Highest-Rated Movies about 'East Germany'

The Lives of Others (2006), 89 (2017), Never Look Away (2018), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Good Bye Lenin! (2003), The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965), This Ain't California (2012), November Days (1992) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best East Germany movies.

#1. The Lives of Others (2006)

Storyline: Gerd Wiesler is an officer with the Stasi, the East German secret police. The film begins in 1984 when Wiesler attends a play written by Georg Dreyman, who is considered by many to be the ultimate example of the loyal citizen. Wiesler has a gut feeling that Dreyman can't be as ideal as he seems, and believes surveillance is called for. The Minister of Culture agrees but only later does Wiesler learn that the Minister sees Dreyman as a rival and lusts after his partner Christa-Maria. The more time he spends listening in on them, the more he comes to care about them. The once rigid Stasi officer begins to intervene in their lives, in a positive way, protecting them whenever possible. Eventually, Wiesler's activities catch up to him and while there is no proof of wrongdoing, he finds himself in menial jobs - until the unbelievable happens.

Plot Keywords: political thriller, surveillance, espionage, moral dilemma, humanity, totalitarianism, betrayal ...

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#2. 89 (2017)

Storyline: 89 tells the incredible story of one of football's greatest triumphs: when against all odds Arsenal snatched the Championship title from Liverpool at Anfield in the last minute of the last game of the 1988/89 season. It's a universal tale of a band of brothers who, led by a charismatic and deeply respected manager, came together to defy the odds and create history. Mixing archive and previously unseen footage with revealing interviews, insights and memories from the original squad, game officials, famous fans and the people who were there on the night this is the definitive account of a watershed moment in football and a must-watch for any sports fan.

Plot Keywords: history, politics, soviet union, revolution, democracy, protest, cold war ...

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#3. Never Look Away (2018)

Storyline: Young artist Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling) has fled to West-Germany, but he continues to be tormented by the experiences he made in his childhood and youth in the Nazi years and during the GDR-regime. When he meets the student Ellie (Paula Beer), he is convinced that he has met the love of his life and begins to create paintings that mirror not only his own fate, but also the traumas of an entire generation.—Wiedemann & Berg Film

Plot Keywords: drama, history, biography, art, romance, war, germany ...

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#4. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

Storyline: Hedwig, born male as Hansel in East Berlin, fell in love with an American G.I. and underwent a Gender Reassignment Surgery in order to marry him and flee to the West. Unfortunately, nothing worked out quite as it was supposed to - years later, Hedwig is leading her rock band on a tour of the U.S., telling her life story through a series of concerts at Bilgewater Inn seafood restaurants. Her tour dates coincide with those of arena-rock star Tommy Gnosis, a wide-eyed boy who once loved Hedwig - but then left with all her songs.

Plot Keywords: musical, rock, lgbtq+, self-discovery, love, betrayal, art ...

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#5. Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

Storyline: East Germany, the year 1989: A young man protests against the regime. His mother watches the police arresting him and suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Some months later, the GDR does not exist anymore and the mother awakes. Since she has to avoid every excitement, the son tries to set up the GDR again for her in their flat. But the world has changed a lot.

Plot Keywords: drama, comedy, history, germany, family, capitalism, nostalgia ...

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#6. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965)

Storyline: Alec Leamas (Richard Burton), a British spy, is sent to East Germany, supposedly to defect, but in fact to sow disinformation. As more plot turns appear, Leamas becomes more convinced that his own people see him as just a cog. His struggle back from dehumanization becomes the final focus of the story.

Plot Keywords: spy, cold war, film noir, british, betrayal, suspense, drama ...

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#7. This Ain't California (2012)

Storyline: This Ain't California is a celebration of the lust for life, a contemporary documentary trip into the world of roller boarding in the German Democratic Republic. A coming-of-age tale of three teenagers and their passionate love for a sport on the crumbling tarmac of the streets in the German Democratic Republic, which was considered very ill-fitting. The punk fairy tale is a story of the subversive powers of fun in that part of Germany, which had lost touch with its citizens. The film follows its three heroes from their childhood in the seventies through their teenage rebellion in the eighties, ending in the last summer of their life in the German Democratic Republic in 1989, when their life changed forever, and follows them to 2011.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: documentary, youth culture, rebellion, 1980s, communism, freedom, coming of age ...

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#8. November Days (1992)

Storyline: The film was commissioned by the BBC and shot one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. By way of a series of interviews, it explores the "hangover" in the wake of German reunification. In taking stock of this situation, Ophuls quickly departs from the conventional reportage model, approaching his material in a playful manner and infusing his commentary on it with ironic humor. His interviewees - who range from GDR head of state Egon Krenz, dramatist Heiner Müller and neo-Nazi Michael Kühnen to members of the general public - are not degraded into contemporary witnesses of a fact-driven narrative. Rather, it is through their experiences and perspectives that the story emerges.—X

Plot Keywords: documentary, germany, history, cold war, politics, social change, 1990s ...

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#10. Barbara (2012)

Storyline: In 1980s East Germany, Barbara is a Berlin doctor banished to a country medical clinic for applying for an exit visa. Deeply unhappy with her reassignment and fearful of her co-workers as possible Stasi informants, Barbara stays aloof, especially from the good natured clinic head, Andre. Instead, Barbara snatches moments with her lover as she secretly prepares to defect one day. Despite her plans, Barbara learns more about her life that puts her desires and the people around her in a new light. With her changing perspective, Barbara finds herself facing a painful moral dilemma that forces her to choose what she values.

Plot Keywords: drama, german film, historical, cold war, 1980s, doctor, political ...

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#11. Two Lives (2012)

Storyline: Europe 1990, the Berlin wall has just crumbled: Katrine, raised in East Germany, now living in Norway since 20 years, is a war child: the result of a love relationship between a Norwegian woman and a German occupation soldier during World War II. Katrine enjoys a happy family life, with her mother, her husband, daughter and grand-daughter. But when a lawyer asks her and her mother to witness in a trial against the Norwegian state on behalf of the war children, she resists. Gradually, a web of concealment and secrets is unveiled, until Katrine is finally stripped of everything, and her loved ones are forced to take a stand: What carries more weight, the life they have lived together, or the lie it is based on?—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: war, spy, cold war, germany, history, family, secret ...

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#12. The Architects (1990)

Storyline: The architect Daniel Brenner is in his late thirties when he receives his first challenging and lucrative commission: to design a cultural center for a satellite town in East-Berlin. He accepts the offer under the condition that he gets to choose who he works with. This way, he reunites with former colleagues and friends - most of them architects or students of architecture who have since chosen a different profession due to personal restraint or economic confinement. Together, they develop a concept which they hope will be more appealing to the public than the conventional and dull constructions common to the German Democratic Republic. However, their ambitious plans are once and again foiled by their conservative supervisors. As frustration grows, Daniel has trouble keeping his career in balance with his family-life: his wife Wanda wants to leave for West-Germany.—C. Winter

Plot Keywords: drama, german film, cold war, architecture, politics, history, social critique ...

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#13. Funeral in Berlin (1967)

Storyline: Colonel Stok, a Soviet Intelligence Officer responsible for security at the Berlin Wall, appears to want to defect, but the evidence is contradictory. Stok wants the British to handle his defection and asks for one of their agents, Harry Palmer, to smuggle him out of East Germany.—Dave Jenkins <david.jenkins@smallworld.co.uk>

Plot Keywords: spy, cold war, berlin, 1960s, film noir, thriller, british film ...

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#14. Sun Alley (2000)

Storyline: A group of kids grow up on the short, wrong (east) side of the Sonnenallee in Berlin, right next to one of the few border crossings between East and West reserved for German citizens. The antics of these kids, their families, of the "West German" friends and relatives who come to visit, and of the East German border guards, all serve to illustrate the absurdity of everyday life on the Sonnenallee, and therefore throughout the former East Germany.—GMeleJr

Plot Keywords: youth, coming of age, romance, comedy, 1970s, rebellion, friendship ...

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#15. Torn Curtain (1966)

Storyline: Professor Michael Armstrong is heading to Copenhagen, Denmark to attend a physics conference accompanied by his assistant and fiancée Sarah Sherman. Once arrived however, Michael informs her that he may be staying for awhile and she should return home. She follows him and realizes he's actually heading to East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain. She follows him there and is shocked when he announces that he's defecting to the East after the U.S. government cancelled his research project. In fact, Michael is there to obtain information from a renowned East German scientist. Once the information is obtained, he and Sarah now have to make their way back to the West.

Plot Keywords: spy, cold war, thriller, suspense, usa, 1960s, scientist ...

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