Felix Hellmann

When 22-year-old Rainer Werner Fassbinder storms the stage of a small, progressive theatre in Munich 1967, and seizes the production without further ado, nobody suspects this brazen young rebel to become one of the most important post-war German filmmakers. Despite early setbacks, many of his films breakout at the most renowned films festivals and polarise audience, critics and filmmakers alike. His radical views and self-exploitation, as well as his longing for love, have made him one of the most fascinating film directors of this time.

Luis Trenker - South Tyrolean mountaineering legend, actor and director - traveled to the Venice Film Festival in the summer of 1948. He wants to offer Eva Braun's diaries to the American Hollywood agent Paul Kohner for filming. At the same time, the authenticity of these diaries is negotiated before the Munich district court. The director Leni Riefenstahl, ex-lover of Trenker, feels disgraced by the implication that she was Hitler's lover. The story is told in flashbacks of two opportunists who, possessed by the will for artistic success, instrumentalize themselves ...

Leipzig, December 1734: Christmas brings the Bach family together. The first snow has fallen and the children Gottfried and Elisabeth are delighted about the arrival of their older brothers Friedemann and Emanuel. The Thomaskantor has retired to his music room. Anna Magdalena supports her husband, as there are only a few days left and his latest work, the six-part "Christmas Oratorio", must be finished on time. It is awaited with suspicion by the city council and the gentlemen of the consistory, who have long found Bach's waywardness a thorn in their side and fear that, after the premiere of the St. Matthew Passion a few years earlier, the St. Thomas Church will once again be filled with "operatic" music. With the oratorio, Johann Sebastian Bach hopes that he will finally become court composer in Dresden. And, as always, he demands that all members of the family join forces to help him. But differences of opinion are increasingly delaying the completion of Bach's most famous work.

Gundula Bundschuh longs for a peaceful vacation under the sun of Mallorca. However, her mother-in-law's decision to invite the entire whimsical family thwarts her plans.

The successful journalist Linda (Thekla Carola Wied) depends on their job to the nails to finally spend a quiet life with the retired Latin teacher Jacob (Günther Maria Halmer). But yet they have reckoned without their busy adult children Leonie (Julia Brendler) and Thomas (Jens Atzorn) made the constantly unload their triplets care with grandparents. Then, when even a previous love of Thomas Jakob is around the corner and another grandson in his luggage, the pensioner is finally overwhelmed. He does everything it can to keep the delicate origin of the baby a secret. Finally, Thomas and Leonie want to soon give the knot.

When their little supermarket is threatened by bankruptcy, three shop assistants in rural Bavaria start their own phone sex line.

The registrar Ellen is an unhappy single woman - and has to marry couples in love every day. After a shoplifting incident, Ellen, who is addicted to shopping and tablets, ends up with the attractive therapist Christian. Although he is about to get married, the two begin an affair - until one day he and his fiancée end up in Ellen's wedding room, of all places.

“Eine Almhütte für Zwei” tells an unusual love story: two adults who have remained mentally at the level of children are expecting children. While the happy couple - played by Tom Beck and Anna Drexler - are looking forward to their happy family, the environment makes it extremely difficult for them. Their relatives and advisors are not only concerned with the question of whether they will be able to bear their responsibility, but also with their personal interests.

Angela Merkel's decision in autumn 2015 to open the borders for refugees split the country - some praised the moral stance, others criticized the surrender of sovereignty. Yet what would appear to be well-planned activity is in reality a policy of muddling along, chance, trial and error. The Driven Ones is a chronicle of the refugee crisis which shows that the political actors are being driven along, crushed between self-imposed constraints and events that have spun out of control.

Tom wants to make a hairdressing appointment on the phone, but making the call seems completely impossible to him. How will he manage to overcome his phone phobia?

After her divorce, the Munich editor Gitti Kronlechner put her life on hold until, cheered on by a favorable constellation, she threw herself into a survival camp. Gitti surprised everyone with this courageous step. Mostly herself. So far she only knew Indoor Survival. The nature adventure shakes up Gitti's world view, especially since her Venus, as promised in the horoscope, is not in the fourth house for nothing.

Where shall we put grandma? Her permanently anxious and stressed daughter, Marie, knows exactly where: the neighbourhood’s idyllically situated retirement homem where she can find friends of “her own age”. But Granny has other ideas: She wants to see the Pope in Rome, and no one can stop her plan. She wants to finally confess a troubling sin to the highest possible power. She resolves to make the journey alone, and ends up one day on the doorstep of her granddaughter, Martina. What she doesn’t know is that Martina has a secret too, and that a private audience with the Pope is virtually impossible for mere mortals. Together with sly bon vivant, Lorenzo, the three set off on an adventure – but their attempt to receive a Papal blessing almost ends in disaster.

Based on explosive investigations, the thriller "Meister des Todes" ("Master of Death") tells of a German arms manufacturer and their questionable weapon exports to Mexiko.

Claire feels threatened by illness, Leo takes everything lightly and even eats raw chicken. She writes endless text messages, he tells her what's going on in a nutshell, she's always in the mood for sex, he loves hiking in the mountains with his buddy, she repairs the bike herself, but he doesn't have the time. Nevertheless, the two are a couple, but very often ask themselves why, argue, make up and break up.

Father and mother are thrilled: So now their teenager son has a girlfriend. And what a fabulous young woman she is! In contrast to his older sister Milli, 17-year-old Franz was previously an introverted, quiet, shy loner. His parents are all the more impressed when he brings home the pretty, self-confident Zoe one night. Zoe quickly finds her way into the heart of Franz’s family. Or is this young woman just telling people what they want to hear because she sees their hidden desires? After an ecstatic night in the clubs of the city of Munich with a little too much drugs, Zoe has disappeared and Franz's heart is broken. He absolutely has to see her again and goes looking for his first great love.

An almost bombproof method of staying single is called "speed dating". 18 people participate in such an event. Nine men and nine women are sitting opposite each other in order to sell optimally under the pressure of time and to find a partner. They are looking for a date - and have nothing else in common. They talk about allergies, cappuccino, consumer behavior, buses and designer clothes: the list of serious embarrassments is long. Yet none of the lonely hearts has given up the hope of romance.

After some faked medicine is found, an Interpol agent searches for evidence against high rank chairmen of medical companies.

When Hanna (Fanny Krausz) unexpectedly inherits half of her deceased grandmother's farm in Lower Bavaria, the young woman's life is turned upside down. Because the testamentary conditions have it all! She has to run the farm for four weeks with her cousin Max (Daniel Gawlowski) and worse: spend every night there - otherwise everything goes to church. A bad time, because Hanna is about to step into Alex's Munich coffee bar. And it just so happens that Alex (Matthias Gärtner) is also the man of her dreams. Hanna throws herself into adventure and tries to master the balancing act between town and country. But the longer she is in her old home, the more she realizes her true longings. She doesn't just uncover a family secret,

Henriette is terminally ill with cancer. Since her diagnosis, contact with her sister Gerlinde has fizzled out. It is only when she talks to the open-minded pastor Linus Gobert that she begins to accept her fate and gets closer to her sister again. But before she can tell Gerlinde about her illness, she is shot dead in the street. Gerlinde, the only witness to the crime, doubts that it was a robbery.

The Munich LKA officer Sandra Rutkowski received an anonymous call in which a star tenor from the Munich State Opera was accused of molesting children. A boy brought to him is said to be locked in the cloakroom of the singer, who is still being celebrated on the stage. When Sandra and the Munich inspector Lukas Laim break down the door to the cloakroom, they find an intimidated, apathetic boy in the closet.

Die Literaturagentin Lara Brunn fährt nach längerer Zeit wieder in ihren Heimatort in den Bayerischen Alpen. Anlass ist der Geburtstag ihrer Mutter. Lara wartet gemeinsam mit ihrer Schwester Sylvia im Elternhaus, doch die Mutter taucht nicht auf. Am nächsten Tag findet ein Suchtrupp in den Bergen eine männliche Leiche, die schon seit mehreren Jahren dort liegt. Kurz darauf wird in der Nähe auch die Mutter tot aufgefunden. Während Sylvia an einen Unfalltod glaubt, vermutet Lara einen Mord. Sie stößt auf einige Ungereimtheiten und muss schnell feststellen, dass sie nur sehr wenig über das Leben ihrer Mutter weiß. Auch die eigene Vergangenheit wird immer ungewisser.

Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland.

A police department, lead by an older, experienced detective solve crimes together.

SOKO Kitzbühel is an Austrian television series produced by ORF and ZDF. It is a spin-off of the German crime series SOKO 5113. It is set in the renowned Tyrolean tourist centre of Kitzbühel. The production company "beo-Film" has produced the show since 2001. The German abbreviation SOKO stands for Sonderkommission, "special commission", a task force with specific duties.

A team of inspectors investigates murders in and around the small Upper Bavarian town of Rosenheim, and they still have plenty of time to see idyllic landscapes and luxurious pre-alpine villas and enjoy sumptuous Bavarian fare with beer.

SOKO 5113 is a long-running German police procedural television series. It was first aired in 1978 on 2 January. SOKO is an abbreviation of the term "Sonderkommission" in German.

The SOKO Köln investigates the cathedral city with humor and often with hard work. Their cases take them into a variety of environments, from the Cologne clique to the terraced housing estates on the outskirts of the city.

Polizeiruf 110 is a long-running German language detective television series. The first episode was broadcast 27 June 1971 in the German Democratic Republic, and after the dissolution of Fernsehen der DDR the series was picked up by ARD. It was originally created as a counterpart to the West German series Tatort, and quickly became a public favorite.

SOKO Leipzig is a German police procedural television programme, a spin-off of the earlier German police programme SOKO 5113. It was first broadcast on 31 January 2001, on German television channel ZDF. On 12 November 2008, the first part of a two-part crossover between SOKO Leipzig and British police procedural The Bill was aired, with the same version being shown on both ZDF and British television channel ITV1.

Shows the interaction between Hamburg police officers and paramedics.

A medic lives with his small and strange family between the mountains and every episode he comes across a situation with not only his patients but also his family and friends.

First Police Chief Inspector Vera Lanz, a Munich police detective, attempts to balance her professional and private life.

Lena Lorenz is a captivating drama series that follows the life of a talented and ambitious midwife, Lena Lorenz, who returns to her idyllic hometown in the Bavarian Alps after working for several years in a bustling city hospital. Seeking a quieter and more meaningful life, Lena embarks on a journey of self-discovery, as she navigates the challenges and joys of her new profession in the picturesque rural village.

Chief Inspector Schaller and his team solve the most unusual cases in beautiful Munich with wit and charm.

A missing astronaut sets her family on a frantic hunt for answers. But the more they uncover, the greater the threat becomes to them — and the world.

Reiterhof Wildenstein is a German television series that has been produced for Das Erste since 2019 on behalf of ARD-Degeto.

The Huber and Leitner families were once closely linked. However, since the fatal accident of the youngest Leitner son, tragically caused by the head of the Huber family, the two Allgäu mountain farming clans have been deep enemies.

The body of old Theodor Reifenrath is found in Mammolshain in the Taunus. Accident or Murder? Because the safe is open and empty, inspectors Pia Sander and Oliver von Bodenstein start investigations. In the dog kennel in front of the house, they make a horrifying discovery. Alongside to a nearly starved dog, she finds human bones in the ground. Three women's bodies are recovered by the forensic experts. But who are the murdered women? The dead man and his deceased wife Rita had used the large house by the lake as a kind of children's home and had raised many foster children here over the years. However, the two were not loving foster parents. Rita has been missing for many years. Probably suicide, but her body was never found. The investigators are concentrating on the foster children, who are now all grown up and in the middle of life. The pattern of killings is striking: Apparently the perpetrator always kills on Mother's Day. And that day is near.