Matthias Habich

A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.

The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

A passionate holiday romance leads to an obsessive relationship when an Australian photojournalist wakes one morning in an abandoned Berlin apartment and is unable to leave.

12-year-old Florian and his beloved dog Lassie live in an idyllic village in the German countryside. When Florian's father loses his job, the family have to move into a small apartment where there are no dogs allowed. Lassie is given away to another family, but Florian and Lassie yearn to be reunited again so Florian sets out on an adventure to find his best friend.

A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, bringing with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown. While Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor.

A countess loves her brother's Prussian-officer friend in the 1919 Baltic area.

In the dark middle ages, young unruly Goldmund is sent to a monastery by his father to atone for the sins of his mother, who abandoned them. There, he meets Narcissus, a brilliant, scholarly novice who is introverted and aloof. A unique and deep life-long friendship is born. Narcissus chooses to remain detached from the world in prayer and meditation. Goldmund, passionate, sensual and impulsive, runs away from the monastery to live a picaresque wanderer’s life, his amorous and artistic adventures leading him to discover the extremes of both ecstasy and pain. Several thrilling years pass until one day these friends cross paths again...

As a young boy, future emperor Nero witnesses the mad Emperor Caligula kill his father and exile his mother. While in exile in the pontine islands, Agrippina, his mother, sees a vision telling her that her son can become emperor, but she will have to die first. She accepts the proposal. Back in Rome, Nero, now being raised by emperor Claudius after Caligula's death, Agrippina returns. She poisons Claudius' food and Nero becomes emperor. At first, Nero cuts taxes and introduces successful programs and invades Brittania. Soon he meets a beautiful slave named Claudia Acte, and marries her, throwing off his engagement with Claudius' daughter, Claudia Octavia, telling her she can marry someone she will be happy with. Heartbroken, she arrives at an island and kills herself. Nero enjoys being married to Claudia Acte, but soon he gradually goes mad with power and sets fire to Rome.

Gordon and Catherine are happy. He feels safe with her, she divorces him for him. The couple buy a farm in Tanzania, and soon Catherine is pregnant. Then the first clouds begin to gather... The drama is based on the case of Kerstin Cameron, who was accused of murdering her husband in 2000.

Ana, a teenager artist, is raised in Ibiza by her German father Klaus in a naturalist lifestyle. She meets Justine, who invites her to move to Madrid and get an artistic education and financial support. Ana befriends Linda, meets the problematic Said, a Saharawi youngster, and later she is hypnotized by Anglo, who opens a door to her memories and past lives.

Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into the lives of the deaf and at a story about the love for music. A girl who has always had to translate speech into sign language for her deaf parents yet when her love for playing music grows strong she must decide to continue doing something she cannot share with her parents.

April 5, 1943: a battalion of the Foreign Legion arrives in El Ksour, Tunisia, to escort a fortune in gold bars to the home front. A German ambush awaits, and all but four die. Thanks to the street smarts of Sergeant Augagneur, the Legionnaires successfully counter attack. The bank manager and his seductive wife arrive, and so does a German lieutenant, whom the French arrest. Augagneur wants to steal the gold; warrant officer Mahuzard wants to do his duty. A series of alliances form and break apart, the group dwindles in number, and the gold heads south toward Betahoua. But in whose possession?

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.

Boran has been on the run from the police for 20 years. Back then, he was sent to prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery, from where he escaped. He left nothing behind; his wife and their son were killed in a car accident. At least that's what he thinks until one day he receives a letter in which a little girl claims to be his granddaughter.

Drama about the tragic Nanga Parbat expedition by the two Messner brothers in 1970, on which Reinhold Messners younger brother Günther died.

Between 1949 and 1975 more than 800 000 German orphans have lived their post-war years in Church Institutions. They have endured terrible abuses. Everyone knew but no one spoke. In 2012 the Church admitted her wrongdoings. The movie tells the story of a German woman (Senta Berger) living in New York coming back to Germany to bear witness in front of a board of enquiry. During her stay she remembers her traumatic experience.

When his younger sister, a single parent, moves into the second apartment with her 5-year-old daughter Nina, an unexpected friendship develops between Josef and the uncared-for little girl.

A couple who appears to have the perfect relationship finds their future in jeopardy following a scorching night of lust and debauchery in this erotic drama adapted from the controversial novel by French author Colette.

Teenager Connie and her friends try to save an island full of nature and place of their encounters from being destroyed by the construction of a hotel there.

