Films /

Films

A Child's World of Drugs

Tomáš Škrdlant / Czech Republic / 2003 / 28 min.

This is a film about the stories of Honza and Štěpán, who come from completely different social and family backgrounds. Both of them had serious problems with drugs, which they eventually managed to overcome with the help of their family.

A Killer Bargain

Tom Heinemann / Denmark / 2006 / 57 min.

The northwestern Indian province of Punjab is a region known for its production of cotton. What is less well known is the harmful conditions under which the local people (who are often children) cultivate and process this cotton. But this does not bother many European customers.

A Lesson of Belorussian

Mirosław Dembiński / Poland / 2006 / 51 min.

This musically rich film edited in a dynamic style alternates between interviews with young Belarussians and authentic footage of police brutality against demonstrators. It is a stirring statement on the situation in the totalitarian state and proof of how young people have the power to protest against a dictatorial regime.

A Little Piece of Heaven

Petr Nikolaev / Czech Republic / 2005 / 84 min.

This film inspired by the short stories of Jiří Stránský comprises a prison love story against the harsh backdrop of a communist jail in the 1950s. It is a tale of the love, friendship and solidarity that helps one to surive the hardest times of one's life with dignity.

A Story About A Bad Dream

Pavel Štingl / Czech Republic / 2000 / 49 min.

This is a documentary about the fate of some Jewish girls from Prague at the time of the holocaust.

A Window into Soul of the Dying

Tomáš Škrdlant / Czech Republic / 1996 / 40 min.

Is it better to tell a terminally ill person the whole truth or is it preferable to tell them a white lie? This is one of the questions dealt with in this documentary exploring the relationship between today's society and death and dying.

Africa: the Loss of Immunity

Pavel Hanuš / Czech Republic / 2000 / 23 min.

Inadequate prevention, polygamy, a lack of medicine, religious sexual rituals, discrimination against HIV-positive people and the rejection of contraception - these are just some of the many obstacles that have to be overcome to try and prevent more than 600 people dying of AIDS in Kenya every day.

AIDS Young People's Words

Gilles Perez / France / 2005 / 52 min.

This film presents the stories of young people coming to terms with their fate. They show that AIDS is not a stigma and that it is possible to fight it just like any other illness.

Alone With Our Stories

Hubert Sauper / France / 2001 / 60 min.

These personal testimonies of women who have become victims of domestic violence uncover a serious problem, which is pushed under the carpet.

And the UN Came!

Ole Vestergaard, Eva Arnvig / Denmark / 2000 / 48 min.

United Nations soldiers brought peace, AIDS and 25,000 fatherless children to Cambodia. According to the UN, this is not their problem.

Arif Hossein, ETV, Dhaka

Ole Tornbjerg / Denmark, Bangladesh / 2002 / 28 min.

The protagonist of this documentary is thirteen-year-old Arif. Because his father's earnings are not enough to provide for the family's needs, Arif has to go out and work, just like around 10 million other Bangladeshi children.

Arna´s Children

Juliano Mer Khamis, Danniel Danniel / Israel, Netherlands, Palestine / 2003 / 84 min.

How can Palestinian boys who acted at a theatre run by the Jewish woman Arna become suicide bombers and combatants fighting against the Israeli army?

Back Then

Robert Sedláček / Czech Republic / 1999 / 101 min.

A documentary on the causes and events of the "Velvet Revolution" in 1989, as it is viewed today by contemporary students.

Big Mike

Hakan Berthas, Hanna Heilborn / Sweden / 2004 / 58 min.

Hip-hop fan Mike was born into a family of aborigines in Australia, but he grew up with his adoptive mother in Sweden. As an adult he goes to visit his natural parents and discovers his roots.

Black word - Kálo láv

Róbert Kirchhoff / Slovakia / 1999 / 37 min.

This is a film about the day-to-day life of a Slovak Roma village. It records the memories and opinions of Roma people who have acquitted themselves well in society.

Bridge over the Wadi

Barak Heymann, Tomer Heymann / Israel / 2006 / 57 min.

In the Wadi region, which is located in the centre of Israel, Jews and Arabs live beside each other. After decades of violence, parents from both sides of the divide decide to establish a common bilingual school for their children from both nationalities.

Calling the Ghosts

Mandy Jacobson, Carmen Jelincic / USA / 1996 / 63 min.

This film presents powerful testimony from two Bosnian women about a war in which even rape was used as a weapon. After the suffering they have experienced, they strive not only to come to terms with their personal trauma but also fight for the conviction of the culprits. Their moment of satisfaction comes when the international tribunal at The Haag categorises rape as a war crime. The film is part of a collection focusing on "coming to terms with the past".

Colour Nation

David Čálek / Czech Republic / 2002 / 24 min.

This montage documentary deals with a decade in the development of Czech society under the post-1989 democratic conditions from the point of view of racism and xenophobia. Each year (1992-2002) is a separate chapter in which we find information on serious crimes that have been classified as being racially motivated.

Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter

Deborah Hoffmann / USA / 1994 / 44 min.

When director Deborah Hoffmann's mother falls ill with Alzheimer's Disease she decides to attempt the impossible and sets about trying to reverse her mother's forgetfulness, confusion and obsessiveness.

Crime and Punishment

Maria Fuglevaag Warsinski / Norway / 1998 / 54 min.

The massacres that took place in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in 1995 were the most serious war crimes committed against civilians in Europe since the Second World War. This documentary features people who weren't among the more than 7,000 people who were murdered in this massacre.

Dark Side of The World

Petra Procházková, Jaromír Štětina / ČR / 2000 / 23 min.

This film takes us to the capital city of Chechnya at a time when five thousand defenders withstand attacks by the Russian army over the course of several weeks. It contains exclusive interviews with combatants on both sides.

Devil's Miner

Richard Ladkani, Kief Davidson / Bolivia, Germany, USA / 2004 / 84 min.

After the death of their father, fourteen-year-old Basilio and his younger brother are forced to support their family by doing extremely dangerous and demanding work in a Bolivian silver mine.

Divorce Iranian style

Kim Longinotto, Ziba Mir-Hosseini / UK / 1998 / 80 min.

This film follows three cases being heard by a Sharia court of law in Tehran: Jamileh is suing her husband for beating her. Sixteen-year-old Ziba wants to divorce her thirty-eight-year-old husband. Maryam is already divorced and is fighting her former husband for custody of their children.

Don't You Worry, It Will Probably Pass

Cecilia Neant-Falk / Sweden / 2003 / 74 min.

This film looks at the "coming out" of three young Swedish women who are attracted to other girls.

Dreams and Silence

Omar Al-Qattan / UK, Palestine / 1991 / 52 min.

There are very deep-rooted differences concerning the perception of Islam. On the one hand, we meet a Palestinian woman living in Jordanian refugee camps, while we also encounter an exponent of political Islam on the other side of the divide.

Dreams from the Railway Station

Silvio Mirošničenko / Croatia / 2001 / 32 min.

The main train station in Zagreb has become home to many street children. This documentary looks at how these children view the fate that has befallen them.

Enemies of Happiness

Eva Mulvad / Denmark / 2006 / 59 min.

This film follows the Afghan woman Malalai Joya during the week leading up to parliamentary elections, in which she is standing as one of three women among forty one candidates. Her campaign is marked by threats but also by the support of villagers for whom she is often the only authority they can turn to.

Ethiopia: A Journey with Michael Buerk

Clifford Bestall / Ethiopia, South Africa, UK / 2003 / 89 min.

Michael Buerk returns to Ethiopia twenty years after his report for the BBC sparked a then-unprecedented wave of support from around the world for famine victims.

Every Day You Open The Newspaper

Marek Dušák / Czech Republic / 2000 / 53 min.

This film from a four-part NGO series presents the Amnesty International organisation. It illustrates the evolution of the human rights movement and current problems affecting the fulfilment of the basic ideas that were originally promoted by its founding members.

Experimentum crucis

Taras Popov,Vladimir Tyulkin / Kazakhstan / 1996 / 52 min.

This documentary uncovers the inhuman conditions endured by boys imprisoned in a Kazakh jail. It describes their day-to-day life as well as the bullying and mistreatment doled out by the "wardens" and the prisoners themselves.

First Kill

Coco Schrijber / Netherlands / 2001 / 73 min.

War has two faces: malice and fear. But it also fascinates and excites. War veterans speak about traumas and nightmares, but also talk about their dependence on killing.

Fortress Europe

Andreas Rocksen / Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Norway / 2001 / 58 min.

Illegal migration - one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary Europe - is placed in a wider context. In the first part entitled Death on the Border, we follow a group of Iraqis who are brought across the Turkish-Greek border by people smugglers.

Garden

Ruthie Shatz, Adi Barash / Israel / 2003 / 85 min.

Seventeen year-old Palestinian Nino and 18- year old Dudu live off prostitution and selling drugs in an infamous part of Tel Aviv known as The Garden.

Go to Louisa

Grzegorz Pacek / Poland / 2005 / 42 min.

Polish director Grzegorz Pacek goes to South Africa ten years after the fall of the old political system. He is visiting a country where the oppression of the "black" inhabitants by the "whites" was commonplace and where the roots of slavery are so deeply embedded that they are still evident in people's thoughts and behaviour to this day.

Gotteszell - A Woman´s Prison

Helga Reidemeister / Germany / 2001 / 104 min.

What puts a woman behind bars? What have they experienced in order to turn to crime? Was it simply their fault or did society fail them? Prisoners and their jailers give their testimony.

Growing up in a Day

Phie Ambo / Denmark, Zambia / 2002 / 28 min.

The Lusaka region in the African state of Zambia is a place where almost every third child has lost a parent. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this has been caused by AIDS.

Hard Living Kids

John Ferdericks, Davide Tosco / Italy, South Africa / 2000 / 54 min.

On the outskirts of Capetown, there are children living in absolute poverty. 300,000 of them have got involved in gangs who have no scruples about doing anything.

Helping People

Martin Štoll / Czech Republic / 2003 / 28 min.

The main theme of this documentary is the story of a former drug user who looks back with detachment on his past involvement with drugs. At the same time, the filmmakers attempt to take a closer look at some of the methods used to help drug addicts, ranging from efforts made by field workers to substitution therapy with methadone.

Hercules

Lidia Duda / Poland / 2004 / 27 min.

The protagonist of this film is a twelve-year-old boy called Herkules. Herkules helps his unemployed parents even though they don't show any great interest in him (particularly his constantly drunk father). He often does this by earning a little money on the side.

