In the not-too-distant future Berlin is shocked by a series of spectacular suicides; a policeman's investigations lead him to a beautiful, enigmatic woman and the revelation of a sinister plot to manipulate the population through mass hypnosis.
A hitchhiker, carrying a suitcase full of toys, is given a ride by a wealthy businessman in his 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 Convertible. The two first talk about the businessman's life and the hitchhiker's hobby of collecting toys. Then everything gets out of hand.
A German woman and a former French prisoner of war live in 1950s Germany. Instead of playing a role in rebuilding her country, the heroine remains preoccupied with her personal affairs.
An unsuspecting student thinks that the wife of an arms dealer is unhappy, but in reality she appears as cynical as her capitalist man.
A fake TV show directed by Martin Buchhorn.
A woman flies to South Africa for the funeral of her younger sister, whom she loved but had rarely had a good relationship with.
A young father takes his son on a journey away from Buenos Aires and through the strange and wondrous world of rural South America. The man is unemployed and separated from the boy's mother. The trip teaches the man to rediscover both the world outside urban Argentina, and also to rediscover his son.
Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi once more explores the dilemma of intellectualism at the expense of humanity in 1982's Imperative. The story concerns math professor Robert Powell, who feels that there is something lacking in his ever-so-precise life. What is missing is truth, specifically philosophical truth. Thus he philosophizes at great length, allowing director Zanussi plenty of room for didactic but little room for warmth. Leading ladies Brigette Fossey and Leslie Caron occasionally melt through the cold logic of Imperative.
Follows the life of the famous German politician, writer, and communist activist, Gustav Regler, from his birth in 1898, in the Saar, through the two World Wars and his many travels, until his death in 1963 in India.
A very stylized TV version of the Fassbinder play. The set consists of a few pieces of furniture in front of a large screen on which coastal scenery is back projected. Geesche is a nineteenth century woman who wants to have a mind of her own. She defies convention and will do anything to achieve her freedom from oppression by her family and friends. (synopsis written by Will Gilbert)
