From the collapse of the Soviet Union to Putin’s rule: how Russia became free and what it did with this freedom. The story of Boris Yeltsin and his times, told by his comrades, family, friends, and foes.

S1.E1 ∙ The Awakening

The young General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev is trying to reform the decrepit regime, inadvertently launching a chain reaction of events that the Soviet government quickly becomes unable to control. A new leader is born from the turmoil of perestroika: Boris Yeltsin becomes the spearhead of democratic forces, and Gorbachev soon begins perceiving him as a threat.Read More »

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Story of a young man as an individual and as a family man told through his childhood ambition to follow his father into the military to losing his life in combat in China. Based on a true story of the Sino-Japanese war involving Japanese war hero Kojirō Nishizumi.Read More »

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An international award winning saga of old Mexico. In 1528, a Spanish expedition founders off the coast of Florida with 600 lives lost. One survivor, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, roams across the American continent searching for his Spanish comrades. Instead, he discovers the Iguase, an ancient Indian tribe. Over the next eight years, Cabeza de Vaca learns their mystical and mysterious culture, becoming a healer and a leader. But soon this New World collides with the Old World as Spanish conquistadors seek to enslave the Indians, and Cabeza de Vaca must confront his own people and his past.Read More »

Private Standa Urban is one of a group of disappointed soldiers who had been planning to go on leave from a military airfield. He is supposed to be having an important meeting with his great love Jana, who has come to the nearest little town to see him. They have not seen each other for some time and Standa is afraid for the relationship. Unfortunately a second-degree alert has been sounded and the soldiers are not allowed to leave the garrison. The unhappy Standa volunteers for guard duty. Captain Pazourek seems very severe but in fact he is an understanding man. He sends an ambulance with two nurses, Veleba and Rejman, for the girl, and they secretly smuggle her into the sick bay. The attractive blonde becomes the centre of unwanted attention from the soldiers, and before his friends have found Standa, she has become disgusted with the whole adventure.Read More »

“Leonardo, a 19-year-old student, leaves his hometown of Palermo to study economics in London. He soon grows restless and enrolls at the University of Siena to study literature before dropping out of school to study classics on his own. The following year, he travels to Turin where he meets a man who will help him on his journey of self-discovery.”Read More »

One man’s desperation to save his dying wife sparks a chain of tragedies in the dark crime thriller Circle of Crime. The film offers a complex story that first depicts several seemingly unconnected incidents: the escape of a serial killer, a man being chased by loan sharks after taking the money to save his wife’s life, a taxi driver’s hit-and-run and a woman’s suicide attempt. As the plot unfolds, the connection between these incidents begins to become clear.Read More »

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Xiangzi heads to the big city to enjoy the freedom of being a rickshaw boy. In Beijing, a better life eludes the boy from the countryside, and his dream turns into a desperate nightmare. He is humiliated and struggles to feed himself.Read More »

Finding Fela tells the story of Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s life, his music, his social and political importance. He created a new musical movement, Afrobeat, using that forum to express his revolutionary political opinions against the dictatorial Nigerian government of the 1970s and 1980s. His influence helped bring a change towards democracy in Nigeria and promoted Pan Africanist politics to the world.Read More »

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What do you do if a stranger comes to your home and politely asks to borrow some eggs?

So far, it doesn’t sound like a good film, but Funny Games isn’t a good film. There’s no way it can be middle-of-the-road, it’s either brilliant or awful, depending on your point of view. Consider that when this film was first shown at Cannes, a lot of the audience walked out, including some professional film critics. In short, this is a film you need to see to have any true appreciation of how it works. I could describe everything that happens in minute detail, and still not impart what actually happens.Read More »