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This is the true and astounding saga of the Spartans at Thermopylae. It is among the greatest tales of war ever recounted. All the glory and grit of these warriors' last stand is captured in this exceptional documentary. It is almost impossible to understand how 300 Spartans managed to hold off the million-man Persian army for even a moment, much less seven days. To a man they paid with their lives but their stunning Last Stand assured that their sacrifice would resonate throughout history. Transporting dramatizations and incisive graphics put you in the heat of the battle and show the lay of the land. The complications and strategies of the conflict are revealed through careful analysis, and critical moments are reconstructed to show exactly what happened. Discover what the Spartans were fighting for, what made them capable of such heroics and what drove them to such sacrifice.
A documentary on the Z Channel, one of the first pay cable stations in the US, and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974, the LA-based channel's eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.
A look at Genghis Khan's life, from his birth to conquests in Asia.
Cleopatra toys with Mark Antony who wants to merge his Rome with her Egypt.
Students, including Aoi Nishino, take part in class and sports activity at a prestigious high school. Aoi Nishino is a member of the school's archery club. He practices archery studiously and doesn't socialize much with the other students. His childhood friend Haruka Seno is also a member of the archery club, but she worries about Aoi Nishino. One day, thunder strikes the school grounds. After that, the ordinary lives of the students changes drastically. Many samurai descend on the school grounds. It appears that the entire school has traveled back in time to the Sengoku period. Making things worse, they realize that they are in the time right before the Battle of Okehazama takes place.
In the middle of the night, a drunk town guard happens to meet the daughter of a rich merchant… who drowned herself into a well 10 years ago. Soon after the town guard falls dead from the tower. This is followed by two other suspicious deaths. Doubting the existence of the ghost, Melchior has a hunch that these ‘accidents’ are part of a heinous crime. Tracking down the killer, his path will cross with heretics, old feuds and dark family secrets.
Leading an expedition in Germany, Kougami unseals the resting place of one of the alchemists that created the Core Medals in an effort to retrieve a set of lost Medals. However, upon the seal being undone, millions of Cell Medals erupt into a tower while creating a magical barrier that causes parts of Japan to flip over. As the alchemist reveals her plans to become a new OOO, Eiji and his friends are thrown into the past and must find their way back home and stop the alchemist before she destroys the world!
From the Historic Anabaptists to the impact of the Independent Fundamental Churches.
Inhospitable at the best of times, the snow-covered mountainscapes of Eastern Anatolia constituted a fatal frontier for many war exiles after the battle of Sarikamish in 1915, and provides a canvas laced with beauty and threat for this bone-chilling survival yarn, the superb debut feature of Alphan Eşeli. Starting out with three characters – a refugee mother and daughter and their grizzled guide – the film traces their daunting trek across this barren terrain to safety, with the Russians encroaching and other stragglers, including a pair of wounded, frostbitten Ottoman soldiers, all orbiting the same burnt-out village they find in their path. Puncturing its aura of ghostly impasse with some shocking narrative reversals, and constantly prickling with the mutual dread of strangers in gruelling extremes, the movie stakes out hugely credible ground next to established Eastern Front war classics (In the Fog, Come and See) while remaining thoroughly its own beast. (Source: LFF programme)
Forty years since Chernobyl. Volker Heise’s new film recounts the 1986 nuclear disaster for the first time from the perspectives of both East and West Germany and Ukraine, using archive footage only. TSCHERNOBYL 86 is a gripping political thriller featuring previously unseen archive material which brings the events of that time into an unsettlingly present-day context.
Ten years of war (1910-20), more than one million dead. The struggle for political freedom is gradually transformed into a struggle for land and resources with the appearance of mythical figures such as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. With the roar of the battlefields silenced, today's Mexico emerges from the ruins left by the first great popular revolution of the 20th century.
1542, the year of Jacques Cartier's second mission to Canada. Pregnant by a man other than her future husband, the expedition's commander, the young Marguerite de la Rocque is abandoned on a deserted island off the coast of Newfoundland with the man who raped her and his maid. She will remain there for two years, surviving hunger, cold, despair, and madness.
Based on the remarkable true story of demonic possession.
My Mother, the Nazi Midwife, and Me unearths a chilling story that time has almost buried - the systematic murder of 52 Jewish babies in a Displaced Persons' camp under the American military after the end of the war.
Martin, a teenager with a keen passion for outlandish culinary experiments, along with his friend Charlène, a historian by blood, find themselves transported back to the Middle Ages after messing with an old toaster. Mistaken for wizards by the people of the time, the two friends must figure out what's going on while confronting familiar faces...
Modern weapons- techniques and military strategies determined since times the performance and the outcome of wars. In the center of weapon-related innovations stood - at latest since the wars in emplaced and fortified positions, beginning in the 20th century - the mobility. The invention of the fighting tank has made possible a high grade of movability, and determined the result of World War 1. The "blitz" wars at the beginning of World War 2 were possible only by combined deployment of modern tanks and a superior air force. Analyzing of important tank battles stresses the importance of technical standards, of tactical deployment, as well as the high commitment of the tank crews. Films in colour and black and white, partly never seen before, will show for the first time the development of the German Tank Forces from the years of 1914 until 1945 in a comprehensive way.
Bohemian, playwright, and suddenly president at the end of 1989: Czech European Václav Havel played a decisive role in shaping the history of the continent in the second half of the 20th century. Andrea Sedláčková recounts Havel's almost novel-like life, drawing on a wealth of archival material. It is a story of dramatic highs and lows, and several defining moments in European history.
A film adaptation of the 17th-century epic of the same name. Year 1185. Prince Ihor leads a campaign into the Cuman-Polovtsian lands, defying an old prophecy that foretells his death. During the expedition he falls into an ambush set by Khan Konchak, his wife is surrounded by the Polovtsians, and Ihor himself is taken prisoner. In captivity he faces moral and physical trials, refuses to renounce his homeland and family, and defeats the mightiest warrior of the East.
This short-form documentary focuses on the true story of Alfons Heck, who as an impressionable 10-year-old boy became a high-ranking member of the Hitler youth movement during World War II. The story is told in his own words. This film originally aired as part of the "America Undercover" series on HBO.
Shot in Emily Dickinson’s bedroom, “Emily & Sue” explores Emily Dickinson’s isolation and feelings for her sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson.