The New German Cinema is long gone, but a selection of new German films arrives in Washington every winter, thanks to the Goethe-Institut and Export Union des Duestschen Films. This year’s range of subject matter is wide, but crime is a recurrent theme. The only one of these nine movies made available for preview is The Trio(pictured), an underworld drama in which both a gay man and his straight daughter violate the former’s “no exchange of bodily fluids within the team” rule by developing an erotic interest in the new member of their pickpocketing gang (Jan. 23 at 9 p.m.). In Short Sharp Shock, most of an immigrant ex-con’s friends are bemused by his plans to go straight (Jan. 20 at 6:30 & 8:45 p.m.); based on a true story, follows a 19-year-old German hacker whose illicit exploration of secret databases forces him into the clutches of the KGB (Jan. 21 at 6:30 & 8:30 p.m.); Trains ‘n’ Roses follows a German train buff and a Finnish rose expert, one of whom is wanted for murder (Jan. 22 at 6:30 p.m.; Jan. 23 at 3:45 p.m.; Jan. 24 at 4:15 p.m.). Also included are a period drama about 18th-century poet Friedrich Hilderlin, Fire Rider (Jan. 18 at 8:30 p.m.; Jan. 19 at 6:30 p.m.); and Eduard’s Promise, in which two lovers break up, wander the streets alone, and are nearly killed (Jan. 18 at 6:30 p.m.; Jan. 19 at 8:45 p.m.). At the American Film Institute Theater, Kennedy Center. $6.50. (202) 785-4600. (Mark Jenkins)