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Axel Ranisch

Director
Born in Berlin in 1983, filmmaker and author Axel Ranisch completed his directing studies at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. His debut film *Dicke Mädchen* (2011) was made without a traditional screenplay and won several awards, including the German Short Film Award in Gold. With subsequent works like *Ich fühl mich Disco* (2013) and the improvised television crime drama *Tatort: Babbeldasch* (2017), he established his unconventional style in German cinema and television. He has received multiple awards for his television work, including the prestigious Grimme Prize. In addition to his filmmaking, Ranisch also directs operas and works as a novelist.

Films

Orphea in Love

Orphea in Love

By Axel Ranisch

2022 | 107 min | Music, Dance, Theater

Winner of the Grimme Prize 2025: A young call center agent falls in love with a petty criminal street dancer. She is Orpheus, he is Eurydice.

Reuber

Reuber

By Axel Ranisch

2013 | 70 min | Kids & Family

Robby is supposed to look after his little sister. While he goes to the supermarket to buy sweets for her, she and her baby carriage are snatched.

Heavy Girls

Heavy Girls

By Axel Ranisch

2012 | 75 min | Drama

With a budget of 517 euros, Axel Ranisch created his debut, a tragicomedy in a warm-hearted, improvisational style.

Alky Alky

Alky Alky

By Axel Ranisch

2015 | 108 min | Drama

Mumblecore maestro Axel Ranisch creates a fabulous tragicomedy about the madness of alcoholism.

Love Me!

Love Me!

By Philipp Eichholtz

2014 | 83 min | Independent

A German Mumblecore movie, an ode to the city of Berlin, a romantic comedy, father-daughter drama, and a portrait of a woman all rolled into one.

Papa Gold

Papa Gold

By Tom Lass

2011 | 77 min | Independent

Denny lives in in the city, boozes and dances through the night, and sleeps with one girl after another.

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Passing Summer

Passing Summer

2001 | 85 min | Drama

It's summer in Berlin. Two friends are sitting in a café. Valerie is quiet, reserved, and has short dark hair. She has just moved. Sophie, on the other hand, is a fun-loving blonde who is about to spend six months in Rome. PASSING SUMMER shows the everyday details of life. Conversations, encounters, and relationships. Between Berlin street cafés, apartments, and chance encounters, a quiet observation of everyday life unfolds. Friendships, relationships, and lonely moments coexist without a linear ...

Thirst for Life

Thirst for Life

2015 | 16 min | Drama

A bi-racial couple loses a baby in the fifth month of the pregnancy after getting attacked by a group of racists. They go through dark times but fight with their endless love to become happy again. Yaya, a pregnant white woman, has been attacked by two men. Her Black friend Emeka had to witness everything without being able to help. A third man pushed him to the ground and degraded him. Yaya loses the unborn. She falls into a pit of self-destruction and doubt. Will Emeka be able to catch her and ...

Second Thoughts

Second Thoughts

2021 | 85 min | Drama

Marie is blindsided by her boyfriend at his brother's wedding in front of the assembled family with a marriage proposal. Marie has no idea how to react to this. She flees to the countryside to think about herself, her life and her relationship alone. Alone? In her mother's vacation home, things soon get increasingly tighter and more absurd: because Marie's thoughts suddenly take shape, her "thought people" become more numerous and more penetrating. They force possible baby names on her, an ex-boyfriend ...

Voltage

Voltage

2018 | 16 min | Drama

Lizzy is in love with Bernhard, but Bernhard is undecided. Lizzy returns Bernhard’s dog, which she occasionally watches, and stays a little longer. Lizzy shows Bernhard some kung-fu moves; Bernhard starts to flirt; and, although it’s not like her, Lizzy gets embarrassed. The same night, Bernhard asks her to drive him to a party outside town. A tense ride begins.

The Portuguese Nun

The Portuguese Nun

2009 | 121 min | Drama

A young French actress who is in Lisbon to shoot a movie is intrigued by a nun she sees kneeling in the chapel where she is filming. "THE PORTUGUESE NUN has both wit and feeling. The director explores the collision of eros and religion in a way that is both cerebral and sensual." (New York Times) Left to her own devices by a director (Green himself), Julie wanders the streets and has encounters with a series of male archetypes including a needy child (Mozos), a faithless husband (Michaux) and a ...

Burning Beds

Burning Beds

1988 | 83 min | Comedy

It is well known that a German man's love of cars comes before his interest in the opposite sex. Gina wages a two-front war against this state of affairs: as a vehicle inspector at the TÜV, she lovingly seizes her opportunities to take revenge on man and machine, while in her private life she devotes herself to the previously missed sexual revolution with unreserved exploratory fury. What Gina does is done with German thoroughness. Harry, a Brit, values self-control, discretion and restraint. Qualities ...

Hypnosis To Be Happy

Hypnosis To Be Happy

2018 | 75 min | Love & Sex

Pilar and Felipe are lonely beings who have not been able to find love or their place in the world. Right after they meet Felipe boldly proposes marriage. Pilar outright refuses and their friendship shifts in a different direction. On a short trip to the simplest of places, Felipe shares his most intimate mantra. It has kept him afloat in the worst existential crisis: an archaic '70s cassette with hypnosis inducing talk. This has a strange effect on Pilar and the story takes yet another turn. HYPNOSIS ...

Unmensch

Unmensch

2016 | 26 min | Drama

In Jasmin Baumgartner's short film, three young actors take part in an experimental play called 'Youth Sucks' at the Vienna Theater. The situation quickly becomes explosive. The main actor is supposed to improvise a monologue that comes across as left-liberal self-abuse of a politically impotent young generation pretending to care about the world. While the ensemble members Dany (Jasna Fritzi Bauer) and Patrick (Dominik Brauweiler) perform appropriately with emotion and expression, Jasper (Daniel ...

Working On It

Working On It

2008 | 50 min | Music, Dance, Theater

WORKING ON IT: directors Karin Michalski and Sabian Baumann explore the contemporary queer arts scene in Berlin and how perceptions of femininity and masculinity are constructed. The film asks “What happens when you don’t fit firmly into one box or the other?” - Soundtrack featuring Riot Girrrl bands: Lesbians on Ecstasy, Scream Club, Heidi Mortenson and Rhythm King and her friends.

Peropero: Breakdown in Tokyo

Peropero: Breakdown in Tokyo

2017 | 85 min | Drama

Lászlo and his partner Emma have been together for ten years. She also assists him as producer of the tour documentary. The young Japanese woman Nahoko steps in at short notice as tour manager. In the clubs between Osaka and Tokyo, Lászlo tries to catch up on his childhood dream: a wild musician's life that his own son, of all people, has been living for years. But when Lászlo and the young tour manager Nahoko unexpectedly fall madly in love with each other, not only the filming but also Lászlo's ...