is a young East German border guard and Franzi is a lively young West German woman who's just moved into a flat next to Sascha's watchtower at the Berlin Wall. It takes only a slight mishap and a selfless act of chivalry and the two fall in love. But soon the Stasi believes they are witnessing the start of a revolt. This is the time of mass protests and East Germans taking refuge in the West German embassy in Prague after all. Franzi and Sascha have to find their ways to stand up for their love and strive for the impossible; to bring down the wall.

Holocaust survivor, Gerda Schrage, shares her experience about giving birth to her child in Auschwitz.

The tale of Siegfried, a fearless dragon slayer who wins the heart of Celtic beauty Kriemhild.

2003년 1월의 베를린, 버스 정류장이 있던 장소에서 놀라운 광경이 펼쳐졌다. 25개국에서 온 250명의 학생이 스트라빈스키의 “봄의 제전”에 맞춰 춤을 춘 것이다. 베를린 필하모닉 오케스트라의 첫 번째 대규모 교육 프로젝트를 통해, 클래식 음악의 문외한이었던 이들이 3개월의 연습기간을 거쳐 음악과 예술의 세계에 흠뻑 빠져든다.

Olaf is to take care of the family's cleaner's store, while his dad is away on a fair. In the evening he runs into three Brazilian ladies thrown out of a limousine not knowing where to go. Olaf invites them to stay with him and his deaf pot-smoking grandfather, which at first just causes some confusion as he soon is to marry his girlfriend Vera. The next day it's topsy-turvy all over.