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Flanders, Hispanic Monarchy, 1616. The inhabitants of the small town of Boom are busy organizing the annual local festivities when the arrival of the Duke of Olivares, who rules the country on behalf of the King Philip III of Spain, is announced. While the male citizens cowardly surrender to panic, the brave female citizens decide to become the best hosts the Spaniards can ever meet. (German version of the French film La Kermesse héroïque, 1935.)
She was loved, she was a princess, heir to the throne - but the childhood fairytale turned to lifelong nightmare for Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's first child. When Henry divorced her mother and married Anne Boleyn, Mary became an outcast and a threat to the Protestant succession. By a twist of fate, on the death of her brother, she became queen at last in 1553, but her attempts to make England Catholic again were a disaster for her and the country. History has called her "Bloody Mary" for the burning of the Protestants, but how fair is this? This film paints another picture, of a woman true to her beliefs, pushed towards a terrible psychological disintegration.
A period drama at the end of the Edo period, featuring Shinsaku Takasugi, who organized the Kiheitai and led the Meiji Restoration to success, and depicts the turbulent life of the young samurai of the Choshu clan at the end of the Edo period.
This wonderfully entertaining dance documentary tells the extraordinary story of how Irish dance developed over centuries from a traditional peasant dance to a form that has taken the world by storm and is enjoyed by tens of millions. The film shows how Irish dance has both been influenced by and influenced the dance of many cultures and how it developed as an expression of resistance.
The friendship of two boys is tested to its limits as they battle for survival during the Kosovo war.
Haunted by their own directionless lives, two pre-adolescent girls reunite while visiting their ailing grandmother. In the midst of her fantasies of a medieval past - one consumed by fear and desire - the two girls are transformed and confront a legacy of oppression, juxtaposing their budding identities to a trial condemning two Moorish homosexuals to burn at the stake.
The historian investigates the discovery of a group of Viking graves in the eastern Baltic that date back over 1200 years, predating the established start of the Viking era. Bettany follows the investigation from Estonia to Sweden, uncovering how scientists and archaeologists reconstructed the men's origins, kinship and fate, and uncovered a tantalising question. Could one of these warriors have been the legendary Viking king who inspired an epic saga?
A biopic of Anna May Wong, the Golden Age icon whose career brought her international recognition even as she continued to face opportunity limitations in the industry and other forms of prejudice and discrimination.
50 years after the death of General De Gaulle, this film retraces his life, from his birth in 1890 to his burial at Colombey-Les-Deux-Eglises in 1970.
The village idiot lives in a hut with his sick mother. His neighbors are the Jewish family of the local blacksmith Mendel, and the guy is secretly in love with his youngest daughter Sonya.
Summer 1936 - The Berlin Olympics, organized by the Nazi regime on the eve of World War II, acted as a grand showcase for a Germany that was athletic, peaceful and rejuvenated. The violence and hate that until then had reigned in the streets of Berlin suddenly vanished. Adolf Hitler became the triumphant host of European countries he would soon try to invade or face in a deadly global conflict.
As the director and the cameraman of a documentary project, Meng and Jianxian are travelling around Taiwan filming statues of religious and historical figures. Their conversations and debates on the statues often touch the political reality of Taiwan. Meng's girlfriend, Ning, is involved in a mediocre commercial feature film (initially as location scout and subsequently as an actress). Instead of realizing her ambition, she finds herself being exploited by the filmmakers. On the other hand, Meng and Ning's relationship is gradually faded.
When King Ansa betrayed his subjects, his mother is left with one choice only: love her son and look away or twist the fate of her son for the good of the people Will the kingdom crumble, or will a hidden truth change everything?
Ali Raïs is a pirate armed by the Bey of Tunis. In the year 124, his fleet was arrested by the Marquis of Santa Cruz and he found himself a prisoner, with his six hundred men in Palermo. Italian witnesses will recognize him and denounce him to the Inquisition as a renegade, an indictment which is liable to the stake. Ali seeks to influence the course of the trial, he denies ever having been a Christian and proclaims himself a Muslim, the son of a Muslim. A long game of failure takes place between the court and the prisoner, he alternately tries to speed up or slow down the course of the trial depending on the nature of the information and testimony available to the inquisitors. We believe we are witnessing a modern trial where the shots alternate according to the investigations. This story of Ali Raïs was however not invented, the character is real and all the facts are recorded in a handwritten account of the hearings of the court of the inquisition.
Expat Kiwi Rewi Alley became one of the best known foreigners in 20th Century China and advocate for the Communist Revolution. When China was under siege from Japan in the late 1930s, Alley instigated an industrial co-op movement he termed ‘gung ho' (work together). Its success led to the phrase entering the global idiom. For this documentary a Geoff Steven-led crew travelled 15,000km in China in 1979, filming Alley as he gave his account of an engrossing, complex life story. Co-writer Geoff Chapple later wrote a biography of Alley.
A 1966 biopic of Francis of Assisi presents him as a troubled rebel and champion of radical brotherhood, reflecting the spirit of 1968 student protests. Praised and condemned, the film sparked controversy for its bold, dissenting portrayal of faith.
Kondo Isami, the “Devil” commander of the Shinsengumi was one of Japan’s greatest national heroes and a peerless swordsman who devoted his life to protecting the shogun and fighting on the side of the Tokugawa. This tells the story of the Shinsengumi starting at the moment of their greatest triumph through the final battles as the Tokugawa shogunate was brought down.
Young and talented Han van Meegeren is a rebel in the early 1920's Amsterdam art-scene. Because he paints in the style of his idols Rembrandt and Vermeer, critics find his work old-fashioned and they call him a copycat. Just to prove a point, he produces a fake Vermeer and tries to pass it off as a real one. It works. Instead of revealing the truth and thereby embarrassing the art world, he continues to make money off of his many forgeries. Soon he is caught in a web of lies and deceit, and his life spins out of control. Then one day, high ranking Nazi Hermann Göring knocks on his door, looking for a Vermeer for his private collection...