Tonight We Raid Calais

Stars of Long Nights

May 1972 •Albanian

World War II. The fascists kill a boy and invite his mother to identify the body, but she refuses.

Furtuna

February 1959 •Albanian

Story depicting the national liberation struggle of the Albanian people against the Italian and German invaders during World War II.

Jahrgang 21

February 1958 •German

At the beginning of the Second World War, Czech music student Honsik comes to Germany from Prague to join a "foreign worker company". After rescuing a boy from the rubble of a bombed-out house, he himself is seriously injured and taken to a hospital in Stralsund. There he is regarded as a second-class citizen and the Germans are preferred to him. Nurse Käthe stands up for him, cares for him and defies all prohibitions. A love affair is kindled between the two, but it is not under a good star. Honsik tries to flee to his homeland with his comrades and Käthe supports him. At the last moment, however, Honsik realizes that his love for Käthe is stronger than his homesickness and makes his way back. Once back home, he can only watch as Käthe is arrested by the Gestapo. With the help of a resistance fighter, the young man from Prague manages to escape after all.

The English Patient

November 1996 •English

In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.

The Pianist

September 2002 •English

The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

Casablanca

January 1943 •English

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

Das Boot

September 1981 •German

A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and themselves to their limits.

The Lamp Still Burns

November 1943 •English

A tribute to the important work of female nurses during World War II.

Mountains Clad in Green

December 1971 •Albanian

Year 1943. A group of soldiers, carrying an injured comrade, are trying to reach the hospital.

Memoirs of a Geisha

December 2005 •English

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

Gaston's War

October 1997 •Dutch

Gaston Vandermeerssche is a young, resourceful Flemish action hero of the Belgian resistance during World War II: he coaches surviving allied pilots trough occupied Belgium and France to Spain so they can regain England, each time a dangerous adventure as their poor mastery of local languages and customs add to the ever-present risks of trying to outsmart the Nazi troops and Gestapo agents. After a mess-up in the coordination from London he himself gets caught by the dreaded secret police for ruthless interrogation...

Labyrinth of Lies

November 2014 •German

A young prosecutor in postwar West Germany investigates a massive conspiracy to cover up the Nazi pasts of prominent public figures.

Washington Melodrama

April 1941 •English

An elderly businessman (Frank Morgan) plans what he thinks is an innocent night on the town while his wife is away. Instead, he finds himself involved in a showgirl's murder.

Hundswut

April 2024 •German

The Unknown Soldier

December 1985 •Finnish

Second silver screen adaption of the Finnish war book by Väinö Linna. The story is based on Linna's experiences as an infantry man in the Finnish army during the so called "Continuation War" (1941-1944).

The Beginning of the Legend

April 1977 •Russian

The film tells about the childhood of Yuri Gagarin, about that time of life, which, in his own words, played an important role in shaping his character: war, the occupation of their villages by the Germans, famine, the theft of the elder brother and sister to Germany, the expulsion of the Nazis from Smolensk, moving family in the city of Gzhatsk.

Dolina

August 1973 •Slovak

A dramatic story of the emotional, moral and political maturation of two young people during the Slovak National Uprising.

Morning Departure

February 1950 •English

The crew of a submarine is trapped on the sea floor when it sinks. How can they be rescued before they run out of air?

The Witness

January 1992 •English

In the Second World War, probably in a concentration camp somewhere, Gary Sinise is a soldier who conducts Jews everyday to some place where only clothes come back, under the eyes of an young prisoner boy (Elijah Wood). This witness disturbs the soldier, driving the story to a tragic and sad end and a new beginning.

The Young Lions

April 1958 •English

The lives of three young men, a German and two Americans, during WWII.