Films and documentaries for historical catastrophes
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- DirectorJehane NoujaimStarsAhmed HassanKhalid AbdallaMagdy AshourA group of Egyptian revolutionaries battle leaders and regimes, risking their lives to build a new society of conscience.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMartin SheenMarlon BrandoRobert DuvallA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
- StarsLinda HuntSamuel WestGert HeidenreichThe history of the Final Solution phase of the Nazi Holocaust, particularly with the most infamous of the death camps.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsAleksandr AntonovVladimir BarskiyGrigoriy AleksandrovIn the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
- DirectorPeter SattlerStarsKristen StewartPayman MaadiLane GarrisonA soldier assigned to Guantanamo Bay befriends a man who has been imprisoned there.
- DirectorFrédéric RossifStarsPhilippe MeyerA two-part TV documentary on World War II, made exclusively from archive footage.
- DirectorCiro GuerraStarsNilbio TorresJan BijvoetAntonio BolívarThe story of the relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of forty years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.
- DirectorMarie-Monique RobinStarsAnibal AcostaAlcides Lopez AufrancCarl BernardThe French army was very influential in how modern suppression of independence movements has been and is carried out. This documentary reveals why.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMatthew ModineR. Lee ErmeyVincent D'OnofrioA pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
- DirectorMarco BechisStarsAntonella CostaCarlos EchevarríaEnrique PiñeyroIn the 70's, eighteen year-old Maria Fabiani lives with her French mother Diane in an old house in Buenos Aires, subletting rooms and giving classes to illiterate adults in the slums. One of the tenants, Felix, has a non-corresponded crush on Maria. When the teenager is abducted in her house by the Argentinean army accused of subversion, her mother seeks her out in the 23rd Precinct where one of the military without uniform tells her that they are heading with Maria. While Diane desperately tries to find information about her daughter, Maria is submitted to torture in the hideous underground of the Garage Olimpo.
- DirectorPaul WilmshurstStarsJohn HurtShuntaro HidaGeorge ElseyDocumentary with dramatic reenactments with actors to describe what dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was like.
- DirectorTerry GeorgeStarsDon CheadleSophie OkonedoJoaquin PhoenixPaul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, houses over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, Africa.
- DirectorPawel PawlikowskiStarsAgata KuleszaAgata TrzebuchowskaDawid OgrodnikA novice nun about to take her vows uncovers a family secret dating back to the German occupation.
- DirectorPeter YostStarsMichael BreenBrian GreenIl-Sung KimPosing as a medical coordinator, Lisa Ling gains access to North Korea offering viewers a chance to see inside the "Hermit Kingdom".
- DirectorRoberto BenigniStarsRoberto BenigniNicoletta BraschiGiorgio CantariniWhen an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.
- DirectorVanessa RagoneStarsInés Weinberg de RocaSilvana ArbiaSimon BikindiRwanda, a small country in the heart of Africa, was the scene in 1994 of the last genocide of the 20th century: in only 100 days, almost 1 million people were killed. By the end of that year, the UN established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, with the aim of judging the perpetrators, amongst them priests, journalists, artists and political leaders. Argentine judge Inés Weinberg de Roca is the only representative from Latin America in this multicultural tribunal, which calls judges from all over the world. A documentalist team traveled to Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda to interview judges, prosecutors, defenders, accused and survivors, and to accompany judge Inés Weinberg de Roca in her first official visit to the country where the African Holocaust took place. The prints of the massacre are present in this documentary where the awesome beauty of Rwanda contrasts with this moving human story.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsDwight D. EisenhowerOmar N. BradleyGeorge S. PattonProduced and presented as evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trial of Hermann Göring and twenty other Nazi leaders.
- DirectorHéctor OliveraStarsAlejo García PintosVita EscardóPablo NovakThis films tells the true story of seven teenagers who agitated for reduced student bus fares under two different regimes in Argentina, with tragic results. At first succeeding under the government of Isabel Peron, their protests draw hostile attention from the military regime that overthrows Peron. The ensuing crackdown on student social activists is demonstrated when police break up a school dance wielding swords on horseback. Later, six students are kidnapped in the middle of the night, and the police deceitfully claim ignorance about their whereabouts. Pablo (Alejo Garcia Pintos), a seventh member of the group is later arrested and learns that they have been brutally tortured by authorities. He survives to tell their story, but the six are never found, numbering among the hundreds of students who were kidnapped and are still missing.
