War

  • Vesna Ljubic – Ecce Homo (1994)

    1991-2000Bosnia HerzegovinaDramaVesna LjubicWar

    Quote:
    In the past few years, dozens of documentaries have been made on the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Many video registrations had the dramatic siege of Sarajevo as their main subject. ECCE HOMO distinguishes itself by its personal interpretation of the blockade of Bosnia’s capital. This film has no voice-over commentating on the horrors, only images, larded now and then with fragments of religious and other music, and the hoarse croaking of crows. ECCE HOMO is not a political film, but a personal reflection on death. Time and again, she leads us to new funerals on improvised graveyards and shows images of the devastations: a burning tram, flats destroyed by fire, and the arrival of bodies at a morgue. The film reaches an emotional climax when the camera halts at a tombstone with a photo of Danica Ljubic. Who was this woman? The sister of the director? Vesna Ljubic: “The film is not sad, on the contrary; death is our only joy. And our hope.”Read More »

  • Aleksey German – Proverka na dorogakh AKA Trial on the Road AKA Checkpoint (1971)

    Aleksey German1971-1980DramaUSSRWar

    The Russian POW joins the partisan guerrillas and proves his loyalty fighting the Nazis.Read More »

  • Atiq Rahimi – Syngué sabour, pierre de patience AKA The Patience Stone (2012)

    Atiq Rahimi2011-2020AfghanistanDramaWar

    Quote:
    In a war ridden country a woman watches over the husband reduced to a vegetable state by a bullet in the neck, abandoned by Jihad companions and brothers. One day, the woman decides to say things to him she could never have done before.Read More »

  • Gleb Panfilov – V ogne broda net AKA There is no Passage through Fire (1967)

    Gleb Panfilov1961-1970DramaUSSRWar

    Tanya Tyotkina is a nurse in a hospital train taking the wounded soldiers from Civil War battle fields. The plain, shy and semi-illiterate young girl sincerely believes in world revolution. She does not realize the importance of the events she is taking part in but wants to express what she sees around her in drawings. Tanya has a rare gift of a true original artist and that makes her death even more tragic.
    “Golden Leopard” and Award to I. Churikova for Best Female Lead at the 22nd IFF in Locarno, Switzerland (1969).
    Source www.lenfilm.ruRead More »

  • Branko Schmidt – Sokol ga nije volio AKA Sokol Did Not Love Him (1988)

    Branko Schmidt1981-1990DramaWarYugoslavia

    Sokol ga nije volio (1988)

    Storyline:
    The story begins in a small rural village in Slavonia, Ladimirevci in 1943, where a land owner Shima is helping the Partisan Movement and the official Ustasha regime in order to save the life of his son Benosh, who is enlisted in the German army. Shima doesn’t want to let his son fight for the wrong side any more, and doesn’t want to give him to the Partisans either, so he hides him in his attic for the time being. The story is interwoven with episodes of Shima trying to muster a beautiful stallion – Sokol – who only answers to his son Benosh and clearly doesn’t like his old man… Written by Kristijan StakorRead More »

  • Rithy Panh – S21, la machine de mort Khmère rouge aka S21, the Khmer Rouge Killing Machine [+Extra] (2003)

    2001-2010DocumentaryFranceRithy PanhWar

    Quote:
    “I survived because they liked my paintings,” says Vann Nath in this unsettling documentary, an affecting and effective film. This placid artist was imprisoned along with 17,000 other Cambodians in a Phnom Penh high school that had been converted into a Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture center. The school was used for this purpose for two years during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror (1975 to 1979), when as many as a million people died. In the film, he returns there to confront the men who worked as guards, really boys doing the Devil’s work: at the time, they ranged from 13 to their early 20’s. At one point the director shows the former guards recreating their grisly everyday tasks as a kind of pantomime. Watching them re-enact their chores in the large, stained and now empty rooms, which look like those in almost any American high school – while piles of the dead prisoners’ abandoned clothes sit heaped nearby – is simply one of the most disorienting moments you’re likely to encounter in a movie. – Elvis MitchellRead More »

  • Sam Newfield – State Department: File 649 (1949)

    1941-1950AdventureSam NewfieldUSAWar

    U.S. Foreign Service officer matches wits with a Chinese warlord to try to save American citizens threatened with execution.Read More »

  • Various – The World at War (1973)

    USA1971-1980DocumentaryVariousWar

    Quote:
    When this epic series was first broadcast in 1973 it redefined the gold standard for television documentary; it remains the benchmark by which all factual programming must judge itself.

    Originally shown as 26 one-hour programmes, The World at War set out to tell the story of the Second World War through the testimony of key participants. The result is a unique and unrepeatable event, since many of the eyewitnesses captured on film did not have long left to live. Each hour-long programme is carefully structured to focus on a key theme or campaign, from the rise of Nazi Germany to Hitler’s downfall and the onset of the Cold War.Read More »

  • Alberto Cavallone – Dal nostro inviato a Copenaghen (1970)

    1961-1970Alberto CavalloneCultItalyWar

    “Two U.S. army deserters of the Vietnam War take refuge in Copenhagen, trying by all means to find a job to survive. Once there one of them becomes schizophrenic, recalling the murders and torture that took place on the front. He has many outbursts and is hidden in the home of a psychiatrist who is trying to heal with unorthodox methods.”Read More »

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