Dominique Horwitz Movies

David (Mario Fische) is the son of a German rabbi during the early days of the Holocaust. The boy is a horrified witness to the burning of his father's synagogue and the humiliation of his relatives and neighbors. Breaking away from his family, David is able to earn enough money to emigrate to Palestine. The film makes an effort to weed out humanitarians amongst the hellraisers, giving points to a kindly German officer who helps David escape. A long film, David is based on the even longer (but no less compelling) novel by Joel Konig. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sentimental drama, an elderly woman lives a lonely life in a German apartment. Her only companion is Chico, her little dog. The poor woman is so crippled with arthritis that she is a shut-in and must have her food and supplies brought to her by a delivery boy. When she learns that one of the boy's other customer bears the same name as her estranged half-brother, the woman becomes obsessed with finding out if it is really him. She is totally surprised at what her investigation reveals. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The true story of the last woman to be executed in Switzerland for witchcraft (in the late 18th century) is the subject of this historical drama. Anna Goldin was a maid accused of the crime of witchcraft after the little girl of the family she worked for became ill after Anna was fired. As things developed, the charge she was formally tried for wasn't actually witchcraft, because by then such a thing would bring down ridicule on the small province which was trying her -- but she was made to confess to witchcraft and a great deal else under torture. Swiss cantonal politics likely also figured in her trial and execution. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this odd love story and drama, Death is a huge and inefficient bureaucracy, and like all bureaucracies, "mistakes are made," to use the passive phrase so beloved of buck-passers everywhere. Here, Alex meets a lovely girl named Alice, and the two of them fall in love. However, their entire courtship is a mistake: Alice was released from death by mistake, and now she must be reclaimed. The bureaucrats make the further mistake of revealing their presence to the distraught young man, and he journeys into the underworld to negotiate a deal for the release of his girl with "the boss," which is what everyone calls the bureaucrat-in-charge. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A suicidal man spends his last day on earth saying goodbye to his friends in this poignant Dutch comic-drama. Telling his friends he's leaving on an extended bicycle trip, Dirk Van Dijck spends the day catching up with his friends at a café, giving them his regards and posessions to hold onto. What they don't know is that the man, terribly depressed, intends to kill himself. No Trains, No Planes was chosen as the closing night feature at the 1999 Rotterdam Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Preteens Sarah Hannemann and Nick Seidensticker co-star in the family-friendly German-language comedy Hilfe!. The two play Emma and Mickey, schoolmates who swap bodies, ala Vice Versa, Dream a Little Dream and Freaky Friday. Emma thus experiences life as a boy, and Mickey experiences life as a girl. After inevitable confusion and a series of madcap adventures, they must quickly figure out how to become themselves again. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Two outsiders witness an onslaught of bloody Rwandan genocide in this fact-based drama from director Michael Caton-Jones (Scandal). In 1994, Joe Connor (Hugh Dancy) is a British schoolteacher who has volunteered to spend a year at the Ecole Technique Officielle, a school in the Rwandan capital of Kigali. Connor's arrival in Rwanda occurs after the nation's Civil War between the Tutsis and the Hutus has dissipated (c. August 1993). Yet despite the official end of this well-publicized struggle, political negotiations between the two groups have reached a stalemate, and the Hutus begin systematic preparation for a mass-genocide of the Tutsi people (who have assumed political power via the establishment of the RPF). Connor has already seen signs of the coming conflict in the abuse meted out to Marie (Clare-Hope Ashitey), a Tutsi student who was one of his star pupils, as well as the bitter hatred expressed by Francois (David Gyasi), a Hutu janitor at the school. As the genocide erupts, with extreme Hutu factions slaughtering Tutsis by the thousands, the Ecole Technique becomes a base of operations for Belgian peacekeeping forces from the United Nations. Most extended visitors from the West (especially America and Europe) flee Rwanda as the fighting broke out, but Connor decides to stay, and in fact strikes up a friendship with Father Christopher (John Hurt), a Catholic priest who has come to the nation as a missionary. As Father Christopher serves mass and strives to offer solace to the Tutsis and moderate Hutus caught in the fighting, he and Connor use the school as a safe haven for Tutsi refugees; however, after five days of genocidal killing, the U.N. troops move out, leaving little hope for the people they were supposed to protect. Beyond the Gates was produced by David Belton, who helped write the film's story; Belton was a correspondent with the BBC who was assigned to Rwanda when the fighting broke out. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide