Content from SWR

Startups are using AI to create avatars that allow relatives to talk with their loved ones after they have died. An exploration of a profound human desire and the consequences of turning the dream of immortality into a product.

A 9th century woman of English extraction born in the German city of Ingelheim disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks.

The German ex-top model candidate Luna imagined it completely differently. She stands at the train station in Linz with all her luggage because she was promised a place in an influencer shared apartment. But Luna has too few clicks, too few followers and too little fame, which is why she's thrown out of the shared apartment before she's even been inside. Things are also going differently than expected for programmer Heribert, because he actually wanted to present the app idea at a pitching contest at Ars Electronica Center that would free him and his development team from his boring help desk job. But his pitch is at first pathetic, then embarrassing and ends in a faux pas with a shitstorm. And so he and his colleagues are thrown out before they can even develop. When the completely inexperienced but fearless would-be influencer Luna Heribert discovers first in the viral video and then in real life in Linz, she makes him an offer because she knows: we are better together than alone!

The main character of the documentary is a 16-year-old Kurdish girl who, after the tragic death of her mother on the Polish-Belarusian border, has to become a mother to her 4 younger brothers.

Explores Leni Riefenstahl's artistic legacy and her complex ties to the Nazi regime, juxtaposing her self-portrayal with evidence suggesting awareness of the regime's atrocities.

While on a Mediterranean vacation, a seemingly happy boyfriend and girlfriend find their connection to one another tested as they bond with another couple.

John Irving's literary worlds are satirically exaggerated, socially critical, unexpectedly magical. But how do these dazzling, sometimes bizarre, narrative worlds emerge? A unique insight into his writing workshop and a search of the places and people who have become part of his stories.

Train driver Nurlan’s heading to Baku for the last time before retirement, but on his fateful journey around the neighborhoods of the city his train snags a blue bra off a washing line. To escape from his lonely existence, Nurlan embarks on the most adventurous journey of his life: to find the owner of this perky piece of underwear. He rents a small room in Baku and begins his quest to find his “Cinderella”.

A promising career with the police, a baby on the way... Marc's life seems to be right on track. Then he meets fellow policeman Kay and during their regular jogs Marc experiences a never-before-felt sense of ease and effortlessness – and what it means to fall in love with another man.

Franz Schubert's "Winterreise" is considered the pinnacle of German art song. Hans Zender (1936 - 2019) arranged the cycle in 1993, and his version for tenor and small orchestra brings to light emotions that pulsate beneath the surface in Schubert. Similar to Hans Zender, the choreographer Christian Spuck is also concerned with a journey into the interior of the human being.

Elaha, 22, believes she must restore her supposed innocence before she weds. A surgeon could reconstruct her hymen but she cannot afford such an operation. She asks herself: why does she have to be a virgin anyway, and for whom?

Michaela, an epileptic, enrolls in college to study education. She goes off her medication and soon begins hearing voices and seeing apparitions that tell her to avoid religious objects, although she is devoutly Roman Catholic. One priest scoffs at the idea that Michaela could be possessed by demons, but a younger pastor arranges an exorcism for the young woman.

In the young Federal Republic of Germany, which in the late 1950s in politics and justice is still interspersed with only superficially purified Nazi cliques, leads the Hessian Attorney General Fritz Bauer a lonely fight against the coverup of Nazi crimes and the restorative policy of the government Adenauer - he is firmly convinced that only in this way can the young democracy be consolidated. Not only his attitude, but also his temperament make Bauer vulnerable, again and again resistance forms from politics, intelligence services and the judiciary against the lone fighter.

As Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels creates films and pictures used to prepare the Germans for Total War and the Holocaust. When the war is lost, he conceives his last staging, the most radical propaganda act still possible to him.

After his return from World War I, there is no more work for Fidelis in his parents' butcher shop in Swabia, Germany. To make a better life for himself and Eva, the former fiancée of a friend who fell in battle, he emigrates to Argus, a town in North Dakota, in the United States. The artist Delphine, in whom Eva will find a friend, also moves there. To relieve Eva's homesickness, Fidelis founds a singing club.

Theatre of War is an essay on how to represent war, performed by former enemies. British and Argentinian veterans of the Falklands war come together to discuss, rehearse and re-enact their memories 35 years after the conflict.

In the summer of 1985, an American movie also ignites young people in the GDR: "Beatstreet" ensures full cinemas and subsequently a new phenomenon in the streets - breakdancing! The 18-year-old Frank is electrified and founds the "Break Beaters" with like-minded friends in Dessau. The troupe dances on the streets and soon forms the spearhead of the breakdance movement in the GDR. But sooner than they would have liked, the street dancers came to the attention of the state. And they like to keep control over the leisure activities of their youth. Because what the GDR cannot ban, it tries to control - ergo the project must become socialist! So breakdancing becomes "acrobatic show dancing" and the "Break Beaters" are built up as a showcase troupe, sent around the country and soon celebrated like rock stars. But fame comes at a price and Frank slowly realizes that the price is pretty high.

The fantastic love story of beeboy and flowergirl, whom are falling in love hopelessly. A life together requires them to face the hard reality, which soon threatens to break them apart as well as their love.

Five young Ukrainians discuss life following the Maidan Revolution of 2014. Not all fought in the Russian-Ukrainian war, but it, regardless, shattered their life plans. Representing 'Generation Maidan', they face the question of how to cope with experiences of violence, how to go on. A local theatre director produces Hamlet, wherein they can use Shakespeare’s tragic character as a mirror and face their traumas onstage. For them, 'to be or not to be' is not simply text but an existential dilemma with no clear answer.

Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old student in Sweden, started a school strike for the climate as her question for adults was, if you don’t care about my future on earth, why should I care about my future in school? Within months, her strike evolved into a global movement as the quiet teenage girl on the autism spectrum becomes a world-famous activist.

The story of Franz Kafka's life from different perspectives. Presenting his difficult relationship with his domineering father Hermann, his deep friendship with Max Brod and his various love affairs.

Every night, the Mainz police teams go out into the unknown - to help, calm down, de-escalate, make arrests or take a close look at crimes and deaths. They often expect unusual missions. The SWR documentary series provides an exclusive and unadulterated insight into the demanding work of the Mainz police. It shows the police officers behind the uniform.

The Animanimals are animals with little quirks. Each time, a different animal faces an absurd adventure that could only happen to them.

Summer 1944. Walter Proska is about to return to the Eastern Front when his train is blown up by partisans. Together with a scattered bunch of German soldiers, cut off from the front, he awaits certain death while the commands of his superior Willi Stehauf are becoming more and more senseless and inhuman.

In the midst of the impassable landscape at the foot of the Alps, a young group of serious offenders is undergoing an experiential educational program intended to rehabilitate them. All of a sudden, a member of the program dies a violent death. Nobody knows exactly what happened, and the youths face a difficult decision. Should they wait for the authorities to recover the body and investigate the crime? Or, escape and take their fate into their own hands? The group doesn't have much in common with each other, though one thing unites them; all of them have had really bad experiences with the authorities and don‘t expect to be treated fairly. Since they don't know who the perpetrator is, they only have one option: to run. Up the mountains, up the highest peaks of the Alps. It seems hopeless until they stumble onto a complex cave system where they can find shelter from wind, weather, and their pursuers.

A seemingly sheltered family living behind the Berlin Wall in East Germany begins to crumble, in a climate of fear, mistrust, and shocking secrets.9

20-year-old Janine Grabowski disappears in a small Bavarian town near the Czech border. While all evidence indicates that Janine secretly wanted to leave the backcountry, her mother, Michelle, becomes increasingly convinced that there's something amiss. Michelle's missing person's report is quickly filed away by the police. So the single mother is forced to investigate at her own risk. The longer she hunts for an answer to Janine's disappearance, the more she discovers about her daughter and the people with whom she kept company. She begins to doubt whether Janine even wants to be found.

Tom und das Erdbeermarmeladebrot mit Honig is a German television series.

Jannik and Tai, mobbed by their classmates, are two 17­-year­-old students who one day find their school principal drunk as a skunk on the street and lock him up in his own apartment. Tai enjoys playing “God” and forces the teacher to perform a soul striptease. A hell trip for Jannik, who doesn’t know if Tai will return his tender infatuation. An affectionate and quirky coming ­of­ age story full of surprises.

Successful London doctor Leslie Cramer travels to rural Scarborough to visit her grandmother Fiona and attend the engagement party of her childhood friend Gwen. The sleepy provincial town is in high spirits after the cruel murder of a student. Meanwhile, old Fiona seems to be plagued by guilty feelings rooted in her youth. The situation is getting worse. After a fierce dispute over Gwen's engagement party, Fiona is found dead the following day.

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, most people thought the conflict would be over by Christmas; they could not imagine how wrong they were. An attack in Sarajevo ended up becoming a snowball that swept the world: a new kind of warfare had begun, waged with techniques and means never seen before. By November 1918, ten million people had died and the political map of the planet had been redrawn.

The clock is ticking... When a woman is bludgeoned to death, detectives face mounting pressure to crack the case and catch a killer. Intense crime drama inspired by real-life cases.