Karin Baal Movies

A pair of juvenile delinquents growing up in without dreams or prospects turn to violent crime in this drama from Germany. Adam (Ludwig Trepte) and Tommek (Martin Kiefer) are two friends who live in a crumbling housing project in Leipzig. Adam is a misfit who isn't sure how to behave around others, while Tommek is a rebel given to vandalism and glue-sniffing. Sara (Jil Funke) is a neighborhood girl with a crush on Adam, but between his hesitant nature and his unacknowledged attraction to Tommek, he doesn't respond when she reaches out to him. One night, Adam and Tommek get blind drunk at a friend's party, and the two decide they're bored. Tommek then suggests something that will add some excitement to their lives -- murder. Sieben Tage Sonntag (aka Seven Days Sunday) was the first feature film from writer and director Niels Laupert. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The true story of Hasso Herschel inspired this epic Cold War drama from Germany. Harry Melchoir (Heino Ferch) was a respected German athlete when the Berlin Wall forcibly divided the nation in 1961. Unwilling to cooperate with the East German authorities, Melchoir escaped to West Berlin, along with his friends Matthis (Sebastian Koch), Vic (Mehmet Kurtulus), and Fred (Felix Eitner). When he fled to West Germany, Melchoir was forced to leave his family behind, and he fears for the fate of his sister Lotte (Alexandra Maria Lara). Eager to free Lotte from East German rule, Melchoir strikes upon the idea of building a tunnel under the wall that will allow her to leave the country undetected; Melchoir recruits Matthis, Vic, and Fred to help him, along with a resourceful woman named Fritzi (Nicolette Krebitz). It isn't long before Melchoir and his compatriots discover that many others want to help their friends and family escape the East German regime, and the simple tunnel turns into a massive building and engineering project that's both ambitious and fraught with danger for all parties concerned. Der Tunnel was produced as a two-part miniseries for German television; an edited feature-length version was prepared for possible theatrical release outside Europe. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Berlin-born filmmaker Erwin Leiser cemented his reputation with the low-key 1959 documentary Mein Kampf. Combining newsreel footage and eyewitness interviews, this film established Leiser's cinematic throughline of exploring Germany's tragic past. 1986's Following the Fuhrer, codirected by Adolf Winkelman combines fact with fiction as it chronicles the misadventures of a group of Third Reich advocates in the closing days of the war. As their world literally explodes around them, these faithful few huddle together to survive, trying and failing to sustain their beliefs with Hitlerian fantasies. Though the documentary footage can't be faulted in Following the Fuhrer, the film stumbles whenever the characters are given lines to speak. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When a mother meets her teenage daughter's boyfriend, an attraction starts that leads to an affair -- and has disastrous results on the family. This drama about the dissolution of a middle-class family might be unconvincing for some viewers because of a rather weak psychological rendering of individual characters. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this curiously irresolute drama, Gabriele (Barbara Rudnik) is a young woman who lives at home in her wealthy parents' apartment, but dreams of returning to Australia to join her Aussie boyfriend. He keeps in touch by mailing her taped messages and a video of their good times together on the beach. She, in turn, is studying marine biology and working at a peep show at night so she can save some money to join him. Her nighttime job introduces new people into her life -- everyone from her manager who lusts after her, to the women who work in the peep shows, and the taxi driver who takes her to work each night. An uneasy sense of foreboding slowly takes over, raising the question of whether she may finally return to Australia or not. All this might be more compelling if the acting were less stylized and the script a little more convincing. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Kabe (Marius Mueller-Westernhagen) lives with his wife Andrea (Patricia von Miseroni) in East Germany in an apartment that backs right up to the Berlin Wall. The Wall is only one of many confining aspects of life that drive Kabe nuts -- when he sees these barriers, he just has to cross them. Inevitably, he starts trying to jump over the wall again and again and is thrown first into a mental institution and then into jail for his repeated efforts -- which do, in the end pay off. It turns out he gets a reprieve when he is exchanged for some others on the opposite side of that wall in a deal between the East and West German governments, and lo and behold, Kabe is now in West Germany. Unfortunately, he is no happier looking at the wall from that perspective either. After all, his wife is on the other side -- and now what is he to do? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The subject of this historical drama is a splintering Berlin in the years of 1948 and 1949. Played against the backdrop of social upheaval, the characters in the drama come to epitomize the best and worst of each pole of the political sphere. A 17-year-old hoodlum by the name of Gladow (Ullrich Wesselmann) works hand-in-glove with a local white-collar criminal to rob and pillage every day and night, defying capture. While he and his gang of thugs are terrorizing the people of Berlin, the Soviets are trying to make the blockade of their region of control impermeable. The future casts long shadows over the drama, as Berlin's problems take the shape of times to come. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Inspired a song that was extremely popular with the German soldiers during WW II, this fictional story begins in 1938 while Wilkie Bunterberg (Hanna Schygulla), a third-tier cabaret singer, performs in a Zurich nightclub. It is her boyfriend, a Swiss Jew who also turns out to be a resistance fighter who pens her the famous song Lili Marleen. She sings it in Germany and it becomes a hit with the German troops. As a result, Hitler himself invites her to perform for him. This does not set well with the songwriter's powerful who, upon learning that Marleen has become a famed singer in Germany, seek to have her barred from Switzerland. This does not stop the songwriter from loving her though and desperate to see her one last time, he sneaks into Berlin for a tryst. Unfortuantely he is arrested and she gets blacklisted. They do not see each other again until after the war. By this time, their lives have changed considerably. This is not considered among the best of Fassbinder's best films. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Two beautiful young women in a romantic relationship with each other experience difficulties and anxieties. After having been away from one another for four years, one of them attempts to rekindle the relationship and succeeds. Circumstances throw them together in such a way that their previous resistances can be dealt with. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Hannibal Brooks (Oliver Reed) is a British prisoner of war assigned to care for an elephant in a zoo in Munich. Along with an American (Michael J. Pollard) and an Austrian (Helmut Lohner), the trio escapes with the elephant and heads for the Swiss border. They use the elephant to tear down a sentry post and gain access to the border crossing. They are betrayed by a Polish girl who aligns herself with the Nazis as the trio of escapees and their pachyderm protector evade the enemy in their attempt to escape. Comical moments are provided by the animal and James Donald who plays a captured British Army chaplain in this World War II adventure feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Though athletic, Sean Flynn did not have as much success in film as his father Errol Flynn. In this espionage actioner, Sean plays Michel, a young man who attempts to save his late father's friend who has been accused of treason. He follows the man's trail to Venice and finds him held captive by communists. Danger and romance ensue as Michel attempts a rescue. Actor/writer Andre Versini directs for the first time with Voir Venise et Crever, based on a book from James Hadley Chase. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi