Madonnas
By Maria Speth
2007 | 120 min | Drama
An astonishingly nuanced portrait of a young mother (Sandra Hüller) who neglects her children.
Maria Speth
DirectorMaria Speth is a director and screenwriter. MADONNEN (2007, directed by Maria Speth) tells the story of a mother torn between responsibility and self-assertion and marks her transition to cinema after earlier works. 9 LEBEN (2011, director: Maria Speth) is a documentary film about homeless young people in Berlin; the approach remains close to the protagonists and dispenses with commentary voiceovers. TÖCHTER (2014, director: Maria Speth) follows two sisters who find each other again after years apart and continues the precise observation of family relationships.
Speth received the Silver Bear – Jury Prize for Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse (2021, directed by Maria Speth), a significant award. The combination of MADONNEN, 9 LEBEN, and TÖCHTER shows a consistent focus on social and family themes, from fictional drama to long-term observation in documentary film.
Films
9 Lives
By Maria Speth
2011 | 106 min | Documentary
9 LIVES portrays the fate of young people who decided at the age of 11, 12 or 13 to leave home and to live on the streets.
Daughters
By Maria Speth
2014 | 98 min | Drama
In search of her daughter, Agnes meets a bon vivant in the juggernaut that is Berlin.
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9 Lives
2011 | 106 min | Documentary
9 LIVES portrays the fate of young people who decided at the age of 11, 12 or 13 to leave home and to live on the streets. Any of these young people could have lived nine lives by now and they have been battered, both mentally and physically. But despite this, they have an enormous ability to find their own strengths, gifts and talents. This wealth of personal possibility is the focus of the film. "I was surprised at how many of them didn't fit the stereotypes that are easily associated with homeless ...
Afternoon
2007 | 95 min | Drama
Konstantin is an unsuccessful writer, his mother is a narcissistic actress, his uncle is dying and shows no interest in his surroundings. The web of relationships between them, marked by speechlessness and inspired by Chekhov's "The Seagull," gradually unravels until blood ultimately flows. "Angela Schanelec is an auteur filmmaker par excellence, a filmmaker who likes to deliberately subvert audience expectations and subjects her works almost exclusively to rules she has set herself. Afternoon ...
Vacation
2007 | 92 min | Drama
Four generations meet at a country house. Scenes of veiled jealousy and open teasing, candid confessions and fisticuffs, crack the thin veneer of an idyllic summer vacation. "I wanted to make a film without flashy dramaturgical momentum. I was concerned with finding a balance between the individual storylines and setting them in motion over the course of the film. All the characters who are struggling have only one life. They're all trying to be happy, but they don't know how to do it. It's a long, ...
The Discarded Father
2008 | 82 min | Documentary
Douglas Wolfsperger explores a social phenomenon that rarely appears in public discourse: men, who after a separation from their wives, are "disposed of" not only as partners but also as fathers and who - often in vain - struggle to maintain a relationship with their children. In moving interviews, four fathers describe their suffering and efforts to keep contact with their children. A mother justifies the refusal of contact from her point of view. Despite the seriousness of the topic, the film ...
Marseille
2004 | 91 min | Drama
Sophie flees to Marseille. She roams the streets alone, taking photographs. As she abandons herself to the city, she finds it impossible to reconcile her previous life with the now... Slowly, characters emerge and weave themselves into the story - then a cut follows - and Sophie is back in Berlin. "All my films are based on the idea that much of life is inscrutable, full of misunderstandings and left to chance. The characters live in contradiction to being at the mercy of chance, and are more or ...
Siblings - Kardeşler
1997 | 82 min | Drama
The everyday life of the German-Turkish siblings Erol, Ahmed and Leyla in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The first part of Thomas Arslan's "Berlin Trilogy" with Berlin hip-hop legend Kool Savage. SIBLINGS - KARDEŞLER is the first part of Thomas Arslan's "Berlin Trilogy", which includes the films DEALER (1998) and DER SCHÖNE TAG (2001). "SIBLINGS is the first film to film Turkish youth from their own perspective. Not a treatise on, but a question of everyday scenes, conversations, quarrels, and reconciliations. ...
Raju
2010 | 23 min | Drama
In this Oscar nominated short, a German couple, played by Wotan Wilke Möhring and Julia Richter, adopts an Indian orphan in Kolkata. On their way to the hotel, the boy disappears. The German officials have recommended a local Indian orphanage to them. There the four-year-old boy Raju, who comes from a slum, is introduced to them and handed over. When the boy suddenly disappears and the Indian police cannot get any further with their investigations, Jan himself starts an intensive search.
A Fine Day
2001 | 74 min | Drama
DER SCHÖNE TAG is the third part of Thomas Arslan's "Berlin Trilogy," which includes the films GESCHWISTER - KARDEŞLER (1997) and DEALER (1998). "In THE BEAUTIFUL DAY, the character of Deniz may not be representative of an entire population group in its entirety, but in one respect she certainly stands for the experiences of many others her age: She has something else to do besides constantly obsessing about her identity. It was important to me not to define her in terms of what is supposedly ...
The Ugly Truth
2021 | 110 min | Drama
Theo and Mona, together with his daughter Hanna from his first marriage, lead a seemingly idyllic life on the outskirts of Berlin. Theo found support with his current partner after the death of his first wife, who was Mona's sister. Mona herself has been disabled since an accident, which is why she numbs herself with medication and alcohol. When Alina, the daughter of one of Mona's friends, temporarily moves in with the family, the shaky construct collapses. Theo takes refuge in romantic fantasies ...
The Dreamed Path
2017 | 87 min | Drama
Greece 1984: Kenneth, an English musician, and Theres, a young German woman, sing on the street to finance their vacation. They love each other. When Kenneth receives the news that his mother has died in an accident, he hastily travels home, leaving Theres behind. Thirty years later, in Berlin. Ariane, now a 40-year-old television actress, breaks away from her husband. The man moves into an apartment at the main train station. From his window, he sees a homeless person. It is Kenneth, who does not ...