Renate Krössner Movies

A man gets in touch with his spiritual side for a very material reason in this comedy from Germany. Jacob Zuckermann was a young man living in Eastern Germany when the Berlin Wall divided the nation in 1961. Jacob's mother escaped to West Berlin with her other son, Samuel, in tow, but Jacob was left behind. Putting himself though school, Jacob became a lawyer, albeit one with a less than prestigious practice, and changed his name to Jaeckie Zucker. However, after Germany was reunified, Jaeckie's (Henry Huebchen) practice collapsed, and he began making a living hustling pool. Luck has not been kind to Jaeckie lately, and he owes 60,000 dollars to the bank. Jaeckie thinks he could win enough money to pay his debts in an upcoming high-stakes pool tournament, but he doesn't have the 5,000 dollars needed to enter. Bad news has a silver lining for Jaeckie when he gets word that his mother has passed on, and he and Samuel stand to inherit a fortune from her estate. However, there's a catch -- she has specified she must have an Orthodox Jewish funeral if her sons are to receive the money, and while Samuel (Udo Samel) is a strict follower of the faith, Jaeckie's religious education stopped not long after his mother left. Jaeckie and his conspicuously gentile wife, Marlene (Hannelore Elsner), head to West Berlin, where they have a less-than-joyous reunion with Samuel and attempt to help with the details of the funeral while giving themselves an overnight education in Judaism. Meanwhile, Jaeckie schemes to find a way to sit shivah and play in the pool tournament at the same time. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rosi (Gisela Schneeberger) is a bookish middle-aged woman working for an insurance company who becomes smitten with Rainer (August Zirner), a good-looking German novelist, when she sees him read from his works. Rosi happens to be nearby when Rainer kills his obsessively jealous girl friend in self-defense. Rosi's more than happy to help Rainer cover up the incident, but she sees this as a chance to work her way into his inner circle, and before long she gets the notion that the easiest way to eliminate competition for his attentions is to simply kill a few people who stand in her way. Though produced for European television, Die Hahn Ist Tot received a screening at the 1999 Munich Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Moments from the lives of a large number of people who have nothing much in common except a strong desire to achieve their various personal goals and their attendance at a soccer match form the body of this film. It is unclear whether the director intended this as a political allegory or as a slice-of-life film. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This East German youth film stars Renate Kroessner as Sunny, an ex-factory worker who sings in a band called "The Tornadoes." As the title implies, Sunny wants to go solo, as both a musician and a woman, her independence having been compromised by her relationships with three troublesome men as well as by the restrictions of the band. Co-director Wolfgang Kohlhaase's energetic script and plentiful views of Berlin nightlife made this film a big hit with German teens, and Stroessner's performance won her a "Best Actress" statue at the 1980 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi