Catalog Search Results
Summary
In 1943 a group of 1434 Polish refugees from the Soviet Russia, including a few hundred orphans, arrived in an abandoned ranch of Santa Rosa at the invitation of the Mexican President. Santa Rosa, near Leon, Mexico became their home for the few years to come. Earlier in December 1942, Prime Minister of Polish Government in Exile - General Władysław Sikorski arrived in Mexico to sign an agreement with President of Mexico Avila Camacho to set up such...
2) Korkoro
Summary
During the Second World War, a Gypsy family travels the roads of France before learning that the Vichy regime no longer gives them the right to travel freely.
Summary
UNKNOWN SOLDIER by award-winning Finnish director Aku Louhimies follows a platoon of Finnish soldiers on a tour of duty that lasts for more than three years at the end of World War II. The film tells the story of Rokka, Kariluoto, Koskela, Hietanen, and their brothers-in-arms, showing how friendship, humor, and the will to live unite these men on their way to and from the battlefield. The war changes each of the soldiers, as well as the lives of those...
Summary
The Allies called him Garbo. The Nazis dubbed him Alaric. Both sides in World War II were sure Juan Pujol Garcia was their man. In reality, Pujol was a double agent - and his final allegiance was to the Allies. From the comfort of Lisbon, Garbo fed false information to the Nazis and fabricated a network of phantom agents across Europe. Although he never fired a single shot, Garbo helped to save thousands of lives, most notably by misinforming the...
Summary
This documentary delves into never before seen archival footage and documents to investigate how much the Allies knew about the mass murder of Europe's Jews during World War II and why they did not do more to stop it. What the allies knew examines the immigration policy, top secret documents, personal prejudice and government policies that resulted in the deaths of millions.
Summary
Stationed in a secluded Bulgarian village in 1943, Walter, an artist and sergeant in the Wehrmacht, lives an almost idyllic life far away from the war. Then one day a transit camp is set up for Jews arriving from Greece. Ruth, one of the Greek Jews, asks Walter to help a pregnant woman in the camp. At first he refuses, but then changes his mind and sends a doctor into the camp ... Stars, based on scriptwriter Angel Wagenstein's personal experiences...
Summary
In a small town, everyone has tried to forget what happened shortly after WWII. That is, until a stranger finds a book that Jadup gave to the young refugee, Boel, over 30 years ago. This subject matter was considered so controversial by GDR authorities thatJadup and Boel℗ was banned and not released until 1988. Painful memories of the period after the war and of Boel and her disappearance begin to surface. Jadup, now the town's respected and popular...
8) Korczak
Summary
Account of the last days of life of the legendary Polish pedagogue Janusz Korczak and his heroic dedication to protecting Jewish orphans during the war.
9) Transit
Summary
In Christian Petzold's brilliant and haunting modern-day adaptation of Anna Seghers's 1942 novel, Georg, a German refugee, flees to Marseille assuming the identity of a recently deceased writer whose papers he is carrying. There he delves into the delicate and complex culture of the refugee community, becoming enmeshed in the lives of a young mother and son and falling for a mysterious woman named Marie.
Summary
Adapted from the novel by Bruno Apitz and filmed on location at Buchenwald concentration camp, this film features many who were themselves prisoners of the Nazis, as well as younger actor Armin Mueller-Stahl. Based on a true story of inmates who risked their lives to hide a small Jewish boy shortly before the liberation of the camp. Jankowski, a Polish prisoner from Auschwitz, arrives at the Buchenwald concentration camp carrying a suitcase. Inside...
Summary
It is not widely known that a handful of prisoners in the Nazi death camps managed somehow to take clandestine photographs of the hell that was being hidden from the world. Director Christophe Cognet retraces the footsteps of these courageous men and women in a quest to unearth the circumstances and the stories behind their photographs.
12) Aida's secrets
Summary
A web of family secrets unravels in this moving documentary following a family fractured by war. Two brothers, Izak and Shep, were born inside the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp in 1945 and separated as babies, never told of the other’s existence. Nearly 70 years later, the discovery of family records leads the brothers to an emotional reunion with their elderly mother, Aida, who hid more from Izak and Shep than just each other. Official Selection...
13) The Liberators
Summary
Medieval art treasures seized by the Nazis go missing at the end of World War II. Were they destroyed in the chaos of the final battles? Or were these thousand-year-old masterpieces stolen by advancing American troops? For over forty years, the mystery remained unsolved. A true detective story, THE LIBERATORS follows a dogged German art detective through the New York art world and military archives to the unlikeliest of destinations: a small town...
14) J'Accuse
Summary
J'Accuse, Gance's extraordinary breakthrough work, is a World War I drama considered to be one of the most technically advanced films of the era and the first major pacifist film. It was referred to by Gance as "A human cry against the bellicose din of armies." This seminal cinematic achievement stars Marise Dauvray as Edith, a young woman who is unhappily married to an older man, François (Séverin-Mars), but is actually in love with a young poet,...
15) Stalag 17
Summary
Two worthy **Academy Award** nominees from 1950's *Sunset Boulevard* - actor William Holden and director Billy Wilder - re-teamed three years later for the gripping World War II drama, STALAG 17. The result was another Best Director nomination for Wilder (his fourth), and the elusive Best Actor Oscar for Holden. Holden portrays the jaded, scheming Sergeant J.J. Sefton, a prisoner at the notorious German prison camp, who spends his days dreaming up...
Summary
A comedy set in contemporary Burkina Faso, Tasuma tells the story of a World War II veteran who has been trying for more than 50 years to obtain his well-deserved military pension. Convinced that he will be paid shortly, Sogo buys a mill on credit for the village. But the money does not arrive.
Summary
The Rape of Europa tells the epic story of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction and miraculous survival of Europe's art treasures during the Third Reich and the Second World War. On a journey through seven countries, the film takes the audience into the violent whirlwind of fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe. For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented...
18) The sun
Summary
The final portrait in a series on the lives of dictators by Alexander Sokurov, The sun is a re-imagining of Emperor Hirohito's final days in power during the waning days of WWII. Hirohito wanders through his palace in a child-like state of denial. But reality soon intrudes as American soldiers overrun his manicured gardens and visions of Hiroshima invade his dreams. No longer a God among men, Hirohito is forced accept the terms of the occupation...
Summary
It is the year 1935: after being released from a concentration camp, Arnold remains working for the resistance movement in Hamburg. He has mixed feelings about his new contact agent; he almost envies the man's self-confidence, but cannot help mistrusting him. And this time, when casualties are heavy, only Walter emerges unscathed. Is he an informer? Based on Willi Bredel's book of the same name.
20) Naples '44
Summary
In 1943 a young British officer, Norman Lewis, entered a war-torn Naples with the American Fifth Army. Lewis began writing down everything that happened to him during his one-year stay, observing the complex social cauldron of a city that contrived unbelievable methods of survival on a daily basis. These notes turned into his masterpiece, a memoir titled NAPLES ‘44. Francesco Patierno's new documentary imagines Lewis returning many years later to...