Too high, misused, unfair... a large part of the French and Europeans criticize taxes. From tax-rascal to tax revolt, the movement of yellow vests in France has returned to the center of attention the question of consent to tax. How to explain a different resistance to taxes from one country to another without tax pressure being an explanation? Is there a "good" tax? Jean Quatremer takes us on a journey to the tax center across Europe, to meet those who pay it, those who decide it, those who study it... or those who allow to avoid it.
Kerkini: The Bird Sanctuary
Between 1947 and 1951, more than 80 000 Greek men, women and children were deported to the isle of Makronissos (Greece) in reeducation camps created to ‘fight the spread of Communism’. Among those exiles were a number of writers and poets, including Yannis Ritsos and Tassos Livaditis. Despite the deprivation and torture, they managed to write poems which describe the struggle for survival in this world of internment. These texts, some of them buried in the camps, were later found. «Like Lions of stone at the gateway of night» blends these poetic writings with the reeducation propaganda speeches constantly piped through the camps’ loudspeakers. Long tracking shots take us on a trance-like journey through the camp ruins, interrupted along the way by segments from photographic archives. A cinematic essay, which revives the memory of forgotten ruins and a battle lost.
God Forsaken
It is a daring idea: to grow food from old mattresses in a desolate camp at the edge of a war zone. When a refugee scientist meets two quirky professors, they must confront their own catastrophes - and make a garden grow. Short film now streaming on Waterbear.com.
Lost in the Bewilderness is a feature-length documentary about the filmmaker’s cousin Lucas, kidnapped at age five from his native Greece, and found on the eve of his 16th birthday in the US. This story of international parental abduction, filmed for over twenty years, chronicles Lucas’s journey of growth and self-discovery, and culminates with Lucas becoming a father himself. Lost in the Bewilderness is not only a detective story but also a lyrical meditation on childhood, lost and found, and an exploration of how the themes of ancient Greek myth and tragedy, with the family at their center, are still very much alive in the modern world.
Each year 400.000 people from Africa, Asia and Middle East, try to enter Europe. They flee from war, persecution and poverty. Since the ways by land have been interrupted, they board overloaded vessels and face a dangerous and often deadly voyage across the Mediterranean.
The tragedy of the Syrian people: War, conflict, loss, migration, exile, asylum, detention, drowning… A deserted place. Abandoned people. Abandoned country. The doors slammed shot; the doors are now locked - the keys thrown away...for what seems forever.
As thousands of migrants attempt to cross the French-Italian border on foot through treacherous mountain routes, the state cracks down on the local communities that come to their aid in this revealing look at an unfolding human rights crisis.
The inspiring story of the unemployed man who stood up against the Greek crisis and created a social kitchen for the homeless and refugees.
More than 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war, the greatest displacement since World War II. Filmmaker Ai Weiwei examines the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. Over the course of one year in 23 countries, Weiwei follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretch across the globe, including Afghanistan, France, Greece, Germany and Iraq.
We have a topic that has always been on the agenda of Turkey and the world, which we have been discussing for nearly 40 years: Cyprus. To foreigners, Cyprus is known as an innocent little island under Turkish invasion. Everyone forgot the bloody events of the past. What about us? Do we know? No. Especially the younger generations, who have come to the point of governing the country today, do not know where this country has gone through regarding Cyprus. However, we are now approaching a road junction in Cyprus. I will tell you the story of Cyprus in this documentary. This is a very bloody and sometimes very sad story...
With less than a month until his Eurovision appearance Tusse must undergo a surgery that puts everything in jeopardy. Here is Tusse’s incredible life story, from Congolese refugee to winner of Swedish Idol and Melodifestivalen.
An unclassifiable cross between documentary and fiction, Kipp takes the viewer through refugee camps bordering Soviet-occupied areas of Germany.
Based on a poem by a Zimbabwean LGBT activist written in response to the gay hate speech that is being perpetuated president Robert Mugabe. The film was shot in South East London UK with a cast of six women from several African countries playing multiple roles in this portrayal of being a lesbian in homophobic Zimbabwe. Five of the actors and the producer are refugees who fled their countries in fear of persecution for their sexuality.
Australian filmmaker Sophia Turkiewicz investigates why her Polish mother abandoned her and uncovers the truth behind her mother's wartime escape from a Siberian gulag, leaving Sophia to confront her own capacity for forgiveness.
A 6-year-old Tibetan boy leaves his family and flees to a refugee camp in northern India.
Documentary about a "transportation commando" in Germany with the goal to deport 200 people to Albania...
A gravely ill, abused three-legged stray dog, abandoned in an industrial desert at Aspropyrgos, a town near Athens; a London based charity whose mission is to help the neglected animals of Greece; a group of young volunteers who patrol Aspropyrgos and nurse the strays – these are the characters of the film, in a nightmarish place, a hellhole for many abandoned animals. Does the sick three-legged hound stand any chance of getting adopted, becoming healthy again and running across the fields of Essex? Why are the Greekies, the strays from Greece, so popular when it comes to being adopted abroad? With an unexpected ending, the film tries to discover whether there is any hope for the doomed dogs and for a doomed area outside Athens.
During Summer 2000, the mayor of the Greek island of Lesbos tried to ban 26 lesbians from arriving on a package holiday from the UK; but he ended up biting off more than he could chew. This programme follows the love, lust and laughs over the course of their holiday as the women drink, dance and snog their way around the island. Despite being shadowed by the papparazi and some negative islanders, nothing can stop our women from fighting for their right to party.