The best Jannik Schümann’s drama movies

Jessica knows exactly what her life is supposed to look like and where it takes her. But then she meets Danny. He has a complicated past and could confuse all their plans. Jessica has to decide.

In the aftermath of World War II, a British colonel and his wife are assigned to live in Hamburg during the post-war reconstruction, but tensions arise with the German widower who lives with them.

While James More is held captive by terrorists in Somalia, thousands of miles away on the Greenland Sea, his lover Danny Flinders prepares to dive herself in a submersible into the deep bottom of the ocean, tormented by the memories of their brief encounter in France and her inability to know his whereabouts.

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.

A strange family: 17-year-old Phil lives with his mother and twin sister in an old mansion on the outskirts of town. When he returns from summer camp, the mood in the mansion has soured somehow. Phil doesn’t worry about it, hanging out with his best friend Kat instead. When he starts to feel attracted to a mysterious new student at school, Phil is plunged into emotional turmoil only exacerbated by the trouble at home.

German students compete to enter one of the country's elite schools.

Hamburg, mid 80s, Alex is a cabby. The sound is hard, pubs are dark and loud, people constantly argue about anything and everything, people smoke all the time, and not just cigarettes. Alex wants love and freedom and sleeps with Dietrich. It's far from being love, but the sex is okay. With Marc, a little person full of dignity, she finds more than that. The rest is struggles with her passengers, the indifferent and the doomed, brutes as other nuisances. This sort of life could go on and on, Alex could drive away from her own life and in doing so lose Marc and not getting rid of Dietrich. Wouldn't there be a small monkey with the same invincible desire for freedom as hers.

Shy, sensitive high school outsider Jakob Moormann is miserably lacking immaterial support at home, where his strict father, uniformed cop Claas, and selfish mother are too busy breaking up to be there for him. Jakob focuses on class dream-girl Hannah, without much luck. His secret recording of himself masturbating gets into class bullies Henry and Erik's hands through the mother's thoughtlessness. The rascals blackmail Jakob and post the video on the Internet. After a raging lecture phase, dad stands up for Jakob, but his life is already wrecked more than anyone realizes.

Is. This. My. Son? No matter how often Tobias Wilke poses this question, there's always only one answer: Yes! Tobias, can't believe his eyes when he comes to the airport to pick up his 17-year-old son Finn – and learns that Finn is now calling herself Helen and wearing girls' clothes. Finn/Helen reveals that she's always was a girl, and that she used her year abroad in San Francisco to pass the "everyday life" test. This is required by law for everyone preparing for the sex reassignment surgery they will undergo upon reaching majority. Reactions from Helen's friends, acquaintances and schoolmates cover the entire gamut from derision to solidarity. Especially Helen's father, a well-known chef, finds it difficult to accept a situation he cannot understand. But Helen nearly always finds the right words - and humor - to counterbalance the ignorance and jeers of those around her. It is the beginning of a long, winding road towards the sexual identity she is convinced is hers.

JESUS CRIES is a modern adaptation of the New Testament. The story is set in a fictitious metropolis in the near future. The First and Third Worlds are reflected in one city. The divide between poor and wealthy continually grows. As insurrection begins, Jesus of Nazareth becomes the political and spiritual force behind change. He is arrested, tortured, and executed. After his death, his disciples are thrown into confusion with feelings of doubt and guilt. They fight over the interpretation of his teachings and their responsibility to his vision. Will they themselves move to action?

A tangled drama of cruelty and manipulation, attraction and love.