Michael Benthin

Angela Merkel's decision in autumn 2015 to open the borders for refugees split the country - some praised the moral stance, others criticized the surrender of sovereignty. Yet what would appear to be well-planned activity is in reality a policy of muddling along, chance, trial and error. The Driven Ones is a chronicle of the refugee crisis which shows that the political actors are being driven along, crushed between self-imposed constraints and events that have spun out of control.

A 13-year-old refugee from Afghanistan living in an emergency shelter in Germany joins a Christian boys' choir to save his father who was left stranded in Hungary, and clashes with the strict choir master.

Картина расскажет о легендарном консьерже популярного европейского отеля и проследит за его жизнью между двумя мировыми войнами, а также за его дружбой с юным сотрудником, который становится его протеже. Сюжет включает в себя кражу бесценной картины эпохи Возрождения, борьбу за огромное наследство и потрясения, постигшие Европу во время первой половины XX века.

Once again, the "border crossing" is celebrated, as every seven years in the Upper Hessian town of Bergen. It is really turbulent at this folk festival, when the municipal boundaries are confirmed from old tradition and everything is upside down. For this occasion leaves Thomas Weidmann his girlfriend and flees because of his botched university career from the city of Berlin back to his native village. At the party, he meets Kerstin Werner, whose life has just come out of joint - her marriage is broken and her husband Jürgen on the jump to another, younger woman.

ГДР, 1975 год. Нелли провожает на конгресс физиков своего друга Василия – советского учёного, работающего в Берлине, который является отцом ее 6-летнего ребенка. Вскоре Нелли получает известие, что Василий погиб на родине в автокатастрофе. Не в силах пережить душевную боль, Нелли решает эмигрировать в ФРГ, чтобы, попрощавшись со своим прошлым, начать жизнь с чистого листа. Представив пограничникам подкупленного ею таксиста своим мужем и благополучно переехав границу, Нелли вздыхает с облегчением: самое опасное, кажется, осталось позади. Радоваться, однако, слишком рано…

Alaska Johansson is the perfect woman and she is the best in her profession as a headhunter. One day she is fired by her boss, a married man who she has an affair with. He also tells her that their relationship has no future. She decides that her best option is to commit suicide with a poison cocktail. She is saved when a child in a Halloween costume enters her apartment demanding sweets. Something is not right about the child. Later her neighbor is going to tell here that there never was a child. Alaska’s world is turning upside down, her perceptions seem to be merely illusions. When her car starts to act on its own and causes a crash, she becomes convinced that someone is conspiring against her. Or is there another, darker secret in Alaska’s life?

A young couple moves to a gated community (named Sechzehneichen), where soon the creative wife (a photographer) gets bored and the husband joins a secret mens' club. All the other wives seem strangely conservative and shallow. Basically a thinly veiled take on the Stepford Wives, just without any bit of humor or atmosphere, but instead filled with the sterile, unflinching and dry seriousness that makes watching a lot of our German films such a drag and a miserable experience.

TV adaptation of Michael Thalheimer's production at the Deutsches Theater Berlin.

40-летняя Мириам вместе со своим другом Андре и пятнадцатилетним сыном Нильсом отдыхают на море в собственном доме. Нильс приглашает туда 12-летнюю подружку Ливию. Их соседом оказался только что вернувшийся из Америки молодой и красивый Билл, в которого Ливия влюбляется. Мириам, под предлогом заботы о Ливии, встречается с Биллом и провоцирует его на близость...

At the height of the cold war in the divided country of Germany, several individuals try to smuggle 'real' coffee from West Berlin into East Germnany via train, despite the erstwhile efforts of security guards trying to prevent them doing so.

"Willkommen im Club" shows the influences of unemployment (actually the number one theme in Germany) on daily life. What happens within the families, what happens with the self-esteem of people who unexpectedly lose their work? By choosing different points of view, we wanted to find out what happens beyond the daily news.

Как только Бен выходит из тюрьмы, его встречает тайный агент полиции — девушка Мелоди. Мелоди должна выполнить задание упрятать Бена поскорее обратно за решетку. Но внезапно между молчаливым Беном и разговорчивой девушкой-агентом возникает симпатия…

A comedy directed by Jürgen Bretzinger.

Nabou, an Afro-German slacker, desperatly wants to win back her club kid ex-girlfriend Katja. Nabou becomes a housekeeper for Katja's neighbor, Kim, who is a workaholic that is striving to become a partner in an advertising agency. A refreshing romantic comedy with the ingredients of a classic lesbian feature: whimsical sexiness, mistaken identity, and general madness and mayhem.