MDR

Leipzig, in December 1734: Christmas brings the Bach family together. The first snow has fallen and the children are happy about the arrival of their older half-brothers. Meanwhile, Anna Magdalena supports her husband Johann Sebastian Bach. The cantor believes in his mission to bring the divine closer to people with his music. But to achieve this, the “Christmas Oratorio” must be finished on time.

Primary school teacher Sabine Schuster suffers a sudden stroke during a theatre rehearsal with her pupils. Doctors are able to save her life in hospital, but the path back to everyday life is difficult and uncertain. For Sabine's husband Stefan, a forester, nothing is as it was either. While Sabine has to laboriously relearn things that are taken for granted, such as speaking or walking, in rehab, Stefan adapts the house in Ilmenau, Thuringia, to his wife's needs in the hope that the familiar surroundings will do her good. But Sabine is so disappointed by her condition that she initially resists everything that will help her recover. Out of shame, she avoids contact with her usual surroundings. She misses her work as a teacher and hiking. Seemingly lost in the mill of the care system, the new nurse Iryna, organized by Stefan, brings new hope with her very own, optimistic and demanding manner.

In the 2024 elections in the eastern German states of Saxony and Thuringia, the right-wing extremist party AfD and the socio-culturally right-wing but socio-economically left-wing party BSW performed strongly. A similar result is predicted for Brandenburg. What will the enormous voter support for AfD and BSW mean for the economy, society, culture and local politics in eastern Germany in the future? Will the east of the country become increasingly ungovernable due to the decline of the established parties and the electoral successes of AfD and BSW, will the social mood change or can new compromises be found? In search of answers, the filmmakers accompanied people from Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg for several months, who presented their personal perspectives and life situations and gave insight into their worries, fears, wishes and expectations.

It's a hot, dry summer in Klein-Schappleben. Micha, a pretentious video game designer, wants to turn his late parents' dilapidated guesthouse into a luxury hotel with a wellness oasis. The villagers are skeptical, even though Micha loudly promises new jobs and prosperity. But his plans start to falter when the groundwater in the village dries up.

2024 is likely to be a decisive year for Sahra Wagenknecht's political future. In the arena of power, she might assume a role that she is already very familiar with. In the early years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Sahra Wagenknecht became the "most famous face" of the PDS, the successor party to the SED. Yet, even as the youngest member of the party's executive board, she was considered a "disruptive factor." She is unyielding and swims against the tide. Sahra Wagenknecht does not distance herself from Stalinism, nor from the Berlin Wall, and wishes for a reformed GDR.

A look at the past, present and future of NATO, which has shaped Europe's security and defense policies since 1949.

Tammi is annoyed. Instead of traveling to Formentera and presenting her followers with dreamy photos, her mother Simone takes her to the middle of nowhere to attend the funeral of her grandfather Jackel, a complete stranger. There she also met her aunt Britta and her children. There isn't even cell phone reception in the boring amusement park, and Tammi has little or nothing to do with her cousin Umbo and Cousin Cookie. But suddenly something incredible happens: During a thunderstorm, three worn-out ghost train characters come to life - the witch, the giant and Rumpelstiltskin. Tammi recognizes them as perfect allies to wreak havoc and finally escape this boring wasteland. But unfortunately she did the math without her own family and the stubbornness of the spirits. Suddenly everyone has claimed the amusement park for themselves and a wild chaos ensues.

A critical and objective look back at Ukraine's tumultuous and tragic history, from its mythical founding in the 10th century to the Russian invasion in 2022.

The AfD, founded in 2013, is a right-wing party that has become increasingly radicalized in recent years. To illustrate this, only those who enthusiastically joined the party in its early years are heard. They describe what they looked for and found in the party, but also how and why they left, disillusioned and frightened by the AfD's developments. How did they experience the party's radicalization process? How did friends and family react? When and why did they decide to turn their back on the party? How difficult was the exit process? The documentary provides an illuminating inside view of this party, which has been driving the established parties and the political establishment ahead of it for over ten years, gives viewers a unique look into the AfD's chronicle and world of thought and is at the same time a film about the mechanisms of political radicalization.

Hardly any other game has been as fervently debated as "Cyberpunk 2077". It came out late, was hardly playable on some consoles, and the designers received death threads afterwards. Now they are planning their comeback: with "Phantom Liberty". Once again, superstar Keanu Reeves is in the game - and Hollywood icon Idris Elba. "Inside the Game" follows the designers of CD Projekt Red not only at their workspace in Warsaw, but also during the first presentations of the demo version in Los Angeles and Cologne.

Four female politicians with East German backgrounds - Anke Domscheit-Berg, Manuela Schwesig, Yvonne Magwas and Frauke Petry - analyse German history and their own life stories.

Meetings with readers, acquaintances and contemporaries of writer Uwe Johnson at the places where he lived. Volker Koepp, who is also from Pomerania, looks for Johnson’s sophisticated literary voice in the landscapes of the region they both stem from.