Elisabeth Stepanek

Erzsi, living alone in Budapest, keeps up phone and letter contact with her sister Gisa in Germany. Both elderly, they’ve long grown apart in how they face aging: Gisa accepts it, while Erzsi tries to hold on to youth, encouraged by her friend Paula and by Viktor, an aging opera singer and former lover.

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Doctors say that Veronika, a woman in her 20s, is schizophrenic. She is compliant, which makes her an easy target for men. She's religious, believing she is God's favorite child; she searches for Jesus. She has sent a letter to a filmmaker suggesting her life as the subject for a movie. We see her raped then take up with a series of men she believes are Jesus, each willing or insistent on sex. A young man with his own crisis of faith invites her to join a cult. We see her involuntarily committed to an asylum from time to time where medication and constraints await. Her wealthy parents are helpless. Will a medical professional ever talk to her? If one did, would it help?

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A young woman strolls through the night, then boards a train. Seeking closeness to others she chooses an unusual method by searching through people’s luggage.

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A pessimistic drama about a family struggling to survive after the death of their father. Left behind are the simple-minded mother, the strong-willed daughter Josefine, another sister and a mentally retarded brother. Josefine takes over the reins and looks after the family. She turns her sister into a maid and forces her brother to live in the cellar.

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Germany 1939. Hans and Lene marry the day before the war breaks out, and Hans is sent to the Eastern front. During a bombing raid their daughter Anna is born. The house is destroyed and Lene and Anna moves in with relatives in Berlin. Hans survives the war but he is not the same person as in 1939, and he and Lene find it difficult to live together again.

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In 1934, young archaeologist Robert returns to his home in Salzburg after spending several years working in Crete. He wants to officially break up with his original fiancée Hannah, as he has fallen in love with his employer's wife. But his personal plans get caught up in the political turmoil of the Austrian coup year. In a small village, he and Hannah find themselves caught between the fronts of the coup plotters and the Home Guard troops. A defenseless deaf-mute is to be lynched as a scapegoat. To protect him, Robert invents a mysterious "man in the reeds." But Hannah also eventually falls victim to the unrest.

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A biography of Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höss.

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The life and struggles of the German writer Heinrich von Kleist.

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Former revolutionary Pat and sex worker Meg run a brothel in 1950s Dublin. In addition to five girls and two gay men, the old IRA general Musjö and Mr. Muleady also live in their establishment. One evening, two IRA fighters drag in a prisoner. The hostage is Leslie Williams, a young British soldier who was captured in Northern Ireland and is now to be exchanged for an IRA member...

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A six-part film series addressing the problems of rural Austria from 1900 to 1945. Contrary to the traditional "Heimatfilm", the Alpensaga detaches itself from typical clichés and tries to depict a critical view of societal structures of the time. World history is shown from the view of a peasant family living in a small village in Upper Austria.

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After World War II, an aging controversial Norwegian Nobel Prize winner must confront his past and the moral implications of his Nazi sympathies while being challenged by a man intent on holding him accountable.

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An adaptation of Franz Xaver Kroetz's play by the Theater of Courage, Vienna.

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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.

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