Backbeat

Sweet and Lowdown

1999

In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute woman.

Royal Children

2003

In order not to end up as a lock keeper in the country like his father, 18-year-old Abel wants to go to the USA to become a stuntman. Girlfriend Merle is supposed to come along, but then finds out that she is pregnant.

Tattoo

2002

Marc Schrader, a rookie cop caught red-handed with drugs in a police raid of an illegal rave, joins a homicide investigation conducted by Chief Inspector Minks. The victim is a naked young woman with the skin stripped off her back, killed as she staggered into traffic. As Schrader and Minks investigate the murder, the case is complicated by a finger found in the stomach of the victim. Forensic examination proves the finger belongs to Nobert Günzel, who was previously convicted of rape and assault. The police raid Günzel’s residence, and discover a blood-stained table with restraints and bits of human flesh in his basement. They also find video equipment and preserved, tattooed skin from the victim’s back. Soon, they found dead bodies buried in the garden. Günzel then goes missing.

Zeit der Fische

2007

Chiko

2008

This is the story of Isa, who grows up in a Hamburg suburb. It might be one of the world's richest cities but every beast has its belly and here, in the very underbelly, Chiko lives in a world where violence, staking and keeping a claim, and drug taking are the norm. Where down is not an option, Chiko is determined to rise to the top, whatever and whomever it costs.

Edison

2005

In the troubled city of Edison, a young journalist, his jaded editor, and an honest investigator from the district attorney's office join forces to gather evidence against corrupt members of an elite police unit.

Sliding Doors

1998

London publicist Helen, effortlessly slides between parallel storylines that show what happens when she does or does not catch a train back to her apartment. Love. Romantic entanglements. Deception. Trust. Friendship. Comedy. All come into focus as the two stories shift back and forth, overlap and surprisingly converge.

Folgeschäden

2004

The film tells the story of a German woman's marriage to an Algerian virologist in Hamburg. When the man comes under suspicion of having contact with Islamist terrorist circles, mistrust grows between the previously happy spouses like a creeping poison...

The Angels of the Street

1969

Angels of the Street or The Angel of St. Pauli is a 1969 West German crime film directed by Jürgen Roland and starring Horst Frank, Herbert Fux and Werner Pochath. It is set in the St. Pauli red light district of the port of Hamburg.

Der Pfarrer von St. Pauli

1970

A former U-boat commander becomes a pastor to ease the suffering of young Hamburg women in trouble.

Between Hamburg and Haiti

1940

A successful German overseas merchant with a plantation in Haiti is looking for a suitable wife in Hamburg and comes across a barmaid from the Reeperbahn with an illegitimate child. He wants to marry her, but she does not follow him out of nobility. In search of her, he finds her in Mexico as the secretary of his former lover, a writer.

Gigantic

1999

The Hamburg friends Walter, Ricco and Floyd take each day as it comes between the estates of tower blocks and fast food restaurants. All three are in their early twenties and are dreaming of another life when Floyd suddenly takes a job on a freighter going to Singapore.

Quality Time

2017

Five thirty-something men in as many separate segments struggle to grapple with the relentless absurdity of their respective existences.

The Aftermath

2019

In the aftermath of World War II, a British colonel and his wife are assigned to live in Hamburg during the post-war reconstruction, but tensions arise with the German widower who lives with them.

Walk the Line

2005

A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.