War

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 »

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 »

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

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 »

“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 »

Based on an acclaimed 1935 novel about the War of Liberation (1918-1920) that ensured Estonia’s independence, the film tells about a group of young schoolboys heading to the front to fight the army of Soviet Russia.Read More »

It is March 1945 and 15-year-old Günter Walcher still believes the war will end in victory. During a manhunt for a runaway immigrant laborer, Günter proves himself the most capable searcher. He turns the man over to the local police who then shoot the foreigner. Günter is proud of himself and, although his father has recently died in battle, the boy volunteers to be sent to the front.
On his first mission, Günter comes under attack from the Russians and he flees. When the Russian army marches in to Günter’s village, the boy is arrested for the murder of the laborer. His experiences throw him into intense confusion. Soon he asks himself: How can he live with his guilt?
Based on the story “Die Anzeige” (The Report) in Egon’s Richter’s book Ferien am Feuer (Vacation by the Fire).Read More »

Quote:
Franz Lang (Götz George) was one of the commandants of the Auschwitz concentration camps. He was also a man whose honor consisted of following the orders given to him by his superiors as perfectly as possible, whatever those orders might be. This German-made movie chronicles his career beginning in World War I, and shows in detail how he came to occupy the infamous position of Auschwitz commandant. Told in an understated manner without extraneous moral commentary, the story continues up to his interrogation at the end of the war by an American officer, and shows how it was possible for this fairly ordinary man to, without any particular anger or hatred, personally execute or cause to be killed hundreds of thousands of people.Read More »

Synopsis:
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (James Mason) leads the German troops against the Allied forces in World War II. Rommel’s virtuosity on the battlefield makes him a national hero and earns the begrudging respect of his foes, but his tactics also infuriate Adolf Hitler. Rommel’s close friend Dr. Strölin (Cedric Hardwicke) asks him to take part in a plan to assassinate the Führer; when Hitler learns of Rommel’s involvement in the scheme, the field marshal is given a chilling ultimatum.Read More »