KINO favorites: Top 10 German science fiction films

This oddball of a film from 2003 is based on a legendary German TV series from the 1960s. Directors Michael Braun and Theo Mezger combined sequences from the original with a narration by TV host Elke Heidenreich. The trash movie is cult.

In this ambitious production from 2010, director Lars Kraume depicts a dystopian vision of the future. Set between 2012 and 2020, the film tells the story of two sisters facing the collapse of Europe. Surprisingly, many of the ideas of the movie are now reality, such as the refugee crisis, a politically divided society and a widening gap between the rich and the poor.

"Pandorum" also explores how humans deal with an overpopulated world. Director Christian Alvart offers a classic science-fiction solution: the last survivors of humanity leave aboard a spaceship with the mission to establish a colony on an Earth-like planet named Tanis. The movie includes aliens, psychoses and many surprising twists.

In Roland Emmerich's debut film, a European-American crew on a space station explores the effects of weather on the Earth - and clashes with the military. The filmmaker known for his Hollywood blockbusters had organized a "modest" budget of over a million German marks for his thesis film in 1984 - still way more than his fellow students - and directed this impressive science-fiction thriller.

In this 1924 science-fiction movie with elements of fantasy, director Robert Wiene imagined the future of medicine. Orlac, a pianist who has lost his hands in an accident, gets new ones transplanted from a recently executed murderer. It drives him mad. This Expressionist silent film shot in Vienna also envisions the future of psychology.

"First Spaceship on Venus" was the first film set in the future that was produced by the East German DEFA studios. The Earth is threatened by a nuclear catastrophe. A spaceship with an international crew heads to Venus to stop the disaster. Director Kurt Maetzig directed it during the Cold War, in 1960, and the film hints at the world's political situation of the time.

This very ambitious and expensive science-fiction fantasy was directed by Tom Tykwer, along with Lilly and Lana Wachowski. Four of the six episodes of the plot are set in the past and two in the future; the story interweaves the actions and destinies of different characters. The complex film was mainly produced by Germany, and co-produced by the US, China, and Singapore.

It's a classic film premise: a young man wakes up with no memory in a dark world. Shortly afterward, he meets a young woman in the same situation. They uncover a fascist system which imposes its views through brainwashing. Özgür Yildirim's film offers a modern look, with a high-paced edit, unusual camera perspectives and sound effects.

The 2011 film "Hell" is set in 2016: A violent solar storm has turned the world into a wasteland. The climate catastrophe has destroyed society. Survivors fight for the last resources; some rely on cannibalism in the absence of food. The debut feature of Swiss filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum is a visually impressive post-apocalyptic thriller.

Rainer Erler's science fiction film from 1977 combines the classic ingredients of the genre: a spaceship that loses contact with Earth and crew members fighting each other to death. When the survivors come back to Earth, they find it destroyed by catastrophes. Through depictions of technological progress, "Operation Ganymed" perfectly demonstrates that science-fiction always describes the present.