The Trap

Men of the Blue Cross

October 1955 •Polish

The final film produced by Warsaw’s Documentary Film Studio is an epic re-enactment of a treacherous mission by the Voluntary Tatra Mountain Rescue Service to aid colleagues stranded behind enemy lines at the close of World War II (several real participants feature in the film). Based on a short story about the rescue by Adam Liberak, Munk’s final “documentary” is also arguably his first major exercise in the craft of narrative filmmaking.

The Butler

August 2013 •English

A look at the life of Cecil Gaines, who served eight presidents as the White House's head butler from 1952 to 1986, and had a unique front-row seat as political and racial history was made.

London Belongs to Me

November 1948 •English

Classic British drama about the residents of a large terrace house in London between Christmas 1938 and September 1939. Percy Boon lives with his mother in a shared rented house with an assortment of characters in central London. Although well intentioned, he becomes mixed up with gangsters and murder. The story focuses on the effects this has on Percy and the other residents.

Merry-Go-Round

February 1956 •Hungarian

In a rural scenery in the throes of difficult changes lives a humble but promising young farmer girl called Mari Pataki. Her father forbids her from seeing the man she loves. The father, above all preoccupied by work on the fields and prospective wealth, decides to give his daughter in marriage to an old but rich man with whom he does business. Land marries land, he says. This seems to be the unyielding rule of the Hungarian peasantry. But the young lover is ready to stand up to any challenge to keep Maris love.

Clara Campoamor, the Neglected Woman

August 2011 •Spanish

Spain, 1931. Under the Second Republic, women are eligible, but cannot vote. Victoria Kent and Clara Campoamor, the first women in the Spanish Parliament, intend to fight for women's rights, and Clara knows that the first step is to get the women's vote approved…

Paraguayan Hammock

November 2006 •Spanish

Set in 1935, a couple of aged smallholders are waiting for their son, for rain, for better days.

Mosolov's Suitcase

Invalid date •English

The life of Ukrainian-Soviet avant-garde composer Alexander Mosolov inspires three stories about creation and individualism in the face of state power, set against the Great Purge of the 1930s and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Gold and Silver River Band

January 1953 •Chinese

Giuseppe Verdi

December 1953 •Italian

The life and loves of great composer Giuseppe Verdi are played against a background of the great operas of the 19th Century. A tender love story of his successful and turbulent life, with more than 20 excerpts from his acclaimed operas.

In a Savage Land

October 1999 •English

Two anthropologists married to each other go to an island off of Papua New Guinea for field research in pre-World War II. Eventually the war breaks out and many lives are disrupted and complicated.

The Big Cat

April 1949 •Spanish

A city boy arrives in his late mother's birthplace to discover the locals have been pestered by a cougar.

Hitler Youth Quex

September 1933 •German

Nazi propaganda film based on the life and death of Hitler Youth Herbert "Quex" Norkus – in the film, renamed Heini Völker – who was killed while distributing flyers in a Communist neighborhood.

The Gold Rimmed Glasses

September 1987 •Italian

Jewish lovers (Rupert Everett, Stefania Sandrelli) and a homosexual doctor (Philippe Noiret) fall to prejudice and scandal in 1938 Italy.

Without Leaving an Address

January 1951 •French

A woman in Paris hires a taxi driver to locate her ex-lover, father to her newborn child, who left her without leaving an address.

Mission to Moscow

April 1943 •English

Ambassador Joseph Davies is sent by FDR to Russia to learn about the Soviet system and returns to America as an advocate of Stalinism.

“Slovo” House. Unfinished Novel

May 2024 •Ukrainian

Kharkiv, the 1930s. The heyday of Ukrainian art. Ambitious young poet Vladimir Akimov happily settles in at the new luxury "Slovo" House built specifically for artists. He comes from the provinces and works as a proof-reader in a printing press, and has never even dreamed of living under one roof with prominent Ukrainian writers and artists. He thinks his own poetry is genius, but nobody takes his literary efforts seriously, not to mention the occasional chuckles over his epigone poems. But fate smiles at him. The head of the political intelligence agency suggests that he become the author of a play written earlier. Akimov agrees, signing a non- disclosure note. The poet has no idea what price he will pay for this success. “‘Slovo’ House” is a story about a generation of Ukrainian artists persecuted by the totalitarian system, unfolding against the backdrop of one of the largest genocides of the 20th century: the Holodomor, which caused the death of almost 7 million people.

Suez

October 1938 •English

Ferdinand de Lesseps, disappointed in love, is sent as a junior diplomat to the Isthmus of Suez, and realizes it's just the place for a canal.

Our Blushing Brides

July 1930 •English

Jerry, Connie, and Franky are small-town girls seeking wealthy husbands in New York City. But, while Connie and Franky are reckless with their affections — one bedding a married man and the other marrying a scoundrel — Jerry is determined to remain practical. As she mothers her wounded, heartbroken friends, she stalwartly but foolishly resists the advances of the good-hearted and affluent Tony Jardine.

Dance, Fools, Dance

February 1931 •English

When misfortune hits hard on the Jordan family of Chicago's upper class, Bonnie Jordan, a dazzling and witty girl, finds a job as an aspiring reporter; however, his naive younger brother Rodney takes a twisted path and gets involved with the wrong people.

Men Without Wings

October 1946 •Czech

After an attack against the guard of the Third Reich, Nazi repression intensifies, and the Czechoslovakian resistance's organized sabotage in an aircraft factory leads to Gestapo shootings.