Status and Terrain

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.

China is pushing hard into German and European markets. Furthermore, Beijing is developing into an increasingly powerful military power. An investigative reporter team from BR, rbb, and SWR is investigating the impact this has on Germany's internal and external security.

Christof Wackernagel, best known in Germany as an actor and former member of the Red Army Faction ("RAF") lives in Mali. In his compelling portrait, Jonas Grosch shows a man who simply cannot stand still if he senses injustice. The courage to stand up for one’s beliefs coupled with vanity? However one chooses to look at it, it is easy to imagine what made him connect with the "RAF". With his irrepressible will for freedom, Christof Wackernagel gets entangled in the horrors of day-to-day life in Africa.

Dark green, impenetrable forests cover a landscape with secluded valleys and rugged mountain ridges. 2.000 rivers and streams dig deep into the underground and transport their water into reservoirs or "Germany's Wild Amazon", the Wupper. These forests and rivers, together with heath-lands and moors, are home to a diverse fauna. Martens, badgers, wild boars, hares, roe deer, red deer and wild boars, even black grouse and hazel deer find shelter in these parts. Wolves have also have a dominant presence, not to mention those who live underground, such as lizards, bats, and snakes. Accompany us on a journey where we explore every corner of this rugged land. Climb underground into the Bergisches Land, through the vast hidden cave systems that sprawl far beneath the forests. There is also much to be discovered in the water, dive with us in crystal clear streams and rivers with their diverse flora and fauna.

How did Nazi Germany, from limited natural resources, mass unemployment, little money and a damaged industry, manage to unfurl the cataclysm of World War Two and come to occupy a large part of the European continent? Based on recent historical works of and interviews with Adam Tooze, Richard Overy, Frank Bajohr and Marie-Bénédicte Vincent, and drawing on rare archival material.

A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.

Stunden der Entscheidung: Angela Merkel und die Flüchtlinge

Former classmates at a school in the Southern Germany city of Ulm, Jewish and non-Jewish, recall their childhood in Nazi Germany.

An epic documentary of rise and fall of Ustasha regime in Croatia.

Language of Mules is a poignant exploration of the haunting legacy of the Holocaust through the eyes and words of poet and author John Guzlowski. Born to Polish parents who survived the unimaginable horrors of Nazi concentration camps, Guzlowski's poems give voice to the stories passed down from his parents, stories of suffering, resilience, and survival. The film interweaves interviews with Guzlowski in his home in Virginia, with vivid poetic depictions of his parents' harrowing experiences: the brutality of the German soldiers, the daily horrors of camp life, physical torture, and enslavement in conditions that dehumanized those who endured them. With profound sensitivity and depth, Language of Mules becomes not just a retelling of history, but a meditation on the enduring impact of war on the human psyche.

Is the solution to Switzerland's future to integrate Germany into the confederation? After all, like Michael Ringier, CEO of the Ringier media group, says, blithely ignoring all minorities, we're very close in culture and language. Oskar Freysinger takes out his guitar and sings his answer. Politicians from French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino think expanding will help the country survive. The former German foreign minister thinks the two countries' traditions are too different. The banker Oswald Grübel is worried about Germany's debts, although he'd be prepared to take over its assets. With serious interviews interspersed with gags (boat people on Lake Constance, the last Habsburger as a peasant), Giaccobbo gathers off-the-cuff reactions which reveal a lot about the different mentalities. The movie laughs at preconceived notions, redefines neutrality and reflects on what designates a nation. Switzerland, which loves to teach the world a lesson, will soon helvetize the planet, oder?

Live footage from concentration camps after the liberation, and the complex transport and lodging of masses of prisoners of war and other deported people back to their home countries, at the end of World War II. A 45min 35mm print also exists (shown at Cinémathèque française in 2023).

Damn Ruskies

This visually stunning nature documentary explores a mystical European forest to meet animals like Badger, Red Deer, Wild Boar, and especially the Reptiles & Amphibians. Bryan Maltais journeys for 90 consecutive days into this forest from winter to summer to chronicle nature's most secretive events.

George Stevens's remarkable film is acclaimed by historians as the most important colour footage taken during the war. Milestones covered include the liberation of Paris, the link-up between the Russian and American armies on the River Elbe and the Allied capture of the Dachau concentration camp.

For the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer looks back through the eyes of those who were imprisoned there.

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Caroline Sturdy Colls, a world leader in the forensic investigation of Nazi crime scenes, is chasing clues to an unsolved case: a concentration camp that existed on the British island of Alderney. Witnesses and survivors claimed that thousands died there, but only 389 bodies have ever been found. Under heavy restrictions imposed by the local government, which may not want its buried secrets revealed, Colls must uncover the truth using revolutionary techniques and technologies.

Documentary film about the painter and sculptor Jörg Immendorff who ranks among the most important German artists. The filmmakers accompanied Immendorff over a period of two years – until his death in May 2007. The artist had been living for nine years knowing that he was terminally ill with ALS. The film shows how Immendorff continued to work with unabated energy and how he tried not to let himself be restrained by his deteriorating health.

On the 29th September 1945, the incomplete rough cut of a brilliant documentary about concentration camps was viewed at the MOI in London. For five months, Sidney Bernstein had led a small team – which included Stewart McAllister, Richard Crossman and Alfred Hitchcock – to complete the film from hours of shocking footage. Unfortunately, this ambitious Allied project to create a feature-length visual report that would damn the Nazi regime and shame the German people into acceptance of Allied occupation had missed its moment. Even in its incomplete form (available since 1984) the film was immensely powerful, generating an awed hush among audiences. But now, complete to six reels, this faithfully restored and definitive version produced by IWM, is being compared with Alain Resnais’ Night and Fog (1955).