An Optimistic Tragedy

Paradise Now

September 2005 •English

Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Doctor Zhivago

December 1965 •English

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

Earth and Ashes

May 2004 •Pashto

Elderly Dastaguir and his newly deaf 5-year-old grandson Yassin hitchhike and walk, but mostly walk, as they make their way to the coal mine where Dastaguir's son Murad works. Dastaguir must tell Murad that the rest of their family were all killed in a recent bomb attack.

Indochine

April 1992 •French

Set in colonial French Indochina during the 1930s to 1950s, this is the story of Éliane Devries, a French plantation owner, and of her adopted Vietnamese daughter, Camille, set against the backdrop of the rising Vietnamese nationalist movement.

Michael Collins

October 1996 •English

Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.

Lord of War

September 2005 •English

Yuri Orlov is a globetrotting arms dealer and, through some of the deadliest war zones, he struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol agent, his business rivals and even some of his customers who include many of the world's most notorious dictators. Finally, he must also face his own conscience.

Lenin in Paris

November 1981 •Russian

Cows

February 1992 •Spanish

A film set in the Basque region, beginning in the Carlist war of 1875 and ending during the Spanish Civil war of 1936. The film portrays how one single act of cowardice shapes the life of the next three generations of two families and fuels the intense rivalry which will span the next sixty-one years.

Lenin: The Train

April 1990 •English

March/April 1917. The first world war is already a couple year to pace. A sealed train with Russian emigrants keeps on driving from Zürich Germany and Sweden to Sint-Petersburg. The outlaws stand under the guidance of Vladimir J. Lenin. Two senior officers support the revolutionary bomb "to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Yet there are some unpleasant clashes between Socialists and enthusiastic workers who are worried about the war. During train travel there comes an end to Lenin's affair with the gracious Inessa, and his wife Nadja is prepared take back him. The triumphant entrance in St. Petersburg will exceed all expectations....

Checkpoint

August 1998 •Russian

A group Russian soldiers is send to an outpost to guard the area. They pass the day patroulling the area, while being shot at from the forest. They never know if the civillions are hostile or friendly to them.

Salvador

April 1986 •English

In 1980, an American journalist covering the Salvadoran Civil War becomes entangled with both the leftist guerrilla groups and the right-wing military dictatorship while trying to rescue his girlfriend and her children.

A Loyal Deserter

January 1913 •English

Paul Worthington, a Federal private, receives a letter from their family physician apprising him of the dangerous illness of his mother. He takes the letter to the commanding officer with a request for a "leave of absence," but Col. Colfax refuses emphatically. Paul determines to visit his mother at any cost, however, realizing the gravity of his offense at the time of war. He leaves the camp, does his filial duty, and while at home General Buchner and his aides from the Confederate side use the lower part of the house for a consultation as it is in the war zone. Paul manages to overhear an important plan to trap General Grant. He memorizes, gets through the lines, warns the great Commander in time, and is pardoned for his loyal desertion.

Carla's Song

October 1996 •English

A Glasgow man visits war-torn Nicaragua with a refugee tormented by her memories.

The Siege at Red River

May 1954 •English

Cavalry Captain Farraday attempts to prevent the delivery of Gatling Guns into the hands of hostile Indians.

Persepolis

June 2007 •French

In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Statrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.

Savior

June 1998 •Hungarian

A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.

Nagrody i odznaczenia

March 1974 •Polish

1944. Three wounded officers from both sides of political conflict meet in the hospital where the staff is politically divided too.

The Hunting Party

September 2007 •English

A young journalist, an experienced cameraman and a discredited reporter find their bold plan to capture Bosnia's top war criminal quickly spiraling out of control when a UN representative mistakes them for a CIA hit squad.

The Forgotten Battle of Fort Pillow

Invalid date •English

On April 12th, 1864, at an insignificant little fort, several hundred black Union soldiers fought a hopeless battle against a Confederate general who was destined to become the first Grand Wizard of the KKK. This battle had a domino effect, trickling down the long road of history. Today, it is just a footnote in most history books; however, no other event of the Civil War has had such a profound impact on the twentieth century, especially on American culture.

Living the Utopia

November 1997 •Spanish

A retrospective look at the anarcho-syndicalist and anarcho-communist experience in Spain from 1930 until the end of the Civil War in 1939.