Heike Makatsch Movies

A determined medical student uncovers shady goings on during a prestigious summer anatomy course in this German thriller. When Paula Henning (Run Lola Run's Franka Potente) learns that she's been accepted to a highly competitive internship at a Heidelberg research institution, she's ecstatic. The daughter of a simple family doctor, she prefers to model herself after her terminally ill grandfather, who was once dean of the same Heidelberg university. Stern lecturer Prof. Grombek (Traugott Buhre) promises that half the students won't be around when the course ends; his prediction turns out to be true, but it's not because of the brutal exams. It seems that a group of renegade doctors is performing dissections on unwilling, still-living victims, which helps explain the artful laboratory in which plasticized human remains are lovingly displayed. Paula stumbles onto this plot when a recent acquaintance turns up on her dissection table, his blood the consistency of rubber. Studious to the extreme, Paula investigates his death with scientific determination -- despite the flirtations of handsome fellow student Caspar (Sebastian Blomberg) and the feel-good urgings of Gretchen (Anna Loos), her sexually promiscuous but utterly brilliant roommate. Just as Paula is preparing to expose the existence of the Anti-Hippocratic Society, a Nazi-affiliated group of medical malcontents, Gretchen falls prey to their extreme methods. Soon Paula, too, is in danger of becoming just another addition to the display case. Extremely popular in its native country, Anatomie was dubbed into English for American release under the title Anatomy. A sequel was in production as of 2002. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

One of Germany's most important female directors, Doris Dörrie chose the subject of the universal quest for happiness for the film Bin ich Schön?. Set in Spain and Germany, the film interlaces individual stories of broken hearts and broken dreams with aspirations of new beginnings. On a hot afternoon in Spain, Linda is standing beside the road wearing a thin summer dress and carrying a handbag. A car stops and Werner, a robust-looking German, picks her up. She shows him a note which says, "I am deaf-mute and in need of your help." Werner is touched. As they move off together, Linda throws her handbag out of the window. In a near-by motel, Klaus is on the phone to Munich trying to convince his reluctant girlfriend Franziska to come down to Spain. Linda and Werner have checked into the next room where Werner is asking Linda to hit him with his belt. Plots and subplots intertwine until the film reaches a climax during a religious procession. In an ironic way, the film celebrates life with a message that life is here today and then it's gone. No beginning, no end and enjoy it while you can. Bin ich schön? was screened as part of the New German Films at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

This lavish, broadly scaled feature from director Kai Wessel dramatizes the life of Hildegarde Knef (1925-2002), arguably the most popular actress and chanteuse in post-WWII Germany. Yet in lieu of presenting a chronological and all-inclusive account of Knef's decades-long career, Wessel and screenwriter Maria von Heland use Knef's 1966 concert at the Berlin Philharmonie as a narrative framing device from which they exclusively flash back to the years depicting the performer's early ascent to stardom; the film thus ends as Knef is just beginning to achieve acclaim and recognition as a vocalist. The backstory commences in 1943, when 17-year-old Knef (Heike Makatsch) aspires to show business life. She applies for a job at Babelsberg Studios, under the aegis of casting director Else Bongers (Monica Bleibtreu) who becomes her lifelong mentor. Knef finds it relatively easy to break in to the industry; unfortunately, her political leanings reflect great naïveté, and these are the years of The Third Reich, when Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels supervises all German art and culture -- and the actress falls into Nazism without hesitation. Hilde soon grows smitten with Third Reich film head Ewald von Demandowsky (Anian Zollner), then -- after the war ends with the loss of the Nazi party -- catches the eye of genial producer Erich Pommer (Hanns Zischler), a man appointed to rebuild the German movie industry. Shirking past Nazi ties, Knef ventures to America at the invitation of mogul David O. Selznick, and spends the next several years repeatedly shuffling back and forth between the U.S. and Deutschland as opportunities surface in both countries. Following a scandal involving a nude swimming scene in the movie The Sinner and a marriage to actor David Cameron (Dan Stevens), Hilde fixes her sights on a singing career and finally achieves the breakthrough of which she has long dreamed. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A new wrinkle in the eternal battle between good and evil forms the basis for the comedy Liebe Deine Naechste!/Love Your Neighbor!. Lt. Josephine (Lea Mornar) is a new soldier with the Salvation Army, and she's sent on a mission to save souls and do good works in Berlin, paired with her new associate, Lt. Isolde (Heike Makatsch). Berlin proves to be bigger, dirtier and more frightening than they expected, and the mission where they stay is an ominous hovel populated by alcoholic ne'er-do-wells. Not long after they arrive, the pair encounter Tristan (Moritz Bleibtreu), a powerful and morally-elastic management consultant who takes one look at Jospehine and immediately sees her as a piece of property he'd like to acquire. So will evil triumph over virtue -- specifically Josephine's virtue? Liebe Deine Naechste!/Love Your Neighbor! was the third feature from noted German director Detlev Buck. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this German comedy, a pair of convicts attempt to exploit a new rehab program that has inmates paired with female chaperones who escort them outside the prisons one weekend per month in the hopes that the feminine influence will imbue the criminals with good, loving, and more socially acceptable qualities. The two cons try hard to get into the program with the plan of robbing a bank. They succeed in the former, but their robbery plans are quickly derailed and they get in even bigger trouble. They also begin falling in love with their lovely escorts. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Three couples with varying degrees of success in both financial and romantic matters find they know relatively little about themselves or their respective partners in director Doris Dorrie's 2002 film Naked. Successful stockbroker Dylan (Mehmet Kurtulus) and his gorgeous wife, Charlotte (Nina Hoss), host a dinner party at their lavish apartment for two other pairs of friends, the recently separated Felix (Benno Furmann) and Emilia (Heike Makatsch) and the seemingly happy Boris (Juergen Vogel) and Annette (Alexandra Maria Lara). Felix and Emilia had decided to attend the dinner as a couple, though each still has unresolved feelings towards the other. Meanwhile, Annette and Boris are on the verge of becoming engaged, though something seems to be preventing this from happening. As the night goes on, several topics are discussed -- ranging from happy memories from the past to sexual relationships. At the height of the sex conversation, an impromptu bet is made that the two intact couples would not be able to identify their respective lovers by touching their naked bodies while blindfolded. Taking the bet, Boris, Annette, Dylan, and Charlotte strip down and discover more about themselves and each other than they ever intended. Based on the play Happy also written by Dorrie, Naked was selected as a competing film at the 2002 Venice Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi

The director of Mortal Kombat (1995) adapts another popular video game for the big screen with this gory action thriller. Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez star as Alice and Rain, two members of a commando team assigned to infiltrate the Hive, an underground research laboratory owned by the faceless conglomerate known as the Umbrella Corporation. A bio-engineered virus has been released into the maze-like Hive, turning the facility's employees into mindless, flesh-eating zombies. A single scratch or bite from one of these rampaging ghouls dooms its victim, so the commandos have their work cut out for them as they attempt to reach the Red Queen, the lab's supercomputer -- and their sole hope of halting the spread of the contagion. Before they can complete their mission, however, the soldiers must overcome a variety of deadly obstacles, including mutant dogs, lasers, and a genetically altered beast known as The Licker, whose strength increases with every victim it slays. Alice and Rain also discover that the release of the virus may not have been an accident, and that a cure may exist somewhere in the deadly Hive. Resident Evil co-stars Eric Mabius, James Purefoy, Martin Crewes, and Colin Salmon. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Filmmaker Ed Herzog and actress Heike Makatsch (Almost Heaven) reunite for this easygoing comedy drama concerning two unfamiliar sisters attempting to connect during a short holiday in Spain during the off-season. Anne (Makatsch) is a stressed out Berlin music executive who has hit her thirties and recently learned that she is six weeks pregnant with the child of her terminally mellow boyfriend Philipp (Marc Hosemann). Despite the fact that she loves Philipp dearly, the fact remains that he is fairly unreliable and she is the dictionary definition of a workaholic. After making the decision to keep news of the pregnancy to herself, Anne and her eighteen year old sister Marie (Anna Maria Muehe) book an apartment in a seaside resort town in Spain and set out for a brief vacation. The two sisters don't really know one another too well, but what better opportunity to get acquainted than during a relaxing getaway? Despite their most sincere attempts to find some common ground, Anne and Marie gradually find themselves pushed farther apart than ever before when Anne makes a drunken attempt to seduce a vacationing student named Max (Sebastian Urzendowsky), who later warms up to the younger of the two siblings. As the reality of her age and disillusionment sets in, Anne experiences a minor breakdown that leaves her feeling exceptionally vulnerable. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi