Berlin Alexanderplatz originally broadcast in 1980, is a 14-part West German television miniseries, adapted and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder from the Alfred Döblin novel of the same name, and stars Günter Lamprecht, Hanna Schygulla, Barbara Sukowa, Elisabeth Trissenaar and Gottfried John. The complete series is 15½ hours long. In 1983, it was released theatrically in the United States, where a theatre would show two or three parts per night. It garnered a cult following in the US and was eventually released on VHS and broadcast on PBS and then Bravo.

A somewhat prim and proper Englishman is hired as the tutor to the son of the Japanese ambassador. His life changes when he and the boy are kidnapped by terrorists for political purposes.

Russian exiles in Paris plot to collect ten million pounds from the Bank of England by grooming a destitute, suicidal girl to pose as heir to the Russian throne. While Bounin is coaching her he comes to believe she is really Anastasia. In the end the Empress must decide her claim.