Movies by Frederick Lau

Hotel Desire
Antonia is a single mother who works as a hotel maid in Berlin. A normal hot summer day takes a dramatic turn when she crosses paths with a particular guest of the hotel, famous blind portrait painter Julius Pass.

The Wave
A school teacher discusses types of government with his class. His students find it too boring to repeatedly go over national socialism and believe that dictatorship cannot be established in modern Germany. He starts an experiment to show how easily the masses can become manipulated.

Victoria
A young Spanish woman who has newly moved to Berlin finds her flirtation with a local guy turn potentially deadly as their night out with his friends reveals a dangerous secret.

Close to the Horizon
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.

Head Under Water
Something terrible is about to happen in a small town in Germany. Nobody knows the reason why, except one person: Rico Bartsch. The 15-year old grammar school pupil, an absolute outsider, is in love with the most beautiful girl at his school. What in the beginning is a longing that can never be fulfilled will come true at the end of the story. Beautiful Regine will beg for Rico’s love. Until then several inhabitants of the town will die an unnatural death...

Rising High
Charting the rise and fall of three corrupt real estate agents who accumulate absurd wealth in no time but fall into a vortex of fraud, greed and drugs.

Neger, Neger, Schornsteinfeger
This drama is based on the childhood memories of Hans Jürgen Massaquoi, who was one of the few black native Germans in Nazi Germany. In 1935 at the age of nine, he lives with his German mother in a small flat in Hamburg's working class district Barmbek, while his father and grandfather had left the country. Although the boy is not persecuted by the Nazis and dreams of joining the Hitler Youth, his skin color makes him a target for racist abuse...

Sweethearts
It's double trouble when fate and an ill-executed diamond robbery throw Mel and Franny together in a race and chase against time.

Gutland
Early one summer morning a young man, with a secret stashed away in a duffel bag, emerges from the forest. In a nearby village he asks around for work, but the farmers, suspicious to the point of hostility, are not very forthcoming. Only when Lucy, the mayor’s unruly daughter, takes a liking to him, does the village change its attitude: he is promptly offered a job as a farmhand and a caravan to live in. As time passes and he is gradually integrated into the community, it emerges that he’s not the only one with a past to hide. Something sini...

The Captain
Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.

Open the Wall
A lighthearted look at the opening of the border crossing of Bornholmer Straße in Berlin from the point of view of the confused border guards.

Der weiße Kobold
Haulage dispatcher Freddy Sternthaler suddenly finds himself hopelessly involved in an absurd dispute in the art scene and experiences what is probably the worst night of his life on an odyssey through Vienna.

Chantal in Fairyland
Chantal is at the beginning of her career as an influencer when she steps through a mirror and finds herself in a fairy tale. She identifies as Sleeping Beauty. Her best friend Zeynep follows her through the mirror. Chantal’s goal, naturally, is to find a man, definitely a prince. Perhaps she will marry Prince Bosco. She already has a wedding gown, but he seems more interested in men. Her friend, Aladdin (Mido Kotaini), has a magic lamp; he rubs it, and people appear. She works to finish making a flying carpet. There is a wicked witch, Sansa...

Ein todsicherer Plan
A married self-employed carpenter on the verge of ruin raids the bank that did not extend his credit.

Dreamgirls
Parallel love stories of three young women in Berlin: Hannah - an unhappy attorney who sexually demeans herself in order to get at least some love and romance, Leni who runs a coffee shop and has just been ditched by her long term boyfriend, and Vivienne who ends up falling in love with a puppy-eyed pasta designer with 21 dogs.

One for the Road
As a construction manager, drinking is more of a normality for Mark than not drinking. In addition to his work on construction sites, during business dinners and sprawling Berlin party nights, there is always a reason for him to fully indulge in alcohol intoxication. When he tries to drive his car out of a no-parking zone in a drunken stupor one night, he is promptly checked and immediately loses his driver's license. For Mark, this is reason enough to make a bet with his best friend Nadim: He wants to manage not to touch any alcohol until h...

Seitenwechsel
The relationship of Alex and Teresa has hit hard times. After 15 years of marriage, the passionate football coach and the sensitive psychoanalyst do not respect each other's needs anymore, and thus they are arguing constantly. Even a divorce seems possible, but then something unbelievable happens: After another ugly fight during a big thunderstorm, they switch bodies. Trapped, they have to play each other's roles, and chaos is bound to follow.

Starfighter

Nichts für Feiglinge

Punk Berlin 1982
1980: 19 year old Robert, fed up with Hippy phoniness and bourgeoise narrow mindedness alike, flees the German provinces for West Berlin. A tour de force through the glorious dirt of West Berlin ensues. Full of sex, drugs, love and PUNK.