German-language films in Berlin

Balance(2025)

Johannes, a moderately successful musician, receives a visit from his daughter Clara, who lives with her mother in the Netherlands. Everything is prepared for one of their usual brief encounters: the guest room is aired out, and the bathroom has been haphazardly cleaned. Clara is just passing through anyway; she’s planning to travel on to Korea the next day. But when her flight is delayed, father and daughter suddenly have more time than they know how to fill. What happens when there’s suddenly space to truly connect? Johannes suggests spending a few days at the old family cabin by the Baltic Sea. What begins euphorically becomes a journey of discovery, where music plays the leading role.

Wings of Desire(1986)

Drama, Fantasy, Romance

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.

Our Children(1989)

Documentary

From an official perspective, marginal youth culture did not exist in East Germany. The topic of subcultures was taboo in the GDR, and groups such as goths, skinheads, anti-skins, punks and neo-Nazis were dismissed as social deviations promoted by western countries. Director Roland Steiner had access to such young East Germans in the late 1980s. Over the course of four years, he brought them before the camera in an attempt to understand what drew them to these groups.

With Hasan in Gaza(2025)

Documentary, War

Three MiniDV tapes of life in Gaza from 2001 were recently rediscovered. What started as a search for a former prison mate from 1989 led to an unexpected road trip from the north to the south of Gaza with Hasan, a local guide whose fate remains unknown.

Berlin - Prenzlauer Berg(1990)

Documentary

The Prenzlauer Berg district in the former East Berlin was a particularly intense example of the "short summer of anarchy" on the heels of the fall of the Wall. This merry, teary swan song is a pastiche of dancing seniors, revelling bohemians, transvestites from the West, and Balkan musicians. On a more serious note, we hear from women in positions of responsibility – workers at a state-run textile factory, as well as the owner of a clothing store fear for their financial future, while the lady boss at Konnopke's snack bar eagerly accepts her first payment in West German marks.

Sirens Call(2025)

Documentary, Drama, Science Fiction

In their feature-length debut, Gossing/Sieckmann dive into the merfolk subculture with performance artist and siren Una. Genre elements, fiction and documentary, self-care, political activism and self-chosen identities blend into one another.

The Rabbit Is Me

Drama, Romance

Maria, a young student sees her brother Dieter going to prison for sedition against the state. She starts an affair with Paul, a judge who turns out to be the one who sentenced her brother, which eventually leads to a confrontation.

The Kick(2005)

Documentary

The neo-Nazi brothers Marco and Marcel Schönfeld from Potzlow have their sights set on the 16-year-old Marinus Schöberl, who stutters. They consider Marinus to be a so-called "subhuman".

Elbow(2024)

Drama

Hazal is 17 and lives in Berlin. Her biggest wish: to be given a chance. For her 18th birthday she wants to escape the everyday grind and party with her friends. But an incident changes everything. Hazal is forced to flee.

Sun Seekers(1958)

Drama

A socialist story of "atoms for peace" and compulsory labor in an East German uranium mine under Soviet control.

Stau – Jetzt geht’s los(1992)

Documentary

A group of young people in Halle-Neustadt moving aimlessly between the concrete blocks once built as a socialist model housing estate. Familiar certainties dissolved along with the GDR. Even though there were hardly any foreigners in Saxony-Anhalt, a dull aversion to everything that hadn’t been part of daily life until then began to spread. The general dissolution, perceived as a threat, is countered by apparently clear world views. When Thomas Heise won the “Documentary Film Prize 1992” at the Duisburger Filmwoche, the laudation ended with the assumption that the film would probably provoke disagreement. It turned out to be true.

#BlackSheep(2025)

Comedy

A Neukölln clan boss becomes a climate activist. A gender doll inventor who fulfills her most secret wishes with a fake gun and a new girlfriend in Grunewald. A balcony beekeeper whose bee colony is on speed. And in the middle of it all, a fisherman who wants to conjure up sustainable snacks from invasive swamp crabs. What unites them all? A hot summer in the capital - and waiting for the rain!

Tod meiner Jugend(2025)

Drama

A janitor with a loving wife and a devoted son leads a seemingly quiet, orderly life. One day, the boy asks his father an inconspicuous but profound question: “Dad, why are there no photos of you at my age?” Driven by a restlessness that can no longer be suppressed, the man returns to the place of his childhood: a children's home he has avoided for decades.

The Frog and the Water(2025)

Comedy, Drama

The cautious friendship between Stefan Busch, known to everyone as Buschi, and Mr. Hideo Kitamura begins on this special road trip. Buschi, who has refused to speak with his fellow human beings his entire life, blossoms on this journey to unknown places.

Anna und Herr Goethe(2016)

Drama

N/A

Luisa(2025)

Drama

Luisa recently moved out of her parent's home into a residential group at a facility for people with disabilities on the outskirts of a small German town. There she receives support in her often turbulent everyday life. Unnoticed, Luisa becomes increasingly quiet, everyday life in the residential group continues until it is unexpectedly discovered that Luisa is pregnant. She does not say how this happened and everyone knows that her boyfriend Anton is infertile. Suspicion of sexual abuse is obvious. Luisa decides to terminate the pregnancy. The police are called in and try to find out whether a crime has been committed. The investigation becomes a test of endurance for Luisa, her relationship with Anton and for all the staff at the residential facility.

