The best Peter Simonischek’s drama movies

Barents Sea, August 12th, 2000. During a Russian naval exercise, and after suffering a serious accident, the K-141 Kursk submarine sinks with 118 crew members on board. While the few sailors who are still alive barely manage to survive, their families push for accurate information and a British officer struggles to obtain from the Russian government a permit to attempt a rescue before it is late. But general incompetence are against all their efforts.

Gwendolyn Shepherd is a normal 16-year-old, but her family holds a secret: A time-travel gene is expressed in the clan inherited, but not every member of the family is blessed with. Everyone is certain that Gwen's cousin Charlotte has the gene. However, someday Gwendolyn suddenly finds herself in London at the end of the 19th century and realizes that it is her, who was born a time traveler. While she is not very enthusiastic about it, she will do everything possible to solve the ancient mysteries of the red ruby.

Gwen has just discovered, that she's the final member of the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve. Now she has to juggle with constant trips to the past, her relationships with Gideon and figuring out dark secrets surrounding the Circle.

Without warning a father comes to visit his daughter abroad. He believes that she lost her humor and therefore surprises her with a rampage of jokes.

A dramatic retelling of the life of Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, one of the most fascinating monarchs of modern times. From his accession to the throne at the age of 18 to his passionate support of Richard Wagner and his music. From his ingenuous political commitment to his obsessive construction of extravagant palaces and to his gradual withdrawal into a lonely dream world, an epic narrative of breathtaking grandeur.

This German musical drama – German if we speak about the production country, and international when it comes to its essence – stars Peter Simonischek, the incredible mature actor who played the lead in Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, which became one of the most notable premieres at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. His character in Crescendo resembles the one he played in Ade’s film, and if in the latter he portrayed a wonderful father to his daughter, the former features him as a father to the entire symphonic orchestra assembled from young Israeli-Palestinian musicians. The conductor tries to turn this potentially volatile ensemble into a professional unit, guided by his own principles of an artistic director – but that doesn’t work – and he has to engage his human feelings towards those young ‘participants’ of someone else’s war. In the end, music – the eternal art – will help them make peace.

Director Gotz Spielmann follows his acclaimed thriller Revanche with this visually captivating character study, in which a family reunion at a mountainside inn lays bare old wounds and reveals long-held secrets.

Lou Andreas-Salomé, the woman who enraptured 19th century Europe’s greatest minds, recounts her life to Ernst Pfeiffer in this German film directed by Cordula Kablitz-Post. A published novelist, poet and essayist, Salomé’s desire to live a life free from convention scandalized society but spurred genius and passion in others, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Rée and her lover, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Under the tutelage of Sigmund Freud, she became the first female psychoanalyst.

Ricky spent years behind bars after taking the rap for his brother Rafael and his buddy Latif after a failed robbery. Now, Latif wants to express gratitude by letting Ricky in on a coup that will bring lots of money. After some hesitation, Ricky agrees, and gets his brother Rafael on board. Everything runs smoothly, until police officer Diana turns up on the scene. A nerve-wracking cat and mouse game is set in motion. Director Özgür Yildirim’s most recent film offers insight into Frankfurt’s gangster world. As before in CHIKO – which also starred Moritz Bleibtreu – he portrays the daily life of the criminal underground scene in a large German city.

80-year-old Ali Ungar comes across a book by a former SS officer describing his wartime activities in Slovakia. He realises his parents were executed by him. He sets out to take revenge but finds instead his 70-year-old son, Georg, a retired teacher. Georg, who had avoided his father all his life, decides to find out more about him and offers Ali to be his interpreter.

Lene Thurner is standing on a train platform in Munich. She has to decide: back to Berlin where she lives, or toward the south, where at the foot of the Alps her family lives on the lonely farm “Hierankl”.