Documentaries to Watch

Taxi to the Dark Side

2008-02-26T00:25:00.008+01:00

Taxi to the Dark Side is an Academy Award winning 2007 documentary film directed by American filmmaker Alex Gibney. The film focuses around the controversial death in custody of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar. Dilawar was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention at the Bagram Air Base. Taxi to the Dark Side also goes on to examine America's policy on torture and interrogation in general, specifically the CIA's use of torture and their research into sensory deprivation. There is description of the opposition to the use of torture from its political and military opponents, as well as the defence of such methods; the attempts by Congress to uphold the standards of the Geneva Convention forbidding torture; and the popularisation of the use of torture techniques in shows such as 24. (US 2007, 106min, Watch online)

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom

2008-01-18T00:21:00.001+01:00

The Trap is a series of three films by Bafta-winning producer Adam Curtis that explains the origins of our contemporary, narrow idea of freedom. It shows how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom. This model was derived from ideas and techniques developed by nuclear strategists during the Cold War to control the behaviour of the Soviet enemy. (UK 2007, 180min, Watch online)

Threads

2007-08-09T21:53:00.000+02:00

Threads is a 1984 BBC docudrama depicting the effects of a nuclear war on the UK. The story focuses on two families beginning nearly three months before the attack. We watch their lifestyle and their reactions, first as fighting erupts and escalates, then as the UK places itself on a war footing, and eventually as bombing commences. We then follow family members as they face the consequences of a nuclear war. The film concludes thirteen years after the attack, as civilization rebuilds to a stage like the early Industrial Era. (UK 1984, 112min, Watch online)

Bill Moyer's Journal: Buying The War

2007-04-25T20:23:00.000+02:00

Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln and delivered a speech in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner. Despite profound questions and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was won. How did they get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 continue to go largely unreported? (USA 2007, 85min, Watch online)

Koppel on Discovery: Our Children's Children's War

2007-03-11T20:37:00.000+01:00

If you expect the War on Terror to end with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, or with the establishment of a stable government in Afghanistan, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. While the eyes of the world focus on those conflicts, the U.S. military is fighting an unconventional war that could last generations. Widely known as the "War on Terror," the outgoing commander of the U.S. military's Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid, refers to it as "The Long War." Ted Koppel presents an in-depth special report on a war that may last longer than any in which the U.S. has been involved before. (USA 2007, 44min)

Koppel on Discovery: Iran - The Most Dangerous Nation

2006-11-19T11:36:00.000+01:00

For his second Discovery Channel special in 2006, Koppel plans to take viewers to Iran 27 years after American hostages were seized in Tehran. He looks at the historical reasons for Iranians’ suspicions and for their support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s refusal to halt Iran’s nuclear program. He will also explore Iranians' perspectives on Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel. (USA 2006, 87min)

the fifth estate: The Denial Machine

2006-11-15T21:56:00.000+01:00

In the past few years, a hurricane has engulfed the debate about global warming. This scientific issue has become a rhetorical firestorm with science pitted against spin and inflammatory words on both sides.How could scientific fact, which many believe could determine the very future of the planet, become a political battleground, pitting left versus right, environmentalist versus climate change sceptic? The Denial Machine investigates the roots of the campaign to negate the science and the threat of global warming. It tracks the activities of a group of scientists, some of whom previously consulted for for Big Tobacco, and who are now receiving donations from major coal and oil companies. (CA 2005, 40min, Watch online)

P.O.V.: My Country, My Country

2006-10-25T12:08:00.000+02:00

The state of democracy, both Iraq's and the United States', is the focus of Laura Poitras's new documentary, "My Country, My Country," an unforgettable journey into the heart of war-ravaged Iraq in the months leading up to the January 2005 elections. Symbolized by fingers marked with purple ink, the 2005 elections posed challenges to all sides of the debate about the war. Despite death threats from terrorists, voter turnout in Iraq was higher than in the U.S., and in spite of claims that the elections were an Iraqi process, U.S. military planners oversaw most aspects of them. (USA 2006, 86min)

