Zembla - The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump Part 1: The Russians (2017)

Life of a Mutt

Through seven scenes, the film follows the life and destinies of stray dogs from the margins of our society, leading us to reconsider our attitude towards them. Through the seven “wandering” characters that we follow at different ages, from birth to old age, we witness their dignified struggle for survival. At the cemetery, in an abandoned factory, in an asylum, in a landfill, in places full of sorrow, our heroes search for love and togetherness. By combining documentary material, animation and acting interpretation of the thoughts of our heroes, we get to know lives between disappointment and hope, quite similar to ours.

Mantovani, the King of Strings

Known for his unmistakable cascading strings and recordings such as Charmaine, Mantovani enthralled the world with his sublime arrangements. This is the story of the man and his music.

Road

Arvind Chauhan and Lakhsmi are in love with each other. Lakhsmi's dad, a senior police inspector, hates Arvind, and so Arvind and Lakshmi decide to elope

Road

An elder brother who lived a life of crime but left to show his younger brother the lifestyle is not fit for anything. Years later his younger brother takes his footsteps in the life of drugs/crime, to a deal gone wrong his younger brother is murdered, his elder brother steps back into his crime ways and to find and avenge his younger brother's death.

Nekromantik 2

Monika lives with Rob, a corpse she loves. Her dilemma intensifies when she meets Mark and considers a normal life with him. She must choose between her affection for Rob and a new relationship.

F.O.T.O.G.R.A.F.

A short film based on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fictional universe, combining the “Picnic to the curb” of the Strugatsky brothers, “Stalker” by Andrei Tarkovsky and the “Exclusion Zone” location around the Chernobyl NPP. According to the scenario, an agent of the peacekeeping forces, nicknamed "The Photographer", arrives in the Zone to prevent a global scale catastrophe, which could be caused by an experiment that went out of control at a scientific lab.

Sayen: The Huntress

Realizing that she cannot take down Fisk alone, Sayen teams up with an underground resistance group with a plan to expose and end Fisk's unchecked plundering once and for all.

The Song of the Tree

Esen, a young man who has been expelled from his village, escapes with the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the village. Whilst being pursued, he is forced to fight for her hand in a battle that results in the destruction of a sacred totem tree. This puts the whole village in jeopardy, and it is up to Esen to redeem himself and save them all.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Instead of flying to Florida with his folks, Kevin ends up alone in New York, where he gets a hotel room with his dad's credit card—despite problems from a clerk and meddling bellboy. But when Kevin runs into his old nemeses, the Wet Bandits, he's determined to foil their plans to rob a toy store on Christmas Eve.

Bill Burr: Let It Go

It’s always been a dream of mine to do a show at the Fillmore. The name itself is synonymous with legendary performances. Countless iconic musicians and comedians have been on that stage. To be a part of that history was something I’ll never forget. As much as I was trying to keep my head together before the show, I couldn’t help but feel like a tourist or just some random dude who won a contest. LET IT GO represents the culmination of material I developed on the road from 2008-2009. As always thanks to everyone who came out to my shows, laughed at the funny stuff and stared during the bombing. I hope you enjoy it. – Bill Burr

Welcome, Violeta!

Over the course of her stay at the remote residence, Ana becomes more and more familiar with Holden’s idiosyncratic methods that require the participating artists to abandon their own identities and live emotionally and psychologically as their characters. Captivated by her artistic investigation, Ana immerses herself wholly into the method and starts living as Violeta, until her fiction loses control.

Box

The execution was scheduled and the last meal consumed. The coolness of the poisons entering the blood system slowed the heart rate and sent him on the way to Judgement. He had paid for his crime with years on Death Row waiting for this moment and now he would pay for them again as the judgment continued..

Bank Robbers: The Last Great Heist

Through candid interviews, the perpetrators of Argentina's most notorious bank heist detail how — and why — they carried out the radical 2006 operation.

