Burghart Klaußner Movies

Three young radicals face off against an older man who left behind his ideals years ago in this drama from Austria. Jan (Daniel Brühl) and Peter (Stipe Erceg) are a pair of leftist political activists who have their own ideas of how to strike out in the name of economic justice. Jan and Peter like to break into the homes of the rich, re-arrange their belongings, and leave behind a note crediting "the Edukators" with the invasion, satisfied that their efforts will teach their victims a lesson about the futility of wealth. Peter's girlfriend, Jule (Julia Jentsch), who has found herself homeless and deeply in debt after she ran into a Mercedes Benz in a car accident, moves in with the two friends and starts joining them on their periodic missions. Jule convinces Peter and Jan that they should hit the home of Hardenberg (Burghart Klaussner), the businessman whose Mercedes caused her so much trouble. They agree, but when Jule makes the mistake of leaving behind her cell phone, they're forced to return, only to discover Hardenberg at home and waiting for them. Not certain what to do, Jan, Peter, and Jule abduct Hardenberg and take him to a cabin in the woods while they plan their next move. However, their attempts to enlighten Hardenberg fall on deaf ears; they discover that the businessman was a leftist activist himself in his college days and, several decades on, looks upon his radical past as the folly of youth. Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei (aka The Edukators) was screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A lonely man opens his heart to a troubled child with unfortunate results in this drama. Herbert (Burghart Klaussner) is a low-level German bureaucrat who works at the nation's embassy in Tbilisi, a city in the Republic of Georgia. Herbert is a loner with few friends, and the only local person he knows well is a co-worker (Marika Giorgobiani) who has been having an on-and-off affair with him, even though she's married. One day, Herbert is in the city market when a scruffy twelve-year-old girl (Lika Martinova) tries to steal his wallet; despite his initial anger, Herbert takes pity on the girl, and prevents her from being arrested. When Herbert learns the girl has no place to call home, he lets her stay at his flat for the night. While Herbert doesn't speak Georgian well and the girl doesn't speak German at all, the two strike up a wary friendship, and he develops a paternal affection towards the girl. But while Herbert and the girl brighten one another's lives, his lover is deeply disturbed when she discovers the girl is now living with him, and begins circulating a rumor that he's having inappropriate relations with the youngster. Der Mann von der Botschaft (aka The Man From The Embassy) received its North American premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes star in The Hours director Stephen Daldry's haunting period drama concerning the relationship between a 15-year-old German boy and a mysterious woman twice his age, and the way that it grows doubly complex when the man reencounters the woman years later and discovers a shocking truth about her past. Based on author Bernhard Schlink's best-selling novel of the same name, the film opens on the character of Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) in middle age -- cold, remote, and emotionally withdrawn. It then moves back in time to 1950s Berlin, where ailing teenager Michael (now played by David Kross) has fallen ill with fever, and is discovered in the street by Hanna, a woman in her thirties. After Michael recovers, the two immediately lapse into a torrid affair and Michael falls prey to the confusion of his own burgeoning sexuality. Their liaisons are often marked by Hanna's request that Michael read to her (hence the title). Later, when Michael returns to Hanna's flat and finds it deserted, her absence becomes an emotional blow for which he is completely unprepared, and indeed, scarred for life. The film then moves forward in time by eight years. Michael -- now a law student -- walks into a courtroom and comes across Hanna, one of a series of Nazi prison guards being tried for murderous war crimes during World War II. As he watches her on the witness stand, memories of their past experiences together bring him to the point of realization concerning a startling, long-buried truth about Hanna -- and Michael knows that if he divulges this information, it could modify the prison sentence handed out and dramatically alter her fate. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide