Nasser's Republic: The Making of Modern Egypt (2016)

Waiting for Abou Zayd

"Nasr Hamed Abou Zayd is not Godot, and the expectation promised by the title is misleading: this great gentleman is present in almost every shot. Who is he? An Egyptian Muslim theologian of international reputation, he has published exegeses of the Koran which led to his being condemned for apostasy. Exile, forced divorce from his wife Ibtihal Younes since his marriage was subject to annulment, separation from his son, such are the consequences of his writings. But Abou Zayd has not given up, residing in Leiden in the Netherlands, he continues, always on the road, to give conferences, to explain with great serenity his positions in public debates, on television, etc. C It is this particularly impressive dedication that Mohammad Ali Atassi's camera recorded over a period of six years.

Waltz with Bashir

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

Maidan

A chronicle of the civil uprising against the regime of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych that took place in Kyiv in the winter of 2013/14. The film follows the progress of the revolution: from peaceful rallies, half a million strong in the Maidan square, to the bloody street battles between protesters and riot police.

The Russian Revolution

Starting in 1881 this film shows the personal battle between Lenin's Ulyanov family and the royal Romanovs that eventually led to the Russian revolution.

Steal This Film II

These are strange times indeed. While they continue to command so much attention in the mainstream media, the 'battles' between old and new modes of distribution, between the pirate and the institution of copyright, seem to many of us already lost and won. We know who the victors are. Why then say any more?

Corporate Accountability

Images of Argentinian companies and factories in the first light of day, seen from the inside of a car, while the director reads out documents in voiceover that reveals the collusion of the same concerns in the military dictatorship’s terror.

A French Revolution

October 2018, France. Macron’s government decrees a tax increase on the price of fuel. A wave of protests starts to grow. Citizens mobilize throughout the country: this is the beginning of the Yellow Vests movement. In Chartres, a group of men and women gather daily. Among them, Agnès, Benoît, Nathalie and Allan commit themselves to the collective struggle. Like a whole nation, they discover that they have a voice to be heard...

Everyday Life in a Syrian Village

The first documentary to present an unabashed critique of the impact of the Syrian government’s agricultural and land reforms, Everyday Life in a Syrian Village delivers a powerful jab at the state’s conceit of redressing social and economic inequities.

Breaking Bread

In Breaking Bread, exotic cuisine and a side of politics are on the menu. Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel - the first Muslim Arab to win Israel's MasterChef - is on a quest to make a social change through food. And so, she founded the A-sham Arabic Food Festival in Haifa. There, pairs of Arab and Jewish chefs collaborate on mouthwatering dishes like kishek (a Syrian yogurt soup), and qatayef (a dessert typically served during Ramadan), as we savor the taste of hope and discover the food of their region free from political and religious boundaries.

First Case, Second Case

A documentary about a teacher who sends a group of pupils out of the classroom when one of them does not own up to talking behind the master's back.

Egypt's Great Pyramid: The New Evidence

Egypt's Great Pyramid may be humanity's greatest achievement: a skyscraper of stone built without computers or complex machinery. This super-sized tomb has fascinated historians and archaeologists for centuries, but exactly how the ancient Egyptians finished the monument and fitted its two and a half million blocks in a quarter of a century has long remained an enigma. Today the secrets of the pyramid are finally being revealed thanks to a series of new findings. At the foot of the monument, archaeologists are uncovering the last surviving relic of the pharaoh Khufu, whose tomb it is: a huge ceremonial boat buried in flat-pack form for more than 4500 years. It's a clue that points to the important role that ships and water could have played in the pyramids' construction. This documentary follows investigations that reveal how strong the link between pyramids and boats is. It's a story of more than how Egypt built a pyramid: it's about how the pyramid helped build the modern world.

Oriana Fallaci intervista Ayatollah Khomeini

Oriana Fallaci, the Italian journalist who is noted for her provocative interviews, interviews the leader of the Islamic Revolution, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, on Sept 12, 1979. For 10 days Oriana Fallaci waited in the holy city of Qum for her interview with the 79 year old Ayatollah, who is the de facto ruler of Iran. On Sept. 12, she was led into the Faizeyah religious school, where Khomeini holds his audiences. She was accompanied by two Iranians Nyho and Iran prime minster Banisadr who had helped set up the interview and who served as translators. Oriana Fallaci, barefoot, enveloped in a chador, the head to toe veil of the Moslem woman, was seated on a carpet, when the Ayatollah entered, and the recorded interview could begin.

Karl Marx und seine Erben

Over the past hundred years, dramatic social upheavals have taken place in the name of Karl Marx's theories. In Western Europe, the student movement of 1968 and the Eurocommunists were inspired. And in recent times, the thinker has experienced a renaissance.

India: Spreading Hate

Since the rise to power of Hindu nationalists in 2014, India has been gradually moving away from democracy towards a regime where ethnic identity prevails. This transition is driven by Hindutva, a Hindu supremacist ideology embodied by Narendra Modi. For the past 10 years, Prime Minister Modi has relentlessly pursued his fascist policy based on Hindu supremacy. This ideology of hatred towards other religions in the country, particularly Islam, has also spread globally. Those who follow this belief want India to be only for Hindus, treating people of other religions, like Muslims or Sikhs as second-class citizens. Attacks against Christians have surged by 400% since Modi's election, accompanied by discriminatory laws targeting Muslims and widespread lynching incidents. Hindutva's influence permeates all levels of Indian society. This documentary thus unveils a darker side of India, far from its portrayal as the world's largest democracy and Gandhi's dream of peace among communities.

Cuisine libanaise : Chiche ou pois chiche ?

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1917: One Year, Two Revolutions

In February 1917, Imperial Russia plunges into revolution. Nine months of unrest before a coup brought about an upheaval that changed the course of history and profoundly altered the future of civilisation.

Here and Elsewhere

Here and Elsewhere takes its name from the contrasting footage it shows of the fedayeen and of a French family watching television at home. Originally shot by the Dziga Vertov Group as a film on Palestinian freedom fighters, Godard later reworked the material alongside Anne-Marie Miéville.

Egypt: The Treasure Of The Sacred Bulls

Through their fieldwork, scientists bring to life a lost and unknown chapter of ancient Egypt, and write the next of the greatest adventures in the history of archaeology.

Swallowed By The Sea: Ancient Egypt's Greatest Lost City

We all know about Alexandria, one of the greatest cities of the classical world, with its great Library and fabled Lighthouse. But Heracleion? A great port and religious centre at the mouth of the Nile, it was mentioned by the likes of Herodotus, but at some point it vanished, and its location became unknown.

Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs

The grail is not the gold, nor the books of ancient wisdom, but the 3,000 year old DNA of the mummies, which may lead to a cure for malaria.

A Bridge at the Edge of the World

Year 1969 - in Turkey. 60s youth were living the most excited days. There was a great effort to make a bridge in Istanbul, on the Bosphorus. Meanwhile, on the eastern border of Turkey, in a Kurdish city between the borders of Iran and Iraq that is left to its destiny, in Hakkari, Zap River was taking lives since there were no passage on it.

South of the Border

A road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media's misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents.

Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus

A debate rages over the credibility of the Bible. Most archaeologists today have concluded that there's no evidence that the Exodus of Israelite slaves from Egypt ever happened. Filmmaker Timothy Mahoney faces a crisis of faith: "Is this foundation event of the Bible really just a myth?" He embarks on a 12-year journey around the world to search for answers. The Exodus unlocks the mystery of this ancient saga, combining a scientific investigation with a retelling of the Exodus story to reveal an amazing pattern of evidence matching the biblical account that may challenge our understanding of history.

Russia, China, Iran: The Axis of Revenge

Russia, China and Iran: three former empires are determined to take their revenge and reassert their power after centuries of humiliation. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, they have never been so aligned on the international stage. Their common goal: to put an end to Western hegemony, restore their zone of influence and propose a new model of society. To achieve this, they are waging a hybrid war against the democracies: military, technological, economic, informational and ideological. Are they on the verge of joining forces to create a new world order?

¡Las Sandinistas!

¡Las Sandinistas! uncovers the disappearing stories of women who shattered barriers to lead combat and social reform during Nicaragua’s 1979 Sandinista Revolution, and who continue to lead Nicaragua’s current struggle for democracy and equality.

Les Mystères du Temple d'Hatchepsout, Reine d'Egypte

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The Singing Revolution

Most people don't think about singing when they think about revolutions. But song was the weapon of choice when, between 1986 and 1991, Estonians sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation. During those years, hundreds of thousands gathered in public to sing forbidden patriotic songs and to rally for independence. "The young people, without any political party, and without any politicians, just came together ... not only tens of thousands but hundreds of thousands ... to gather and to sing and to give this nation a new spirit," remarks Mart Laar, a Singing Revolution leader featured in the film and the first post-Soviet Prime Minister of Estonia. "This was the idea of the Singing Revolution." James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty's "The Singing Revolution" tells the moving story of how the Estonian people peacefully regained their freedom--and helped topple an empire along the way.

Myanmar Diaries

How does it feel to be forgotten by the world? A powerful collective cry denouncing the crimes of the military dictatorship installed in Myanmar after the coup perpetrated on February 1, 2021: cinema and imagination against horror and in defense of freedom.

The Guns and the People

Film directors with hand-held cameras went to the streets of Lisbon from April 25 to May 1, 1974, registering interviews and political events of the Portuguese "Carnation Revolution", as that period would be later known.

1913: Seeds of Conflict

Explore an overlooked moment in pre-WWI Palestine when people's identities overlapped, and Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities intermingled freely. Few could contemplate the conflict that would engulf their region for the next century.

Do You Remember Revolution?

In Italy, in the mid-seventies, Adriana, Barbara, Nadia and Susanna were 20 years old when they decided to join the armed struggle and leave behind their social life and their families in order to make the revolution the center and the aim of their existence. Today they have returned after many years in prison, and they try, each one of them, to recount their own experiences. They speak about the political reasons which initially sustained them, the conflicts, the doubts, and the moments of being torn apart which market out their lives as women caught up in the vortex of war. A course of events which ended in the condemnation of the armed struggle and the pain of the lives that were destroyed – their victims’ lives and their own.

Pope Francis: A Man of His Word

Pope Francis responds to questions from around the world, discussing topics including ecology, immigration, consumerism and social justice.

Landfall

Hurricane María abated, the news crews packed up and left Puerto Rico, and the interest of the international community turned elsewhere. What happened next?

Valley of Egypt's Queens

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Where to Invade Next

To understand firsthand what the United States of America can learn from other nations, Michael Moore playfully “invades” some to see what they have to offer.

Divas

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All Things Ablaze

What does the violent heart of revolution feel like? As the anger and hatred glow white hot is there a language its players use to speak to one another? And what becomes of the gun toting authorities when their fiefdom is destroyed, nobody is any longer afraid, and all things are ablaze? Just some of the questions addressed in this visceral documentary from Maidan square in the violent Ukrainian winter of 2013-14.