Hitler, Stalin and I

Helena Třeštíková / Czech Republic / 2001 / 56 min.

This is the story of Heda Blochová, whose life was fundamentally marked by the cruelty of two totalitarian regimes during the 20th century.

Human Weapon

Serge Gordey, Ilan Ziv / France, Israel, USA / 2002 / 55 min.

The people with explosives attached to their bodies are nearly always youngsters. They have nothing to lose and their leaders have convinced them that martyrdom is the highest calling in life.

Charta 77

Angelika Hanauerová / Czech Republic / 1995 / 60 min.

Charter 77 was the work of a small group of people with diverse beliefs and personalities amidst the hopelessness of "real socialist" Czechoslovakia. This documentary tries to capture the tragicomic circumstances of the creation of Charter 77 and the first ten years of its existence.

Chechen Lullaby

Nino Kirtadze / France / 2000 / 57 min.

Five war correspondents, including Czech reporter Petra Procházková, describe their personal and professional experience of a conflict that fails to generate any interest in the West.

Child Soldiers

Alan Lindsday / Australia / 2002 / 56 min.

According to very sober estimates, there are 300,000 child soldiers operating around the world. In some countries, children as young as eight are often pressganged and recruited by the army.

Children of the Moment

Robert Sedláček / Czech Republic / 2003 / 28 min.

The makers of this documentary managed to win the trust of several drug users and followed them around with a camera in diverse situations arising out of their drug dependence.

Children Underground

Edet Belzberg / USA, Romania / 2001 / 108 min.

When they talk about Bucharest's metro stations, they use the word "Home". This is the powerful story of five children who have to endure a living hell on a daily basis.

I am strong

Anneloek Sollart / Netherlands / 2004 / 15 min.

On a daily basis, a Dutch boy finds that he can't go where he wants and that he can't do what he wants. Even though he lives in a free country he is not a free person. The obstacle to his free movement is nothing other than his own fear of dogs.

I Wasn´t Able to Die

Markéta Dobiášová, Jan Tobiáš / Czech Republic / 2003 / 28 min.

The North Korean regime is one of the most isolated and secretive islands of totalitarianism in the world. I Jong-guk, a former personal bodyguard of Kim Jong-il, was previously willing to lay down his life for his leader. When he was confronted with the reality of life in North Korea, he tried to emigrate. He was caught trying to get away, however, and he spent nearly six years in Yodok concentration camp.

Illegal Immigrants: A Journey Through Hell

Jean-Paul Mudry / Switzerland / 2001 / 50 min.

They abandon their homes in an attempt to escape war and persecution or simply in an effort to find a better life for themselves. This informative documentary uncovers the problems that beset them as they seek out the promised land in Europe.

I'm Positive. I Live with AIDS

Zuzana Wismer-Meiserová / Czech Republic / 1992 / 40 min.

This documentary film was made in 1992 in Switzerland and Prague about people suffering from the insidious disease of AIDS. It takes a close look at a specific sample of people, primarily from a social and human perspective.

In a White Man´s Land

Kim Landstra / Netherlands / 2000 / 50 min.

Bernard fled the civil war in Congo, Pedro escaped Sudan and Toni was recruited as a child soldier. Now they are all learning Dutch and trying to manage life in a strange European country.

In nomine patris

Jaromír Polišenský / Czech Republic / 2004 / 97 min.

This film is a fictional reconstruction of the background to the so-called Číhošť Miracle". According to witnesses, a half-metre crucifix moved several times on the altar of a church in the little village of Číhošť during mass in December 1949. The reports that spread far and wide about the miracle attracted the attention of the state secret service.

Interrupted Spring - Spring is Here

Milan Maryška / Czech Republic / 1998 / 58 min.

In a hundred years time, it's possible that 1968 will only warrant a footnote in history textbooks. At the end of the twentieth century, however, it's hard to find a Czech whose life has not been affected by the events associated with the "Prague Spring".

Interrupted Spring - The Night of Normalization

Milan Maryška / Czech Republic / 1998 / 58 min.

The so-called normalisation era categorically destroyed the euphoria that had gripped the nation and paved the way for twenty dark years of collective cowardice with only some isolated instances of heroism. It resulted in communist ideas becoming completely discredited in Europe.

Intolerance - Ivan

Marko Popović / Serbia and Montenegro / 2002 / 25 min.

Publicly admitting to having a different sexual orientation is a dangerous step in a society marked by nationalism, intolerance and ten years of ongoing war.

Itch

Rishi Chamman / Netherlands / 2005 / 15 min.

Pavan Bandhoe, an Indian boy living with a family in the Netherlands, has problems with excema. Despite this, Pavan is friendly and is able to talk about his unpleasant experiences with humour.

It´s My Life

Brian Tilley / South Africa / 2001 / 74 min.

After 10 years of living with HIV, the South African man Zackie decides to stop taking his medication until these drugs are made available to everyone. In doing so, he sets off on a quixotic crusade against multinational pharmaceutical firms.

Jamila

Ingeborg Jansen / Netherlands / 2004 / 14 min.

Jamila is a passionate female footballer. Her family are followers of Islam, which forbids girls from showing their legs. Even though Jamila's father supports her passion for football and is proud of her successes, he really does not like the idea of her playing in shorts.

Johanna! Yohanna! - From Hell to Paradise

Thomas Danielsson / Sweden / 2003 / 28 min.

This is a sensitively made documentary about a Swedish girl called Johanna who is dealing with the effects that childhood bullying can have on the vulnerable psyche of an adolescent girl.

Just Because I Love You

Tomáš Kudrna / Czech Republic / 2004 / 27 min.

At the beginning their partners were pleasant and charming. But then they began gradually isolating them from their friends and acquaintances. Then came the moment when the man hit his partner for the first time.

Killers Don't Cry

Clifford Bestall / UK / 2001 / 45 min.

For more than a hundred years, South African jails have been shrouded in secrecy. A network of criminals known as "The Numbers" depends on a hierarchical structure and violence. It is based on the secrecy and absolute loyalty of its members. After the fall of apartheid, prison administrators try to break "The Numbers" system.

Kinneret Lives

Ruth Yuval, Zamir Dahbash / Israel / 2005 / 50 min.

In 2001, a bomb attack occurred at the My Coffee House café in Tel Aviv. The twenty-three-year-old barmaid and singer Kinneret was taken away from the scene with extensive burns, a damaged eye and a disfigured left hand. Her life up to then had been completely transformed.

Life and Debt

Stephanie Black / USA / 2001 / 86 min.

Reggae, Rastafarians – Jamaica. After four hundred years of colonisation, the country wanted its independence. It borrowed from the World Bank... and found itself in a spiral of debt.

Like a Butterfly

Ewa Pieta / Poland / 2004 / 29 min.

This is the story of a physically handicapped boy, who endured 16 years before he was able to establish contact with those around him and to convince them that the perceptive mind of a young poet lay trapped in his paralysed body.

Living Rights: Roy

Duco Tellegen / Netherlands / 2004 / 28 min.

Ten-year-old Roy lives in a small Peruvian village. Instead of attending school, he often goes down the local mines. In extraordinarily difficult and unhealthy conditions he tries to dig for gold to lift his family out of poverty.

Loan Shark

Martin Řezníček / Czech Republic / 2001 / 29 min.

You borrow a sum and you have to pay back twice as much within a month. If you can't make the payment, then the debt doubles again. Usury or loan-sharking has spread throughout the Czech Roma community in recent years.

Long Night's Journey into Day

Frances Reid, Deborah Hoffmann / USA / 2000 / 95 min.

This film follows four stories that took place in the 1980s and which were reconstructed in recent years before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission with the help of perpetrators, witnesses and surviving victims. The announcement of the truth should result in an amnesty for the criminals and relieve the pain of the survivors. The film is part of a collection of films on "coming to terms with the past."

Marcinek

Mariusz Malec / Poland / 2004 / 15 min.

The protagonist of this sensitively made documentary is ten-year-old Martínek, who regularly helps his father fish, and dreams that his seriously ill sister will get better one day.

Massacre at Švédské Šance

Jana Hádková / Czech Republic / 2000 / 28 min.

A few weeks after the end of the Second World War, Czechoslovak soldiers from nearby Přerov murdered more than 200 innocent men, women and children who had returned home from Germany after being forcibly relocated during the war by the German regime.

Merchants of Cool I.

Barak Goodman / USA / 2001 / 53 min.

Young people are now an attractive target group – they are spending more money than they have ever spent before and they have more freedom than they ever had previously. Do teenagers today have room for their own culture, which would not simply be used as the best way to sell them a new t-shirt or a CD from a well-known band?

Ming, Maggie, Wan...

Martin Řezníček / Czech Republic / 2002 / 18 min.

Over a period of several years, the director followed the fate of three Chinese students living in the Czech Republic. The students talk openly about their experiences with the Czech majority as well as about their plans and ambitions in life, which don't differ so much from the plans and aspirations of their Czech co-students.

My Beloved Child

Brit Jorunn Hundsnes / Norway / 2004 / 103 min.

This is a very finely made Norwegian documentary about the fate of Sigrid Beate Edvardsen, who murdered her father - the man who sexually abused her as a child.

My Buddy

Jourik Vandervorst / Belgium / 2004 / 15 min.

This is the story of eleven-year-old Eva who needs constant care and supervision because of her physical disability. This could all change thanks to a local program for handicapped people, which provides selected candidates with an assistance dog. Will Eva be happier with her creamy white labrador than she was beforehand?

My Dear Muslim

Kerstin Nickig / Poland, Germany / 2005 / 35 min.

Through the personal story of Sacita and her family, director Kerstin Nickig reports on the endless and seemingly hopeless nature of the conflict in Chechnya, which has in one way or another been going on for two hundred years or so.

My Father Lives in Venezuela

René Roelofs / Netherlands / 2003 / 25 min.

This is the story of the Dutch girl Roxana, whose adolescence is marked by her having to come to terms with the fact that her father is imprisoned in Venezuela for smuggling drugs.

My Left Breast

Gerry Rogers / Canada / 2000 / 57 min.

When Canadian filmmaker Gerry Rogers learned from her doctors that she had breast cancer, she decided to record her experiences on a video camera with her partner Peggy.

My Little Princess

Brenda Wit / Netherlands / 2003 / 20 min.

A film about the selfless help young Julietta gives her much older friend Seka, who fled the war in Bosnia and now does not have enough money to return to her family.

My Terrorist

Yulie Cohen Gerstel / Israel / 2002 / 58 min.

In 1978, El Al air hostess Julie Cohen Gerstel was injured during a terrorist attack in London. The incident strengthened her patriotism and she became a pilot in the Israeli airforce soon afterwards.

Neo-Nazism - 2. Leaders, 3. Sobek, 4. Under the Swastika

composite authors / Czech Republic / 2003 / 30 min.

In what way are neo-Nazis activists? In the case of Filip Vávra, Zdeněk Skořepa and Zdeněk Švamberk, it involves young people who don't drink or smoke, who passionately practice martial arts, and who don't like Jews and Roma.

Nima

Annelies Kruk / Netherlands / 2004 / 15 min.

This is the story of the Somali girl Nima who fled a war with her mother and has now lived for several years in a Dutch refugee camp.

Nobody Should Hear Anything

Petra Procházková, Jaromír Štetina, Pavel Hanuš / Czech Republic / 1999 / 23 min.

Anyone who controls the media, controls everything. The government of the Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko puts this philospophy into practice to such an extent that the New-York-based Committee to Protect Journalists cited the country as the third biggest enemy of press freedom in the world.

Odd One Out - Very Normal, Really: Jan and Josefien, Brother and Sister

Charlotte Hoogakker / Netherlands / 2006 / 16 min.

Jan and Josefien are siblings. While one of them is gifted with unusual intelligence, the other suffers from Down's Syndrome. But is this fact a good enough reason for the two children not to play together normally and have the same friends?

Odd One Out - Very Normal, Really: Martijn, Born Without a Stomach

Charlotte Hoogakker / Netherlands / 2006 / 16 min.

The protagonist in this film is ten-year-old Martijn, a boy who was born without a stomach. He approaches his handicap with good humour and manages to do everything his fellow pupils can do with just one or two minor exceptions.

Oh, You Black Bird

Břetislav Rychlík / Czech Republic / 1997 / 59 min.

This documentary contains shocking testimony of the sufferings of two women who survived Nazi concentration camps intended for the extermination of the Roma population, which were established on the territory of the Czech Republic during the Second World War.

Olivia's Puzzle

Jason DaSilva / Canada / 2001 / 12 min.

Like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, images of the everyday life of two seventeen-year-old girls fall into place. Reshma lives in Goa in India while Olivia was born in Canada. They lead very different and at the same time very similar lives.

Orphans of Nkandla

Brian Woods, Deborah Shipley / UK / 2003 / 80 min.

This documentary by the experienced director Brian Woods looks at the fates of several children from the South African village of Nkandla, who find themselves having to look after their HIV-infected parents.

Palaestra

Martin Čihák / Czech Republic / 2002 / 18 min.

A former boxer of Roma origin, Jan Balog is convinced that boys trained by his Palaestra civic association will be of benefit to society in the future.

Prisoners of the Caucasus

Yury Khashchavatski / Poland, Belarus, Germany / 2002 / 52 min.

In this masterfully compiled film, which uses video material shot by several war reporters, director Yury Khashchavatski looks at the modern-day slaughter of the Chechen war from both sides of the conflict.

Profits of Doom

Stuart Tanner / UK / 2001 / 45 min.

For a long time, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund used Ghana as a textbook case for their policies. How is it possible that after twenty years under the guidance of these international finance institutions, most of the population are worse off than they were before?

Punam

Lucian Muntean, Natasa Stankovic / Serbia and Montenegro / 2005 / 27 min.

This is a frank description of the hard life of a young girl and the bleak social conditions of her surroundings. Punam's mother died when she was five years old. Her father works from daybreak to late evening in a rice factory. Consequently, Punam becomes the head of the family during the day as well as a childminder and housekeeper.

Purity: Breaking the Codes of Silence

Zuria Anat / Israel / 2002 / 63 min.

This film offers an impartial view of the Tehora purity ritual, which orthodox Judaism imposes on women during menstruation.

Rainbow Warriors

Marek Dušák / Czech Republic / 2000 / 53 min.

This documentary seeks to portray the origins, history and current state of the environmental movement. Discord and errors are also present in the history of the Greenpeace movement, which is one of the most famous organisations working in this area.

Ramleh

Aviad Michal / Israel / 2001 / 58 min.

This film follows the lives of four women from the town of Ramleh in the heart of Israel during two electoral terms in the years 1999 and 2001.

Remembering

/ Czech Republic / 2001 / 0 min.

Eleven short documentaries from the "Remembering" cycle take a close look at some aspects of everyday life under socialism (Food, What We Wore, Leisure Time, etc.). The film records the lifestyle changes that occurred in the years 1945-1989.

Reporting from A Rabbit Hutch

Victor Dashuk / Belarus / 2001 / 40 min.

Belarus usually does not appear on the front pages of newspapers and Alexander Lukashenko can therefore rule the country unperturbed with an iron fist. The practices employed by the last dictatorship in Europe are reminiscent of the worst period of the Soviet Union. In this police state, human rights are violated on a daily basis.

Sane Insane

Yuval Cohen, Tami Gross / Israel / 1977 / 73 min.

A group of traumatised Israeli war veterans is released from an institute for the mentally ill in order to learn how to live alongside "normal" citizens in a unique social centre.