FRONTLINE: The Lost Year in Iraq

2006-10-17T12:24:00.000+02:00

In the first weeks after the statue of Saddam Hussein fell, a group of young American bureaucrats led by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III set off to establish democracy in Iraq. "We had an ambitious goal," Bremer tells FRONTLINE, "to try to bring better government to Iraq and help them rebuild their economy [and] their country." One year later, as Bremer made a secret exit to evade insurgent attacks, the group left behind a thriving insurgency, economic collapse and much of its idealism. "Our grand initiative there [was] to bring democracy to Iraq," says Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former Baghdad bureau chief for The Washington Post. Instead, says Chandrasekaran, "we were leaving with our tail between our legs." Today, as America looks for an exit strategy, FRONTLINE examines the initial, critical decisions of the U.S.-led regime in Baghdad in The Lost Year in Iraq. From the same team that produced Rumsfeld's War, The Torture Question and The Dark Side, the film is based on more than 30 interviews, most of them with the officials charged with building a new and democratic Iraq. (USA 2006, 55min, Watch online)

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

2006-10-09T11:57:00.000+02:00

The film depicts the life of Robert McNamara, United States Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968, through the use of archival footage, White House recordings, and most prominently, an interview with McNamara at the age of 85. The subject matter spans McNamara's work as one of the "Whiz Kids" during World War II and as an executive at the Ford Motor Company to his involvement in the Vietnam War as Secretary of Defense under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. (USA 2003, 95min)

FRONTLINE: Return of the Taliban

2006-10-03T21:14:00.000+02:00

After the fall of the Taliban five years ago, some experts warned of a nightmare scenario in which the Taliban and Al Qaeda would escape from Afghanistan into neighboring Pakistan and set up new command centers far out of America's reach. That nightmare scenario has now come true. The Taliban controls large parts of the lawless tribal areas along the border. In a video obtained by FRONTLINE, the Taliban demonstrate their brutal brand of justice. After executing 17 people, said to be thieves, in front of a crowd of hundreds, they hung the bodies on poles for three days. "We have killed these people and sent them to God," a Taliban gunman says to the camera. "God will bring them to justice." FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith ("Hunting bin Laden"; "Truth, War and Consequences") returns to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and presents a rare look inside this secret sanctuary in "Return of the Taliban." In a region long suspected of harboring Osama bin Laden and strictly off-limits to U.S. troops, Smith explores the complex web of alliances among the Taliban, Al Qaeda fighters and the Pakistani military, and analyzes the consequences for U.S. policy. (USA 2006, 55min, Watch online)

FRONTLINE: The Dark Side

2006-06-20T21:21:00.000+02:00

Amid revelations about faulty prewar intelligence and a scandal surrounding the indictment of the vice president's chief of staff and presidential adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, FRONTLINE goes behind the headlines to investigate the internal war that was waged between the intelligence community and Richard Bruce Cheney, the most powerful vice president in the nation's history. "A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies," Cheney told Americans just after 9/11. He warned the public that the government would have to operate on the "dark side." In "The Dark Side," FRONTLINE tells the story of the vice president's role as the chief architect of the war on terror, and his battle with Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet for control of the "dark side." Drawing on more than 40 interviews and thousands of documents, the film provides a step-by-step examination of what happened inside the councils of war. (USA 2006, 85min, Watch online)

Baghdad ER

2006-05-24T22:27:00.000+02:00

12-time Emmy® Award winner producer/director Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill capture the humanity, hardships and heroism of the US Military and medical personnel of the 86th Combat Support Hospital, the Army's premier medical facility in Iraq. Sometimes graphic in its depiction of combat-related wounds, BAGHDAD ER offers an unflinching and honest account of the realities of war. (USA 2006, 64min)

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-05-24T21:31:00.000+02:00

Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced. If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom -- think again. From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore and his "traveling global warming show," Gore also proves himself to be one of the most misunderstood characters in modern American public life. Here he is seen as never before in the media - funny, engaging, open and downright on fire about getting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our "planetary emergency" out to ordinary citizens before it's too late. (USA 2006)

The War Tapes

2006-04-29T21:27:00.000+02:00

In March 2004, just as the insurgent movement strengthened, several members of one National Guard unit arrived in Iraq, with cameras. THE WAR TAPES is the result – a uniquely collaborative film from a team that includes Director Deborah Scranton, Producer Robert May (THE FOG OF WAR) and Producer/Editor Steve James (HOOP DREAMS). Straight from the front lines in Iraq, THE WAR TAPES is the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves. It is Operation Iraqi Freedom as filmed by Sergeant Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi and Specialist Mike Moriarty and other soldiers. Zack is a Lebanese-American university student who loves politics, traveling, and being a soldier. Steve is a carpenter with a sharp sense of humor and aspirations to write, which he does with insight and candor. Mike is a resolute patriot and father of two, who rejoined the army after 9/11. All of them leave women at home—a mother, a girlfriend, and a wife. While they battled unconventional forces, they recorded events that conventional journalists have been unable to capture. They mounted tripods on gun turrets, inside dashboards and used POV mounts on their Kevlar helmets and vests. They filmed all of the footage in Iraq, which amounted to over 800 hours of tape. (USA 2004, 96min)

FRONTLINE: The Tank Man

2006-04-11T12:53:00.000+02:00

On June 5, 1989, one day after the Chinese army's deadly crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, a single, unarmed young man stood his ground before a column of tanks on the Avenue of Eternal Peace. Captured on film and video by Western journalists, this extraordinary confrontation became an icon of the struggle for freedom around the world. Seventeen years later, veteran filmmaker Antony Thomas goes to China in search of "The Tank Man." Who was he? What was his fate? And what does he mean for a China that today has become a global economic powerhouse? (USA 2006, 60min, Watch online)

Why We Fight

2006-02-03T21:09:00.000+01:00

The film describes the rise and maintenance of the United States military-industrial complex while concentrating on wars led by the United States of the last fifty years and in particular on the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. It alleges that every decade since World War II, the American public has been told a lie to bring it into war to fuel the military-economic machine, which in turn maintains American dominance in the world. It includes interviews with John McCain, Chalmers Johnson, Richard Perle, William Kristol, Gore Vidal and Joseph Cirincione. The film also incorporates the stories of a Vietnam War veteran whose son died in the September 11, 2001 attacks and then had his son's name written on a bomb dropped on Iraq, a 23-year old New York man who enlists in the United States Army citing his financial troubles after his only family member died, and a former Vietnamese refugee who now develops explosives for the American military. (USA 2005, 98min)

China Rises

2006-01-22T12:35:00.000+01:00

The Oldest Civilization on Earth, Reborn. China. The scene of the most extraordinary economic, social and political transformation of our time. But it is also a nation struggling with an enormous population, a strained environment, and unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity. Three hours of extraordinary documentary film-making portrays the triumphs and disappointments of remarkable individuals caught up in an epic story. This is China Rises. (CA 2005, 180min)

Tegenlicht: De dag dat de dollar valt... (Dutch)

2005-11-20T19:41:00.000+01:00

In een scenario dat zich ontrolt in 24 uur buitelen waarheid en fictie over elkaar heen. Om negen uur 's morgens krijgt een handelaar in Singapore de opdracht om een grote hoeveelheid dollars te verkopen, waarmee hij een ongekend diepe val van de dollar in gang zet. Uur na uur zien we hoe de wereld daarop reageert. Aan het eind van de dag staat correspondent Twan Huys handenwringend voor de camera in Washington, Chinezen maken zich op voor een mogelijke oorlog, en in Amsterdam kan een vrouw haar taxi alleen nog maar betalen met drie pakjes sigaretten. (NL 2005, 50min, Watch online)

FRONTLINE: The Storm

2005-10-22T18:51:00.000+02:00

An hour-long FRONTLINE investigation, examines how and why government at every level — local, state and federal — was unprepared, uncoordinated and overwhelmed in dealing with the Hurricane Katrina disaster that devastated the Gulf Coast in the late summer of 2005 and killed more than 900 people in New Orleans. (USA 2005, 56min, Watch online)

FRONTLINE: The Torture Question

2005-10-18T19:52:00.000+02:00

In the uncertain weeks following September 11, an internal power struggle was underway deep inside the Bush administration. Waged between partisans at the highest levels of the government, that battle -- captured in a series of blunt memos -- exemplifies the struggle to create a legal framework to give the president authority to aggressively interrogate enemy fighters in the war on terror. On October 18, FRONTLINE goes behind closed doors to investigate the struggle over how and when to use what was called "coercive interrogation." The film begins with a policy born out of fear and anger and tracks how increasingly tough measures were taken to gather information about Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and finally the rising insurgency in Iraq. In an examination that begins at the White House and ends in the public debate about alleged abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Abu Ghraib, policy makers, government interrogators, and their subjects talk to FRONTLINE about their experiences as part of this internal battle. (USA 2005, 90min, Watch online)

North Korea: Undercover In The Secret State

2005-10-17T19:49:00.000+02:00

Award-winning filmmaker Kim Jung Eun (Shadows and Whispers: The Struggle of North Korean Refugees) lays bare the cruel realities of daily life in North Korea, presenting powerful undercover footage and interviews with defectors fleeing the regime. Working as secret cameramen, the dissidents that Jung Eun meets film public executions and concentration camps to expose the subjugated existence of a nation gripped by the cult of its reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il. (UK 2005, 49min)

Hiroshima

2005-08-05T21:17:00.000+02:00

Set in the three weeks from the first test explosion in New Mexico to the eventual dropping of the bomb, the action takes viewers into the room where the crucial political decisions are made; on board the Enola Gay on her fateful voyage; inside the bomb as it explodes; and on the streets of Hiroshima when disaster strikes. Parallel storylines interweave, unfolding the action from both US and Japanese perspectives, and revealing the tensions and conflicts in the actions and minds of people who were making history. Special effects recreate the reality of the mission - even going inside the workings of the bomb - and archive film replays the horrific aftermath. (UK 2005)

Tegenlicht: Noord-korea - Een dag uit het leven.. (Dutch)

2005-07-10T20:07:00.000+02:00

Documentairemaker Pieter Fleury kreeg na maanden onderhandelen toestemming om in Noord Korea te mogen filmen. De Democratische Volksrepubliek van Korea kennen we alleen als de schurkenstaat, met een beducht kernwapenprogramma en het stalinistische regime van Kim Jong-il, vijand van het Westen. Uniek aan de toestemming was dat Fleury mocht filmen op het niveau van het dagelijks leven, de familie, leven en werken. Ondanks het toeziend oog van de censor maakte Fleury daar op de vierkante milimeter een nooit eerder vertoond portret van een zwijgende, protestloze samenleving. (NL 2004, 50min)

FRONTLINE: Private Warriors

2005-06-21T19:58:00.000+02:00

FRONTLINE returns to Iraq, this time to embed with Halliburton/KBR, and to take a hard look at private contractors like Blackwater, Aegis and Erinys, who play an increasingly critical role in running U.S. military supply lines, providing armed protection, and operating U.S. military bases. These private warriors are targeted by insurgents and in turn have been criticized for their rough treatment of Iraqi civilians. Their dramatic story illuminates the Pentagon's new reliance on corporate outsourcing and raises tough questions about where they fit in the chain of command and the price we are paying for their role in the war. (USA 2005, 56min, Watch online)

FRONTLINE: The Soldier's Heart

2005-03-01T23:05:00.000+01:00

U.S. Marine Rob Sarra had been in the military for eight years when the war in Iraq began. A sergeant in charge of a unit of 32, he was considered part of the "tip of the spear" -- among the first troops to reach Baghdad. In late March 2003, Sarra opened fire on an Iraqi woman in a black burqa he suspected was a suicide bomber, prompting others in his unit to begin firing as well. Her body torn apart by bullets, the woman fell quickly to the ground. It was only then that Rob saw she held a small white flag. "Right then and there I was just like, what the hell happened? I was crying, hysterical…this woman got killed by my actions," Sarra tells FRONTLINE. "I wasn't going to talk to anyone about it. But little did I know it kind of worked itself back up to the surface when I came home." (USA 2005, 55min, Watch online)

the fifth estate: The Big Break

2005-02-23T12:49:00.000+01:00

The business is called shipbreaking. It's global and it's lucrative, earning millions of dollars for ship owners, international brokers and the scrappers. But the booming business often comes with a cost - to human health and safety and the environment. The workings of old ships contain a shopping list of hazardous wastes - including PCBs, asbestos, lead and oil. For the workers in developing nations the opportunity to work in the shipbreaking yard often means the only chance at survival. And yet for the workers and their environment, breaking old ships can have deadly consequences. the fifth estate set out to investigate the business. We climbed aboard as two retired Canadian Great Lakes freighters - Canadian Trader and Canadian Venture - were towed out of the St. Lawrence River to be sold for scrap to the highest bidder. We followed the Trader and Venture's final odyssey all the way to the muddied beaches of Alang, India - the world's most notorious shipbreaking yard, where tens of thousands of poorly paid and poorly protected workers toil in some of the most hazardous working conditions anywhere. (CA 2004, 43min)

FRONTLINE: House of Saud

2005-02-08T12:57:00.000+01:00

Saudi Arabia—one of the United States' most important allies for more than sixty years—is home to vast oil fields and a wealthy, often extravagant, monarchy. It is also home to fifteen of the nineteen terrorists responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001. Until 9/11, most Americans paid little attention to how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was run. But in the aftermath of the attacks, America awoke to some difficult truths about its longtime ally: for decades, Saudi wealth and charities supported individuals and organizations dedicated to doing America harm, and its universities and religious schools—known as madrassas—prepared countless young men for jihad against the West. (USA 2004, 116min)

The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear

2005-01-18T11:44:00.000+01:00

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares. In this BBC series, the Power of Nightmares explores how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. (UK 2005, 180min)

Tegenlicht: De Brooklyn connectie - De onvoltooide strijd in Kosovo (Dutch)

2004-09-05T20:13:00.000+02:00

In 1999 kwamen de Serviërs en de Albanezen door bemiddeling van de VN, tot een staakt-het-vuren. Maar tot echte ontwapening van de bevolking kwam het niet, en daardoor smeult het conflict onderhuids nog altijd door. Een uitzending over de hypocrisie achter de vredesmissies van Amerika - want terwijl dat land bovengronds optreedt als bemiddelaar wordt ondergronds het conflict in stand gehouden doordat één partij, in dit geval de Albanezen, uit datzelfde Amerika grote hoeveelheden geld en wapens ontvangt. (NL 2004, 50min, Watch online)

Control Room

2004-06-18T22:10:00.000+02:00

A chronicle which provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news outlet. Roundly criticized by Cabinet members and Pentagon officials for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, and strongly condemned for frequently airing civilian causalities as well as footage of American POWs, the station has revealed (and continues to show the world) everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration did not want it to see. (USA 2004, 86min)

Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room

2004-04-22T21:38:00.001+02:00

Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, a multidimensional study of one of the biggest business scandals in American history. The chronicle takes a look at one of the greatest corporate disasters in history, in which top executives from the 7th largest company in this country walked away with over one billion dollars, leaving investors and employees with nothing. The film features insider accounts and rare corporate audio and video tapes that reveal colossal personal excesses of the Enron hierarchy and the utter moral vacuum that posed as corporate philosophy. The human drama that unfolds within Enron's walls resembles a Greek tragedy and produces a domino effect that could shape the face of our economy and ethical code for years to come. (USA 2005, 109min, Watch online)

