Osteuropa zwischen Hitler und Stalin - Das große Sterben (2025)

Lawrence of Arabia

During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward 'T.E.' Lawrence sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.

Downfall

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

The Killing Fields

New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.

Days of Glory

1943. They have never stepped foot on French soil but because France was at war, Said, Abdelkader, Messaoud and Yassir enlist in the French Army, along with 130,000 other “indigenous” soldiers, to liberate the “fatherland” from the Nazi enemy. Heroes that history has forgotten…

Memoirs of a Geisha

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

Foxes of Chironup

Foxes Ken and Chin become the proud parents of cubs, Koro and Kan, who enjoy a carefree life on the northern Japanese island of Chironup. They befriend a fisherman and his wife but are forced to run for their lives when soldiers on a military exercise decide to take home some fox pelts as souvenirs. A sweet little film that obliquely symbolizes the plight of Japan's aboriginal Ainu people and the northern islands that have been contested with Russia since they were occupied by Stalin's soldiers in 1945.

Fear

March 1945, on the frontlines of the Tatra Mountains, Romanian and German soldiers prepare for battle, bound by the same hidden fear. In the chaos of combat, beyond bullets and grenades, a harsh truth emerges: in war, they are all just humans.

Stalin and the Katyn Massacre

The Katyn massacre, carried out by the Soviet NKVD in 1940, was only one of many unspeakable crimes committed by Stalin's ruthless executioners over three decades. The mass murder of thousands of Polish officers was part of a relentless purge, the secrets and details of which have only recently been partially revealed.

Combat America

Produced in 1943 under the guidance of Army Air Force Lieutenant Clark Gable, this film follows a single 8th Air Force B-17 crew from training through a series of missions over Europe.

The Butcher

A politically naive Viennese butcher manages to survive the Nazi occupation of Austria and the second world war.

The Ode to Joy

Based on the true story of the Bandō prisoner-of-war camp in World War I. It depicts the friendship of the German POWs with the director of the camp and local residents at the stage of Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, in Japan.

A Midnight Clear

In 1944 France, an American Intelligence Squad locates a German Platoon wishing to surrender rather than die in Germany's final war offensive. The two groups of men, isolated from the war at present, put aside their differences and spend Christmas together before the surrender plan turns bad and both sides are forced to fight the other.

Caught by Night

A communist journalist from Prague is sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp.

Khun Pan

This is a story about a police officer named Khun Phan in WWII. He is off on an undercover mission to take down a governor at an island which everyone there is considered as bandits.

The Hamlet Syndrome

Five young Ukrainians discuss life following the Maidan Revolution of 2014. Not all fought in the Russian-Ukrainian war, but it, regardless, shattered their life plans. Representing 'Generation Maidan', they face the question of how to cope with experiences of violence, how to go on. A local theatre director produces Hamlet, wherein they can use Shakespeare’s tragic character as a mirror and face their traumas onstage. For them, 'to be or not to be' is not simply text but an existential dilemma with no clear answer.

Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel's War

Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War presents the first-hand recollections of IDF soldiers who have broken official silence to share their experiences of the war in Gaza - accounts that may raise serious questions about conduct on the ground and potential breaches of international law. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Ben Zand, the film features exclusive interviews with Israel Defense Forces (IDF), reservists and veterans - many speaking for the first time - who served during the war in Gaza. Their testimonies describe what they recall as indiscriminate bombardment, instances where Palestinian civilians were used as human shields, and an operational culture that some soldiers characterised as “no innocents in Gaza.”

Dief!

This documentary short is a portrait of Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and 13th prime minister of Canada, John George Diefenbaker (1895-1979). Diefenbaker's political career spanned 6 decades. When he died in 1979, his state funeral and final train trip west became more a celebration of life than a victory for death.

Oleksa Dovbush

The story of the "Hutsul Robin Hood" Oleksa Dovbush, an 18th century Carpathian Mountains outlaw who's a popular figure of Ukrainian legend.

Turning Point Up Close - A Year with Soldiers

The film focuses on three male and one female soldier. They represent the challenges that the German army is currently facing: the Bundeswehr has too few personnel, too little equipment and for many years was not prepared for the type of war that it must now prepare for in the future. The film reflects the dramatic change from the perspective of those who have to shoulder the task of "national and alliance defense" in a very concrete and personal way in their everyday lives, at their location, in their unit.

The Hello Girls

In 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France as telephone operators to help win the Great War. They swore Army oaths, wore uniforms, held rank, and were subject to military justice. By war's end, they had connected over 26 million calls and were recognized by General John J. Pershing for their service. When they returned home, the U.S. government told them they were never soldiers. For 60 years, they fought their own government for recognition. In 1977, with the help of Sen. Barry Goldwater and Congresswoman Lindy Boggs, they won. Unfortunately, only a handful were still alive.

Hitler's American Business Partners

Henry Ford, the legendary automobile manufacturer, James D. Mooney, the GM manager and Tom Watson, the IBM boss, were all awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the Nazis' highest distinction for foreigners, by Hitler for their services to the Third Reich. At this time, in 1937 and 1938, Hitler's armaments industry was running at full speed. The German subsidiaries of these American companies - Opel, the Ford Werke AG and Dehomag - had willingly allowed themselves to be integrated into the "Führer's" war preparations. The film concentrates on the companies which were indispensable for Hitler to wage war. The documentary is supported by new archive material, as well as interviews with contemporary witnesses and experts.

Filmmakers for the Prosecution

In 1945, two young American soldiers, brothers Budd and Stuart Schulberg, are commissioned to collect filmed and recorded evidence of the horrors committed by the infamous Third Reich in order to prove Nazi war crimes during the Nuremberg trials (1945-46). The story of the making of Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today, a paramount historic documentary, released in 1948.

The Age of Kommunalki

A unique documentary about an inheritance of communism. An hidden world: the world of Kommunalki. In Saint Petersburg a lot of different people of different ages, culture and background live together in rooms inside big flats where they share common areas as the kitchen and the bathroom. This happens for 100 years... Since the October Revolution.

Riphagen the Untouchable

Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1944, during World War II. Andries Riphagen, a powerful underworld boss, has made his fortune by putting his many criminal talents at the service of the Nazi occupiers. But the long battle is about to end and the freedom fighters, who have been persecuted and murdered for years, are abandoning their hideouts to mercilessly hunt down those who have collaborated with the killers.

KinderblocK - L’ultimo inganno

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Flying Supersonic

Thundering across the sky on elegant white wings, the Concorde was an instant legend. But behind the glamour of jet setting at Mach 2 were stunning scientific innovations and political intrigue. Fifteen years after Concorde's final flight, this documentary takes you inside the historic international race to develop the first supersonic airliner. Hear stories from those inside the choreographed effort to design and build Concorde in two countries at once - and the crew members who flew her.

The Black Book

The Black Book, drafted during World War II, gathers numerous unique historical testimonies, in an effort to document Nazi abuses against Jews in the USSR . Initially supported by the regime and aimed at providing evidence during the executioners’ trials in the post-war era, the Black Book was eventually banned and most of its authors executed on Stalin’s order. Told through the voices of its most famous instigators, soviet intellectuals Vassilli Grossman, Ilya Ehrenburg and Solomon Mikhoels, the documentary, provides a detailed account of the tragic destiny of this cursed book and puts the Holocaust and Stalinism in a new light.

Mount Liptak

In order to provide for his family after his Father was murdered a young boy lies about his age to enlist in the Navy.

The World Under the Bombs, from Guernica to Hiroshima

Beginning with Guernica and the Chinese cities of Chongqing and Shanghai in 1937 and ending with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, World War Two saw a new art of warfare in the form of extensive, worldwide bombing campaigns.

Power and Paranoia of the Third Reich

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In the Land of Eagles and Crosses

In this documentary, Joachim Hellwig uses partly unpublished footage to shed light on a dark chapter of German history and shows the entanglements between the politicians' claims to power and the interests of industry and business in Germany from the beginning of the First World War to the end of the Second World War (1914 to 1945). The Nuremberg War Crimes and Industrial Trials served as the basis for this documentary.

Hide and Seek

This documentary follows two long-lost Ukrainian friends, Arsalan and Nastya, as they reconnect in Germany after russia's full-scale invasion against Ukraine. Arsalan, an actor now in Frankfurt after time in a refugee camp, and Nastya, journalist and producer who stayed in Kyiv, reflect on the divergent paths their lives have taken due to the war. Through their conversations and therapy sessions, the film explores themes of displacement, identity, and the emotional impact of war on youth.

Shifting Paths

Shifting Paths explores one family's resilience during the 1933 boycott of Jewish businesses in Frankfurt, Germany. This film traces the loss of a family-owned pharmaceutical company and how a once banned chamomile product, Kamillosan, has survived today with few knowing anything of its history.

Été 44, un train pour l'enfer

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