In 1942, the Nazi propaganda machine was hard at work. 70 years later, the deceit is finally unmasked.
Yael Hersonski’s powerful documentary achieves a remarkable feat through its penetrating look at another film: the now-infamous Nazi-produced film about the Warsaw Ghetto. Discovered after the war, the unfinished work—with no soundtrack—quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record, despite its elaborate propagandistic construction. The later discovery of a long-missing reel complicated earlier readings, showing the manipulations of camera crews in these “everyday” scenes. Well-heeled Jews attending elegant dinners and theatricals (while callously stepping over the dead bodies of compatriots) now appeared as unwilling, but complicit, actors, alternately fearful and in denial of their looming fate.
The action comedy is set in 1944. Hitler appears in it as physically and mentally destroyed person who takes the advice of Goebbels in the actor-teacher of Jewish concentration camp for lessons eloquence to inspire the German people to further fight.
Saviors in the Night (Unter Bauern) is based on the memories of Marga Spiegel. In her narrative, published in 1965, she describes how courageous farmers in southern Munsterland, Germany hid her, her husband Siegfried, and their little daughter Karin from 1943 until 1945, saving them from deportation to the extermination camps in the East.
Without reservation, these farmers offer the refugees their protection. That this turns them into heroes would never occur to them. They are used to weathering even dangerous situations somehow, guided only by their instinct and century-old code of ethics. They risk their own lives, and, if necessary, even that of their families. And this is their story.
The film tells this story of survival with a sense for the absurd in daily life and not without the typical Westphalian humor.
In picturesque Montmarte, three children wearing a yellow star play in the streets, oblivious to the darkness spreading over Nazi-occupied France. Their parents do not seem too concerned either, somehow putting their trust in the Vichy Government. But beyond this view, storm clouds are gathering. Hitler demands that the French government round up its Jews and put them on trains for the extermination camps in the East. And sooon the collaborators start to put the plan into effect, and within a short time, thirteen thousand of Parisian Jews—among them four thousand children—will be rounded up and sent on a road with no return. As the Nazis feed the children deceptions, two brave children and a nurse struggle to uncover the truth and escape from the terror.
Inside Hana’s Suitcase, is the poignant story of two young children who grew up in pre-WWII Czechoslovakia and the terrible events that they endured just because they happened to be born Jewish. Based on the internationally acclaimed book “Hana’s Suitcase” which has been translated into 40 languages, the film is an effective blend of documentary and dramatic techniques. In addition to tracing the lives of George and Hana Brady in the 1930’s and 40’s, “Inside Hana’s Suitcase” tells the present-day story of “The Small Wings”, a group of Japanese children, and how their passionate and tenacious teacher, Fumiko Ishioka, helped them solve the mystery of Hana Brady, whose name was painted on an old battered suitcase that they received from Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi death camp built in Poland. The film’s plot unfolds as told through contemporary young storytellers who act as the omniscient narrators. They seamlessly transport us through 70 years of history and back and forth across three continents, and relate to us a story of unspeakable sadness and also of shining hope. For this is a Holocaust story unlike others. It provides a contemporary global perspective and lessons to be learned for a better future. Directed by award-winning filmmaker, Larry Weinstein, “Inside Hana’s Suitcase” is a powerful journey full of mystery and memories, brought to life through the first-hand perspectives of Fumiko, Hana’s brother George, and of Hana herself.
Amidst the terror of a German concentration camp in 1944 Poland, a young Jewish woman and a Polish prisoner fall in love. This impossible passion fuels the prisoner’s courage, who manages to rescue his Jewish girlfriend. Against all odds, they escape the camp and survive a treacherous journey to freedom. But during the chaos of the end of the war, they are forcibly separated and each is convinced that the other has died.
More than thirty years later in New York, the happily married 52-year-old woman accidentally gets the most astonishing news of her life: her former Polish lover is still alive. And she has to see him again.
In the days leading up to the 1936 Olympics, the fate of high jumper Gretel Bergmann hangs in the balance. She is among the world’s finest athletes—but she is also Jewish, undermining the German belief that the Aryan race is superior. The Germans scheme to replace her with another woman, not knowing that “she” holds an even worse secret that could humiliate the Nazis.
The saw mill owner Habermann is the biggest employer in his village and married to Jana, a young and beautiful Czech woman, who is half Jewish. Although Habermann is not interested in politics or ideology, he and his family will be steamrolled by the insanity of World War II. As he tries to save his wife, daughter, and Czech workers from Nazi terror, he find himself facing his own tragedy in an unexpected way.
Based on real events surrounding the expulsion of Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia in 1945.
Enter the world of history’s most controversial composer. Actor Stephen Fry is a devoted fan of Richard Wagner’s music—and so was Hitler. Fry is Jewish and acutely aware of the complexity of his enthusiasm for Richard Wagner. Can Fry disentangle the music he loves from its poisonous links with Hitler? Featuring behind-the-scenes footage of the Bayreuth Festival, the annual festival held in Wagner’s honor and showcasing his music, and a full soundtrack of Wagner’s famous music, this film explores the life and legacy of one of the world’s most famous composers–and poses the question of if it’s possible to separate the art from the artist.
Mona’s wedding day is slated to be one of the saddest days of her life. She knows that once she crosses the border between Israel and Syria to marry Syrian TV star Tallel, a man she has never even met, she will never be allowed back to her family in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Golan Heights. Her family must also contend with the clash between the traditional and the new, as Mona’s various family members unites to see her off. The Syrian Bride is a story about physical, mental and emotional borders, and the strength and will to cross them.