When Bertha dies, her granddaughter Iris inherits her house and finds herself back in the home where she and her cousin used to play dressing-up in the summer holidays. While she wanders from room to room, she gropes her way through memories and things she had forgotten: What did her grandfather really do before he went to war? Which men were Bertha’s daughters in love with? Who ate his apple with the seeds?

A Polish woman and a German man fall in love against the odds and decide to set up a cemetery for exiles. But can their daring venture survive the call of the toad? Adapted from Gunter Grass’ novel.

13 people between the end of 60 and the middle 80: they have already experienced many things in their lives. Everyone has their own hopes, desires, conflicts and problems. What unites them is the longing for closeness — for a loving partner and the somewhat unusual way they have chosen to escape their loneliness: speed dating.

The 23-year-old Bruno accidentally clashes with society, the judicial and the police. Once he has exceeded the legal limits, he is stuck to the wrong side of the law.

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.

The mother of a murdered hitchhiker meets the offender.

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All her life, 80-year-old Margot Brunner (Rosemarie Fendel) has lived with her disabled sister Wilma (Cornelia Froboess) in the apartment of their deceased mother. The grove Wilma seizes every opportunity she gets to be a nuisance to her sister. When Margot meets artist Gregor (Matthias Habich), she finally gets the courage to tell her sister that she wants to enjoy her life and get out of the house. But Wilma does not agree with this.

After getting his cancer diagnosis, Holm decides to die in Switzerland. With a last big appearance he wants to say goodbye to his family. Holm invites family members and close friends to a dinner to review his successful life. But the evening is not a wistful-emotional family reunion, but a settlement with the head of the family. Old wounds break open, long kept secrets come to light, the different views of the people, the others and the life leads to hard argument and to many a surprise.

Near the end of WWII a lone U-Boat is sent from Germany to Japan carrying plutonium needed for a Japanese A-Bomb. During the long journey, news arrives on the radio that Hitler killed himself and Germany has surrendered. This causes a rift in the crew, the Nazi Party members wanting to continue to Japan since they are still at war, while the others just want to surrender or return home.

Following the death of his wife and an accident that caused memory loss, parapsychologist Philip Devlin travels to Berlin to visit an old acquaintance. There, he finds Dr. Wiemer murdered. The alleged perpetrator claims that Wiemer had abducted her child—whose father was an extraterrestrial. Together with researchers and a police officer, Devlin investigates the case and uncovers a conspiracy reaching all the way to the CIA and secret UFO projects. In the process, he ultimately discovers the truth about his own accident.

Longing for a better life, Evagoras and Onisilios decide to emigrate to the Persian Gulf to earn enough money to start their own business. When they return home, the pair open a night club. However, their past catches up with them. Greece's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1997.

Choir director Johanna Bischoff and her girls choir go to a concert in their hometown Hameln. Shortly before the scheduled performance disappear four of the girls and the organist David.Sie were on a hike in a cave of the Ith - the fabled mountain, in which 700 years ago the Pied Piper is said to have led the children. Seeking help, Johanna turns to her ex-boyfriend Jan Faber, head of the police station in Hameln.

The Jewish antiques dealer Siegfried Rabinovicz is on his way from New York to Hamburg where he is about to testify as the principal witness in a murder case. During a stop-over, an airport hostess talks him into giving up his seat on the connecting flight to another passenger. While Rabinovicz is waiting in the VIP lounge, he gets into a conversation with a stranger who is remarkably well informed about the murder Rabinovicz is going to testify about.

A young man travels with his French girlfriend to Ethiopia. Whilst there he discovers a house in which the French poet Rimbaud once lived and he becomes obsessed with finding out more information about him.

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.

An abstract look at the changes in a woman's inner self. Married to a down-and-out writer, she is forced into a liaison with a book thief.

A 24 hours ceasefire. The situation in Falluja is devastating- no food, no medications, no help. A group of five people sets out with the plan to help- they end up fighting for the lives of the helpless and wounded and eventually - their own.

At nine, Miroslav flees the Eastern Front alone after his mother’s disappearance. In postwar Germany, the Czech boy drifts between zones, lands in reform schools and prisons, and suffers a crippling accident. Rejected by society and facing deportation, he joins Berlin’s underworld, is arrested for murder, and confronts whether society or he is to blame.

Brothers Helmut and Wolfgang Kaminski live on opposite sides of the still porous Iron Curtain: Helmut works as a reporter for radio in the American sector, Wolfgang as an SED functionary for the construction of socialism. His father Otto was a brigade leader at the large construction site in Stalinallee, where the demonstrations began on June 16. On June 17, 1953, the East Berlin workers formed an uprising.

Six numbers in the lottery! If that's not good luck for Georg Freudenreich and fellow winner and brother-in-law Heinrich. This distracts from the feelings Heinrich has suppressed all his life. He has fallen in love with Edward. But now, at over 70, how is he supposed to live a love he has always denied himself?

Are you happy? You don't have to answer right away. There is an island in the Mediterranean where the question concerning happiness is taken very seriously. A man comes and is drawn into a confusing game. A child an a mysterious woman play an important role in the game. He is mistaken for someone else and gradually sees the possibility of leaving his former life behind and finding happiness on the island. Is this only an illusion which should be rejected?

H. Ch. Andersen's story was the basis for the narrative film 'Of John and the Wonderful Friend', in which the 'magic wand' plays an important plot-forming role. With its help, Jan overcomes the magician Magnus and rescues the princess Agnes.

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Robert is magically attracted to Johanna. He observes and stalks her. Finally, the two get to know each other. But Johanna's relationship with Karl is not quite over.

Johannes Breutigam, a successful architect, is confronted with his real life on a New Year's Eve. His wife is cheating on him, his partner Losfeld has betrayed him and his company is on the verge of bankruptcy. Deeply depressed and desperate, he rents a hotel room on the 32nd floor. He writes a farewell letter to his wife and opens the window to jump into the depths. A young woman is standing on the window sill next door, apparently up to the same thing. With the promise to spend the last evening of the year with her, he manages to save her and himself for the time being. This is the beginning of a strange, romantic, comical story that takes place on a single New Year's Eve and in which two people change their lives

This French thriller begins with a flashback to a small village dance where a six-year-old girl is kidnapped and killed. Seventeen years later the murder remains unsolved. The girl's parents Caroline and Chris have gone on with separate lives Caroline remarried and had another daughter while Chris became an alcoholic. The two are thrown back together when each begin receiving strange messages that imply their daughter has returned from the dead for vengeance. They contact a police detective (the lover of Caroline's best friend) who finds the case intriguing and decides to reopen it. Unfortunately, as soon as he begins questioning the old suspects, people begin to die.

Paris during the 1920s. Ever since her parents' separation, ten-year-old Maisie has been travelling to and fro between her father Beale Farange and her mother Ida. She spends half a year with each one alternately. But neither parent can provide Maisie with the warmth and affection she so desperately needs.

Johannes Ganten, in his late 50s, known as John to his friends, leads a comfortable life as an emeritus professor. Everything has always come to him, which John takes for granted. He has never thought about anything until this morning - the Christmas holidays are just over - when he finds a note in his letterbox with the words: "Tomorrow you must die! Ganten doesn't really take the warning seriously. His old friend Peter takes a completely different view and can't understand John's attitude at all. Only the second warning and some very strange encounters gnaw away at Ganten's unshakeable self-confidence. The hours he then experiences change his life.

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After the death of his wife, respected writer Henrik Agdestein won't let anyone get close to him, neither the kind-hearted teacher Sonja nor the feisty policewoman Laura. And certainly not top politician Leif, whose homosexuality he disapproves of.

The three daughters of the Dessau merchant Sellmann move with their father to Prague in 1936, where he accepted a position as director of the Böhmische Landesbank. For the three different women begins a new life, which accompanies the film over a period of ten years.

Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi once more explores the dilemma of intellectualism at the expense of humanity in 1982's Imperative. The story concerns math professor Robert Powell, who feels that there is something lacking in his ever-so-precise life. What is missing is truth, specifically philosophical truth. Thus he philosophizes at great length, allowing director Zanussi plenty of room for didactic but little room for warmth. Leading ladies Brigette Fossey and Leslie Caron occasionally melt through the cold logic of Imperative.

Prussian general's son Friedrich, Freiherr (German baron) von der Trenck, is an unruly student whose countless affairs make him enemies, but he wins every duel. Frederic II the Great recruits him for his personal bodyguard. During his cadet training under the cruel stickler Graf (count) von Jaschinsky Friedrich falls in love with the king's headstrong oldest sister Amalia. She, however, refuses to be married off the the Swedish king's heir. When Prussia makes war on Austria over Silesia, Trenck's loyalty is dubious on account of an Austrian family branch. Janischky eagerly convinces the king there is more.

25 years ago, Cornelius left his then girlfriend Julia to live with Frank. After Julia fled to the USA at the time, she is now returning and wants to live in the former common house, which puts the relationship between Cornelius and Frank to the test.