- DirectorVincent ParonnaudMarjane SatrapiStarsChiara MastroianniCatherine DeneuveGena RowlandsA precocious and outspoken Iranian girl grows up during the Islamic Revolution.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsLiam NeesonRalph FiennesBen KingsleyIn German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
- DirectorKlych LópezStarsAlejandro AguilarFernando ArévaloEnrique CarriazoThe economy is not doing well and in a few months Lucia will lose the mortgaged house where she lives with her two children, Mr. Carlos the owner of the Second-hand store, Sergio, Clown by day, waiter by night, and his wife Victoria. Julieta, the youngest child, is the family's salvation. She just graduated from law school when, on the morning of November 6, 1985, she leaves for her job at the Palace of Justice and never returns. There are witnesses that claim to have seen her alive after the Palace burned down after the Guerilla attack, the habitants lives of the house won't be the same. Based on true events in Colombia, 1985.
- DirectorSerge de SampignyMathieu SchwartzYvan DemeulandreStarsSerge de SampignyTom MortonJacques AlbaretThrough colorized archive material rich in previously unseen footage, and many accounts from the period including some from Stalin himself, this documentary tells the story of a man who turned a dream into a nightmare.
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerAnonymousChristine CynnStarsAnwar CongoHerman KotoSyamsul ArifinA documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.
- DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
- DirectorBrian PercivalStarsSophie NélisseGeoffrey RushEmily WatsonWhile subjected to the horrors of World War II Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. In the basement of her home, a Jewish refugee is being protected by her adoptive parents.
- DirectorMark HermanStarsAsa ButterfieldDavid ThewlisRupert FriendThrough the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a German concentration camp, a forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.
- DirectorLucía PuenzoStarsAlex BrendemühlDiego PerettiGuillermo PfeningThe story of an Argentine family who lived with Josef Mengele without knowing his true identity, and of a girl who fell in love with one of the biggest criminals of all time.
- DirectorGeorge ClooneyStarsGeorge ClooneyMatt DamonBill MurrayAn unlikely World War II platoon is tasked to rescue art masterpieces from German thieves and return them to their owners.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsAdrien BrodyThomas KretschmannFrank FinlayDuring WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.
- DirectorMat WhitecrossMichael WinterbottomStarsRiz AhmedFarhad HarunWaqar SiddiquiPart drama, part documentary, The Road to Guantánamo focuses on the Tipton Three, a trio of British Muslims who were held in Guantanamo Bay for two years until they were released without charge.
- DirectorTobe HooperStarsMarilyn BurnsEdwin NealAllen DanzigerFive friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
- DirectorDennis GanselStarsJürgen VogelFrederick LauMax RiemeltA high school teacher's experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.
- DirectorNewton Thomas SigelPamela YatesStarsRigoberta MenchúSusan SarandonA documentary on the war between the Guatemalan military and the Mayan population, with firsthand accounts by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsMichel BouquetReinhard HeydrichHeinrich HimmlerThe history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.
- DirectorClaude LanzmannStarsSimon SrebnikMichael PodchlebnikMotke ZaïdlClaude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.
- StarsFred NapoliGuy WaltersBeate KlarsfeldWitnesses and historians retell the events leading up to the capture and or death of some of World War Two's most heinous Nazi fugitives.
- DirectorSteven HoggardStarsLiev SchreiberSteve LuckertMitchell BardThe story of 350 American POWs held at a reclusive and secret concentraion camp administered by the Nazi regime.
- DirectorAntonio RubioEste documental del Grupo de Memoria Histórica - CNRR cuenta, mediante una serie de entrevistas con sobrevivientes y testigos, la versión de las víctimas de la masacre de El Salado ejecutada por paramilitares bajo el mando de Salvatore Mancuso y Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias Jorge 40, en febrero de 2000. La intención del documental es develar el rostro de las mas de 60 víctimas, escuchar sus relatos de primera mano respecto a lo que vivieron, trazar algunas trayectorias de vida y conocer sus reclamos y expectativas de justicia y reparación.
- DirectorPatricio GuzmánStarsGaspar GalazLautaro NúñezLuís HenríquezA documentary about two different searches conducted in the Chilean Atacama Desert: one by astronomers looking for answers about the history of the cosmos, and one by women looking for the remains of loved ones killed by Pinochet's regime.
- DirectorJuliano Ribeiro SalgadoWim WendersStarsSebastião SalgadoWim WendersLélia Wanick SalgadoThe life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has spent forty years documenting societies in hidden corners of the world.
- DirectorLaurence ReesStarsYael BierHaim BirenbaumHalina BirnbaumFeature-length documentary exploring the experiences of six Auschwitz survivors, from their survival in the years after liberation to the present day.
- DirectorJuan José LozanoHollman MorrisStarsJean LeclercNathan WillcocksDocumentary about the war in Colombia. It explores the role and actions of the AUC, paramilitary group.
- DirectorJon StewartStarsGael García BernalKim BodniaDimitri LeonidasIranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari is detained by Iranian forces who brutally interrogate him under suspicion that he is a spy.
- DirectorChristophe CognetStarsYehuda BaconJosé FostyWalter SpitzerIn 1945, when the Allies liberated the concentration camps, they discovered thousands of secretly created artworks.
- DirectorÁlvaro LongoriaStarsÁlvaro LongoriaSimon CockerellKang Hyoin GyuGranted controlled access by national officials, filmmaker Álvaro Longoria tours North Korea to contrast his findings to the typical Western depiction of the nation.
- DirectorTony BulleyStarsKira AlliluyevaLilya AzarkinaSimon Sebag MontefioreA documentary about the life of Stalin and his rise to power. The film includes interviews with surviving members of Stalins family who corroborate historical facts from their perspective.
- DirectorLucy WalkerKaren HarleyJoão JardimStarsVik MunizOn the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro is Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill, where men and women sift through garbage for a living. Artist Vik Muniz produces portraits of the workers and learns about their lives.
- DirectorAlex GibneyStarsAlex GibneyBrian Keith AllenMoazzam BeggAlex Gibney exposes the haunting details of the USA's torture and interrogation practices during the War in Afghanistan.
- DirectorJonathan TeplitzkyStarsColin FirthNicole KidmanStellan SkarsgårdA former British Army officer, who was tortured as a prisoner of war at a Japanese labor camp during World War II, discovers that the man responsible for much of his treatment is still alive and sets out to confront him.
- DirectorFélix PodmaniczkyStarsKarl Hermann FrankJoe J. HeydeckerJohannes LeebDocumentary with recordings from the Nuremberg war crimes trials.
- DirectorLászló NemesStarsGéza RöhrigLevente MolnárUrs RechnA Jewish-Hungarian concentration camp prisoner sets out to give a child he mistook for his son a proper burial.
- DirectorFlorian GallenbergerStarsEmma WatsonDaniel BrühlMichael NyqvistA young woman's desperate search for her abducted boyfriend draws her into the infamous Colonia Dignidad, a sect nobody has ever escaped from.
- DirectorBryan SingerStarsTom CruiseBill NighyCarice van HoutenA dramatization of the July 20, 1944 assassination and political coup plot by desperate renegade German Army officers against Adolf Hitler during World War II.
- DirectorRoman KarmenElizaveta SvilovaStarsFrancis BiddleHenri Donnedieu de VabresKarl DönitzA look at the trials of Nazi leaders.
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsSpencer TracyBurt LancasterRichard WidmarkIn 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.
- DirectorStuart SchulbergStarsFrancis BiddleKarl DönitzHans FrankThe official U.S. government film about the 1st Nuremberg trial (The Trial of the Major Nazi War Criminals) which lasted from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946.
- DirectorTim Blake NelsonStarsDavid ArquetteVelizar BinevDavid ChandlerA Nazi doctor, along with the Sonderkommando, Jews who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow Jews, find themselves in a moral gray zone.
- DirectorGabriel Osorio VargasAn old, lonesome bear tells the story of his life through a mechanical diorama.
- DirectorLuis PuenzoStarsNorma AleandroHéctor AlterioChunchuna VillafañeDuring the final months of Argentinian Military Dictatorship in 1983, a high school teacher sets out to find out who the mother of her adopted daughter is.
