Desert Assault

Grandmother Told Grandmother

October 2018 •English

The little-known story of Ukrainian children torn from their homes in the crush between the Nazi and Soviet fronts in World War II. Spending their childhood as refugees in Europe, these inspiring individuals later immigrated to the United States, creating new homes and communities through their grit, faith and deep belief in the importance of preserving culture.

Five Days, Five Nights

February 1961 •German

Five Days, Five Nights (Fünf Tage, Fünf Nächte) takes place in Dresden in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. While Dresden is in ruins, over two thousand paintings by artists including Rembrandt, Raphael, Rubens, Giorgione, and Vermeer have disappeared from the city’s Old Masters Picture Gallery. Red Army captain Leonov and his soldiers have been ordered to recover the lost paintings. During the next five days, Dresden’s residents join the search for the collection. A secret Nazi document offers a first lead…

Ankara Express

March 1952 •Turkish

The love story between German Hilda, who came to Turkey to spy during World War II, and Seyfi, who worked in the Turkish secret agency.

A Bear Named Wojtek

April 2024 •English

Displaced by the Second World War, a troop of Polish soldiers form an inseparable bond through an orphaned bear they name Wojtek.

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...

We'll Go to the City

March 1966 •Italian

"Andremo in città" (We'll Go to the City) is a 1966 Italian drama film directed by Nelo Risi. It is based on the novel of the same name by Edith Bruck, Risi's wife. Bruck, a Hungarian concentration camp-survivor, settled in Italy after the Second World War and wrote about her experiences in autobiographical and fictional formats.[1] The film stars Geraldine Chaplin and Nino Castelnuovo.

Seven Beauties

December 1975 •Italian

Pasqualino Frafuso, known in Naples as "Pasqualino Seven Beauties" is a petty thief who lives off of the profits of his seven sisters while claiming to protect their honor at any cost, Pasqualino is arrested for murder and later sent to fight in the army after committing sexual assault. The Germans capture him and he gets sent to a concentration camp where he plots to make his escape by seducing a German officer.

36 Hours

November 1964 •English

Germans kidnap an American major and try to convince him that World War II is over, so that they can get details about the Allied invasion of Europe out of him.

Mister Roberts

July 1955 •English

Mr. Roberts is a Navy officer who's yearning for battle but is stuck in the backwaters of World War II on a non-commissioned ship run by the bullying Captain Morton.

Winterspelt 1944

March 1978 •German

In the Second World War, spring 1944: shortly before the planned Ardennes offensive, Germans and Americans stand waiting on the German-Belgian border. The small Eifel village of Winterspelt threatens to become the scene of a bloody battle. A German officer comes up with a plan to hand over his battalion to the Americans without a fight. He finds support from three inhabitants of the small village, who help him to present his offer of surrender to the Americans, which they ultimately reject.

Beau Geste

July 1939 •English

When three brothers join the Foreign Legion to escape a troubled past, they find themselves trapped under the command of a sadistic sergeant deep in the scorching Sahara. Now the brothers must fight for their lives as they plot mutiny against tyranny and defend a desert fortress against a brutal enemy.

The Battle of Neretva

October 1969 •

In January 1943 the German army, afraid of an Allied invasion of the Balkans, launched a great offensive against Yugoslav Partisans in Western Bosnia. The only way out for Partisan forces and thousands of refugees was the bridge on the river Neretva.

The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity

November 1959 •Japanese

Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, Kaji witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment against the recruit Obara. He also sees his friend Shinjô Ittôhei defecting to the Russian border, and he ends in the front to fight a lost battle against the Russian tanks division.

The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer

January 1961 •Japanese

After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his dear wife and his old life, Kaji faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his fellow men sneak behind enemy lines.

Purple Butterfly

July 2003 •Chinese

Ding Hui is a member of Purple Butterfly, a powerful resistance group in Japanese occupied Shanghai. An unexpected encounter reunites her with Itami, an ex-lover and officer with a secret police unit tasked with dismantling Purple Butterfly.

The Unknown Soldier

December 1955 •Finnish

It is the summer of 1941. An eastern-Finnish machine gun company receives an order to turn in their surplus equipment. The company is transferred to the front lines. The next morning the soldiers wake to the sound of guns – the war has begun.

Hail the Conquering Hero

August 1944 •English

Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith delays the return to his hometown, feeling that he is a failure. While in a moment of melancholy, he meets up with a group of Marines who befriend him and encourage him to return home to his mother by fabricating a story that he was wounded in battle with honorable discharge.

Map of the Human Heart

April 1993 •English

In an Arctic village in 1931, British mapmaker Walter Russell selects 12-year-old Eskimo Avik as his guide. When the boy contracts tuberculosis, Walter flies him to a Montreal hospital, where Avik meets Albertine and is infatuated. A decade later, a grown Avik encounters Albertine again in London, where he's serving as a British combat pilot. Despite her relationship with Walter, she and Avik begin an affair.

Operation Belgrade

September 1968 •

In Autumn of 1943 American plane carrying Soviet colonel is shot down near Nazi-occupied Belgrade. Germans capture the colonel and begin interrogations, because he knows everything about forecoming Allied summit in Tehran. Group of Yugoslav Partizans is sent to Belgrade in order to rescue the colonel before he starts talking.

Ešte sa nevraciam

May 1976 •Slovak