Reiner Heise

The Legend of Timm Thaler: or The Boy Who Sold His Laughter (2017)

The devil tricks a little boy off his laughter in exchange for assured wins in all his bets. It depicts his journey after the deal with the devil, how he loses his soul bit by bit with each win. ...

Lotte Jäger und das tote Mädchen (2016)

The Burrow (2014)

KAFKA'S THE BURROW tells the story of a man's "metamorphosis" (as Kafka would put it) in a rapidly changing and increasingly isolated world. A man, who has seemingly achieved everything, ensconces himself in his burrow, a fortress-like apartment complex. B ...

The Red Cockatoo (2006)

A coming-of-age story set in Germany in the 1960s. Siggi becomes involved in a love triangle when he falls for Luise, but the tightening political climate forces him to make a fateful decision. ...

The Elementary Particles (2006)

Based on Michel Houellebecq's controversial novel, Atomised (aka The Elementary Particles) focuses on Michael and Bruno, two very different half-brothers and their disturbed sexuality. After a chaotic childhood with a hippie mother only caring for her aff ...

Spuk am Tor der Zeit (2003)

Lilly unter den Linden (2002)

This film is the story of a 13-year-old girl from Hamburg who, after the death of her mother, wants to travel to her aunt Lena and her family - her only living relatives - in Jena. Crossing the inner-German border in 1988, even from West to East, is very d ...

Detective Lovelorn and the Revenge of the Pharaoh (2002)

Nils Lovelorn, blessed with a present ego and a "second self" in the form of a well-rounded super blonde called Bebe, is sent back in time by time machine. There he is to blow out the lights of a pharaoh who, 3000 years later, threatens the world with dest ...

Alphamann: Die Selbstmörderin (1999)

The blind psychologist Tom Leschek and the therapist Jessica van der Laan are after their first successful mission, a team that is again requested when a suicide wants to plunge from a skyscraper. The young woman was held captive for months in a basement p ...

Spuk aus der Gruft (1998)

The young Friedrich Freiherr von Kuhlbanz died almost 300 years ago, but he is cursed beyond death. "I will not rot in my grave if I have committed the murder of the shepherd Dühn", the squire once swore and became a legend as the mummy of Roggelin. One n ...

While All Germans Sleep (1995)

After 50 years, Marek remembers his dangerous adventure as a five-year-old, when he and his friend Itzek left a Polish transit camp one night in 1942 – a few days before their evacuation to Auschwitz – to go get the toys they forgot at the ghetto. Bas ...

Novalis - Die blaue Blume (1994)

A romantic fairy tale about love. ...

The Film Narrator (1993)

Germany in the Thirties. A movie teller realizes that his profession is not longer needed. Silent movies are not produced any longer. Telling stories is the only thing the man was ever good in, so he does not know what to do now. As political circumstances ...

Die Wildnis (1993)

The son of a farmer is bathed in his blood in front of an isolated mountain hut. There is no record of the attacker. Two investigators disappear without a trace. Years later, policeman Brenner sets out to find his colleagues. ...

Die Lügnerin (1992)

The Pocket Watch (1991)

After the Nazis take over political power in Germany, the father of Rosi and Hansi, a member of the communist party, must hide from the police. One thing he left behind is a watch which might contain a message. ...

The Tango Player (1991)

Winter 1968. Historian Dr. Dallow is released from prison. He is still trying to cope with and understand why he was put behind bars for 21 months for defamation of the state. His supposed "crime:" for five minutes he accompanied a cabaret chanson on the p ...

Die ehrbaren Fünf (1989)

In a small Saxon town after the Second World War, the former chimney sweep Toni tries to survive on the black market and meets the pusher Ginfizz. Together they initially trade in flour before embarking on a riskier plan: they are to rescue machines from S ...

The Break (1989)

A story about massive robbery from the safe of German railways set in 1946. ...

Künstler, König und Modell (1987)

Johann Gottfried Schadow is only in his early twenties when he is put in charge of the royal sculptor's workshop in Prussia's capital Berlin. He is supported in this position above all by the fair ladies. ...

The Brigade-Leader’s Hat (1986)

Young construction worker Ralf Reider leaves his home village Katzsprung in the Rhön mountains during the "Berlin Initiative". In the capital, he wants to earn enough money in construction to build his own house for his wife and his child. But Ralf is an ...

Die Gänse von Bützow (1985)

In 1794 Bützow, widow Hornborstel, a top goose breeder, presses Mayor Hane to marry her. Rebuffed, he bans free‐range geese under a "goose edict." Enraged, she enlists revolutionary‐minded Magister Albus to rally citizens. They rise for goose freedom, ...

The Golden Thaler (1985)

The impoverished and homeless orphan girl Anna Barbara sets out in search of the mysterious golden thaler. The rag collector Hans Geiz offers her the promise of it if she toils in his underground kingdom for three years. ...

The Woman and the Stranger (1985)

Based on a switched identity, in circumstances that are found in real life as well as fiction, this drama tells the story of two soldiers fighting together in World War I. Karl (Joachim Latsch) and Richard (Hans-Use Bauer) become close friends while servin ...

The Girl and the Boy (1982)

Puberty drama about the first love of a 15 year old girl from Berlin. ...