Ronald Kukulies

After her release from prison Alex, who has lost her faith in love, tries to reclaim her psychic balance through a retreat into loneliness. A man and a child interrupt her plan and force her to reengage. Alex dares to emerge from her shell and learns again how thin the ice is and how fragile happiness is, small though it may be.

On a Friday afternoon, there was an unexpected knock on the door of the staff room of a city high school. An ambitious father is willing to go to extremes to get his son admitted to high school. The six teachers who are still at school so shortly before the start of the weekend now have to find out the hard way. After some unexpected twists and embarrassing revelations, true abysses open up for everyone involved...

In an attempt to flee Nazi-occupied France, Georg assumes the identity of a dead author but soon finds himself stuck in Marseilles, where he falls in love with Maria, a young woman searching for her missing husband.

Lily wants to be run a brothel. But corrupt cops threaten her with violence. Lily needs help.

"Committed, citizen-oriented, competent" - Mayor Johannes Größt wants to win over voters with this slogan. But his poll ratings are poor. Größt is stressed, overworked and neglecting his wife Erika. Then disaster strikes: Größt has a car accident and survives seriously injured. While the mayor lies in hospital, his party colleagues around parliamentary group leader Dr. Harry Hindenach continue the election campaign. Because Größt is to remain the leading candidate. Meanwhile, Erika hopes that her husband will give up his job and finally devote more time to their married life.

A husband and wife struggle with their consciences after they try to conceal a terrible crime committed by their teenage daughter.

Emma Freese is desperate when her husband Alfred falls ill at the Howaldtswerke in Kiel. How is the family supposed to get by without their wages? The war has scarred this generation, but now things are supposed to be looking up. The workers want their fair share and are fighting for an income that also gives them room to live. In October 1956, 34,000 metalworkers in the shipyards and factories of Schleswig-Holstein walk off the job to fight for justice and their dignity. This strike is still regarded as the toughest and longest in Germany. Employers and politicians stand in the strikers' way.

In the young Federal Republic of Germany, which in the late 1950s in politics and justice is still interspersed with only superficially purified Nazi cliques, leads the Hessian Attorney General Fritz Bauer a lonely fight against the coverup of Nazi crimes and the restorative policy of the government Adenauer - he is firmly convinced that only in this way can the young democracy be consolidated. Not only his attitude, but also his temperament make Bauer vulnerable, again and again resistance forms from politics, intelligence services and the judiciary against the lone fighter.

Peter Weiss’ monumental 1965 stage play, among the greatest artworks on the Holocaust, condenses the testimonies of witnesses and the accused during the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials of 1963-1965. This ultra-faithful film adaptation builds, across four hours, in its intensity and graphically described detail.

Young detective Ria Larsen is faced with the question of how serial killer Wernicke, who is imprisoned in a psychiatric ward, instructs brutal murders on the Husum coast. The bodies in the dunes point to a copy killer. During the investigation, Ria suddenly finds herself in a race against time and in a dangerous mind game with a ritual killer who has already destroyed the life of her predecessor.

Master hairdresser Karl Holzer has his own hairdressing salon, has been happily married to his wife Elsa for many years and his beloved granddaughter Nora also contributes to his idyllic life in a small German town. However, when his son Thomas, Nora's father, is suspected of having been involved in serious crimes with a right-wing terrorist background with his recently deceased childhood friend, Karl begins to doubt his ability as head of the family. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Anyá's life is also shaken: Anya's parents' right to stay has expired after 17 years and the family is to be sent back to Kosovo. Anyá is the only member of her family to manage to escape. While trying to get in touch with her parents, the girl meets Karl Holzer, who soon has a terrible suspicion...

The story of Esther (40) and her ex-husband Frank (42). Their nine-year-old son Hannes is declared brain dead after a soccer accident. From one second to the next, the parents lose their child. Nothing could have prepared them for this moment. They now have to watch helplessly and face fate. At the clinic, they meet a Turkish family in the same situation. Together, the separated couple face the most difficult decision of their lives. When will we finally switch off the devices? Will we release the organs for donation?

After the suicide of her husband and practice partner Rainer, psychologist Greta Chameni's life is turned upside down. She feels guilty about Rainer's death. And she is completely undecided about how to deal with her husband's patients.

