Benno Fürmann Movies

Director Vivian Naefe's 2006 Die Wilden Hühner (The Wild Chicks) jump-started one of the most commercially successful German franchises of the early 21st century, with its tale of a clique of five girlfriends, navigating that rocky journey from childhood into adulthood. The third installment, 2009's The Wild Chicks and Life, marked the first film in the series since 2007's The Wild Chicks in Love. This time around, the young women are now 14 years old and find themselves wrapped up in the throes of middle school adolescence. Melanie (Sonja Gerhardt) quietly struggles with her own personal secret and a burning need to confide in her friends, while Sprotte (Michelle von Treuberg) feels seriously out of touch with the surrounding world. Each of the other members also deals with a quiet personal struggle, but they ultimately find that the intimacy of friendship helps them bound over the differences and brings them closer. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

The Turkish diaspora in Germany proves the catalyst for this noir-flavored drama concerning the unlikely friendship between a veteran of the Afghan-Soviet war and a middle-aged Turk in need of a helping hand. Returning home for his mother's funeral when he happens across a business associate to whom he owes a sizable debt, Thomas (Benno Fürmann) subsequently stumbles into intoxicated Turk Ali (Hilmi Sözer) while fleeing in haste. Ali has nearly driven his van into a local canal, and now he needs a driver to chauffeur him around his modest kingdom of crumbling snack bars. Recognizing the opportunity to make some quick and easy cash, Thomas agrees. But Thomas doesn't know that Ali is an intensely jealous and distrustful man, two traits that threaten to spell tragedy when Thomas enters into a passionate affair with Ali's gorgeous German bride (Nina Hoss). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The year is 1914, and as World War I continues to rage across the European countryside, four individuals stuck on the front lines find themselves faced with the unthinkable in director Christian Carion's Academy Award-nominated account of the true-life wartime event that would offer hope for peace in mankind's darkest hour. When the war machines began rolling in the summer of 1914, the devastation that it waged upon German, British, and French troops was palpable. As the winter winds began to blow and the soldiers sat huddled in their trenches awaiting the generous Christmas care packages sent by the families, the sounds of warfare took a momentary backseat to the yearning for brotherhood among all of mankind. It is here that the fate of a French lieutenant, a Scottish priest, a German tenor, and a Danish soprano's lives were about to be changed forever. On Christmas Eve of that year, the lonely souls of the front lines abandoned their arms to reach out to their enemies on the battlefield and greet them with not anger or hostility, but with the simple, kindly gesture of a much needed cigarette or a treasured piece of chocolate, and to put their differences aside long enough to wish their brothers a sincere "Merry Christmas!" ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland writes and directs the religious thriller The Order. Heath Ledger portrays a priest from a secret religious order called The Carolingians. He's sent to Rome to investigate the mysterious death of the head of the Carolingians, whose body was found with strange marks on its chest. While in Rome, he asks for help from an old friend (Mark Addy) and an elusive artist Shannyn Sossamon to help solve the murder. The priest ends up at the Vatican, where he learns of a sect that may be responsible for many mysterious deaths. Peter Weller and Benno Fürmann round out the cast. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Christian Petzold's drama Wolfsburg details how one decision can destroy a life. One day while on a drive, Philipp (Benno Fürmann) becomes involved in a fight with his fiancée, Katja (Antje Westermann). While he is distracted, he runs into a boy. Instead of stopping, he continues home. Although the couple momentarily salvages their rocky relationship, the boy dies. Laura (Nina Hoss), the victim's mother, attempts to track down the man responsible for her son's death. Eventually she and Philipp meet, but they are unaware of their link. They begin a relationship that lasts until the truth is revealed. Wolfsburg was screened at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Director Tom Tykwer followed up his international hit Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) with this drama, which also examines young people living on the edges of the law. Sisi (Franka Potente) is an attractive but withdrawn woman who works in a psychiatric clinic, while Bodo (Benno Fürmann) is looking to make some quick money after his recent release from the army. Bodo robs a gas station and is fleeing on foot when he accidentally causes Sisi to be hit by a truck. Realizing she's seriously injured, Bodo comes to Sisi's rescue and performs an emergency tracheotomy on her before he escapes again. Sisi, who is often pursued by men but shies away from their advances, finds that she longs to meet the mysterious Bodo again, and eventually tracks him down to a hideout he shares with his brother, Walter (Joachim Krol). Bodo and Walter angrily send Sisi away, but she unexpectedly encounters them when they pull a robbery at a bank where she's running an errand. Bodo and Walter are caught in a shoot-out with police, and Sisi helps to spirit Bodo away to the clinic where she works, trying to spare him the grim news that Walter was killed in the melee. In addition to serving as writer and director, Tom Tykwer also composed the musical score for The Princess and the Warrior in collaboration with Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Self-conscious German-Turkish hipsters and petty crime rule the day in this gangland piece, the main focus of which is Ertan (Luke Piyes), a young punk who wants to be a bigtime player in his town's drug scene. "Kanak" is a derogatory term for immigrants. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Acclaimed German director Soenke Wortmann spins this cleverly constructed, sumptuously shot crime drama set in St. Pauli, Hamburg's notorious red light district. The film opens with a gang of thugs dumping someone's ashes in the harbor. One of the group, brash punk Johnny (Benno Fuermann) crosses town in a cab driven by Robby (Ill-young Kim). As the film jumps from one story to the next, Robby and his taxi emerge as the central thread that holds the film together. Later, a naked man with a gun terrorizes a crowded street and accidentally kills Johnny. The film immediately dives into the naked man's history before moving on to the movie's sundry other outcasts and miscreants such as brassy transvestite Roberta, disaffected punk Sven, and sleazy club owner Billi. With a cool, almost clinical eye, Wortmann artfully cuts back and forth through both space and time as his characters are systematically picked off. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

