Actor Bruno Ganz (1941)

A Hidden Life (2019) is an epic historical drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick. Born and raised in the small village of St. Radegund, Austrian peasant farmer Franz Jägerstätter is tending to his land when war breaks out. Alongside his wife Franziska, affectionately known as Fani, they are valued members of their close-knit rural community, living a humble life with their three daughters. However, Franz is called for basic training in the German army and must leave behind his beloved family for an extended period. When France surrenders and it appears that the war may soon end, he is sent home from ...

The Counselor (2013), directed by Ridley Scott and written by Cormac McCarthy, is a crime thriller film. In Mexico, cocaine is transported in barrels inside a sewage truck across the border to the United States. The drug is then stored at a sewage treatment plant. To purchase an engagement ring for his girlfriend Laura, The Counselor travels to Amsterdam to meet with a diamond dealer. Upon returning to the United States, he attends a party in Texas hosted by drug dealer Reiner and his girlfriend Malkina. During their conversation, The Counselor reveals his involvement in ...

Unknown (2011) is an action-thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. The story follows Martin Harris and his wife Liz as they arrive in Berlin for a biotechnology summit. Upon arriving at their hotel, Harris realizes he has left his briefcase at the airport and hastily takes a taxi to retrieve it. However, the taxi is involved in an accident and ends up in the Spree, knocking Harris unconscious. Thankfully, the driver rescues him but quickly disappears from the scene. After four days in a coma, Harris regains consciousness at a hospital and rushes back to his hotel, only to find Liz with another man claiming to be ...

Francis Ford Coppola wrote, produced, and directed Youth Without Youth (2007), a fantasy drama based on Mircea Eliade’s novella of the same name. The film follows Dominic Matei, a 70-year-old linguistics professor who is still longing for his lost love, Laura. He decides to revisit Bucharest, where they first met in university. Feeling like his quest for the origins of human language has been futile and solitary, Dominic plans to end his life after this final trip. However, as he crosses the street, he suddenly gets struck by lightning but miraculously survives. At ...

Richard Condon’s 1959 novel, The Manchurian Candidate (2004), is a political thriller that tells the story of a prominent U.S. political family and their son’s involvement in a Communist conspiracy. The novel has been adapted into two feature films with the same title, released in 1962 and 2004 respectively. In the story, Major Bennett Marco and his infantry platoon are captured during the Korean War in 1952 by an elite Soviet commando unit. They are eventually brainwashed into believing that Sergeant Raymond Shaw saved their lives in combat, leading to him receiving the Medal of Honor. Years later, Marco, ...

Faraway, So Close! (1993) is a German fantasy film directed by Wim Wenders. It follows the story of Cassiel and Raphaella, two angels who observe the bustling life of reunited Berlin. As divine beings, they have the ability to hear the thoughts of those around them and offer comfort to a dying man. Cassiel has been shadowing his friend Damiel, a former angel who now lives as a human. Damiel runs a pizza parlor named Casa dell’angelo (Angel’s House) and is married to Marion, a trapeze artist he met during his time as an angel. The couple has a young daughter named Doria and Cassiel is intrigued by their new ...

Wings of Desire (1987) is a romantic fantasy film, both written and directed by Wim Wenders. Set in a divided Berlin, two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, watch over the city. While invisible and unheard by humans, they observe the thoughts of its inhabitants. These include a pregnant woman being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, a young prostitute standing on a busy road, and a broken man feeling betrayed by his wife. As Cassiel puts it, their purpose is to ‘gather, bear witness to, and preserve’ reality. These angels have always existed; they were present in Berlin before it was even established as a city ...