André, 55, lives with his mother Louise, 80, and leads an unspectacular life. He works as a taxi driver while the elderly diva dreams of bygone days as an actress in Hollywood. One day the charismatic Bill, 50, an American, turns up on their doorstep - a stranger who will soon turn their quiet life upside down.
Summer 1939. Influential families in Nazi Germany have sent their daughters to a finishing school in an English seaside town to learn the language and be ambassadors for a future looking National Socialist. A teacher there sees what is coming and is trying to raise the alarm. But the authorities believe he is the problem.
Early evening - a big city. Two teenagers shyly flirt with each other, a housewife sits down to watch her daily soap, nurses in a hospital gossip before the nightshift starts, a trendy couple drives through rush hour, so excited they can hardly wait to get home - a man with a rifle enters a building seeking revenge. In the blink of an eye seemingly unrelated events turn upside down what were once secure, happy, 'normal' lives. Behind fear, beyond the unexpected, there is love and hope.
Paul and Camilla’s marriage is in trouble. They head to a picturesque cottage in the South of France to work through their problems and try to inject some love back into their marriage. As their relationship unravels, the holiday is hijacked by an American and his French girlfriend. Looking for an excuse to pause the hostilities, Camilla invites them to stay at the cottage...
Germany, 1933: Little Anna Kemper lives with her family in Berlin. Since her father, a famous theater critic, is an open opponent of the National Socialists, he has to flee to Zurich after Hitler's rise to power. The mother, Anna and her twelve-year-old brother soon follow him. Because there is hardly any time to prepare for the escape, Anna has to leave her beloved stuffed rabbit in a hurry. But the family does not find a permanent home in Switzerland either. Again and again Anna has to adapt to the constantly changing circumstances, face new challenges with her family and face great privations. Nevertheless, Anna tries not to lose braveness.
What is a human life worth? How is it possible that a woman like Agnes could agree to kill another human being? Is it the money? Or are there other forces at play?
The 27 year old Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi walked from Romania to Paris in 1903 and 1904 as a preparation and prelude to becoming the most important sculptor of the 20th century. Brancusi leaves his small village of Hobitza, south of the Carpathian Mountains and walks through Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and parts of France to arrive in Paris, the metropolis of world culture for the first three decades of the 1900s. He walks in spring, summer, winter and autumn, treading the landscape away from the beaten track, experiencing sights, having adventures, suffering hardships, looking, touching and feeling the world as a preparation of what is to come for him.
Kari Tellenbach was born with a cleft palate. His mother takes care of him like a bird that has fallen out of the nest. As a young man Kari decides to become a barber and despite his handicap he wins the heart of Annemarie with his humour, charm and sensitivity. His happiness seems almost complete – but Annemarie’s middle class parents have already made other plans for their daughter.
Painting is an unacceptable vocation for a woman in provincial Germany in the year 1900, but budding artist Paula Becker is determined to make her own rules.
Helen is a nonconformist teenage girl who maintains a conflictual relationship with her parents. Hanging out most of her time with her friend Corinna, with whom she breaks one social taboo after another, she uses sex as a way to rebel and break the conventional bourgeois ethic. After an intimate shaving accident, Helen ends up in the hospital where it doesn’t take long before she makes waves. But there she finds Robin, a male nurse who will sweep her off her feet...