Interesting German Films

If you are interested in German culture and maybe even speak enough German to understand the story you might find some of these films quite interesting:

Goodbye Lenin
tells the story about a family in the German Democratic Republic during the fall of the wall in October 1989.
The mother, a devoted socialist has a heart attack and consequently falls into a coma. When she wakes up again, Germany is united and the socialist state doesn't exist any more. The children are told that she has to be protected from any excitement because her life is still at stake.
So her son, Alex, tries to make believe she still is living in her socialist state, he tries to find the now nearly vanished East German products like Spreewald pickles, Mocca Fix Gold and Rotkäppchen sparkling wine and at the same time has to cover up a Coca Cola poster which can be seen from her bedroom window.
This is alright until she wants to have a TV set in her room, now he has to continue to create his own DDR TV show with his friends and the situation starts to become more and more complicated ...
Her some more detailed information in English

Das Leben der Anderen
is another film about life in the socialist part of Germany, in a more serious way.
Essentially it describes the life of a theater writer who is persecuted and spied upon by the
Stasi and their methods to put pressure upon people using the information they were able to get.
Here the story in Englisch

Das Experiment
describes the dynamics of an experiment conducted by simulating a prison situation. The participants are volunteers who are paid for their taking part - half of them are to be prisoners, the others guards. The situation escalates while the film runs along and it seems that the idea came from a real experiment conducted by the University of Stanford which was stopped after only six of actually planned 14 days.
In English.

Die Welle
another film which takes inspiration from an American experiment. The pupils of a school class ask their teacher how the nazist movement could have so much success and so many followers.
So their teacher, Mr Wenger, starts "the wave", where he gradually influences the group dynamics and behavior of the pupils.
English version.
Maria ihm schmeckt's nicht
a comedy about a German-Italian couple and their families, especially the relationship between
the German son-in-law of the Italian father-in-law, brilliantly played by Lino Banfi.
The author of the original book is "Jan Weiler" who also participated in the creation of the plot.
One of my favorite moments was when the main character once again went to sleep on the floating crocodile because it was more comfortable than his assigned bed.
I'm afraid it exists only in German and Italian.