- DirectorUnai AranzadiPresident Santos opens an international megaproject with champagne while children who have been displaced because of it die a few metres away. General Reyes states that a guerrilla leader has been executed without knowing that, a few hours later, he would have to admit that, in fact, the killed person was an indigenous leader. The judge who was investigating several military members for raping and murdering of three children is killed. Workers of a banana plantation risk their lives to claim their rights...
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsAdolf HitlerHermann GöringMax AmannThe infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.
- DirectorYael HersonskiStarsAlexander BeyerRüdiger VoglerHanna AvrutzkiA film about an unfinished film which portrays the people behind and before the camera in the Warsaw Ghetto, exposing the extent of the cinematic manipulation forever changing the way we look at historic images.
- DirectorChristophe BarratierStarsLaetitia CastaGuillaume CanetJean TexierOccupied France; Lebrac leads a play war between two rival kid gangs, but a girl he likes, who's Jewish, is in danger of being discovered by local Nazi sympathisers. Lebrac and the village must now respond to the reality of what's happening.
- DirectorHany Abu-AssadStarsKais NashifAli SulimanLubna AzabalTwo childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
- DirectorRubén MendozaA dark night of 1985 a huge avalanche mixed, in only one mass, children, women, elderly, animals, tractors. More than 25,000 people and an entire village were buried in only 15 minutes. It was an announced tragedy.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsHermann GöringRudolf HessAdolf HitlerAfter German generals complained about the army's lack of presence in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will", she produced this propaganda piece for them.
- DirectorFritz HipplerStarsCurt BoisCharles ChaplinAlbert EinsteinUnder the guise of a brutally honest documentary, this malevolent propaganda film aims to be an "indispensable tool in the hands of the Aryan race", designed to depict the "true" Jew when the masks of western civilisation fall off.
- DirectorVeit HarlanStarsFerdinand MarianKristina SöderbaumHeinrich GeorgeInfamous anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda historical drama about Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg and his treasurer Süß Oppenheimer.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsJoseph GoebbelsHermann GöringRudolf HessDer Sieg des Glaubens (English: The Victory of Faith, Victory of Faith, or Victory of the Faith) (1933) is the first propaganda film directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Her film recounts the Fifth Party Rally of the Nazi Party, which occurred in Nuremberg from 30 August to 3 September 1933. The film is of great historic interest because it shows Adolf Hitler and Ernst Röhm on close and intimate terms, before Röhm was shot on the orders of Hitler on the Night of the Long Knives in July 1934. All known copies of the film were destroyed on Hitler's orders, and it was considered lost until a copy turned up in the 1990s in the United Kingdom
- DirectorJacques FeyderStarsNora GregorTheo ShallJulia SerdaOne of three foreign language versions of the MGM romance, His Glorious Night: a princess in the court of the old Austro-Hungarian empire rejects her arranged marriage and loves, instead, a dashing cavalry captain.
- DirectorCarla GarapedianStarsTaner AkçamHrant DinkJohn DolmayanInternationally known director Carla Garapedian follows the rock band System of a Down as they tour Europe and the US pointing out the horrors of modern genocide that began in Armenia in 1915 up though Darfur today.
- DirectorMori MasakiStarsIssei MiyazakiCatherine BattistoneYoshie ShimamuraA powerful statement against war, Barefoot Gen is a disturbing story about the effect of the atomic bomb on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsCharlie SheenTom BerengerWillem DafoeChris Taylor, a neophyte recruit in Vietnam, finds himself caught in a battle of wills between two sergeants, one good and the other evil. A shrewd examination of the brutality of war and the duality of man in conflict.
- DirectorUli EdelStarsMartina GedeckMoritz BleibtreuJohanna WokalekA look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings, and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsPayman MaadiLeila HatamiSareh BayatA married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
- DirectorGiulio RicciarelliStarsAndré SzymanskiAlexander FehlingFriederike BechtA story that exposes the conspiracy of prominent German institutions and government branches to cover up the crimes of Nazis during World War II.
- DirectorRichard AttenboroughStarsDenzel WashingtonKevin KlineJosette SimonSouth African journalist Donald Woods is forced to flee the country after attempting to investigate the death in custody of his friend, the Black anti-Apartheid activist Steve Biko.
