Hark Bohm Movies

Werner Herzog returned to dramatic filmmaking for the first time in a decade with this historical drama, based on a true story, about a man who rose to fame and fortune in 1932 as the Nazis rose to power in Germany, only to renounce his career in order to stand beside his people as a symbol of strength and resistance. Zishe (Jouko Ahola) is a Polish Jew, and a blacksmith's son, who lives in a small town in Finland. A giant of a man with remarkable physical strength, Zishe is discovered by Landwehr (Gustav Peter Wohler), a theatrical agent who believes a successful nightclub act can be built around this Polish Adonis. Landwehr brings Zishe to Berlin, where he lands a spot in the revue of a nightclub run by Hanussen (Tim Roth), a stage hypnotist who claims to be a Danish nobleman with psychic gifts. Hanussen is also a confirmed anti-Semite who is in cahoots with many of the leading members of the Nazi Party, who are becoming a political force to be reckoned with. Zishe's act, in which he performs feats of strength while costumed as a Roman soldier, becomes a great success, but when he falls for Marta (Anna Gourari), a pianist at the club, he discovers he has a rival for her affection -- Hanussen, who is her lover but is also physically abusive toward her. One night, while performing for an audience comprised of Hanussen's Nazi friends, Zishe reveals to the crowd that he is actually a Jew. He soon becomes a champion of the Jewish cause and a hero to his fellow Poles, but earns the wrath of Hanussen and his comrades in the process. As he has often done in the past, Werner Herzog aimed for realism in his casting for Invincible; Jouko Ahola, who plays the Polish strongman, is actually a champion weightlifter from Poland, while Anna Gourari is known to music aficionados as a gifted concert pianist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Two terminal patients leave their hospital beds for the open highway in this German road movie, a popular success in Germany. When cancer victim Rudi (Jan Josef Liefers) meets Martin (Til Schweiger), who has a brain tumor, they knock back tequila one night and decide to head north to experience life at the seashore, something Rudi has hoped to do his entire life. However, the car they've stolen belongs to two thieves and contains a million marks. Soon they're being pursued by both thugs and cops. The film's soundtrack includes Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". Shown at the 1997 London and AFI/Los Angeles film festivals. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

An unpredictable black comedy with an epic scope, Emir Kusturica's highly acclaimed Underground takes a look at the modern history of Yugoslavia through the often absurd misadventures of two friends over several decades. The film begins in Belgrade in 1941, establishing the friendship between the gregarious Blacky and the more intellectual Marko during a drunken, late-night musical procession that establishes the riotous tone to follow. Fellow members of the Communist Party, the friends also share an involvement in shady business activities and an attraction for a beautiful actress. Soon, the chaos of World War II forces them to take refuge in an underground shelter with a variety of other townspeople. Years pass and the war ends, but Marko and the actress trick the others into believing that the war is still going on. Kusturica turns this inherently absurd premise into a vibrant portrait of the contradictory, foolish nature of war. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the film received great acclaim on the festival circuit but had a hard time securing a release in the United States. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Quite a few years ago, Isaak Kohler (Maximillian Schell) cooly walked up to a man everyone assumed was his friend and shot him dead. This took place in front of dozens of witnesses in a busy restaurant, and there was no question about his guilt. What he never revealed was his motive. He has been in prison serving a twenty year sentence ever since. Perhaps in order to ease his daughter's pain about the incident, he has hired a legal representative to arrange for him to receive a retrial. He is still unforthcoming about his reasons for committing the crime, and invites the struggling lawyer to make something up. This crime and courtroom drama is based on a novel by Friedrich Durrenmatt, whose works are highly respected within the German-speaking intellectual community but whose appeal has proved difficult to translate. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this slapstick satire, Fritz is a life-long forger of Nazi memorabilia. He got his start as a boy, selling items of clothing as something Hitler wore. His current income-generating scam is to sell "original" portraits by Hitler of his mistress Eva Braun to connoisseurs of Nazi art. He runs into an ambitious journalist who works for a tabloid-style magazine (a thinly disguised "Der Stern"), and the two of them concoct a scam which will garner headlines for the journalist and plenty of cash for the forger. With some care, Fritz creates "Hitler's Diaries," and his creations become a household word before the scam is uncovered. Film buffs may recognize the title of this film as a term Charlie Chaplin used in The Great Dictator to refer to Hitler. This satire hews pretty closely to the actual news story it is based on, but the movie plays it strictly for laughs, a tactic which won great popularity for it in Germany. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Hanna Frey is the director of a mental institution, and so much of her time is spent with the seriously deranged residents of that institution that she begins to question her own sanity. She has tried to live an orderly, buttoned-down life. One of the inmates there forms a relationship with her with permits him to teach her how to experience joy again. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Konig is a very minor cog in a huge piece of legal machinery, a low-level state prosecutor. He would like to be a bigger cog, but when he gets involved investigating a routine bankruptcy case which turns out to implicate governmental higher-ups, he opts for something resembling professional integrity over what he knows the government would prefer and effectively kisses his career goodbye. This film marks the directing debut of the well-known character actor Hark Bohm, who also stars. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The unfortunate Traugot (Lou Castel) suddenly finds himself sandwiched between his former lover Freya (director Helke Sander) and his new love Irmtraut (Rebecca Pauly), both women are good friends -- or were. Traugot waffles between the two women and ultimately, seems to want both, why not. Freya vacillates between exasperation, a still-burning love for the waffler, anger against him, and the desire just to leave it all behind. As the story unfolds, she takes action while under the influence of her runaway emotions, and perhaps that is the catalyst that finally shakes up Traugot and forces him to make up his mind about his potentially monogamous future. As in previous films by director Helke Sander, women's issues are subtly raised and handled appropriately, in an engaging and relevant story told with wit and a visually sensitive camera. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Part of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Entire History of the German Federal Republic trilogy, Lola stars Barbara Sukowa in the title role, a seductive cabaret singer and dancer in the 1950s who is romantically involved with Von Bohm (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a straight-as-an-arrow building inspector. Recently appointed Building Commissioner, Von Bohm is committed to eradicating corruption. Consequently, he's given quite a shock when he is called into inspect the brothel where Lola works and discovers her dancing there. With that, Von Bohm is left to question whether he is more loyal to the woman he loves so passionately or the career he believes in so strongly. The other entries in the trilogy are Veronika Voss and The Marriage of Maria Braun. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

This low-budget, thought-provoking drama uses both laughter and a slowly dawning symbolism to nudge social and political issues to the forefront. Christopher and Indian (director Hark Bohm's two adopted sons, Uwe Bohm and Dschingis Bowakow, of Mongolian descent) are both living on the fringes of society. Christopher is an angry young man who vents his frustrations by illegally killing deer and then selling the meat. Indian is the opposite, he would rather preserve life and nature and so he stays away from society. Both are after a mysterious elk that begins to move closer and closer to civilization. As the animal continues his journey, hunters stalk him and they ultimately send Chris into the hospital with a gunshot wound. Later Chris and Indian join forces when they encounter some aggressive born-again Christians. The scope of social commentary widens when a group of leftists, environmental pollution, and trigger-happy police are thrown into the mix. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Several hilarious scenes are interspersed throughout this comedy featuring director and singer Udo Lindenberg as a pop singer who is kidnapped by a government agent. The agent hates his music -- he thinks it will lead the nation down the road to depravity. A detective (Lindenberg again) is soon on the case, and before all the low-end bars and clubs in Hamburg can be explored, the kidnapee escapes his captors while being transported over the North Sea in a plane. How this ends up as an accidental oratory to the nation at large is not another story at all -- just a continuation of the saga. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide