German Cinema
The devastation of World War One left Germany's budding film industry, like much of Europe, in tatters. But necessity being the mother of invention, German Expressionism was born. Relying heavily on symbolism and shadow rather than elaborate and costly sets, films like 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' are still studied by film students the world over. By the mid-1920s, the industry was getting back on its feet and great directors like Fritz Lang and FW Murnau were making their early masterpieces. However the onset of Nazism and the impending war led many of Germany's artists, including filmmakers, to flee to the U.S. Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Douglas Sirk, Karl Freund and many more all continued their careers in America while the German film industry virtually disappeared. It was not unitl the '60s and '70s that new talents emerged. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Viktor Schlondorff and Wim Wenders revitalised German cinema and today international hits such as 'Run Lola Run' and 'Goodbye Lenin!' assure us it is here to stay.
Right: 'Run Lola Run'
Wunderkinder (2011)
6.8/10
Director: Marcus O Rosenmuller
Starring: Gudrun Landgrebe, Kai Wiesinger, Catherine Flemming, Konstantin Wecker
During WWII, three musically gifted children - two Jewish siblings and a German friend - and their families, are torn apart as the Nazis invade Russia... Read more
Hell (2011)
5.9/10
Director: Tim Fehlbaum
Starring: Angela Winkler, Stipe Erceg, Hannah Herzsprung, Lars Eidinger, Lisa Vicari
Post-apocalyptic horror in which a group of survivors fight for survival in a barren, desolate futureworld. It's 2016 and global warming has reduced t... Read more
Klitschko (2011)
7.8/10
Director: Sebastian Dehnhardt
Documentary filmmaker Sebastian Dehnhardt offers an intimate look into the lives of Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, two sibling boxers from the Ukraine... Read more
The Whore (2011)
5.4/10
Director: Hansjorg Thurn
Starring: Thure Riefenstein, Alexandra Neldel
Based on the international best-seller by Iny Lorentz, and set in Konstanz, at a time when the Church is struggling to maintain its moral authority. M... Read more
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
7.7/10
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Werner Herzog
A documentary depicting the life and work of the trappers of Bakhtia, a village in the heart of the Siberian Taiga, where daily life has changed littl... Read more
In The Face Of Crime (2010)
8/10
Starring: Max Riemelt, Ronald Zehrfeld, Mark Ivanir
The worlds of a young Russo-German cop who investigates within the Berlin Russian mafia milieu and a young Russian woman who is forced into prostituti... Read more
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (2010)
6.4/10
Director: Gereon Wetzel
For six months of the year, renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adrià closes his restaurant El Bulli and works with his culinary team to prepare the menu for... Read more
Vincent Wants to Sea (2010)
7.1/10
Director: Ralf Huettner
Starring: Heino Ferch, Florian David Fitz, Karoline Herfurth, Katharina Muller-Elmau, Joha...
An Italian boy with Tourette's syndrome flees the clinic where he was sent by his father in order to fulfill his mother's dying wish in this tender co... Read more
Three (2010)
4.6/10
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Devid Striesow, Sebastian Schipper, Sophie Rois
Writer/director Tom Twyker's ("Run Lola Run") bold indie drama follows a Berlin couple preparing to celebrate their 20th anniversary, eager to mark th... Read more
Longing for New Zealand (2009)
4.9/10
Director: Michael Keusch
Starring: Vicky Haughton, Dietrich Mattausch
Upon making a mysterious inheritance in New Zealand, New York publisher Paige Duvall travels to the Antipodes to learn what this is all about. There s... Read more