Conspiracy (2001) Director: Frank Pierson Actors: Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci Runtime: 96 min In late January of 1942, in Wannsee near Berlin Nazi bureaucrats held a meeting which brought together 15 representatives of different branches of the German state, the army, the SS, the Nazi party and so on. The sole topic of the meeting …
Das Experiment (2001) Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel Actors: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski Runtime: 114 min Exceptionally tense and dynamic movie that will literally keep you on the edge of your seat. Although it isn’t mentioned at any point, the film is largely based on actual events – in the summer of 1971 at Stanford …
Queimada (1969) Director: Gillo Pontecorvo Actors: Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez Runtime: 132 min In the golden age of colonialism, British government sends an agent to a tropical island under Portuguese rule with the mission to start a slave rebellion, so that Britain would take over the island, for its significant sugar cane production. However, after …
The Stanford Prison Experiment Runtime: 29 min In the summer of 1971 at Stanford University professor Philip Zimbardo set an experiment in which the basement of the Department of Psychology was converted into prison and the group of 24 volunteers was randomly divided into guards and prisoners. This research, whose goal was exploring the social …
Medium Cool (1969) Director: Haskell Wexler Actors: Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz Runtime: 111 min A realistic movie centered around a TV cameraman and his relationship with a single working class mother, made in the social atmosphere of a mass political awakening and loss of trust in the legitimacy of the system. The focus …
Szegénylegények (1966) Director: Miklós Jancsó Actors: János Görbe, Zoltán Latinovits, Tibor Molnár Runtime: 90 min The year is 1869 in Hungary – the government has decided to deal with uncontrolled elements in order to stabilize the system. In an improvised prison which has elements of a concentration camp a large group of people is detained. …
Catch-22 (1970) Director: Mike Nichols Actors: Alan Arkin, Art Garfunkel, Richard Benjamin Runtime: 122 min This anti-war comedy of the absurd attempts to show the defeat of the rational mind in the face of the madness of war. A squadron of U.S. B-25 bombers is deployed on a small Mediterranean island near Italy. The commander …
O slavnosti a hostech (1966) Director: Jan Nemec Actors: Ivan Vyskocil, Jan Klusák, Jiri Nemec Runtime: 68 min This simple and intelligent movie skillfully and effectively questions conformism and obedience to authority. It was made within the framework of the Czechoslovak New Wave and banned as “subversive” after the Soviet intervention in 1968. The critique …
Shoah (1985) Director: Claude Lanzmann Runtime: 566 min Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust, the genocide of approximately six million of European Jews conducted by Nazis (and their collaborators) during World War II. It is very difficult to find the words to express or think about the Nazi industry of death. I will …
Shake Hands with the Devil (2007) Director: Roger Spottiswoode Actors: Roy Dupuis, Owen Sejake, James Gallanders Runtime: 112 min General Roméo Dallaire was the Force Commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda (UNAMIR) in the moment when, at the beginning of April 1994, the Rwandan army and paramilitary forces of the ruling party MRND …