The Cave of the Golden Rose 2

Fantaghiro and Romualdo are preparing their marriage when the Black Queen disgusted by their deep love captures Fantaghiro's father. Romualdo and his soldiers go on their journey to free him. But the insidious Black Queen transforms herself into Fantaghiro, makes Romualdo her slave by kissing him and captures the rest of his army. Fantaghiro follows Romualdo although she promised him to stay home, finds the camp deserted and enters the near castle of the Black Queen. When she asks for a duel to free her people she is very surprised to face Romualdo who has forgot her completely due to the magic of the Black Queen.

My Daughter's Psycho Friend

A devious and psychotic student tries to frame a new girl at school for a teen's accidental death at a party.

Spider-Man Strikes Back

At the New York State University, one of Peter Parker's tutors has accidentally given three students all the materials they need to create an atomic bomb. While Peter Parker tries to find out what's happened, the police suspect him of the crime, and Peter has to deal with an attractive journalist determined to get an interview with Spider-Man. Then dastardly millionaire Mr. White shows up, and will stop at nothing to get his hands on the atomic bomb. Spider-Man must defeat this scheming villain and stop him blowing up the World Trade Centre.

Place publique

Revolves around Castro, who was once a very famous TV host, but as he grows old, his popularity is dwindling.

Secrets in the Water

Inspired by a true story. A grieving mother enlists the help of her deceased daughter’s friend to track down her killer and wonders if the killer is someone close to home.

Fantozzi to the Rescue

Fantozzi is now retired but continues to go to the office where it is held up as a fine example of employees intending to do career.

The Girl Who Got Away

A female serial killer who killed four young girls is sent away to prison, but a fifth victim escaped with her life. Twenty years later, the killer escapes and begins hunting for the one who got away.

The Hard Way

After learning of his brother's death during a mission in Romania, a former soldier joins two allies to hunt down a mysterious enemy and take his revenge.

The Glass Harmonica

A craftsman builds a glass harmonica that enlightens him. He travels to a town where the people are obsessed with money. A bureaucrat smashes the glass harmonica which leads to chaos and eventually to social reform.

Fantozzi Retires

After thirty years in the big corporation, Ugo Fantozzi retires. Suddenly, he needs things to do in everyday life and he tries a number of activities: helping Pina shopping; babysitting grand-daughter Uga; a trip to Venice; learning golf. He then fakes documents to get a new job, but in the end he becomes a hypochondriac and doesn't even take a long-awaited chance with Miss Silvani.

Honey: Rise Up and Dance

Street dancer Skyler comes out of the shadow of her trained dancer sister, Tosha, & joins a dance competition with the Honey dance studio; the prize is a college scholarship.

Lenin and the Other Story of the Russian Revolution

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, is remembered as the instigator of the October Revolution of 1917 and, therefore, as one of the men who changed the shape of the world at that time and forever, but perhaps the actual events happened in a way different from that narrated in the history books…

Seaspiracy

Passionate about ocean life, a filmmaker sets out to document the harm that humans do to marine species — and uncovers an alarming global conspiracy.

Gideon: Searching for truth

'Gideon: Searching for the truth' takes the viewer with Van Meijeren on his quest for answers to questions about the current global health crisis. Questions that are common among the population, but to which he, and therefore the people in the country, do not get an answer in the Dutch House of Representatives. A place where Van Meijeren says he often feels like 'crying in the desert'. Where he gets no answers to his 'justifiably pressing' questions. Where instead he is invariably framed and judged by form, which makes any form of democratic debate impossible in advance.

Trump's Lobby

Since the election of Donald Trump, there has been a continual flow of high level visitors to the penthouse apartment in Trump Tower. Their arrivals were turned into a media spectacle.

