Between Two Worlds

Leningrad. Stimmen einer belagerten Stadt

January 2024 •German

It was one of the great crimes of the Second World War: from 1941 to 1944, a total of 872 days, the siege and starvation of Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht on Hitler's orders lasted. Over a million people fell victim to the blockade, most of them dying of hunger. Countless of these starving people wrote diaries with the last of their strength, and cameramen filmed in the paralyzed city. Evidence from the hell of the siege, many of the film recordings, but above all the written memories on which this documentary on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation is based, remained under lock and key after the war. The voices of those who had suffered through this terrible time should not be heard by anyone, because they did not fit the pathos of the Leningrad heroic song that was officially sung. Most of the recordings come from women. The writers feared neither the enemy nor the Communist Party or Stalin, who often proved incompetent in providing for the population.

Russian Tzar

May 1993 •Serbian

Portrait of an elderly widower who meets love of his life again after half a century.

Za frontom

August 1973 •Slovak

Convoy of Girls

January 1978 •French

Eric, a brilliant young German officer, is transfered back to Berlin.His superior officer tells him about his new assignment on the Russian front and then invites him to a luxurious villa. Gathered in the mansion are the most beautiful women: the army's special services could enroll for the pleasure of its returning heroes.Eric is stupefied to recognize Renata among the women, who are all ready and willing to make love with any officer present. Not many years ago, while still students, Renata and Eric had been very much in love. After making love in a room put at their disposal, Renata tells him that she had no choice but to accept joining the army as an official camp follower: her father's survival depended on it. The following morning, Renata leaves in a special women's convoy for Eastern frontwhere they are scheduled to entertain hard-pressed officers and men. Will Eric and Renata's love survive those adventures?

Mordová rokle

May 1952 •Czech

Special Section

April 1975 •French

In occupied France during the WWII, a German officer is murdered. The collaborationist Vichy government decides to pin the murder on six petty criminals. Loyal judges are called in to convict them as quickly as possible.

Grave of the Fireflies

November 2005 •Japanese

Hisako loses her home in Tokyo to Allied bombing. With her husband fighting somewhere in Asia, she and her two children evacuate to a suburb of Kobe, where they share a house with Hisako's cousin, Kyoko. Kobe is bombed and Kyoko is killed. Hisako is forced to take care of Kyoko's two children in addition to her own, but there is not enough food for everyone.

The Singing Forest

October 2003 •English

A tragic tale of two lovers from the holocaust. Fate tore them apart, destiny brought them together.

Mila

June 2021 •

After the Trento bombing in Italy 1943, the CG animated short film is the story is of a little girl named Mila. It focuses on the collateral damage affecting the civilian population, and especially the children.

Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg

October 1990 •Swedish

Swedish account of Raoul Wallenberg, the man responsible for the largest rescue of Jews during World War II.

Letters

April 2021 •English

LETTERS, a dramatic historical fiction written by Mrs. Evelyn Merritt in 2010, tells the story of U.S. soldiers and their loved ones through their correspondence beginning with the Civil War and ending with the War in Iraq. Sahuarita High School students adapted the Readers’ Theatre play into a movie, reasoning the student actors would be kept safe from Covid-19 by filming them individually, and afterward the footage could be reassembled into a screenplay following the original dialogue.

Westfront 1918

May 1930 •German

A group of German infantrymen of the First World War live out their lives in the trenches of France. They find brief entertainment and relief in a village behind the lines, but primarily terror fills their lives as the attacks on and from the French army ebb and flow. One of the men, Karl, goes home on leave only to discover the degradation forced on his family by wartime poverty. He returns to the lines in time to face an enormous attack by French tanks.

Britain's Greatest Codebreaker

October 2012 •English

Alan Turing is the genius British mathematician who was instrumental in breaking the German naval Enigma Code during World War II, arguably saving millions of lives. Turing's achievements went unrecognised during his lifetime. Instead he ended up being treated as a common criminal, for being homosexual at a time when homosexual acts were a crime. In 1952, he was convicted of 'gross indecency' with another man and was forced to undergo so-called 'organo-therapy' - chemical castration. Two years later, he killed himself with cyanide, aged just 41. Alan Turing was driven to a terrible despair and early death by the nation he'd done so much to save.

Son of the Regiment

October 1946 •Russian

During the war years, russian soldiers pick up an orphaned boy. He refuses to go to the rear and becomes a scout, and then remains with the artillery battery. When the calculation of the battery dies in battle with the German tanks that have broken through, Vanya is sent to the Suvorov School, whose students participate in a military parade on Red Square.

A Town Like Alice

March 1956 •English

In 1941 Malaysia, the advancing Japanese army captures a lot of British territory very quickly. The men are sent off to labor camps, but they have no plan on what to do with the women and children of the British.

Under a Stone Sky

October 1974 •Russian

In the autumn of 1944, contrary to the order of the Nazi command to evacuate to the south, residents of the Norwegian town of Kirkenes took refuge in an abandoned mine. The command of the Soviet Army became aware of the intentions of the Nazis to blow up the old tunnels of the city, but the Soviet soldiers managed to prevent the tragedy.

Kuoleman lista

January 2024 •Finnish

A dramatic documentary film that deals with the Nazi rise to power in Germany in the 1930s and the development of the persecution of Jews up to the Holocaust. The film tells about the attitude of the Finnish government to the request for the handover of the Finnish Jews presented by Heinrich Himmler in the summer of 1942. The main focus of the film is the life of Jewish refugees in Finland in the years 1938-1942 and the attitude of the Finnish government to their handover in the fall of 1942.

Anton the Magician

September 1978 •German

A flamboyant comedy about love, work and money—revealing that the "planned" economy produced some unconventional entrepreneurial methods.

Sword of Honour

January 2001 •English

Guy Crouchback joins the war effort during World War 2, an idealistic quest to join the forces of good in the fight against evil. But his efforts is not rewarded, he never has any chance to join any real fighting, circumstances always prevent it. Instead he finds himself in the middle of an army full of cowards, incompetents and a few outright evil men. They of course reap the fortunes of war, promotions and fame, but never Crouchback. His war is just an endless list of transfers and an hopeless but noble quest for righteousness.

The Adventures of Ben Keller and Christoph Schultz

January 2022 •English

Two German POWs escape their Minnesotian prison via the Missippi River