ARTE

James Larkin White, an American who travels through Switzerland, is mistaken for Anatol Stiller, a sculptor who disappeared seven years earlier and is wanted for his involvement in a dubious political affair.

The retired GDR spies have just buried their old mentor in Cuba as they set out to save the last real bastion of socialism. But they didn't expect their biggest opponent so far: full board and Cuba Libre.

Revolves around the Lunies family whose estranged members include mother Lissy, son Tom and daughter Ellen. They reconnect after each of them faces death in one way or another.

Marlon Brando was one of the most famous American actors of the 20th century.. His roles in "Apocalypse Now" and "The Godfather" remain stand out performances. Politically, he was particularly committed to the US civil rights movement but Brando's great love was science. In 1966, he acquired the South Sea atoll of Tetiaroa to make a nature sanctuary, dedicated to scientific research.

The documentary follows the trail of fruit and vegetables from the shopping cart back to various cultivation areas throughout Europe. The entire supply chain is revealed via a system that includes the inhumane exploitation of harvest workers and agricultural businesses. The aggressive pricing policy of the supermarket groups, their "lowest price promise", has established a modern form of slavery in Europe.

Hollywood film music has its roots in Europe. Three composers who fled war and National Socialism to the USA created the sound that still shapes film music today: Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner and Franz Waxman. In the early 20th century, these classically trained composers transformed the methods acquired in Vienna and Berlin into a new American art form: film music. They balanced the relationship between image and sound and developed techniques and dramaturgical tricks to achieve the greatest possible effect on the viewer. Their influence is visible in the work of contemporary US composers such as John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith. Today, Oscar winner Hans Zimmer, Ramin Djawadi and Harold Faltermeyer continue this tradition. Their melodies are part of humanity's collective memory and reflect the combined traditions of European and American musical history. The documentary accompanies composers in their work and explores the European roots of Hollywood.

"Vladimir versus Volodymyr" or: the ancient battle between Russian and Ukrainian historical narratives, in which a medieval prince serves as justification for Putin's war of aggression. The documentary goes in search of key moments in Ukrainian historiography and reveals how one of the bloodiest wars in Europe since 1945 came about. It traces the long struggle of Ukrainians against a Russian oppressive culture and deciphers how their struggle for freedom and independence is above all a battle for their own history that has been waged for generations. A story of daring Vikings, of the flourishing Middle Ages as a bridge between Europe and Asia, of Polish foreign rule, of knightly Cossacks, and of a ambitious Russian tsarina, Catherine the Great, who subjugated the south of today's Ukraine and thus became the brutal pioneer of events in the 20th century, where Millions of people have died, been murdered or deported as a result of wars, revolutions, pogroms and starvation.

He was Russia's best-known opposition figure: Alexei Navalny, poisoned in 2020, arrested in 2021, locked away in notorious penal camps and died on February 16, 2024 at the age of just 47 in Siberian penal camp no. 3 under as yet unexplained circumstances. How did Navalny become Putin's fiercest opponent? Where did he stand politically? Was he the democratic beacon of hope that his closest circle presented him as? Companions recount Navalny's career. The film was completed while Alexei Navalny was still alive.

Chief Inspector Fredo Schulz receives a surprising diagnosis: the doctor tells him that he has colon cancer and only has three months to live. He should do something nice. “What’s that supposed to be?” Fredo asks himself and goes to work. He and his colleague Radu Lupescu are called to an apartment block in front of which a security guard was shot. He accompanied the owner Samir Berri, who is planning to clear and renovate the apartment block. Fredo has already arrested Samir once - for drug trafficking. He suspects that Samir is just laundering money with his supposedly clean real estate transactions.

Skalde lives in a small rural community, far from a world that may no longer exist. She is an interloper in her own home, having been born to an ‘outsider’ mother and therefore marked by a social stigma she cannot easily erase. Displaying a loyalty to the codes of the community, she has earned the respect of the village elder. However, when she encounters a mysterious girl in the local woods, Skalde risks everything by befriending her, eventually giving the girl a home. She attempts to hide her subterfuge to maintain her standing with the villagers, but her plans threaten to unravel.

The siblings Hannah and Timo grow up sheltered in a strictly conservative family. When Timo discovers he is gay and Hannah develops interests that are incompatible with her family's values, the siblings find themselves and their family's principles at odds.

GDR, August 1989: Hanna and Andreas became a target of the secret police and had to give up their plans for their future studies and desired professions. Instead, they face arbitrariness, mistrust and reprisals. Their only chance for a self-determined life lies in fleeing across the Baltic Sea. Fifty kilometres of water separate them from freedom - and only a thin connecting rope around their wrists saves them from absolute loneliness.

Amir, a young Iranian, signs on with a fisherman on the rugged Caspian Sea coast in order to earn the money he needs to marry his sweetheart, Narges. But in so doing, he becomes entangled in the criminal machinations of caviar poaching. Piece by piece, a complex hierarchy is revealed in a parallel realm that becomes ever more constricting and oppressive, endangering Amir’s relationship with Narges as well.

Pianist Jenny, once a musical prodigy, finds her footing in the Christian faith after serving 15 years for a murder she didn't commit. When she learns that her childhood sweetheart, once responsible for her ordeal, has become an internationally acclaimed star, the overwhelming need for revenge threatens her fragile agreement with God and her relationship with a Syrian musician who offers Jenny honest care and trust.

It was one of the great crimes of the Second World War: from 1941 to 1944, a total of 872 days, the siege and starvation of Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht on Hitler's orders lasted. Over a million people fell victim to the blockade, most of them dying of hunger. Countless of these starving people wrote diaries with the last of their strength, and cameramen filmed in the paralyzed city. Evidence from the hell of the siege, many of the film recordings, but above all the written memories on which this documentary on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation is based, remained under lock and key after the war. The voices of those who had suffered through this terrible time should not be heard by anyone, because they did not fit the pathos of the Leningrad heroic song that was officially sung. Most of the recordings come from women. The writers feared neither the enemy nor the Communist Party or Stalin, who often proved incompetent in providing for the population.

The world’s most talented young pianists compete in the International Chopin Piano Competition, held every five years in Warsaw, Poland. A rare behind the scenes look at the triumphant highs and crushing lows of competition, Pianoforte is both a testament to the remarkable power of music and an intimate coming-of-age portrait.

Elaha, 22, believes she must restore her supposed innocence before she weds. A surgeon could reconstruct her hymen but she cannot afford such an operation. She asks herself: why does she have to be a virgin anyway, and for whom?