Fourty years ago, in May 1981, with François Mitterrand's election, some people were letting themselves dream about a better life while others were predicting the coming of soviet tanks upon the Champs-Élysées. If we gladly remember the turning point of austerity in 83, there were also the wage rises, the fifth week of paid leave, the abolition of death penalty, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, or the advent of independent radio stations. Rare archives and accounts by those who were at the heart of this story give an overview of it and shed light on lesser-known aspects.
Gdańsk, Poland, September 1980. Lech Wałęsa and other Lenin shipyard workers found Solidarność (Solidarity), the first independent trade union behind the Iron Curtain. The long and hard battle to bring down communist dictatorship has begun.
Skatteøens hemmelighed
Man burde ta' sig af det
Torremolinos, province of Málaga, Spain, autumn 1981. In the basement of a pub frequented by foreigners, five young self-taught people found a musical group that in less than a year conquers the charts: Danza Invisible, one of the best bands in the history of Spanish pop music, was born.
A strippers' convention and a major contest. The movie focuses on a few strippers, each with her own strong motive to win.
Out-of-control teens across America were sent to a therapy camp in the harsh Utah desert. The conditions were brutal, but the staff were even worse.
Iran, January 16th, 1979. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees after being overthrown. Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Tehran and proclaims the Islamic Republic on April 1st, 1979. In the same year, Saddam Hussein seizes power in Iraq and, after several border skirmishes, attacks Iran on September 22nd, 1980, initiating a cruel war that will last eight years. Since its outbreak, correspondent Saeid Sadeghi documented it from its beginning to its bitter end.
Documentary on the French comedian, actor, humanitarian and legend Coluche.
A walk through the golden age of Spanish exploitation cinema, from the sixties to the eighties; a low-budget cinema and great popular acceptance that exploited cinematographic fashions: westerns, horror movies, erotic comedies and thrillers about petty criminals.
Best known for their megahit ’80s anthem "Don't You (Forget About Me)”—made famous in John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club—Simple Minds is one of the most iconic and influential Scottish bands in history. From working-class kids growing up in post-industrial Glasgow to rock stars playing Live Aid, this is the unlikely story of an extraordinary band that continues touring to this day.
Starting as a documentary on the sexually liberated culture of late-Sixties Denmark, Sexual Freedom in Denmark winds up incorporating major elements of the marriage manual form and even manages to squeeze in a montage of beaver loops and erotic art. All narrated with earnest pronouncements concerning the social and psychological benefits of sexual liberation, the movie, is a kind of mondo film dotted with occasional glimpses of actual sex.
In 2016, a young Austrialian filmmaker began documenting amateur inventor Peter Madsen. One year in, Madsen brutally murdered Kim Wall aboard his homemade submarine. An unprecedented revelation of a killer and the journey his young helpers take as they reckon with their own complicity and prepare to testify.
Social democracy propaganda film about future dreams for Denmark in 1960. Although Denmark is free again, the former opponent and worker, Svend, is disillusioned: "It is all something soft". The dream of the future is incarnated by a young woman, Karen, who shows Svend the visions of a better life in the 'youth's land'. There are homes and a nuclear-powered car for everyone.
An intimate portrait, in his own words, of the Indian writer Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses (1988), thirty years after the fatwa uttered by the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini: his youth in multicultural Bombay, his life in England, his many years of forced hiding, his thoughts on President Trump's United States of America.
At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the "demi-gods of Canadian metal" influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams.
L'Adieu à Solférino
A documentary with the three cinematographers known for breaking away cinema away from celluloid with the introduction of digital video.
The story about Danish national football (soccer) team, a traditional minnow until the mid-1980s when they improved dramatically and eventually went on to win the European championship in 1992.
A movie about the education for nurse told from Bente's perspective. She starts at the preschool at Rødkilde Højskole at Møn and comes from there to a hospital, where student time begins. After three years, Bente is trained and can get the nursing needle attached to the robe.