- DirectorLyric R. CabralDavid Felix SutcliffeStarsKhalifah Ali Al-AkiliMike HealeyAli Kareem(T)ERROR is the first documentary to place filmmakers on the ground during an active FBI counterterrorism sting operation. Through the perspective of "Shariff", a 63-year-old Black revolutionary turned informant, viewers get an unfettered glimpse of the government's counterterrorism tactics and the murky justifications behind them. Taut, stark and controversial, (T)ERROR illuminates the fragile relationships between individual and surveillance state in modern America, and asks who is watching the watchers.
- DirectorKim A. SnyderStarsGene RosenSyeda Suriya AhmedAbbey ClementsA look at how the community of Newtown, Connecticut came together in the aftermath of the largest mass shooting of schoolchildren in American history.
- DirectorErik PoppeStarsJuliette BinocheNikolaj Coster-WaldauLauryn CannyRebecca is one of the world's top war photographers. She must weather a major emotional storm when her husband refuses to put up with her dangerous life any longer.
- DirectorMichael KloftDave PearceStarsJoe MortonWalter CronkiteHermann GöringThe story of the Nuremberg Trials and Robert Jackson, the chief prosecutor.
- DirectorSteven HoggardStarsLiev SchreiberMichael BerenbaumMark JacobsonThe examination of a lampshade that might be made of the skin of Holocaust death camp victims is followed.
- DirectorJack GoldStarsAlan ArkinJoanna PaculaRutger HauerGerman death camp in Sobibor, Poland, killed two hundred fifty thousand Jews. It had the most successful prisoner escape in World War II on October 14, 1943.
- CreatorJoseph WeisbergStarsKeri RussellMatthew RhysKeidrich SellatiAt the height of the Cold War, two Russian agents pose as the average American couple, complete with family.
- DirectorSimon CurtisStarsHelen MirrenRyan ReynoldsDaniel BrühlMaria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the Austrian government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.
- DirectorOliver HirschbiegelStarsBruno GanzAlexandra Maria LaraUlrich MatthesTraudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
- DirectorWill AllenStarsWill AllenDimitrius PulidoPhillipe CoquetAn inside look at Buddhafield, a West Hollywood cult formed by a charismatic teacher in the 1980s that eventually imploded.
- DirectorEvgeny AfineevskyStarsHis Beatitude SviatoslavSaid IsmagilovBishop AgapitA documentary on the unrest in Ukraine during 2013 and 2014, as student demonstrations supporting European integration grew into a violent revolution calling for the resignation of President Viktor F. Yanukovich.
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerStarsAdi RukunM.Y. BasrunVolker HanischA family that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.
- DirectorBill GuttentagMichael WareStarsAbu Musab Al-ZarqawiMichael WareAustralian journalist Michael Ware's experiences in Iraq during the 2003 war and after.
- DirectorAlan LoweryJohn PilgerStarsJohn PilgerStuart EwenMelvin GoodmanThought-provoking documentary on war propaganda: how governments manipulate the facts and how most media let them get away with it.
- DirectorMiki MistratiU. Roberto RomanoStarsDiamoutene BakaryDavid BatesonHenri BleminAt cocoa plantations in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, children aged from 7 to 15 years old, with the promise of paid work, are forced into slave labour. Does the world know about the dark side of chocolate?
- StarsKevin CostnerGregory HarrisonEric SchweigAn exploration of the various Native American nations and their fall to the European conquerors.
- DirectorJames JonesStarsSarah ChildressWill LymanWith undercover footage and on-the-ground reporting, FRONTLINE reveals a side of Saudi Arabia that's rarely seen, and traces the efforts of men and women who are working to bring about change.
- StarsOliver StoneAlan ShearmanJim WardOliver Stone 's re-examination of under-reported events in American history.
- DirectorStelios KouloglouStarsJohn PerkinsIn front of an angry audience somewhere in Latin America, a North American discloses the secret network that used the World Bank, payoffs, extortion and sex, military coups and political assassinations to create the American empire. The definitive answer to President Bush's question: "why do they hate us?".
- DirectorKyle MisakStarsGreg WolfeTahachi HardrickDon Joseph ChaseBased on the real interview with Ted Bundy, a psychologist interviews a serial killer and asks him about the violent crimes he committed, what it's like to be on death row, and if he believes that he deserves the ultimate punishment in an attempt to have the killer confront himself and see his crimes for what they really are.