Highest-Rated Movies about 'East Germany'

The Lives of Others (2006), One, Two, Three (1961), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Good Bye Lenin! (2003), Never Look Away (2018), The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965), Bridge of Spies (2015), This Ain't California (2012) ... 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: spy, political thriller, 1980s, iron curtain, year 1984, berlin wall, murder ...

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#2. One, Two, Three (1961)

Storyline: Post-war Berlin is the microcosm of the polarization of West and East; American and Soviet. C.R. MacNamara's Coca-Cola's head of West Berlin operations, His life goes into a spin when he must deal with the visit of Scarlett Hazeltine; the 17yo spoilt daughter of his boss. On the same day Mac hears Mr. & Mrs. Hazeltine will be iarriving in a day, he also learns Scarlett's married Otto Ludwig Piffl, a staunch East German Communist. Mac also learns Scarlett's pregnant, Mac has to get Otto, and turn him into a respectable young man for the soon-to-be arriving boss... and Otto's father-in-law.

Plot Keywords: berlin germany, iron curtain, based on play, cold war, cold war era, american in europe, coca cola ...

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#3. 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: character name in title, limousine, trailer park, gay, drag, east germany, gay interest ...

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#4. 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: coma, capitalism, political activism, berlin wall, death of mother, communism, berlin germany ...

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#5. 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: east germany, painter, doctor, pregnancy, communism, death of father, male nudity ...

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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: east germany, double agent, cold war, british intelligence, based on novel, berlin wall, double cross ...

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#7. Bridge of Spies (2015)

Storyline: In the cold war, a lawyer, James B. Donovan is recruited by the CIA and involved in an intense negotiation mission to release and exchange a CIA U-2 spy-plane pilot, Francis G. Powers. The pilot was arrested alive after his plane was shot down by the Soviet Union during a mission and stays in the company of a KGB intelligence officer, Rudolf Abel, who was arrested for espionage in the US.

Plot Keywords: lawyer, negotiation, cold war, berlin wall, berlin germany, spying, border crossing ...

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#8. 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: german, east germany, skateboard, place name in title, friend, group of friends, friendship ...

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#9. Top Secret! (1984)

Storyline: This time Zucker and Abrahams are spoofing, most notably, Elvis films and WWII spy movies. Val Kilmer stars as Nick Rivers, a handsome American 50s-style rock and roll singer. While performing in East Germany, he falls in love with a beautiful heroine and becomes involved with the French Resistance.

Plot Keywords: reverse footage, cow, spoof, rock star, plane, gunfight, firing squad ...

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#10. Jacob the Liar (1974)

Storyline: A Jewish ghetto in central Europe, 1944. By coincidence, Jakob Heym eavesdrops on a German radio broadcast announcing the Soviet Army is making slow by steady progress towards central Europe. In order to keep his companion in misfortune, Mischa, from risking his life for a few potatoes, he tells him what he heard and announces that he is in possession of a radio - in the ghetto a crime punishable by death. It doesn't take long for word of Jakob's secret to spread - suddenly, there is new hope and something to live for - and so Jakob finds himself in the uncomforting position of having to come up with more and more stories.—c.winter

Plot Keywords: year 1944, name in title, male name in title, cellar, attic, sick child, actor ...

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#11. 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: reference to rembrandt, latex gloves, money, police harassment, surveillance, female doctor, year 1980 ...

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#12. Spy Game (2001)

Storyline: CIA operative Nathan Muir (Redford) is on the brink of retirement when he finds out that his protege Tom Bishop (Pitt) has been arrested in China for espionage. No stranger to the machinations of the CIA's top echelon, Muir hones all his skills and irreverent manner in order to find a way to free Bishop. As he embarks on his mission to free Bishop, Muir recalls how he recruited and trained the young rookie, at that time a sergeant in Vietnam, their turbulent times together as operatives and the woman who threatened their friendship.

Plot Keywords: cia, espionage, mentor protege relationship, rogue agent, shanghai china, gun, rifle ...

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#13. 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: architect, partnership, parenting, gender roles, friendship, east germany, divorce ...

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#14. 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: berlin germany, funeral, based on novel, city name in title, spy, cold war, sequel ...

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#15. The Debt (2010)

Storyline: The espionage thriller begins in 1997, as shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (Helen Mirren) and Stefan (Tom Wilkinson) about their former colleague David (Ciarán Hinds). All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1965, when the trio (portrayed, respectively, by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas, and Sam Worthington) tracked down Nazi war criminal Vogel (Jesper Christensen) in East Berlin. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team's mission was accomplished - or was it? The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations.

Plot Keywords: israel, secret mission, tel aviv israel, war criminal, holocaust survivor, berlin wall, told in flashback ...

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