Slepý Gulliver

One of the most striking contemporary Czech film-makers and literary figures, twice over winner of the Magnesia Litera Award, Martin Rysavý, is himself the central character of his new, philosophically tinged travelogue. He takes part in the Ukrainian Maidan, takes the Trans-Siberian Express across Russia, sails down the Kolyma river, comes across nomadic reindeer herdsmen, soldiers, mystics, artists and scholars. He tries to comprehend the present situation of two feuding countries of the former Soviet empire. The film's framework forms the director's conversation with a Prague optician, Jakub Thuri, shot during the director's check-up. Using travel materials on top, it allows a peep inside a traveller's consciousness wandering in recollections and trails of sensory perceptions from expeditions to far-away lands and finding a way how to grasp them, put them in order and pass them on.

Zeitgeist

A documentary examining possible historical and modern conspiracies surrounding Christianity, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the Federal Reserve bank.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.

I Trumpland med Filip & Fredrik

Filip and Fredrik is trying to answer the question: why do people vote for Trump? They is visiting Virginia a poor society where Trump is seen as the savior.

Zeitgeist: Addendum

Zeitgeist: Addendum premiered at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival. Director Peter Joseph stated: "The failure of our world to resolve the issues of war, poverty, and corruption, rests within a gross ignorance about what guides human behavior to begin with. It address the true source of the instability in our society, while offering the only fundamental, long-term solution."

Blood Money: Inside the Nazi Economy

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.

Space Dogs

Laika, a stray dog, was the first living being to be sent into space and thus to a certain death. A legend says that she returned to Earth as a ghost and still roams the streets of Moscow alongside her free-drifting descendants. While shooting this film, the directors little by little realised that they knew the street dogs only as part of our human world; they have never looked at humans as a part of the dogs’ world.

Let's Make Money

Let’s Make Money is an Austrian documentary by Erwin Wagenhofer released in the year 2008. It is about aspects of the development of the world wide financial system.

Belarus: An Ordinary Dictatorship

It’s the last dictatorship of Europe, caught in a Soviet time-warp, where the secret police is still called the KGB and the president rules by fear. Disappearances, political assassinations, waves of repression and mass arrests are all regular occurances. But while half of Belarus moves closer to Russia, the other half is trying to resist…

Icarus

While investigating the furtive world of illegal doping in sports, director Bryan Fogel connects with renegade Russian scientist Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov—a pillar of his country’s “anti-doping” program. Over dozens of Skype calls, urine samples, and badly administered hormone injections, Fogel and Rodchenkov grow closer despite shocking allegations that place Rodchenkov at the center of Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program.

Sicko

A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States who's main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.

The Road Movie

Anything can happen on Russian roads and is precisely shot by the dashboard camera. Super-objective video registration grows into the strong image of Russian national character – with its permanent awaiting for the miracle and habitual approach to real dramas. A forest on fire as a symbol of Russian hell, a military tank at a car wash and car chase in the vicinity of Kremlin shot with a dashboard cam at the same time when Boris Nemtsov, the leader of political opposition, was shot dead near Kremlin. Dashboard cam depicts life in it’s purity as an unbiased observer.

You've Been Trumped Too

A timely film exploring the confrontation between a feisty 92-year-old Scottish widow and her family and a billionaire trying to become the most powerful man in the world.

Together

Two people are on the road. Everyday life, business calls, games, a curve of the highway, a swing and again business calls... During this year the father and the daughter have not seen much of each other and they have not been alone for a long time. Two cameras are looking face to face; different fears inhabit one and the same space. There is a question: should they come back or should they continue traveling together?

Mafia and Italy: A Bloody Pact

In 1992, the anti-Mafia magistrates Falcone and Borsellino were murdered in Palermo, the capital of Sicily. For a long time, the public believed in a story of revenge. Today, a lawsuit is challenging this hypothesis. With exclusive testimonies from judges, politicians, and witnesses under protection, this film reveals several decades of incestuous links between the State and the Mafia.

World War C

It's war. War against an invisible enemy that is not as deadly as we are told. The world is changing rapidly. Disproportionate measures are taken worldwide that disrupt society as a whole. A dichotomy in society forced vaccinations and restrictions on freedom. Have we had the worst? Or is there something more disturbing to awaiting us.