More than fifty years have passed since Harry left his great love Elly head over heels to go to America. Now he has returned to see her again - and must discover that she lives as a nun in a Protestant monastery. At first she refuses to contact him, the pain is too deep that he has not been alive throughout the years. Only when she learns the true reason for his supposed silence does she let Harry back into her life. With the memory of the past times, the two also return to the old feelings. Elly gets into a deep moral conflict

The young witch Karla learns everything she needs to know about witchcraft from her teacher Miranda. When she tells her that her father has been cursed with a devilish curse, but that Karla can redeem him by making a pact with the devil, the young witch is faced with a difficult decision. Investigative reporter Harry seems to be the solution to her problem, because Karla isn't too worried about his soul.

The 78-year-old former architect Richard Gärtner (Matthias Habich) wants to put an end to his life. However, this should not be done abroad, but quite legally with the help of his family doctor. For Dr. Brandt (Anna Maria Mühe), out of personal conviction, it is out of the question to get her elderly but healthy patient a fatal preparation.

During the Greek summer in the war year of 1944, a German military unit sets up camp on the plateau of Thebes. Armed with a 16 mm camera, the captain of the unit, a former professor for classical Greek philology, comes up with the idea to film the myth of Oedipus.

Based on a short story by Elke Heidenreich, this TV movie focuses on a couple's silver wedding party and the revelation of some bitter, long hidden secrets. Alma and Ben invite their best friends to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, but what was meant to be a happy reunion leads to heated discussions and furious accusations...

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Old Matthiesen isn't really very friendly with his daughter Esther. She has fled to her parents' riding stables with her 105-kilo bundle of joy son David because her boy is in trouble with the police again. To her and, above all, Matthiesen's surprise, her sisters Rahel and Thirza also flutter back into the nest: they all bring problems with them - and yet they want to help dad pay off his "latrinous" farm...

Francois Korb is an arms manufacturer who sold both to the Germans and the Allied forces. Korb's home life is less than ideal, since his wife is having an affair with his brother, and his young son is inseparable from a teddy bear. To remedy the son's situation, the parents take in a little refugee girl as a temporary companion and playmate, and the two children become fast friends.

A young man seeks freedom and eventually gets conformed. To escape society, he wanders south. After some adventures he returns to his lover, where he expects a civil career.

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Contemporary criticism in a Turkish setting.

An oceanologist born in Venice returns to his hometown because he was summoned there by an elderly colleague of international fame. When he arrives in the lagoon, the man does not find his colleague, so he sets off in search of him risking his life several times.

Pierre is a Montreal photojournalist who returns from Nicaragua to find that his ten-year menage a trois is over. Haunted by his mid-life crisis, he becomes obsessed with trying to find out why his two lovers, Sarah and David, have left him.

A young woman is found raped and bludgeoned to death. Her father can’t reconcile himself with her death, and even less with the fact that the murderer was never found. Half of his life he continues the search. Finally, after more than 20 years, as DNA-analysis becomes a factor in forensic medicine, new perspectives open.

Adapted from Eduard von Keyserling’s 1911 novel of the same title, Waves depicts both the lives and loves of an aristocratic German family during a summer holiday on the Baltic coast of what is now Lithuania, as well as the twilight of a social order and its mores in a world soon to be plunged into the cataclysm of world war.

Nine young actors leave behind their daily lives in Berlin and travel to the country to audition for a summer theatre production to be performed in the ruins of an old church. A once-renowned Swiss director is using this week of rehearsals to find the lead for this production of “Hamlet”. The director is staying privately at the home of an old woman, but the actors are being put up at a run-down hotel with very thin walls.

Marianne, a young Canadian nurse living as an expatriate in Switzerland, is traumatized by a violent incident and becomes lost in the Alps. In time, a Swiss engineer working in the mountains discovers her; he gives her a place to stay and slowly gains her trust as she regains her health. However, he soon discovers she's wanted by the law, and circumstances become difficult for him as he tries to hide her from the authorities.

The story tells of a love which after ten years is beginning to grow old, and of the attempt to turn the imminent end into a new beginning. After ten years of eventful relationship, man and woman have finally decided to say yes to each other in an abandoned railway station on the edge of town. It is the first evening in their new home. Everything is temporary, nothing is finished. The furniture has not yet been delivered, the heating is not functioning yet, the telephone is not connected, neither is the television. They are inescapably confronted with their own selves and with each other. And although, at least at the beginning, they fervently strive for love and harmony, the past catches up with them. When he, as always, seeks to withdraw by taking flight, he discovers that his key does not fit. He is at her mercy. Ruthlessly, they call each other to account.