Communism: History of an Illusion

Gulag

February 2006 •French

This excellent and breathtaking documentary is the result of a long study on the Gulag to try to understand why more than 60 million Soviet citizens were sent to the camps from 1918 to 1956, how such a massive confinement could take place during two generations. From the Solovki in the north-west to the Kolima in Siberia, from Lenine to Kroutchev, a polar geography is erected into the Gulag system. One does not escape from camps. After ten years of imprisonment, one dies. Some survived, some left traces; they witness: organisation, work and discipline, but also resistance, repression and revolt.

The Front Line

November 2009 •Italian

United by an uncompromising struggle as members of the infamous 1970s far-left terrorist group Prima Linea, fugitive couple Sergio and Susanna have become increasingly alienated from the real world. Their luck runs out when Susanna is captured and thrown in jail. Putting his life on the line, Sergio embarks on a radical plan... Loosely based on the memoir by Prima Linea's 'commander' Sergio Segio.

Stalin: Man of Steel

January 2003 •English

Emmy Awards nominee for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research: Multi-faceted portrait of the man who succeeded Lenin as the head of the Soviet Union. With a captivating blend of period documents, newly-released information, newsreel and archival footage and interviews with experts, the program examines his rise to power, deconstructs the cult of personality that helped him maintain an iron grip over his vast empire, and analyzes the policies he introduced, including the deadly expansion of the notorious gulags where he banished so many of his countrymen to certain death.

One Child

February 2013 •Chinese

Three family cope with having lost their only child in 2008 deadly Chinese earthquake.

Sny o tátovi

December 2010 •Czech

Věž smrti

November 2002 •Czech

An Ordinary Country

April 2020 •Polish

The story of what daily life was like in Poland under communism: private conversations, cruel interrogations, recruitment attempts, recorded and filmed with hidden devices; of how the secret services spied on every activity of ordinary citizens: nothing escaped the brutal system of control developed by the Soviets in the name of freedom.

Nesmíš plakat

January 1990 •Czech

Vrahem z povolání – Utrpení soudce Karla Vaše

February 2013 •Czech

Gdzie rosną poziomki?

January 2006 •Polish

The forest in Bykovnia near Kyiv hides the remains of more than 30,000 NKVD victims, including several thousand Poles. In 2006, a team of Polish archeologists, with the cooperation of the Ukrainian side, conducted exhumation work there, which confirmed that Poles were buried in the cemetery. At the time, two people whose fathers are believed to be buried there also came to the Bykovsky forest. The film tells the story of the history of the place, the local residents' perception of it, and the search for the fathers' graves.

Mrtvolu sprovoďte ze světa

October 2015 •Czech

Co mogą martwi jeńcy

January 2010 •Polish

A documentary about the modern controversy between Poland and Russia over Russian prisoners of war from the time when Poland regained its independence, after the First World War.

Be Sure to Behave

January 1968 •Slovak

A woman prisoner is harshly incarcerated and suddenly released.

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl

February 1998 •Chinese

Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.

Residente

March 2017 •English

After taking a DNA test, Latin America's most decorated artist – René Pérez (AKA Residente) – embarks on a global adventure to trace the footsteps of his ancestors and record his latest album.

Spettacolo

September 2017 •English

Once upon a time, villagers in a tiny hill town in Tuscany came up with a remarkable way to confront their issues: they turned their lives into a play. Every summer, their piazza became their stage and residents of all ages played a part – the role of themselves. Monticchiello’s annual tradition has attracted worldwide attention and kept the town together for 50 years, but with an aging population and a future generation more interested in Facebook than farming, the town’s 50th–anniversary performance just might be its last. SPETTACOLO tells the story of Teatro Povero di Monticchiello, interweaving episodes from its past with its modern-day process as the villagers turn a series of devastating blows into a new play about the end of their world.

H*art On

October 2017 •Czech

H*ART ON dives off the deep end of modern art. A film about the yearning to create, to mould everyday emotions into a meaningful life and, most of all, to live beyond one's death. A struggle that gets to the existential core of each of us. How do you find meaning in everyday fear, love, sex and loneliness?

Amadeus

September 1984 •English

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Germany: A Summer's Fairytale

October 2006 •German

A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.

Riding Giants

July 2004 •English

Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.