Lena Stolze Movies

An angry young woman hits the road in search of adventure in this comedy drama from Germany. 18-year-old Anke (Julia Hummer) is a student in a small town in Northern Germany where she feels suffocated at school and is at constant odds with her mother (Lena Stolze). Anke believes that her mother's frequent infidelity led her father to take his own life, and now she's embarrassed to learn that her mother is having an affair with the husband of one of her school teachers. Determined to make a career for herself as a musician and move on to better things, Anke leaves town and heads for Hamburg with her boyfriend Hannes (Denis Moschitto) and her dog in tow. Hannes is not as free-spirited as Anke, and soon she takes on a new traveling companion, Ulf (Nic Romm), who has just inherited some land and a boat from his father. Ulf is eager to hit the high seas and Anke offers to join him, though she begins to wonder if his carefree nature may be a sign of something deeper and more troubling. Northern Star was the first feature film from writer and director Felix Randau who began the picture as his graduation project from film school. The film received enthusiastic notices in its premier screening at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta directs the war drama Rosenstrasse, based on the plight of "mixed marriages" between Jewish men and non-Jewish women during the Holocaust. In contemporary New York, Jewish matriarch Ruth (Jutta Lampe) practices Orthodox mourning traditions for her late husband, to the dismay of her daughter Hannah (Maria Schrader). At the wake, Ruth's cousin Rachel (Carola Regnier) tells Hannah some family secrets that send curious Hannah over to Berlin. She searches out 90-year-old Lena Fischer (Doris Schade), who cared for Ruth during WWII. Flashbacks recall the events of 1943,when Jewish husbands were rounded up and kept in a house on a street called Rosenstrasse. Lena (played by Katja Riemann as a young woman) joins a group of other wives for a week-long protest, where she meets an abandoned seven-year-old named Ruth (played by Svea Lohde as a girl). Rosenstrasse was shown in competition at the 2003 Venice International Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

This romantic German drama pays tribute to the enduring love affair between the poets Gottfried Benn and Else Lasker-Schueler. The two reached the pinnacle of their careers in the 1920s and were considered important figures in the expressionist movement. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this frankly bizarre fantasy story based on a novel by Austrian writer Robert Schneider, Elias Johannes Alder (Andre Eisermann) is born into a filthy, poverty-stricken village in the alps; his mother doesn't much care for him, and he later discovers he's the bastard son of the town's clergyman. As his mother is giving birth to his sister Elsbeth, Elias has an epiphany that causes his hearing to become unusually keen and his eyes to change color. He suddenly develops a tremendous talent for music, quickly mastering the church organ and performing and writing music with remarkable skill and passion. Once Elsbeth grows to maturity, Elias becomes obsessed with his sister and longs to be her lover; however, she breaks his heart by instead marrying Peter (Ben Becker), an old friend who is deeply moved by Elias' music. Driven to despair, Elias decides to commit suicide, but in a truly novel manner -- by giving up sleep. Director Joseph Vilsmaier also served as cinematographer; Schneider wrote the screenplay from his own novel. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The romantic drama Maschenka is a loose adaptation of a novel by Vladimir Nabokov done in a style reminiscent of a Merchant-Ivory production. Ganin (Cary Elwes) is a Russian refugee fleeing the 1917 Revolution who, at his Berlin boardinghouse, recalls his love for the beautiful Maschenka (Irina Brook). He soon leans what has become of her: she has married Alfyrov, a boarder at the same Berlin residence Ganin is staying at, and she is on her way to rejoin her husband. This knowledge, and the incessant recitation of his memories of old Russia by another boarder (Freddie Jones) send him into a state of reverie. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this period film about the life of an aristocratic family in Munich just before World War I and the end of the aristocracy as such, there are a series of garden parties for the royalty and nobility, Christmas celebrations, an appearance by Eleanora Duse at the local theater, music recitals, and majestic ballroom dances. No strong dramatic content or major story line holds the events in a thematic scheme, but the Lautenschlag family serves as the axis around which events come and go. This fictional family unit and the story, come from the partly autobiographical novel titled The Swing, written in 1934 by Annette Kolb. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Based on a true story, this film follows a group of German students in Munich who formed a group called "The White Rose," aimed at informing the German people of the atrocities that were being committed in the Nazi concentration camps. However, when the Gestapo discover what the students have been up to, their quest may prove deadly. This film is in German with English subtitles. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi