Devid Striesow Movies

Writer/director Stefan Ruzowitzky explores the moral corrosion of Nazi complicity with this tightly wound adaptation of Adolf Burger's fact-based book The Devil's Workshop. Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) may be a talented artist at heart, but his desire for wealth has driven him to use his creativity for more nefarious means. Arrested by the police inspector Herzog (Devid Striesow) at the onset of World War II, Sorowitsch is sent to the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp. It's not long before Salomon's thinly veiled opportunism earns him a relatively comfortable position as the camp's resident sketch artist, and five years later he is mysteriously swept away to Sachsenhausen. Upon arriving at the camp, Sorowitsch discovers that Herzog, now a commandant, is attempting to destabilize the economies of the Allies while simultaneously funding the Nazi war machine by assembling a special team of counterfeit artists to create millions in fraudulent pounds and dollars. As the operation gets under way, Sorowitsch finds the efforts of the team continually undermined by unyieldingly idealistic collotype specialist Adolf Burger (August Diehl). In the months that follow, the team wrestles with their consciences as Axis forces are gradually overwhelmed by Allied might. The Counterfeiters won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A young mother of two begins the slow transformation into a Medea-like figure after discovering that her husband is leading a secret life with another family. Marie was bringing her husband his violin when she found out that he was moonlighting as a husband for another family. Devastated by the sight of her beloved husband with another woman and child, the emotionally shattered mother begins a painful descent into psychological despair from which she will never emerge until achieving her grim revenge. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A chef discovers that the old saw "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach" works for women as well in this romantic comedy from Germany. Gregor (Josef Ostendorf) is a gourmet chef who runs a small but highly regarded restaurant in Berlin. Gregor believes that food can awaken the erotic impulses and he revels in the sensual pleasures of his cooking; however, he hasn't had much luck in finding someone to share the joy of cooking with him. One night, Gregor meets Eden (Charlotte Roche), a woman who works as a waitress at a nearby resort hotel, and he's immediately smitten. However, Gregor soon discovers that Eden is married to Xaver (Devid Striesow), an older man who teaches dancercise to the elderly, and they have a young daughter with Down's syndrome. Since seducing Eden would be out of the question, Gregor does what, for him, is the next best thing -- he cooks for her, starting with a special chocolate cake for her birthday, and following with a variety of special dishes that awaken her to the physical pleasures of life. Gregor's culinary attentions make Eden happier at home, and kick-starts her sex life with her husband, but Xaver thinks something's not kosher about Eden's new friend, and when he learns she's pregnant, he wonders if Gregor might be the father. Eden won the Audience Award at the 2006 Rotterdam Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

One of the Third Reich's sinister plans for training a legion of strong and obedient young men to do their bidding is exposed in this historical drama, inspired by true-life events. In 1942, Friedrich Weimer (Max Riemelt) is a 16-year-old amateur fighter who is spotted while working out at a boxing club by Heinrich Vogler (Devid Striesow). Vogler is a recruiter for the National-Political Institutes of Learning (called "NAPOLA" for short), where promising young men with various talents will be taught to hone their strength, cunning, and fearlessness to a fine point, with the ultimate goal of using NAPOLA graduates to help rule the territories Nazis will overtake once they've won the war. Vogler invites Weimer to join the NAPOLA training facility in Allenstein, and he accepts, despite the strong misgivings of his family. Weimer is at first enthusiastic and committed to his new regimen, and becomes friendly with a fellow student, Albrecht Stein (Tom Schilling), an aspiring writer whose father, a important man in the German military, would like to see him join the SS. Stein does not embrace the training with the same enthusiasm as many of his fellows, and in time he and Weimer develop feelings for one another that go beyond friendship. In time, Weimer begins to lose his enthusiasm for NAPOLA, especially after a mission to find escaped Russian prisoners leads to the death of unarmed teenagers, and he looks for a way to rebel against the repressive system. Filmmaker Dennis Gansel dedicated Before the Fall to his grandfather, Peter Fritz Gansel, a NAPOLA veteran whose stories of the school's brutality inspired the movie. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Set in the early '80s, a time when a new wave of leftist political consciousness and activism had swept German youth (and was just about to disappear as quickly as it arrived), this satiric comedy follows a young couple, Ingo (Hans-Jochen Wagner) and Nadja (Valerie Koch), as they travel to Austria for a weekend of skiing near her parent's luxurious chalet. While Ingo and Nadja have an open relationship, he thinks its time that they commit to one another exclusively, and is hoping this weekend will convince her this is a good idea. However, their privacy is interrupted when several guests arrive -- friends of Nadja's brother Knut (Ingo Haeb), a noted political activist, who, unbeknownst to her, has also planned a ski weekend. As the guests await Knut's arrival, they get the unpleasant news that he's been arrested during a demonstration; several propose that they should come to his aid, while the majority decide instead to go skiing as a way to pay tribute to his commitment to the cause. Sie Haben Knut received enthusiastic notices when it was screened in competition at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A rambunctious and confused prepubescent and a bored middle-aged family man become unlikely friends in German director Anne Wild's 2002 feature-film directorial debut, My First Miracle. While vacationing on the North Sea coast with her single mother Franziska (Juliane Koehler), 11-year-old Dole (Henriette Confurius) accidentally meets fellow vacationer Hermann (Leonard Lansink) and each recognizes an odd kinship in the other -- while also realizing they live in the same hometown. After both families' vacations end, Dole and Hermann meet frequently and their friendship blooms, until one fateful day when Dole learns of her mother's intentions of moving to France. The youngster promptly decides to run away from home, and convinces Hermann to join her on a return trip to the same North Sea resort where they met, leaving Dole's and Hermann's families in a panic as they scramble to locate the missing duo. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide