Molly von Fuerstenberg Movies

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, Rovi

Alienation, heartbreak, and hogs prove to be a fatal combination in this offbeat black comedy from writer and director Jobst Oetzmann. Elias (Janek Rieke) is an aspiring author living in Hamburg who, while interviewing his Aunt Gisela (Rosemarie Fendel) for a writing project, makes the startling discovery that his cousin, Gunther (Thomas Schmauser), has taken his own life. Though Elias wasn't close to Gunther, the news still comes as a shock, and he decides to travel to Gunther's hometown of East Westphalia to find out exactly what happened. Despite the lack of assistance from Gunther's unfriendly parents and the troublesome antics of a pack of bullies, Elias begins to piece together Gunther's sad story. The product of an eccentric upbringing from a family of butchers, Gunther grew up bright but painfully reserved, and after his romance with an American girl (Dynelle Rhodea) was scotched by interference from his parents, he began to develop a strange philosophy centered around the noble nature of pigs. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Katja von Garnier (Making Up!) made her feature directorial debut with this German musical comedy-drama about the Bandits, a quartet of female prisoners who rely on music to escape their surroundings. Then they escape for real. During a policeman's ball, they make a getaway and head north to get a hidden cash stash and ship out to South America. Along the way, they take an American hostage and give impromptu concerts. The group skyrockets to fame and cult celebrity status due to the continual airing of their tunes on the radio while they flee the police. Shown at the 1997 Toronto and German film festivals. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi