Lots of Love
Film Series

Whether in the form of friendship, duty or loyalty – love is much more than just a romantic feeling. Over the course of twelve months, our film series will paint a multifaceted picture of people who find and stand by each other.

Goethe on Demand: Filmseries “Lots of Love” (Key Visual) – The graphic contains four film stills: 1. Three people hugging; 2. A man and a woman kissing; 3. A boy sitting alone on an overturned sofa; 4. A man and a woman sitting next to each other, she wearing a white veil. © Salzgeber / Sehr Gute Filme / SiMa Film / DEFA-Stiftung, Herbert Kroiss, Manfred Damm

From grand gestures to small moments – hardly any film doesn’t touch on the theme of love. Yet love is much more than a romantic feeling. Love means devotion, trust and responsibility.

Our reality and the media are currently dominated by wars, crises and political upheaval. Society is more polarised than ever, with hate and agitation part of everyday media life. The film series Lots of Love aims to counter the bad news with a ray of light, at least on screen, showing the most beautiful feeling in the world in many different facets – romantic love stories, unconventional relationships, stories of care, friendship and loyalty.

Over a period of twelve months, the film series Lots of Love will share love stories with us and show how people find and stand by each other despite what may divide them.

Films

January
Orphea in Love

Director: Axel Ranisch
Year: 2022
Genre: Musical, opera film
Length: 107 min.

Seeking to overcome the dreariness of their everyday lives, call centre agent Nele and small-time crook Kolya discover each other as soulmates through music, opera and dance. In this fusion of opera and film, they soon have to face trials of mythological dimensions.

February
Seven Freckles

Director: Herrmann Zschoche
Year: 1978
Genre: Drama, Coming of age
Length: 79 min.

Karoline and Robby experience first love in a GDR holiday camp. The daily routine is strictly regulated, but they find the freedom they need during play rehearsals. The film approaches the longings and problems of youth, away from political reality.

Photo (detail): © DEFA-Stiftung
March
Bones and Names

Director: Fabian Stumm
Year: 2023
Genre: Drama
Length: 109 min.

The long-standing relationship between Boris and Jonathan is crumbling. The actor and the writer have slowly grown apart. An intelligent and entertaining reflection on relationships and life plans that must be constantly renegotiated.

Photo (detail): © Salzgeber
April
One in a Million

Director: Joya Thome
Year: 2022
Genre: Documentary
Length: 85 min.

On the one hand, an idolised social media star in the USA; on the other, a huge fan in Germany: this sensitive coming-of-age film captures the growth of two girls thousands of kilometres apart and allows us to share in their lives.

Photo (detail): © Flare Film/Lydia Richter 2022
May
Three

Director: Tom Tykwer
Year: 2010
Genre: Drama
Length: 119 min.

Their relationship has worn a little thin over twenty years; Hanna and Simon seem to live more in the past than in their belief in a shared future. When they fall in love with the same man, the trio finds a surprising solution.

Photo (detail): © X-Filme Creative Pool/Berlin
June
Kaddish for a Friend

Director: Leo Khasin
Year: 2011
Genre: Drama
Length: 94 min.

Ali is new to the Kreuzberg neighbourhood and takes part in a dare: breaking into the home of a Russian-Jewish neighbour. In order to prevent his deportation, he makes amends, and a touching story of unlikely friendship unfolds.

Photo (detail): © SiMa Film
July
Relativity

Director: Mariko Minoguchi
Year: 2019
Genre: Drama
Length: 111 min.

“Relativity implies that the future and the past have the same validity for the present,” says physicist Aron. Shortly thereafter, he dies in the arms of his girlfriend Nora during a bank robbery, whereupon the exciting love and crime drama, undertakes to prove his theory of how everything is connected, the past with the future.

Photo (detail): © Trimafilm
August
Anima – My Father's Dresses

Director: Uli Decker
Year: 2022
Genre: Drama
Length: 99 min.

Uli Decker films her father’s secret: he was a clandestine cross-dresser. The director interweaves the story of this ambivalent father figure with her own. A delicate, personal film about social conventions and the search for identity.

Photo (detail): © Flare Film / Privat archiv: Familie Decker
September
Raw Materials

Director: Tuna Kaptan
Year: 2023
Genre: Drama
Length: 86 min.

During a luxury construction project, an illegally employed worker is killed. Site manager Lutz covers up the accident, but the victim’s daughter is desperately searching for her father. An ambivalent relationship develops, revolving around guilt, responsibility and unexpected intimacy.

Photo (detail): © Ben Bernhard / Wood Water Films
October
Beyond the Blue Border

Director: Sarah Neumann
Year: 2024
Genre: Drama
Length: 105 min.

Swimming 50 kilometres across the Baltic Sea – Hanna crosses the inter-German border for her best friend Andreas. This dramatic adventure tells the story of a close friendship under the burden of harsh repression in the GDR.

Photo (detail): © Jakob Fliedner
November
The Legend of Paul and Paula

Director: Heiner Carow
Year: 1973
Genre: Drama
Length: 105 min.

Paula is a single mother and falls in love with the discontented political functionary Paul. She is determined to find her happiness, while Paul hesitates at first. The DEFA classic is a plea for the right to individual happiness in a socialist state.

© DEFA-Stiftung/Herbert Kroiss, Manfred Damm
December
Happy

Director: Carolin Genreith
Year: 2016
Genre: Documentary
Length: 89 min.

Year after year, to escape his loneliness, Dieter Genreith travels to Thailand. It was there that he met Tukta, who is about the same age as Carolin, Dieter’s daughter. In her very personal documentary, the director attempts to understand her father’s new life.

Photo (detail): © CORSO Film- und Fernsehproduktion