Sarajevo - the Fourth Year after the War

Milan Maryška, Šimon Pánek / ČR / 1999 / 60 min.

Sarajevan artists and intellectuals contemplate the horrors of war and the peaks of their creativity during the siege of the city. They also consider the frustrations of post-war Bosnia.

Seasons of Blood and Hope

Lars Jahansson / Denmark / 2001 / 66 min.

Stories of fear, hatred and the mutual expulsion of Kosovan Albanians and Serbs. Will peaceful co-existence ever be possible?

Seeking the Wisdom of Old Age

Tomáš Škrdlant / ČR / 2002 / 57 min.

This film offers an integrative look at ageing and seeks the possible purpose of this process, which has been overlooked till now. It interweaves fragments of the stories of old and ageing people who are between 59 and 100 years old, and it offers the viewers space to reflect on their own experience of ageing.

Shahin

Minna Lindroos / Finland / 2004 / 14 min.

Shahin lives with her mother in the Finnish town of Hakunila although her name is not heard too often in Finnish. When she was three years old, her mother (who was only nineteen) had a difficult decision to make: risk their lives and stay in Iran or take the equally dangerous option of leaving the country.

Ships of Shame

Poul-Erik Heilbuth, Hans Bulon / Denmark / 2000 / 29 min.

In Indian wrecking' yards labourers work on dismantling ships that do not meet safety standards in the West. This ship's graveyard, however, does not have any safety measures in place for its workers. Every week a person dies.

Sisters in Law

Kim Longinotto, Florence Ayisi / UK / 2005 / 106 min.

The town of Kumba in southeastern Cameroon is ruled by an ancient order, primordial customs, Muslim laws and immutable relationships. The rules are so clear that any breach of them is immediately followed by a punishment, which is so in keeping with inherited customs that it is not appropriate for the person punished to resist his fate.

Skinhead Attitude

Daniel Schweizer / France, Germany, Switzerland / 2003 / 90 min.

This film is a detailed and musically rich account of the skinhead movement, both in the past and the present, which lays bare all its paradoxes and its diversity of opinions.

Skinheads

Robert Sedláček / ČR / 1997 / 20 min.

The first skinheads appeared in western Europe at the start of the 1960s. The movement arrived in the Czech lands twenty years later.

Soldat

Paul Jenkins / Russia, UK / 2001 / 77 min.

The Russian army at close quarters: there is very little of everything and the only way to get anything is through savage bullying.

Stars and Starlets

Robert Sedláček / ČR / 2001 / 56 min.

"A person who wants to become a star must be exceptional in their field. They must radiate a certain charisma and above all they must be presented as a star in the media. If point three is accomplished, then sometimes points one and two don't have to be fulfilled," says sociologist Jan Keller, who is the co-author of this film, which uncovers the mechanisms that turn people into TV stars.

Surplus

Erik Gandini / Sweden / 2003 / 52 min.

This film is a colourful and sharply edited critique of consumer society shot in the style of a TV advertisement.

S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine

Rithy Panh / France / 2002 / 101 min.

Former prisoners from one of the most dreaded concentration camps in Cambodia come face to face with their Khmer Rouge torturers.

Tell Me Something About Yourself - René

Helena Třeštíková / ČR / 1992 / 60 min.

René has been imprisoned since he was 16. When he was in jail, he and some others attempted a prison revolt, and his original sentence for theft was extended as a result. The director met with him shortly before his eighteenth birthday at the Libkovice correction facility for young offenders.

Terror in Moscow

Dan Reed / UK, USA, Russia / 2003 / 60 min.

For what reason would a group of Chechen terrorists vehemently proclaim that "We desire death more than you want life"?

TGM The Liberator

Věra Chytilová / ČR / 1990 / 60 min.

This documentary by Věra Chytilová looks at the life and times of the philosopher and politician who was the first president of Czechoslovakia.

That´s a Family!

Debra Chasnoff / USA / 2000 / 35 min.

This playful American documentary uses witty editing and animation techniques to give children an opportunity to look at their homes and explain from their own perspective how they understand concepts such as divorce, adoption, half-caste, homosexual couple and stepfather.

The Beauty Exchange

Erika Hníková / ČR / 2004 / 77 min.

This is the tragicomic story of women who are sensitive to the current ideal of feminine beauty and who want to get as close to it as possible.The film paints a colourful picture of the contemporary world where the phenomenon of the perfect woman's body accentuated by an omnipresent media plays a massive role.

The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan

Phil Grabsky / UK / 2003 / 95 min.

Hundreds of refugees live in the caves surrounding the giant statues of Buddha that were destroyed by the Taleban. These include the eight-year-old boy Mira.

The Cambodia Trust

Martijn van Beenen / UK, Cambodia / 2001 / 28 min.

Landmines seriously injure tens of thousands of children in Cambodia every year. In a country that has no healthcare system, the Cambodia Trust organisation is one of the few beacons of hope for these victims.

The Case of Dr. Horáková

Jan Mudra / ČR / 1990 / 55 min.

"I am resigned to my fate. I stood up for my conscience before the court," wrote Milada Horáková in her last letter, which she completed an hour and a half before her execution following a trumped-up trial conducted by the communists.

The Case of Uherské Hradiště

Kristina Vlachová / ČR / 2007 / 57 min.

From the end of the 1940s, thousands of political prisoners were imprisoned and tortured by the communists at a jail in Uherské Hradiště. The group of interrogators led by Alois Grebeníček, Vladimír Zavadilík and Ludvík Hlavačka were among the cruellest in the country. None of this trio of brutal inquisitors has been convicted to this day.

The Collector of Bedford Street

Alice Elliott / UK / 2001 / 34 min.

This warm and humorous documentary demonstrates how mental illness need not prevent one from living a full and useful life full of love and friendship.

The Cuban Spring

Pablo Rodríguez, Carlos González / ČR, Rakousko / 2003 / 28 min.

This documentary probes the reality of Cuban life behind the veil of propaganda purveyed by Fidel Castro's regime.

The Damned and the Sacred

Jos de Puther / Nederlands / 2002 / 75 min.

Chechen children have grown up over ten years of almost uninterrupted armed conflict. They have known nothing other than the horrors of war. Some of them then travel to Europe with a dance troupe.

The Day I Will Never Forget

Kim Longinotto / UK / 2002 / 92 min.

100 to 140 milion women around the world are subjected to female circumcision. Although female circumcision is not legal in Kenya, it is still very widespread.

The Dead Are Alive - Eyewitness in Rwanda

Anna van der Wee / Belgium / 1996 / 38 min.

This documentary based on the diary records of the Belgian journalist Els De Temmerman examines the causes and events of the Rwandan genocide, which claimed 800,000 victims. The film is part of a collection focused on "coming to terms with the past." Warning. This film contains some shocking images.

The Evening News

Robert Sedláček / ČR / 2007 / 29 min.

Besides interviews with the reporters themselves, this film also looks at the inner workings of news reporting and acquaints us with the mechanisms that contribute to the final form that the evening news takes.

The Global Banquet: Politics of Food

John Ankele, Anne Macksoud / USA / 2001 / 57 min.

Large food corporations are making ever greater profits by putting small farmers out of business all over the world. The World Trade Organsiation, the International Monetary Fund, NAFTA and the World Bank are helping them do this.

The Children of Leningradsky

Hanna Polak, Andrzej Celínski / Poland / 2004 / 35 min.

A bleak look at the day-to-day reality of some of Moscow's 30,000 street children.

The Ideal World

Robert Sedláček / ČR / 2001 / 56 min.

The makers of this programme offer a unique behind-the-scenes look at the making of TV advertisements. Using interviews, they provide us with effective instructions as to how it is possible to convince the Czech public to essentially purchase anything.

The Inheritance: A Fisherman`s Story

Peter Hegedus / Australia, Hungary / 2003 / 75 min.

This is the story of a charismatic Hungarian fisherman's battle to restore life to the Tisza River. In 2000, a ton of cyanide leaked into this river from a Romanian mine owned by an Australian company.

The Junction

Ilan Ziv / France, Israel, USA / 2003 / 52 min.

This film investigates the circumstances surounding the deaths of three youths against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Long Hangover

Robert Sedláček / Czech Republic / 2003 / 28 min.

Robert Sedláček's film takes a close look at the workings of a community where former drug users voluntarily subject themselves to a strict regime to prepare for a return to "normal" life.

The Lost Soul of A Nation I. - The Loss of Dignity

Olga Sommerová / ČR / 2001 / 60 min.

This film looks at the fate of four officers who were post-War graduates from the military academy in Hranice na Moravě and were arrested in the 1950s..

The Lost Soul of A Nation II. - the Loss of Tradition

Olga Sommerová / ČR / 2001 / 60 min.

This film is the second part of a documentary cycle about the main types of repression used by the communist regime. This section entitled The Loss of Tradition revives memories of how the continuity of peasant families was disrupted as well as of the violent transformation of the countryside.

The Lost Soul of A Nation VI. - The Loss of Faith

Olga Sommerová / ČR / 2001 / 57 min.

Immediately after coming to power, the communist regime strived to undermine the position of the Catholic Church. The church, however, stood up for its right to faith even under the most extreme conditions. Conversely, it emerged from the struggle against the communists with greater internal strength.

The Many Faces of Madness

Amar Kanwar / India / 2000 / 19 min.

Rapid industrialisation in India has destroyed traditional water and forest management systems and caused environmental pollution, deforestation and the devastation of natural resources. This documentary offers a telling look at the shortsightedness of man's interference with the environment.

The Power of Truth - According to the Dalai Lama

Irene Greve / Denmark / 2001 / 60 min.

This documentary follows the charismatic monk, who is the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people, on a visit to Denmark.

The Saga of the Roma

Robert Sedláček / ČR / 2001 / 57 min.

The roots of the warped relationship between the Roma and the Czech majority lie deep in the past. This film charts the fate of the Roma minority among Czechs as well as the transformation of their attitudes and changes in Roma values in the course of the last 50 years.

The Skies over Europe

Helena Třeštíková / ČR / 2003 / 56 min.

Using archive footage and the recollections of Czech airmen and their wives, Helena Třeštíková pays tribute to their heroism and recalls how they were "rewarded" for this by the communist regime.

The Sweet Century

Helena Třeštíková / ČR / 1998 / 60 min.

The twentieth century rushed headlong through central Europe. This film is the story of several Czech women who were not able to live the life they had planned and envisaged for themselves.

The World on the Street

Natasha Hickman / USA, Tanzania / 2000 / 21 min.