Gavagai(2025)

Drama

On the set of a turbulent shoot of a Medea adaptation in Senegal, Maja seeks solace in a love affair with her co-star Nourou. Months later, they meet again at the film’s premiere in Berlin. Old feelings resurface, but a racist incident unsettles their reunion. Tensions rise as everyone tries to do the right thing. While the ancient tragedy plays out on screen, a contemporary drama unfolds.

Gropiusstadt Supernova(2026)

Drama

Berlin-Gropiusstadt, a prefabricated housing estate on the outskirts of the city. On the last day of the year, three young people are at a turning point: Tarik receives a letter about his impending deportation, Stella gets accepted to an acting school abroad, and Luan wakes up from a nightmare in which he is left behind by both of them.

Bernd - Operation Germanenkind(2025)

Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

An in-depth look at how fascism hides behind facades of a tolerant, intellectual and open-minded society.

Active Vocabulary(2025)

Documentary

A Russian teacher criticizes the Russian invasion of Ukraine in class and is denounced by a pupil. After fleeing, she re-enacts the incident with her Berlin class.

Exprmntl 4 Knokke(1967)

Documentary, TV Movie

Turn of the year 1967/68: at the fourth EXPRMNTL festival in the Belgian seaside resort of Knokke, the film documents spontaneous performances, happenings and protest actions, capturing – only a few months before May ’68 – the harbingers of cultural upheaval.

Fucking Different Generations(2026)

Documentary

A queer anthology that explores sexuality, intimacy, and identity across age groups. Conceived as a collaborative project, the film brings together filmmakers from different generations, each directing a short segment portraying encounters between younger and older men. Through these stories, the film examines how attitudes toward desire, relationships, and queer identity shift over time. Moments of curiosity, misunderstanding, attraction, and vulnerability reveal both the gaps and the connections between generations shaped by different social climates. By juxtaposing perspectives formed in eras of repression with those emerging in more open contexts, the film reflects on how LGBTQ+ experiences evolve while shared needs for intimacy, recognition, and connection remain constant. The result is a provocative and intimate mosaic about age, memory, and the changing landscape of queer life.

Headlights(2025)

Drama

On New Year’s Eve, in the streets of Berlin, Alex delivers coke driving her taxi. Three other car journeys capture three earlier moments in a life marked by personal tragedy. From season to season, an interior journey into states of being.

In the Light of the Sands(2026)

Documentary

As a bird warden, Kilian spends seven months alone on a barrier island in the Heligoland Bight. His tasks are simple: monitoring wildlife and collecting flotsam. The rich birdlife, extreme weather and ever-changing landscape are conveyed both through imagery and a soundtrack of wind, rain and birdsong. Contact with others is rare, but the intrusion of the outside world is all the more striking. The film’s melancholic atmosphere echoes both solitude and a sense that this fragile sanctuary is deeply at risk. Beyond its precise observations, an essay on climate change and militarisation emerges.

Intersection – It's Political(2025)

Documentary

Facing up to discrimination and reviving deadlocked debates? Finding alliances outside of one's bubble? Six strong voices seek (and find) answers together.

Mothers(2025)

Documentary

Mothers talk about their experiences. What is expected of them, what personal and social challenges do they face? Everything is represented: from nuclear families to single parents, homosexual parent constellations to motherhood through artificial insemination. Layer by layer, outdated and inverted role models and also the break with social norms become visible. Motherhood between backbreaking work and euphoria.

Nothing Remains Nothing Disappears(2026)

Documentary

A Berlin street corner is slowly changing: an aging supermarket turns into a construction site and finally a new building. People restock shelves, demolish walls, take breaks and count money. Those who work here participate in the making and unmaking of the place. How does it shape the conditions of their labor? Between supermarket aisles, construction scaffolding and exposed concrete, different versions begin to overlap. Repetitions appear like echoes between worlds, both playful and eerie.

Plan F(2025)

Drama

Franka is a punk—wild and loud—but her star is fading. Her younger sister Maya has retreated to their parents in the countryside and now lives somewhere between rubber boots, coffee on the sofa, and no desire for change. When Franka thinks she has seen their missing sister, Lilly, on the street one day, she feels compelled to at least try to “save” Maya. What follows is a chaotic road trip from Brandenburg to Berlin, a night full of arguments and laughter, old accusations, and new honesty. In the end, there is no solution, but maybe a new beginning. A raw snapshot of two women who are closer than they think.

Sediments(2025)

Documentary

The traces of a family, and the entanglements of two dictatorships.

Solo Show(2025)

An art student, a real estate agent and two lovers cling to their carefully crafted facades – or fail to do so.

The Party - Die Party (La Prune)(2026)

It is June 18, 19**. On this astonishingly hot afternoon, Étienne Pignon is sitting—unusually upright by his standards—at the head of a long, lavishly set table on the shore of a lake, grinning from ear to ear.

Weißer Rauch über Schwarze Pumpe(2025)

Documentary

In 1991, the Schwarze Pumpe energy centre in Lusatia is phased out. Tens of thousands lose their jobs, hoping for better times. Today, the dirt and feelings of the past keep coming up.

Wir sind da(2026)

Drama

Young reporter Anselm meets acting student Nana and decides to make a doc film about drama school. But teachers and students draw him into a storm of emotional lows and toxic relationships that severely test his integrity as a journalist.

woman/mOther(2025)

Documentary

Since the birth of her child, dancer Mara has been feeling lonely and disconnected from her creativity. Together with the director, her friend Klara, she is finally planning another dance performance.