Nordkorea - Land der Lügen (German)

2004-02-25T20:15:00.000+01:00

Den ARTE-Reportern ist es gelungen, mit ihrer Kamera weit in das Land zu reisen und heimlich verbotene Bilder zu drehen: die Not der Menschen in der politischen Eiszeit und im koreanischen Winter sowie die grössenwahnsinnigen Prachtbauten der Diktatur. Offiziell war es eine Reise von Eisenbahnfreunden, die nur die uralten Dampfloks in Nordkorea besichtigen wollten. In aller Heimlichkeit entstanden aber ist diese Reportage, ein Reisebericht aus dem Land der Lügen. (D 2004, 26min)

Mission Nordkorea (German)

2003-09-04T20:18:00.000+02:00

Nordkorea, der letzte kommunistische Staat Ostasiens, ist verarmt, isoliert und abgeschottet - eine unbekannte Welt. Nicht jedoch für Christoph Bürk. Der Deutsche hat durch seine Arbeit Einblick in den Alltag eines Landes, der bislang der Weltöffentlichkeit völlig unbekannt ist: Er verteilt Rindfleisch an die hungernde Bevölkerung, das in Deutschland keiner mehr essen wollte. (D 2002, 26min)

The Trials of Henry Kissinger

2002-05-07T21:58:00.000+02:00

"Henry Kissinger is a war criminal," says firebrand journalist Christopher Hitchens. "He's a liar. And he's personally responsible for murder, for kidnapping, for torture." What is Hitchens on about? He could be talking about the lawsuit currently under way in Washington DC, in which Kissinger is charged with having authorised the assassination of a Chilean general in 1970. Or he could be referring to the secret bombing of Cambodia which, arguably, Kissinger engineered without the knowledge of the US Congress in 1969. Or perhaps Kissinger's involvement in the sale of U.S. weapons to Indonesian President Suharto for use in the massacre of 1/3 of the population of East Timor in 1975. These and several other recent charges have cast a haunting shadow on the reputation of a man long seen as the most famous diplomat of his age, the Nobel Laureate who secured peace in Vietnam, who secretly opened relations between the US and China, and who now, more than a quarter-century out of office, remains a central player on the world stage, only recently voted the number one public intellectual of the 20th century. (USA 200, 80min)

War Photographer

2002-02-28T20:44:00.000+01:00

War photographer James Nachtwey has been close enough for twenty years. Over this time he hasn't missed a single war. And he probably has seen more suffering and dying than anyone else alive. For WAR PHOTOGRAPHER, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Christian Frei followed Nachtwey for two years into the wars in Indonesia, Kosovo, and Palestine, as well as to other troubled areas around the world. (CH 2001, 96min)

Der Dritte Weltkrieg - Eine historische Simulation (German)

1998-12-01T21:49:00.000+01:00

Mehrfach in den vergangenen fünf Jahrzehnten stand die Welt vor der Gefahr, dass der kalte in einen heissen Krieg umschlagen und die nukleare Apokalypse auslösen könnte. Was wäre gewesen, wenn es Ende der achtziger Jahre statt einer friedlichen Revolution in Deutschland zu einer militärischen Eskalation, zu einem erst konventionellen, dann atomaren Schlagabtausch zwischen NATO und Warschauer Pakt gekommen wäre? (D 1998, 87min)

Lektionen in Finsternis

1992-05-16T13:04:00.000+02:00

Werner Herzog's documentary shows the disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames. In contrast to the common documentary film there are no comments and few interviews. What must have been the hell itself is presented to the viewer in such beautiful sights and beautiful music that one has to be fascinated by it. The German title translates 'Lessons in Darkness'. (D 1992, 50min)