A document about the fate of dozens of children who for various reasons are forced to live on the streets of Singidi, which is one of the poorest towns in the African country of Tanzania.

The Youngest

Ditsi Carolino / Philippines / 2004 / 64 min.

The film's protagonist is eleven-year-old Bunso, who is serving a jail sentence in a Manila prison for petty theft along with hundreds of adult prisoners.

Them and Me

Stéphane Breton / France / 2001 / 52 min.

The ethnologist and filmmaker Stephane Breton decided to live with a tribe of indigenous inhabitants in Papua New Guinea. He is not only interested in their way of life, but also in how the aborigines perceive themselves.

This is What Democracy Looks Like

Jill Freidberg, Rick Rowley / USA / 2000 / 72 min.

Protests against the World Trade Organisation in Seattle in 1999 were recorded by participants on more than a hundred cameras. Their footage gives a different picture of events to that which was presented in the global media.

Tom W.

Anna Wieckowska / Poland / 2004 / 24 min.

A twelve-year-old boy looks after his six-member family and numerous animals in a chaotic apartment in the Polish town of Lowitz. Their unemployed father has let them down as a breadwinner and failed to be a functional head of the family.

Tower of Death

Kristina Vlachová / ČR / 2002 / 59 min.

This investigative film follows a group of prisoners who were interned in the 1950s at an infamous communist labour camp and forced to work in the local uranium mines.

Trafficking Cinderella

Mira Niagolova / Canada / 1999 / 48 min.

This film takes an unflinching look at the sex trade in all its horror through the stories of several young girls. It explores the degradation and rape of the girls and also reveals how there is a lack of effective legislation to deal with this problem.

Trapped - Katka

Helena Třeštíková / ČR / 2001 / 56 min.

Katka, an attractive black-haired girl, is also a drug addict. In Helena Třeštíková's documentary we first meet her in 1996 at the Sananim treatment facility in Němčice.

Trapped and Still Trapped

Helena Třeštíková / ČR / 2003 / 28 min.

This film records the story of drug dependence over a long period as an increasingly haggard Katka finds herself unable to break free from the heroin trap.

Unexpected Blow - Jolieke

Suzanne Raes / Netherlands / 2004 / 15 min.

Twelve-year-old Jolieke and her sister Maaike are well aware that you can battle successfully against adversity. Not long after their father died, doctors diagnosed them as having a chronically weak immune system.

Unexpected Blow - Relieved

Aliona van der Horst / Netherlands / 2003 / 15 min.

"When you find out you are gay, you should tell everyone immediately," says Kristopher, a student who is basing his statement on his own experience. How did his parents accept his differentness? And what do his fellow pupils think?

Visioning Tibet

Isaac Solotaroff / USA / 2005 / 56 min.

Life on the roof of the world, as Tibet is symbolically called, has other difficulties besides the ones we hear about in connection with the Chinese occupation. Documentary-maker Isaac Solotaroff presents a project led by doctors who are struggling with the problems of poorly functioning hospitals. His film also follows the stories of Tibetans who set off acoss the plains to get medical treatment.

Voices from the Island of Freedom

Petr Jančárek / ČR / 2001 / 28 min.

A unique collection of testimonies from former prisoners of the Castro regime shot directly in Cuba is complemented by authentic archive footage of Cuban jails.

War Photographer

Christian Frei / Switzerland / 2001 / 96 min.

The world-famous photographer James Nachtwey has spent more than twenty years documenting wars and fierce social conflicts in every corner of the globe.

We Can Live Together

Břetislav Rychlík / ČR / 2002 / 25 min.

This film takes a look at the life of two young brothers who fled the Chechen conflict and came to the Czech Republic.

What Language Does God Speak…?

Pavel Štingl / ČR / 2001 / 58 min.

This is the story of the family history of the Sudeten German Friedrich Kneifel who was not displaced after the War and who lives traditionally off his family pasture above the Úpa river valley. This tale offers a peculiar reflection on people's destinies in the 20th century.

Within Four Walls

Zemira Alajbegović / Slovenia / 1999 / 34 min.

This documentary captures the stories of women who escaped from violence in their own families and sought sanctuary in sheltered housing. They expose things that too often remain hidden behind four walls. The women talk about the years of abuse, mistreatment, rape and loneliness that they have suffered.

Without Mercy

Kristina Vlachová, Marie Šandová / ČR / 1998 / 52 min.

This film looks at the dramatic life and career of Heliodor Píka - a legionnaire from the First World War, an officer in the Czechoslovak army, a diplomat, commander of the Czechoslovak military mission in Moscow, holder of thirty military honours, and ultimately a political prisoner who was executed by the communists in 1949.

Women and Drugs, Drugs and Women

Helena Třeštíková / ČR / 2003 / 28 min.

This documentary takes a close look at several girls and women using drugs and presents a variety of different stories and experiences, which are typical of drug users.

Young, Nazi and Proud

David Modell / UK / 2002 / 49 min.

This portrait of a young man shows that dangerous ideas don't lose their appeal even after they have caused and been the basis for widespread genocide. Latent violence is stll alive in society.

100% White

Leo Regan / UK / 1999 / 70 min.

What happens to a gang of skinheads when they turn thirty? Will everyday family life change these brutal men or will they continue to identify with neo-Nazi ideology?

Films /

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