Katharina Bruckner, 50, has to deal with many serious cases in the youth welfare office. Even at home she is under stress: Her husband, a surgeon, she sees arm in arm with a younger. And her daughter, who has to go to Marrakech for work, quickly incurs her grandson. In this situation, school psychologist Schubert asks her for help: The city-renowned architect Bremer has appeared with him with her seven-year-old son because of its over-activity in school. The boy looks scared, claims that the Bremer is not his mother, suddenly seems to have disappeared.

Just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the birthday celebrations of an East German family turn into a tragicomical moment of political and personal breakdown.

Anja Altmann disappears after a birthday party. When the police ask husband Thomas about her , family attorney and friend Lavinia Bertok manage to dispel any suspicions about him. But soon Thomas is arrested. While the Altmann family start hurling accusations and recriminations at each other, Anja allegedly surfaces in Spain, raising a strange suspicion against Lavinia.

After losing his job as a marketing officer, Walter, a workaholic in his forties, finds himself in an existential crisis and takes on the identity of another man.

Nick Neufeld was abused by some classmates, and a judge sentences the main offender to 120 hours of gardening. All good? No: mother Beate sees that Nick is skipping school out of fear and withdrawing more and more. She wants the perpetrators to be expelled from school and the teachers to be held accountable. But for others, the case has long since been closed...

In an attempt to flee Nazi-occupied France, Georg assumes the identity of a dead author but soon finds himself stuck in Marseilles, where he falls in love with Maria, a young woman searching for her missing husband.

Peter (39) has slipped into the role of the houseman over the years, because his wife Elisabeth (42) is traveling a lot for work and he takes care of the children Robby (15) and Laura (8). Peter learns that Elisabeth wants to go to Africa with her family. Due to the death of his mother Hedi, the soul situation Peters gets more and more out of balance. When he also learns that Elisabeth has already given her boss half a promise to go to Africa for two years, Peter feels ignored and ignored. It begins a blessing of blame, in which he gets into an emotional dead end.

After the second world war two brothers, Theo and Karl Albrecht take over their mother's company and change it into a highly profitable ALDI self service basic groceries store expanding over many countries.

Early in the morning, Tom Wesnik is driving home from a party with his wife Esther. At the entrance to their home village of Sarezin, they are confronted by an unsettling sight: A police roadblock blocks their way, patrol cars and fire engines line the main road, three coffins are being carried out of a house. Photojournalist Tom immediately senses a story and heads to the scene with his camera.

Naomi, an Israeli Mossad agent, is sent to Germany to protect Mona, a Lebanese informant recovering from plastic surgery to assume her new identity. Together for two weeks in a quiet apartment in Hamburg, the relationship that develops between the two women is soon exposed to the threat of terror that is engulfing the world today. In this game of deception, beliefs are questioned, choices are made, and their fate takes a surprising turn.

The Spaetkauf (Late Night Shop) has been at the heart of Berlin Prenzlauer Berg and an integral part of people's daily lives for over 13 years. A place to meet and hang out, local bar, grapevine, a place to buy anything you might need out of hours. A place to forget your worries. Where there is always time for the customer. Every night and all day Sunday. With reggae, dub & hip hop playing out of the speakers onto the street. Tommy, the Englishman, has worked in the Spaetkauf for years, selling the wares and dealing with arguing couples, lost tourists, drunken locals, late night discussions, participating in heated basketball games, visiting late night clubs and suffering hangovers. A kaleidoscope of people offering glimpses into their lives, hopes and thoughts, weaving a tapestry of local life.

After a 15-year absence, a 30-year-old architect returns to his grandmother's village to fulfill her wish for an urn burial.

The story follows a number of protagonists who are hiding from truths or escaping them, lying to each other in a circle of deceit. Meanwhile therapy patients offer glimpses of truth that underscore the increasing web of lies whose consequences will eventually engulf the protagonists and force them into confronting their truths. If the story has a message it is: you can't keep a lie a secret forever.

Martin Kühn has work to do - and a lot of it. As an inspector, dealing with murders and kidnappings is his bread and butter, but when these crimes happen almost on his doorstep, even the experienced police officer is not left cold.

Andreas Dresen's adaptation of Clemens Meyer's novel about a group of East German friends right after the fall of the Wall.

Two families attempt a daredevil plan to escape the GDR with a homemade hot air balloon, but it crashes just before the border. The Stasi finds traces of this attempt to escape and immediately starts investigations, while the two families are forced to build a new escape balloon. With each passing day the Stasi is closer on their heels – a nerve-wracking race against time begins.

This is the story of an ambitious man who aims high and is determined to make a lot of money with the help of his, well, creative understanding of art. This sketchy satire deals with the rise and fall of art consultant Helge Achenbach from Düsseldorf, who referred to his counterfeit accounts as collages in court.

One night at a German pub can bring you philosophic arguments about being a machine, the difference of Indian and African elephants and gambling addiction.

Germany in the early 19th century. "Die Vermessung der Welt" follows the two brilliant and eccentric scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss on their life paths.

1779. Eight-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven, called "Louis", is already known as a musical prodigy. He learns to go his own way - much to the dismay of the people around him. Some years later, he meets Mozart during times of political upheaval. The unconventional genius and French Revolution are sparking a fire in Louis' heart; he doesn't want to serve a master - only the arts. Facing times of family tragedies and unrequited love, he almost gives up. However, Louis makes it to Vienna to study under Haydn in 1792, and the rest is history. Who was this man, whose music has since touched countless hearts and minds? At the end of his life, the master is isolated by loss of loved ones and hearing. Surely though, he was way ahead of his times.

The wife of the Düsseldorf Police Council Rainer Bachmann is kidnapped. While trying to save his mother Monika, the adult son is shot dead. His widow Nicola desperately seeks support.

Frank, a man without a criminal record, attacks a money transporter and then turns himself in to the police. His behavior is a mystery. In prison he meets the unscrupulous and suspicious Arab Fuad, who is protected by his clan. To get closer to Fuad, Frank intervenes in the drug business within the walls and gets caught between the two rival groups of German and Arab inmates. It is only the prison guard Susanna with whom Frank will be able to build a relationship of trust, not knowing that she is part of Fuad’s business and has a sexual relationship with him. However, they come emotionally close. What only Frank knows is that his wife and his daughter died in a car accident. Fuad was the hit-and-run driver that remained unpunished. Frank seeks revenge.

The undercover investigator Robert is supposed to win the trust of a criminal through a fictitious relationship with Leni. However, the feelings are not just a game. It is the spied criminal, of all people, who makes him confront his contradictory feelings…

Georg Sahl, one of the last major newspaper publishers with liberal-conservative quality standards, is offered the position of Federal President by the Mayor of Frankfurt. His wife Franziska, a successful divorce lawyer, is initially not very happy about the fact that she will soon only be representing him as "First Lady". When Georg's young lover Nina is seriously injured after an argument, it is not only his career that is in danger...

While two young teachers are spending their summer holiday on the Mediterranean coast they are overwhelmed by a sudden attack. Back home, they try to deal with the trauma in their own ways until a surprising encounter changes everything.

Andi's life is a constant battle for his home, his three children and the woman he still loves. He only has two weeks to pay her back the borrowed 5,000 EUR. When he loses his job, an amateur boxing tournament looks like the only solution.

Ella Talbach lives a settled, middle-class life alongside her husband Manfred, who is currently campaigning for re-election as mayor. On her 60th birthday, her granddaughter Lili arranges a surprise visit from the Viennese musician Franz, of whom she only knows that he recorded a tango record with Ella 40 years ago. Lili has no idea that Franz was Ella's great love. Disappointed by a breach of trust, she had left him with a heavy heart. At the birthday party, Ella and Franz dance together - and their touch causes old feelings to flare up. Without further ado, she travels to Vienna to see Franz. The old dream of touring South America together suddenly seems close at hand. But Ella wants to support her husband in the election campaign and asks Franz to postpone the trip...

The life of the Cologne architect Mads is as empty as his apartment. Since the death of his beloved wife, the 44-year-old has only been able to function in a reduced daily routine. A chance reunion with his best friend from his youth changes everything. The cheerful single woman René moves in with him with her children - nine-year-old Lola and six-year-old Oscar. Finally, life is coming back into his life! Although René is not even considering the good-looking, successful guy as a new partner, Mads is growing into the unfamiliar role of the perfect patchwork dad. Friends without benefits, but with children - it works amazingly perfectly! When Mads becomes interested in the fascinating Eva, who is just as cautious as he is, an unwanted complication comes into the lightness of being: René receives a medical diagnosis that requires far-reaching decisions. Although he has other plans, Mads knows what he has to do.

Five old friends have to prove themselves one last time. 30 years after the hopeful young band Bochums Steine have separated after a disastrous live performance, fatally ill Rainer tries to re-activate his old cronies

When a folk high school is turned into an internment camp for German refugees, the headmaster couple Jakob and Lis and their children are thrust into an impossible situation. Should the family help the refugees — or stand firm in the Danish resistance against the Germans?