German Film & Television Academy grad Connie Walther made her feature directorial debut with this German film about 15-year-old Berliner Fili (Lavinia Wilson). Fili's divorced mother goes with an abusive guy who refuses to leave his wife. Fili has lost interest in school and spends much time daydreaming about how she will lose her virginity to Johnny Depp, whom she's never met. However, she's convinced that they are destined for each other and that when they do meet, Johnny will know that she's the girl for him. So she composes a series of audio letters to him, begins saving money for a plane ticket to Los Angeles in hopes of visiting him, and has imaginary conversations with Depp (in his various film roles). In black-and-white fantasy sequences, a dreamy, hazy Depp (played by Andreas Herder) is seen in costumes from Don Juan de Marco and his other films. Meanwhile, the talk among Fili's friends is of boys and sex. When Fili discovers that Johnny is only interested in girls with some experience, she is in a hurry to lose her virginity -- but with whom? Trying to find the right guy for her initiation turns out to be a bit more complicated than Fili imagined; the fellow she picks is twentysomething Ike (Benno Furmann), who already has a girlfriend and isn't too interested in Fili.

The 36-year-old Walther worked as an assistant director before moving on to her own short films (Birthday Blues) and commercials (Paare). Although Johnny Depp does not appear in The First Time, Walther's feature is interlinked directly with Depp's role in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1994), as she explained: "The story about a girl facing her first time in life having sex with a man interested me because it involves prejudices, myths, fairytales. I interviewed hundreds of girls about their first time, trying to find out if there was a common bond and to make sure that my own experiences had not just been 'decorated' by smooth memory...[In] What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, Johnny Depp played the leading role -- a shy, very sensitive character, full of responsibility for his family. I was spellbound. I went out of that theater having the vision of that film I was going to make directly in front of my face. The dream prince Fili was supposed to talk to could not be anybody else but Johnny Depp." Winner of the "Up and Coming Directors" Prize at the 1997 Studio Hamburg Nachwuchspreis, The First Time was seen at numerous festivals and series, including the "New Directors/New Films" series held annually at the Museum of Modern Art by MOMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide