When the lover suddenly disappears from the train without a trace

1 German lesson (Saturday, 3sat, 8:15 p.m.)

Germany shortly after the Second World War. Siggi Jepsen, a young man, has to write an essay in a prison on the topic “The Joys of Duty”.

The sheet remains blank. When he has to repeat the task the next day, this time in a cell as punishment, he obsessively writes down his memories of his father Jens Ole Jepsen.

As a police officer, he was one of the authorities in a northern German village. During the Second World War, he had to convey to his childhood friend, the expressionist artist Max Ludwig Nansen, a painting ban that the Nazis had imposed on him.

He monitors it meticulously and Siggi, eleven years old, is supposed to help him. But Nansen resists – and also relies on the help of Siggi, who is like a son to him.

Ulrich Noethen, Tobias Moretti, Levi Eisenblatt and Johanna Wokalek in the very faithful literary adaptation by Christian Schwochow (“Bad Banks”, “The Tower”) from 2019, which will be broadcast on the 100th birthday of Siegfried Lenz. The film goes beyond National Socialism and gives today’s audience a lot to think about.

2 Ready for the Island (Saturday, One, 9:45 p.m.)

As teenagers, Blandine (Olivia Côte) and Magalie (Laure Calamy) were inseparable, but at some point they lost touch. When their paths cross again 30 years later, the two women revive a dream from back then: a trip to Greece and a vacation in the Cyclades.

The former friends discover that they now not only have completely different ideas about vacation and relaxation, but about life as a whole. The encounter with Bijou (Kristin Scott Thomas) gives the failed nostalgic trip a whole new twist…

The French feel-good comedy gets you in the holiday mood. The idea of ​​using the cult film “In the Intoxication of the Deep” as a plot thread is also nice. Blandine really wants to vacation on the Cyclades island of Amorgos, the location of Luc Besson’s diving epic.

3 Vanished – Do you trust him (Saturday, ARD, 10:05 p.m.)

The archaeologist Alice Monroe (Kaley Cuoco) has an exciting romance: For four years she has been meeting Tom Parker (Sam Claflin) in different locations around the world.

During a vacation in France, she surprises him with news: the longed-for professorship at an elite university in the USA. There she would like to build a life together with Tom, who works for a refugee organization. As they continue their journey to the south of France, Tom disappears without a trace from the moving TGV. Who is this man she thought she knew?

A romantic vacation turns into a nightmare for an American woman. With the four-part thriller series and the American-British lead duo Kaley Cuoco (“The Big Bang Theory”) and Sam Claflin (“The Hunger Games”), director Barnaby Thompson, known as a successful Hollywood producer, shows a good sense of suspense that is reminiscent of masterpieces by Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski.

Also in the middle: Matthias Schweighöfer as the head of an aid organization whose humanitarian facade is beginning to crumble, and Karin Viard as an investigative journalist. However, the film would have benefited from a little less score.

4 Wonka (Sunday, RTL, 8:15 p.m.)

How did the young, illiterate Willy Wonka become the world’s greatest inventor, eccentric magician and chocolate manufacturer?

“Wonka” provides the answer to this question. The film tells the fantastic story of the man (also played by Johnny Depp) who is the focus of Roald Dahl’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, his most famous work and one of the best-selling children’s books of all time.

A strong free TV premiere on Sunday evening, “Wonka” was released in cinemas in 2023 (director: Paul King). Lead actor Timothée Chalamet, who is currently on everyone’s lips with his Oscar-nominated film “Marty Supreme”, sings and dances with big eyes and an even bigger heart through a fantastic film musical for young and old.

Motto: “It’s not about the chocolate, it’s about the people you share it with.”

5 Black Box – Dangerous Truth (Sunday, 3sat, 11:35 p.m.)

There is a strange weakness for films about airplane disasters, especially among people who are afraid of flying (like the author of these lines). They are exactly right here late on a Sunday evening.

After a passenger plane crashed in the French Alps, only the machine’s voice recorder was recovered intact. After the head of the investigation, Victor Pollock, disappeared without a trace, Philippe Rénier, head of the French aviation accident investigation agency, entrusts the black box analyst Mathieu Vasseur with the case.

The young expert quickly isolates an onboard recording that points to an Islamic terrorist act. The suspicion is made public.

By evaluating cell phone data from those around the victims, Mathieu begins to have doubts. When he learns that Pollock was alone with the voice recorder before his disappearance, he breaks into his house. Mathieu finds video recordings of secret meetings between Pollock and the entrepreneur Xavier Renaud, whose company designs computer security systems for aircraft – including for the manufacturer of the ill-fated plane…

A classic conspiracy thriller, staged in an exciting and routine manner, which was accompanied by France’s aviation accident investigation authority, BEA, which advised director Yann Gozlan and his team on both the script and on set. The next flight, the next fear of flying will definitely come.