Sex, Drugs & Bicycles

The documentary that answers the question: is having month-long double paid vacations, no fear of homelessness, and universal health care the nightmare we've been warned about? The answer may surprise you.

Freakonomics

Some of the world's most innovative documentary filmmakers will explore the hidden side of everything.

Inside Job

A film that exposes the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.

Eindeloos Gepest - Het Verhaal van Nora, Tren en Anne-Ruth

Three young people look back on their plague past and the dark valley in which they ended up. They dare to talk openly about how they found the resilience to turn their lives around.

2Doc: What Are We Doing?

In 2022, 92% of those affected encountered aggression or violence. Frans Bromet portrays six influences who encounter violence while carrying out their work. The violence with which the actual consequences are, leaves personal physical, especially mental, traces.

The Price We Pay

A documentary on the history and present-day reality of big-business tax avoidance, which has seen multinationals depriving governments of trillions of dollars in tax revenues by harboring profits in offshore havens.

The Savior for Sale

In November 15, 2017, the painting Salvator Mundi, attributed to Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), was sold for an unprecedented $450 million. An examination of the dirty secrets of the art world and the surprising story of how a work of art is capable of upsetting both personal and geopolitical interests.

One Girl Against the Mafia

A powerful story of an ultra-violent world and the courage of one young woman against all odds.

In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts

Emmy-winning journalist Danny Schechter investigates America's mounting debt crisis in this latest hard-hitting expose. The film reveals the unknown cabal of credit card companies, lobbyists, media conglomerates and the Bush administration itself who have colluded to deregulate the lending industry, ensuring that a culture of credit dependency can flourish. Schechter exposes the hidden financial and political complex that allows the lowest wage earners to indebt themselves so heavily that even house repossessions are commonplace.

De Chinese keizerin

Despite the warm images in the family archive, photographer and filmmaker Jonnah misses an intimate bond with her (adoptive) parents. Over the years, a wall has been built between them that Jonnah is now trying to break down with her parents.

Enkeltje Vrijheid

Before the eyes of the Sudanese Ahmed (25), the war broke out in full force. He decides to flee on foot to the Netherlands alone, to be able to live there in freedom. This documentary shows part of his arduous journey: from the Italian Alps to Ter Apel.

Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal

An examination that goes beyond the celebrity-driven headlines and dives into the methods used by Rick Singer, the man at the center of the shocking 2019 college admissions scandal, to persuade his wealthy clients to cheat an educational system already designed to benefit the privileged.

Leninland

At the peak of Perestroika, in 1987, in the village of Gorki, where Lenin spent his last years, after a long construction, the last and most grandiose museum of the Leader was opened. Soon after the opening, the ideology changed, and the flow of pilgrims gradually dried up. Despite this, the museum still works and the management is looking for ways to attract visitors. Faithful to the Lenin keepers of the museum as they can resist the onset of commercialization. The film tells about the modern life of this amazing museum-reserve and its employees.

Pythéas, l'astronome voyageur

Plot unavailable

Capitalism: A Love Story

Michael Moore comes home to the issue he's been examining throughout his career: the disastrous impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world).

Pisnicht: The Movie

The effect of language use on homosexuals in the Netherlands.

Collective

In the aftermath of a tragic fire in a Romanian club, burn victims begin dying in hospitals from wounds that were not life threatening. A team of investigative journalists move into action uncovering the mass corruption of the health system and of the state institutions. Collective follows journalists, whistle blowers, and authorities alike. An immersive and uncompromising look into a dysfunctional system, exposing corruption, propaganda, and manipulation that nowadays affect not only Romania, but societies around the world.

Not My Job

The documentary follows the life of Farroukh, a young Tajik immigrant who lives in Moscow outskirts with his family and does odd jobs in dreams of becoming an actor.