Margot Hielscher

In 2026, the Eurovision Song Contest celebrates its 70th anniversary. With around 160 million viewers, the ESC is one of the world's biggest music spectacles. This documentary looks back on seven decades filled with music, emotions and passion. From its beginnings as a chanson competition in 1956 through flamboyant outfits and spectacular performances to unforgettable victories, bitter defeats and the political debates of the recent past. Stars like Jean Paul Gaultier, Hape Kerkeling, Tom Neuwirth (aka Conchita Wurst), and Germany's first ESC winner, Nicole, share their experiences on and off stage. The documentary paints a multifaceted portrait of the ESC, highlighting its profound influence on music, fashion, and society, as well as on the LGBTQIA+ community, thus becoming a vibrant journey through seven decades of European pop culture history.

An aging truck driver finds smuggled money and becomes involved with a hijacking crowd.

Jeff Elliot is an American GI investigating a black market gang in Munich.

Art student Ulla lies to her older sister Ilse, claiming to be posing for sculptor Professor Viktor Arnim. To confront him, Ilse visits him that very evening. In her excitement, she forgets her handbag, which the professor immediately notices. Ilse clearly doesn't dislike Viktor and no longer wants to appear as the strict sister. So she lies to Viktor and his friend Philipp Geiger, who is also present, telling him that her handbag was stolen by a man named Meier. Viktor and Philipp immediately offer to retrieve it. Sure enough, the famous boxer Willi Meier lives in the neighborhood. Viktor and Philipp also find a woman's handbag in his apartment, which they secretly take with them.

A man goes to a convent with exciting news, one of the nuns is an heir to a fortune! The man causes the nuns to become obsessed with him as he tries to find the right heir.

In 1920, an unknown 24-year-old woman was fished out of Berlin's Landwehr kanal after a suicide attempt. Since she has no papers and no answers to any questions, they soon assign them to the insane asylum Dallendorf. A co-patient believes she recognizes the Czar's daughter Anastasia Romanowa - who apparently was the only one who survived the murder of the tsar's family in 1918.

Postwar Germany, May 1945. American city commander Tom Keller appoints engineer Walter Reinhardt as acting mayor of a small town in southern Germany. At the same time, he helps student Maria put on a musical show and, as an avid jazz fan, joins the tour as a conductor during his vacation.

While working as an accountant in his uncle's factory, talented young pianist Peter dreams of becoming a famous composer. When he shows his work to a producer, he manages to convince him to give him a chance. From time to time he gets bigger contracts that keep him more and more away from home and his young wife Elisa. When he "discovers" and supports a pretty ballerina in Munich, a rumor starts that he's having an affair. He fails to realize that his marriage is threatened.

"The blood of millions of people hangs on this film" wrote the newspapers in 1949, when the trial of Veit Harlan began. Between 1940 and 1945, 20 million Germans saw his inflammatory film "Jud Süß". Is Harlan a "director of the devil", as the public prosecutor claims?

Klaus murders women. After killing another girl, Klaus is spotted by his friend Kersten as he leaves his latest victim's house. Kersten gives him a ride and Klaus begins to plot the man's death. He's a witness, after all. Nobody else can say Klaus was there except Kersten. They decide to head to a party. Klaus' unhappy wife is there. So are a bunch of other people. Killing Kersten will be difficult. Then they all play a game called... Murder Party!

A badly lit street; a car driving too fast; squealing tires .... a car crashes into a construction site. When the police arrive on the scene, the driver is gone. In the vehicle, however, the cops find film with photos of the almost worthless stock of the closed-down Motapa Mining Firm. The originals of the stock are in a bank safe, to which only selected employees of the firm have access. So who made these pictures and what is his or her interest in them?

After some initial difficulties, the daughter of a circus director who died in an accident follows in her father’s footsteps and takes over the business.

Germany during World War I. Young Jean falls in love with Germaine. To put an end to the affair, Father de Wehrt sends his son to the countryside. When the high school senior starts flirting with Gertrud there, he is sent to the army.

With her daughter Anita, a young singer, the widow Marianne von der Halden undertakes a journey into the past. She wants to see her former admirers again. One of them is the chamber singer Paul Schneider, who only remembers his childhood sweetheart with irony. They meet the former student Werner Birkner at his wedding, where Anita meets the teacher Michael Brantner. But the encounters make no impression on Marianne. Until she meets her former great love again at a concert given by her daughter, the general director Elmers. The concert is a resounding success and Marianne reconnects with Elmers, who is still unaware that Anita is his daughter.

Hans Castorp, fresh from university and about to become a civil engineer, comes to the Sanatorium Berghof in the Swiss Alps to visit his cousin Joachim, an army officer, who is recovering there from tuberculosis. Intending to remain at the Berghof for three weeks, Hans is gradually contaminated by the morbid atmosphere pervading the place. Wishing very much to be considered a patient like the others, he achieves his ends and stays in the sanatorium for ...seven years. During this time, he has enough time to take part in the furious philosophical debates pitting against each other Settembrini, a secular humanist, and Naphta, a totalitarian Jesuit. And to fall in love with the beautiful but enigmatic Clawdia Chauchat. When he is finally discharged in 1914 - along with all the other patients - it is only to plunge into the horrors of World War I.

As the title "The Queen's Heart" suggests, this early German black and white version of Mary Queen of Scott's eventful reign and death focuses on her emotional perception rather lyrically, with some songs, mainly by her.

After years of detachment Alberto Valli returns to the home of Margherita, his widowed mother, with his mistress Germaine.

A musician beds down a prostitute he knows is diseased in order to gain inspiration, an act he later believes to have been a tacit pact with Satan

A rookie detective’s first case is to observe an engineer, but she behaves so clumsily in her job, that she’s mistaken for a thief and con artist.

Director Richard Anden and his screenwriter take a cruise on a luxury liner, avoiding all feminine attempts to get a movie contract, including the ship singer. When he unexpectedly discovers that a beautiful passenger is involved in a murder mystery and chased by the police he'll try to save her from jail.

Ein Fall für zwei is a German television series, which premiered on September 11, 1981 on ZDF. The series, located in Frankfurt am Main, features two main characters who solve crimes: a defense attorney and a private investigator. Josef Matula, a former German police officer, has gone into private business. His method of investigation is very effective and direct, and he sometimes even resorts to dirty tricks. Claus Theo Gärtner has portrayed the role since the start of the series.

Ein Heim für Tiere is a German television series.

Salto Mortale is a German television series.

Rivalen Der Rennbahn is a German serial.