Thomas Mauch Movies

Libina Mitevska stars as a mother in search of the daughter that was taken from her when the family was forced into an internment camp during the Bosnian conflict in director Christian Wagner's award-winning family drama. Thirty year-old Senada (Mitevska) is a successful real estate broker and accomplished volleyball player living in the Bosnia and Herzegovina village of Brcko. Though in the surface it would appear as if Senada has everything a woman could want in life, her family has been ripped apart by war and she is haunted by the memories of the daughter that was forcefully taken from her in one of Bosnia's darkest hours. Not only did her marriage to the kindly Samir (Senad Basic) crumble during the conflict that consumed the land, but her daughter Aida was taken from the pair by aid workers and spirited away to an undisclosed location. Convinced that she has located her daughter in the Ulm, Germany, Senada enlists the aid of a sympathetic trafficker named Dzigera (Zdenko Jelcic) in crossing the border and avoiding the radar of local aid worker Mrs. Jandrasko (Katrin Sass). Upon discovering that her daughter has been renamed and is currently being raised by a well-to-do German couple, the desperate mother watches from afar while planning to recover the unsuspecting adolescent who seems to have all but forgotten her turbulent past. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Director Edgar Reitz concludes his epic-length, tripartite chronicle of the Simon clan with the 11-hour (six episode) Heimat 3: A Chronicle of Endings and Beginnings. The omega and alpha of the title refer to the fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, circa 1989 (an event that christens the opening of the film) and the outset of the new millennium (which marks the conclusion). In between, Reitz plunges into the world of the Simons - residents of the village of Schabbach in the Hunsrück region of Germany - and investigates the myriad of ways in which events from their lives intersect with broader German sociopolitical shifts over the course of the 1990s. This installment begins with the youngest Simon son, Hermann, and his lover, Clarissa, renovating a centuries-old house on a cliff above the Rhine, not far from Lorelei. As time unfurls, Reitz cross-cuts between the experiences of the couple, their parents, their children, and the workmen assisting with the home renovation, and gradually reveals how a sense of national pride and unity at the beginning of the 1990s (coincident with German reunification) ultimately yielded to disillusionment, disappointment, and crushing awareness of mortality from individual to individual as the decade ended. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This historical drama is based on a true story from 17th century France. Madame de Maintenon (Isabelle Huppert) rises from humble beginnings to become a courtesan to the royal court and eventually marries King Louis XIV (Jean-Pierre Kalfon). With the king's indulgence, Maintenon opens a special school for girls, seeking to educate young ladies of distinguished parentage but limited financial means. With the coaching of Maintenon and her staff, the girls learn to speak French with a linguist's precision, in addition to studying philosophy and history. However, when two of Maintenon's charges, Anne (Morgane More) and Lucie (Nina Meurisse), recite material in class that Madame deems inappropriate, it begins a war of wills between the headmistress and her students. The girls begin demanding increasingly greater freedom of both mind and body, as Maintenon turns from espousing beauty and liberty to demanding strict self-denial and enforcing an increasingly narrow set of regulations. Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale composed the film's original score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An undercover cop finds that the line between his own personality and that of the character he's created have begun to dangerously blur in this drama. John (Reece Dinsdale) is a British police detective whose skill is matched only by his arrogance. Acts of brutal hooliganism have become commonplace at the football matches featuring one of London's minor league teams, Shadwell Town, and the police suspect that there is a more criminal undercurrent to these actions than merely fandom gone wrong after a few pints of beer. So John is made part of an undercover team along with Trevor (Richard Graham) and two other officers; they are to blend in with the most rabid fans and learn what is behind the violence. John also makes the acquaintance of Lydia (Saskia Reeves), a barmaid at a pub where many of the hooligans hang out, he and becomes friendly with her as a way of obtaining more information. But as John sinks deeper into a life of alcohol and violence while hanging out with the Shadwell Town hooligans, he finds he likes it more and more, and in time, he finds that he's becoming one of the brutal thugs he set out to capture. He also finds his relationship with Lydia is no longer just a matter of business, much to the chagrin of his wife Marie (Claire Skinner). I.D. marked the feature debut for British director Philip Davis, who also directed several distinguished productions for U.K. television. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this German drama a middle-aged physicist experiences a vision at a class reunion and with the help of a young female student, sets out across the Himalayas to find the lost island of Atlantis. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

By 1941, Adolf Hitler had taken personal command of the German military apparatus. His initial successes made this seem like a good idea at the time, but by 1944, after an unparalleled series of military defeats which Hitler refused even to acknowledge, a group of high-ranking military and political figures in Germany decided to assassinate him and take over the government. Unfortunately for them, their assassination attempt failed, and the knives were out to find all the people involved in the attempt. The most wanted person in the coup was Carl Goerdeler (Dieter Schaad), a respected figure in German public life for many decades. Twenty years earlier, a girl by the name of Helene Schwärzel (Katherina Thalbach") met Goerdeler. After the coup attempt, during the nationwide manhunt, Helene recognized him and notified the authorities. In addition to receiving a huge reward, she became the focus of a nationwide propaganda campaign, and was widely resented for her "success." When the Allies won the war, they prosecuted her under a "crimes against humanity" statute, and she spent six years in prison. A basically clueless, apolitical person, she seems to have been puzzled by the whole affair, and she never spent her reward money. This historical drama tells the about her involvement in this significant story. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The English title of Wallers Letzter Gang is Wallers Last Trip. Accordingly, the film's story is centered around a Bavarian railroad-track inspector named Waller (Rolf Illig). In the manner of Wild Strawberries, the aging Waller muses on his past. He recalls his loved ones, his occasional indiscretions, and his disturbing experiences during WW II. Wallers Letzter Gang is based on Die Strecke, a novel by Gerhard Kopf. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Werner Herzog, as usual, has spared no one -- especially himself -- in bringing this story of 19th-century African slave trading to the screen. Klaus Kinski plays an enterprising young Brazilian who after impregnating the three daughters of his plantation-owning employer, is sent to West Africa to round up slaves. Kinski goes to great lengths to befriend the very people he hopes to enslave and he eventually manages to overthrow a mad monarch and set himself up as king. As the years pass, Kinski grows wealthy -- and careless. However, despite enslaving the tribe, he does show some signs of humanitarian benevolence. This fifth and final collaboration between director Herzog and Kinski is considered the weakest of the five features. Though the title translates literally as Green Cobra, Cobra Verde was released in the U.S. as Slave Coast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in Vienna, Austria before World War I, an industrialist grows weary of his cold-hearted wife. He seeks vengeance in a dual with the young officer who desires her affections. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Celebrated West German director Alexander Kluge presents this drama that strings together vignettes of events taken from everyday newspaper headlines. Germans are shown in their reactions to World War II, minorities, and the elderly. A side plot follows a meeting between former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and East German leader Erich Honecker. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Featuring sex, drugs, and alcohol in various combinations, this crude film of sleaze on the St. Pauli Reeperbahn in Hamburg traces the activities of a pimp, his prostitute, and a petty gangster. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Writer and director Hans Neuenfels created this movie by filming his stage production of Penthesilea, interspersing cinematic touches throughout his story of an Amazonian Queen fighting Achilles and the Greeks. Interestingly enough, his theater performance was enhanced by the use of film clips, and like this film, has set ancient characters into the modern world, mixing Amazonian loin cloths with Berlin city-scapes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Documentarian Les Blank, who filmed Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, trained his cameras on Herzog again, as the eccentric German filmmaker made his epic, Fitzcarraldo, in the Amazon rainforest of Peru. Herzog's production is in trouble right from the start. He begins filming with Jason Robards playing the title role, and Mick Jagger playing Fitzcarraldo's sidekick, Wilbur. With 40 percent of the film shot, Robards becomes ill and goes back to the states, where his doctor will not let him return. Because of the delay, Jagger, with album and tour commitments, is forced to quit the production. Thinking no one can fill the rock star's shoes, Herzog jettisons Jagger's role. He eventually casts his frequent collaborator Klaus Kinski as Fitzcarraldo and begins shooting again. Violent tribal disputes and unpredictable weather hinder the shoot, but the biggest obstacle is Herzog's own quixotic and dangerous determination to film one antique boat smashing down the Amazonian rapids, and the dragging of an identical boat over a mountain from one river to another. Blank interviews members of the cast and crew, including the impoverished Indian extras, and captures the troubles of the seemingly cursed production, but his interviews with Herzog are the focal point of the film. "If I abandon this project," Herzog explains at one point, "I would be a man without dreams, and I never want to live like that. I live my life or I end my life with this project." Herzog later made his own documentary about Kinski, My Best Fiend, which adds to the lore of this infamously difficult shoot. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide