Wolfgang Staudte

Susanne Wallner returns to the ruins of Berlin from a Concentration Camp after WW2 to discover that someone else lives in her apartment: Dr. Hans Mertens, the war made him depressive and he drinks a lot of alcohol. Susanne asks him to go but he doesn't want to, so they share Susanne's apartment and even discover their sympathy and then their love for each other... (imdb)

At the end of WWII a soldier who had often been ordered to execute women and children deserts and tries to find a hiding place in his native village. Almost immediately the entire village is evacuated, except the deserter and a French girl who is a compulsive worker. Believing that the Nazi regime has gone forever they tear down all Nazi placards. (imdb)

The mechanic Behnke wants to join the Nazi party to secure a good living. However, after his Jewish neighbors have been taken away, he changes his views. Trying to remain "a non-political man," he withdraws from reality and becomes a Nazis laborer.

Rose Bernd is a young and attractive maid from Silesia. She works at the estate of Christoph Flamm and has an affair with him. While being engaged to another man, she gets into immense trouble.

Diederich Heßling is scared of everything and everyone. But as he grows up, he comes to realize that he has to offer his services to the powers-that-be if he wants to wield power himself. (imdb)

Because he stole two bars of chocolate, the soldier Rudi is sentenced to death by the court-martial judge Dr. Schramm. Rudi manages to escape from the firing squad at the last minute, and since the end of the war has been making a meager living as a street peddler. (imdb)

Semi-burlesque concerning the captain of an Italian fruit freighter who is suddenly drawn into a series of war-time adventures. (bfi)

Director Wolfgang Staudte helms this unconventional crime story with a comic twist about a group of aging retirees turned amateur gangsters who are lured into a life of double-crossing by their friend, a newly pensioned judge (Martin Held). They've all led otherwise respectable lives. But now they're getting their kicks by pulling off heists and putting other working bad guys out of business. (Netflix)

A German man's choir of 8 persons is on a vacation in Yugoslavia. Most are middle-aged previous Nazis. They arrive at a village populated solely by women who avoid contact. 20 years earlier the Germans murdered all males. The choir tries to cheer up the mood by a German song, but then avoidance is replaced by hostility. (Max Scharnberg)

During his trip to the city, a naïve man from the countryside falls victim to a thief who steals his wallet. Since all his personal documents were in it, he not only looses his money but also his identity. The thief turns out to be a cunning con man, who uses the papers for his criminal schemes. Soon enough, a warrant is issued, and eventually both men – the thief and the innocent guy – are arrested.

Little Mook searches for the elusive Merchant of Luck. With the help of a pair of magic shoes which enable him to run faster than even the Sultan's fastest runner, and a magic wand that leads to the most splendid of treasures, Little Mook helps his good friend Prince Hassan to win the hand of the lovely Amarza, the Sultan's daughter. (imdb)

Popular Dutch story of a troubled boy who doesn't get along with his mother while his sailor father is gone, and whose only help saving him from a career of crime is a schoolteacher. (imdb)

On a barren and stormy island, fishing families eke out a meager existence on what they can catch during summer, and what washes ashore during winter. But little has been washing ashore of late, and their situation worsens. Elders recall how twenty years ago, when the lighthouse keeper's beacon went dark, a cargo ship broke apart on the cliffs. It proved a bountiful accident for the fishermen. Today people on the island view the conscientious lighthouse keepers with evil hungry eyes... (DEFA)

When a baby is found dead and his mother is caught packing her things, she is inevitably arrested for her child's murder, but suspicions also turn to the men in her life in this West German courtroom drama.

An Englishman has been working in the US so long he now speaks with an American accent. He is drafted into the British Army during WWII but is injured and loses his memory. Because he talks like an American, the doctors repatriate him to the States where he is housed with a New York family. After the war they all travel throughout Europe, searching for the women he still remembers in the hope of restoring his lost memory.