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List of films set in Berlin

Berlin is a major center in the European and German film industry. It is home to more than 1000 film and television production companies and 270 movie theaters. Three hundred national and international co-productions are filmed in the region every year. Babelsberg Studios and the production company UFA are located outside Berlin in Potsdam.

The city is also home of the European Film Academy and the German Film Academy, and hosts the annual Berlin International Film Festival which is considered to be the largest publicly attended film festival in the world. This is a list of films whose setting is Berlin.

1920s

1922

1924

  • The Last Laugh (Der Letzte Mann), 1924 – the aging doorman at a Berlin hotel is demoted to washroom attendant but gets the last laugh, by F.W. Murnau.

1925

1926

1927

1928

  • Refuge (Zuflucht), 1928 – a lonely and tired man comes home after several years abroad, lives with a market-woman in Berlin and starts working for the Berlin U-Bahn. Directed by Carl Froelich.

1929

1930s

1930

1931

1932

1933

1936

1937

1938

1940s

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

  • The Buchholz Family (Familie Buchholz), 1944 – based on the novels by Julius Stinde. During the German Empire the resolute mother of a Berlin middle-class family wants to get her two daughters married befitting their social rank, and she writes her first novel about her experiences. Directed by Carl Froelich.
  • Es lebe die Liebe, 1944 – a famous operetta star wants to engage a Spanish dancer for his Apollo Theater in Berlin, but she gets ill for one year. After her mandatory break she comes to Berlin and creeps into his theatre and his life under a different name. Directed by Erich Engel.
  • Marriage of Affection (Neigungsehe), 1944 – following Familie Buchholz, the resolute mother Buchholz tries unsuccessfully to marry her remaining daughter via a marriage advertisement in the newspaper, but the daughter celebrates a secret wedding with a painter on Heligoland island. Directed by Carl Froelich.
  • Philharmoniker, 1944 – in late 1920s Berlin the financial situation of Berlin Philharmonic orchestra is precarious. One of the violinists leaves the orchestra to play in a light music ensemble, but returns after Nazi Machtergreifung. Directed by Paul Verhoeven.
  • Under the Bridges (Unter den Brücken), 1944/45 – two men and a woman shipping on the river Havel shortly before Berlin gets totally destroyed. Directed by Helmut Käutner.

1945

1946

1947

1948

1949

  • The Cuckoos (Die Kuckucks), 1949 – five orphaned siblings in destroyed Berlin cannot find a domicile for longer periods. So they refurbish with high personal contribution a villa in Grunewald district, though the legal position concerning property is not clear. Directed by Hans Deppe.
  • Girls in Gingham (Die Buntkarierten), 1949 – the fate of a typical working-class family in Berlin between 1883 and 1949 facing child labour, trade union engagement, war, depression, unemployment and the rise and fall of Nazism. Directed by Kurt Maetzig.
  • Our Daily Bread (Unser täglich Brot), 1949 – about the difficult life of an extended family in destroyed Berlin in 1946. Directed by Slatan Dudow.
  • Rotation, 1949 – showing the life of a mechanic in Berlin between 1920 and 1945. During the Third Reich, as a member of the Nazi Party, he aids a resistance group in printing anti-war propaganda and is finally turned into the authorities by his own son who is a frenetic member of the Hitler Youth. Directed by Wolfgang Staudte.

1950s

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

  • ', 1958 – a young factory worker in West Berlin is a lady-killer and does not believe in true love until he meets the love of his life during a bet. Directed by Georg Tressler.
  • Fräulein, 1958 – German woman and American officer caught up in the end of and aftermath of World War II in Berlin. Directed by Henry Koster.
  • Iron Gustav (Der eiserne Gustav), 1958 – based on the novel by Hans Fallada and telling the true story of horse-drawn cabman Gustav Hartmann from Wannsee district who drove sensationally to Paris in 1928 to demonstrate against the rise of the motorcar taxicab. Directed by George Hurdalek.
  • My Wife Makes Music (Meine Frau macht Musik), 1958 – a revue singer in East Berlin paused for several years because of her family when she meets an Italian star who brings her back to theatre. But her husband is not amused about her new career. Directed by Hans Heinrich.
  • Nasser Asphalt, 1958 – a young reporter in West Berlin discovers that his employer, a respected and prosperous journalist, invented a sensational story of German soldiers who supposedly survived for six years in a demolished bunker in Poland. Directed by Frank Wisbar.
  • ', 1958 – biography of famous chanson and operetta composer Walter Kollo working at the Berliner Theater and the Admiralspalast. Directed by his son Willi Kollo; grandson and opera tenor René Kollo played his own grandfather.
  • Sun Seekers (Sonnensucher), 1958, released 1972 – after being arrested in a police raid in 1950 Berlin, two young prostitutes are sent to the mines of Wismut Company. There, Germans and Soviets work together to extract Uranium for the use of the Soviet Union. Directed by Konrad Wolf.
  • Tatort Berlin, 1958 – illustrates the advantage for criminals with the still passable inner German border but also the problems with separate police investigations inside Berlin. In the movie a new jurisdiction is seen to help with the resocialisation of former petty criminals into the system of the GDR. Directed by Joachim Kunert.
  • The Young Lions, 1958 – a German ski instructor is hopeful that Adolf Hitler will bring new prosperity to Germany, so when war breaks out he joins the Wehrmacht and travels to Berlin several times. In another story line two soldiers befriend each other during their U.S. Army draft physical examination and attend basic training together. Directed by Edward Dmytryk.

1959

1960s

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970s

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980s

1980

  • Backhouse Bliss (Glück im Hinterhaus), 1980 – a fairly well-off librarian in his mid-forties with two children and a boring marriage in Berlin leaves his family for his intern. But the spark doesn't show up in his day-to-day life. Directed by Herrmann Zschoche.
  • Berlin Alexanderplatz, 1980 – 1920s Berlin, film of the novel written by Alfred Döblin. Made for television film (in 14 episodes) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
  • ', 1980 – love story between an older architect and a young student, set against the backdrop of the housing struggles in West Berlin. Director: Rudolf Thome.
  • Fabian, 1980 – in the late 1920s Berlin a copywriter observes the night life with his friend, gets unemployed during the Great Depression, but meets a new girlfriend. When his friend commits suicide and his girlfriend leaves him for a film career, he loses his livelihood. Based on the novel by Erich Kästner and directed by Wolf Gremm.
  • Put on Ice (Kaltgestellt), 1980 – a teacher in West-Berlin gets neutralized during the time of Anti-Radical Decree and dragnet investigation when he wants to throw light on the death of a spy sent to his school by the Verfassungsschutz. Directed by Bernhard Sinkel.
  • Solo Sunny, 1980 – portraits the life of a girl singing in a band in East Berlin, directed by Konrad Wolf.
  • Ullasa Paravaigal, 1980 – The protagonist visits Berlin and rest of Europe as a part of overseas tour for a change over of his mind due to his tragic past with his friend, who pretends to have mental disorder. The film written by Panchu Arunachalam, produced by S. P. Thamizharasi and directed by C. V. Rajendran.
  • Germany, Pale Mother (Deutschland, bleiche Mutter), 1980 – a mother and her daughter have to survive World War II in Berlin while her husband is fighting in the Wehrmacht. After the war their relationship ist not the same any more. Directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms.

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

  • ' (Der Bruch), 1989 – in 1946 several burglars want to break into the Deutsche Reichsbahn building in Berlin to steal money from the safe. Directed by Frank Beyer.
  • Coming Out, 1989 – deals with the process of the protagonists in East Berlin coming out as gay. Premiered in East Berlin on 9 November 1989, the night the Berlin Wall fell. Directed by Heiner Carow.
  • flüstern & SCHREIEN, 1989 – documentary on parts of the Berlin and East German rock music scene of the late 1980s, from well-established bands like Silly, to alternative rock bands like Feeling B or Chicoree/Die Zöllner. Directed by Dieter Schumann.
  • The Grass Is Greener Everywhere Else (Überall ist es besser, wo wir nicht sind), 1989 – facing the lack of prospects in their hometown Warsaw, two young people dream of living in the United States. To reach their target they do casual and illegal work in Berlin. Directed by Michael Klier.
  • ' (Der Philosoph), 1989 – a philosopher in Berlin almost withdrew from the world to concentrate on his Heraclitus studies, having no relationship for eight years. When he wants a new suit for a lecture about his new book, he meets three sisters who share a house and invite him to move in to stay with them in polygamy. Directed by Rudolf Thome.
  • Spider's Web (Das Spinnennetz), 1989 – based on the 1923 novel by Joseph Roth and focused on a young opportunistic Leutnant who suffered personal and national humiliation during the downfall of the German Empire, and now becomes increasingly active in the right-wing underground of the early 1920s Berlin. Directed by Bernhard Wicki.
  • ', 1989 – three school day friends meet after several years again in Wedding district and talk about their unsuccessful lives including a broken family, homicide and excessive indebtedness. Directed by .

1990s

1990

1991

1992

1993

  • Faraway, So Close! (In weiter Ferne, so nah!), 1993 – sequel to Wings of Desire (1987), angels desire to be human, by Wim Wenders.
  • The Innocent, 1993 – a joint CIA/MI6 operation to build a tunnel under East Berlin during the Cold War. Directed by John Schlesinger.
  • The Ivory Tower (Der Elfenbeinturm), 1993 – M. works as a cook in a trendy Berlin restaurant. To say that his kitchen is busy like hell would be an understatement. Entering into a premature midlife crisis, he decides to turn his life around and write the great novel that he always felt inside him. Director: Matthias Drawe.
  • ' (Prinz in Hölleland), 1993 – a jester is giving a puppet theatre performance about a homosexual prince for the junkies at Kottbusser Tor station. Director: Michael Stock.

1994

1995

  • Aus der Mitte, 1995 – documentary about young people in post-wall Berlin by Peter Zach.
  • ', 1995 – the loss of his car and his selected woman drives a yuppie in Berlin into a little massacre among prostitutes. Directed by Oskar Roehler.
  • The Promise (Das Versprechen), 1995 – two young lovers in Berlin are separated when the Berlin Wall goes up in 1961, and their stories intertwine during the three decades to German reunification. Directed by Margarethe von Trotta.
  • Silent Night (Stille Nacht – Ein Fest der Liebe), 1995 – sensing their relationship is crumbling, a policeman avoids celebrating Christmas with his girlfriend and travels to Paris. Alone in their Berlin flat, she decides to drop her second lover, but her boyfriend is ringing up her constantly from Paris. Directed by Dani Levy.
  • A Trick of Light (Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky), 1995 – shows the birth of cinema in Berlin where Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil built a projector. Directed by Wim Wenders.

1996

1997

1998

  • Angel Express, 1998 – about people restlessly seeking for the ultimate experience in late nineties Berlin. Directed by .
  • ', 1998 – documentary containing many personal recollections and eyewitness accounts of the massive humanitarian, military, and political effort known as the Berlin Airlift. Directed by Robert Kirk.
  • Break Even (Plus-minus null), 1998 – a lonely building worker in Berlin falls in love with a Bosnian prostitute and she asks him to marry her for the residence authorisation. Directed by Eoin Moore.
  • The Final Game (Das Finale), 1998 – terrorists cause a mass panic during the final of the DFB Cup at Berlin Olympic Stadium. Directed by Sigi Rothemund.
  • A Letter Without Words, 1998 – reconstructing the life of a wealthy, Jewish amateur filmmaker in Berlin during the 1920s and early 1930s on the basis of authentic filmic material presented by her granddaughter. Directed by Lisa Lewenz.
  • Live Shot (Gehetzt – Der Tod im Sucher), 1998 – a TV reporter and his trainee in Berlin are shooting for scandalous reports. When they investigate the kidnapping of a publisher's stepdaughter, they get hunted themselves. Directed by Joe Coppoletta.
  • Memory of Berlin, 1998 – autobiographical essay film by John Burgan.
  • Run Lola Run (Lola rennt), 1998 – drama with three alternate realities in post-reunification Berlin by Tom Tykwer.
  • ' (Solo für Klarinette), 1998 – in a Berlin apartment house a man is found ruffianly murdered with a clarinet. A burnt out police inspector follows a suspicious but mysterious woman and falls for her. Directed by Nico Hofmann.

1999

2000s

2000

2001

  • ', 2001 – two days in the life of several young visitors of Berlin's Love Parade. The movie uses scenes from the 2000 electronic dance music festival and parade around Victory Column and Straße des 17. Juni. Directed by Roman Kuhn.
  • Berlin Babylon, 2001 – documentary film on the reconstruction projects after the fall of the Wall, directed by Hubertus Siegert.
  • Berlin Is in Germany, 2001 – drama about an East German political prisoner released from jail in post-unification Germany and now must come to terms with the geographic, political, and cultural displacements of Berlin in the 1990s. A film by Hannes Stöhr.
  • Conspiracy, 2001 – film directed by Frank Pierson, made for HBO (television) USA, about the Wannsee Conference plan to exterminate the Jews during WWII.
  • The Days Between (In den Tag hinein), 2001 – a 22-year-old waitress lives with her brother and his family, and with her spontaneous character she is the direct opposite to her disciplined boyfriend. When she meets a Japanese student, she drifts with him through Berlin. Directed by Maria Speth.
  • Emil and the Detectives (Emil und die Detektive), 2001 – adventure film directed by Franziska Buch, based on the novel Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner.
  • Female 2 Seeks Happy End (Frau2 sucht HappyEnd), 2001 – a doleful radio personality and one of his female listeners meet in a chat room and discuss their former, painful relationships. In autumnal Berlin they learn to relinquish and to establish new ties. Directed by Edward Berger.
  • ' (Der schöne Tag), 2001 – about a girl in Berlin who wants to become an actress and makes her living by dubbing movies. By Thomas Arslan.
  • ', 2001 – a divorced and lonely woman leads a corner shop in Berlin-Mitte where customers can talk about their problems. Directed by Michael Klier.
  • Invincible (Unbesiegbar), 2001 – true story of a Jewish strongman in 1932 Berlin by Werner Herzog.
  • Julietta (Julietta – Es ist nicht wie du denkst), 2001 – an 18-year-old high-school graduate from Stuttgart gets unconscious at Love Parade Berlin. A DJ pulls her out of a fountain and rapes her. When she gets pregnant, she does not know what her saviour did to her. Directed by .
  • ' (Mondscheintarif), 2001 – an emancipated woman in her twenties living in Berlin is waiting wishfully for a one-night stand lover to call her again and experiences a rising depression. Directed by .
  • My Sweet Home, 2001 – an American has persuaded his German girlfriend to marry him, after just one month of knowing each other. Now they celebrate their Polterabend with various immigrants in a Berlin bar. Directed by Filippos Tsitos.
  • ' (Wie Feuer und Flamme), 2001 – in 1982 a 17-year-old girl from West Berlin travels to East Berlin to her grandmother's funeral and falls in love with the leader of a punk clique, which evokes severe problems. Director: .
  • ' (Mein langsames Leben), 2001 – the movie follows the slow-going life of a young woman in Berlin during summer. Directed by Angela Schanelec.
  • Planet Alex, 2001 – episodic movie filmed at Alexanderplatz where the stories of several characters intertwine within a period of 24 hours. Directed by Uli M Schueppel.
  • ', 2001 – based on the true story of brothers Franz and Erich Sass from Moabit district, who became the most famous and innovative bank robbers during 1920s Berlin. Directed by .
  • Taking Sides (Der Fall Furtwängler), 2001 – conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler stays in Nazi Germany rather than flee, and experiences consequences after the war. Film by István Szabó.
  • The Tunnel (Der Tunnel), 2001 – dramatization of a collaborative tunnel under the wall in the 1950s. Film by Roland Suso Richter.
  • What to Do in Case of Fire? (Was tun, wenn's brennt?), 2001 – police hunt down radicals whose bomb goes off 12 years late. Film by Gregor Schnitzler.
  • Der Zimmerspringbrunnen, 2001 – after years of unemployment and uselessness a man in East Berlin creates a very successful Ostalgie item – a tabletop fountain consisting of a Fernsehturm Berlin model on a plate in the form of the GDR map. Directed by Peter Timm.

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010s

2010

2011

2012

  • ', 2012 – documentary following the creators of famous techno club "Bar 25". Directed by Britta Mischer and .
  • Berlin Dance Battle, 2012 – a young street dancer comes to Berlin to take part at an underground dance battle. But he has to find a group first and he has to learn much. Directed by Robert Franke.
  • ', 2012 – five young people live with relish a new excessive and bohemian life in Berlin. Directed by Klaus Lemke.
  • Berliner Tagebuch, 2012 – immigrants and artists from several countries living in Berlin are asked why the metropolis became a new home and a source of inspiration for them. Directed by Rosemarie Blank.
  • ' (Glück), 2012 – a female refugee from Eastern Europe, working as a prostitute, and a homeless punk with his dog form a relationship in Berlin. Directed by Doris Dörrie.
  • Cause I Have the Looks (Weil ich schöner bin), 2012 – together with her mother, a Colombian teenager lives illegally in Berlin and attends school regularly. When they get in contact with the police they have to hide and need the help of friends. Directed by .
  • A Coffee in Berlin (Oh Boy!), 2012 – portrait of a young man who drops out of university and ends up wandering the streets of Berlin. Directed by Jan Ole Gerster.
  • ' (Puppe, Icke & der Dicke), 2012 – a courier returns from Paris to Berlin and gives two hitchhikers a ride. One of them is a fat dumb man, the other is a blind French girl searching for the father of her unborn baby in Berlin. Directed by .
  • ' (Staub auf unseren Herzen), 2012 – a young and unsuccessful actress in Berlin fights to cut the cord from her overbearing mother. Directed by .
  • Fuck for Forest, 2012 – the documentary follows Fuck for Forest, a non-profit environmental organization in Berlin, which raises money for rescuing the world's rainforests by producing pornographic material or having sex in public. Directed by Michal Marczak.
  • ' (Kaddisch für einen Freund), 2012 – a Jewish senior and a Lebanese boy in Kreuzberg district are enemies. But when they get in danger of losing their homes they start to work together. Directed by .
  • Move (3 Zimmer/Küche/Bad), 2012 – eight friends in Berlin support each other to relocate and to find new partners. Directed by Dietrich Brüggemann.
  • Our Little Differences (Die feinen Unterschiede), 2012 – a successful doctor for artificial insemination in Berlin has to help his Bulgarian cleaning lady to release her grown-up daughter. Directed by Sylvie Michel.
  • ' (Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein), 2012 – the female owner of a delicatessen shop in Kreuzberg is difficult, superstitious, pessimistic and quarreling with her childhood. But when she meets a photographer with a touchy dog, her life changes. Based upon the book from Paul Watzlawick and directed by Sherry Hormann.
  • Russian Disco (Russendisko), 2012 – based on the book by Wladimir Kaminer and telling the story of three young Jewish Russians who come to Berlin in 1990 seeking for work, love and a new perspective. Directed by Oliver Ziegenbalg.
  • St George's Day, 2012 – two elderly and famous British Cousin gangsters have angered a Russian competitor. To reconcile him and to pay their debts they undertake an audacious diamond heist in Berlin. Directed by Frank Harper.
  • ', 2012 – a Bavarian chauffeur in Berlin is engaged by a Swiss investor to become editor-in-chief of a new online tabloid newspaper on politicians in the capital city. Directed by Helmut Dietl.

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

  • Babylon Berlin, 2017 – crime-drama television series that takes place in 1929 Berlin during the Weimar Republic. It follows a police inspector on who is on a secret mission to dismantle an extortion ring, and a young stenotypist who is aspiring to work as a police inspector. Co-directed by Tom Tykwer, Hendrik Handloegten, and Achim von Borries.
  • Charité, TV series that takes place in 1888/1889 in Berlin at Charité and between 1943 and 1945 in Berlin at Charité
  • Atomic Blonde
  • ' (Kundschafter des Friedens), 2017 - four former agents of the Stasi from Berlin are hired by the BND to rescue the kidnapped president of a fictional former Soviet Republic. Directed by Robert Thalheim.

2018

2020s

2020

HAGER (2022) A police officer sets out to find a drug that gives its users Visions of hell. Directed by Kevin Kopacka

2022

  • The Contractor, 2022 – An ex-marine working as a private black ops contractor is betrayed by his employers.
  • The Forger (Der Passfälscher), 2022 – the true story of Cioma Schönhaus, a young Jewish man, who escaped the Gestapo and saves lives during the Nazi era in Berlin thanks to his ability to forge passports. Directed by Maggie Peren.

See also

References