ARTE

Simone Young AM has earned many accolades across her dazzling 30-year music career. All have been hard won. Knowing the Score gets up-close and personal with Simone in an engaging, luscious music documentary revealing two key themes; the long struggle for gender parity in the high art of classical music and the heart breaking struggle for artists to be valued in times of crisis, or sometimes even at all. Though one of the world’s great contemporary conductors, Simone’s work continues to be viewed through a gender lens. Simone is the first woman to be appointed Chief Conductor of The Sydney Symphony Orchestra in all its 90-year history, a post she takes up in 2022.

Manish is a talented and athletic street dancer from Mumbai who dreams of becoming professional against the wishes of his struggling parents. He meets a curmudgeonly Israeli ballet master who gives him the determination to keep going. But when he is pitted against another boy who’s got the attention of the top school in the world, Manish realizes he must push himself to his physical limits if he has any chance to succeed.

The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine is not only waged with bombs, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, but also in the media. It is a "propaganda battle" internally and externally. Russia spreads targeted disinformation in order to systematically devalue news. At the same time, their own population should be convinced that they want to liberate Ukraine from Nazis. Ukraine's narrative wants to emotionally mobilize its own population and strengthen resistance to the aggressor. Spindoctors are of particular importance in the propaganda battle over Ukraine. On the Ukrainian side, it's often influencers like Oleksiy Arestovych. On the Russian side, Vladimir Solovyov, Putin's snout, is supposed to sell the war to his own people with his daily TV talks. The documentary shows the new front lines of virtual warfare and provides insights into the populists' bag of tricks on social networks.

The war in the Ukraine has changed the way many European countries view Russian politics. Suddenly it became clear how dependent countries had become on Russian gas imports for decades and what Vladimir Putin was up to. However, no country needs more gas than Germany. It was only after Russia's invasion of the Ukraine that the German government realized that Russia had long used gas as a weapon to impose its will on states. The instrument created for this purpose is the natural gas production company GAZPROM. So how did Germany become so dependent on Russian gas? The documentary shows how, over several decades and several changes of government, a broad alliance of politicians and business representatives did everything possible to secure Germany's energy supply with cheap Russian gas, while the Kremlin's foreign policy became increasingly aggressive and the warnings of experts went unheeded.

At first glance, Leyla and Tristan are a happy couple. When they travel to a mysterious island, a game of identities begins that changes everything – their perception, their sexuality, their entire selves. But not only their relationship threatens to break up. They may even never be who they used to be again…

Ines has just received an ultimatum: If she loses one more customer, she will be fired from her job at the call centre. On the other end of the line is Alwin. A fortune cookie writer who suffers from writer's block after the death of his best friend, his dog Bonnie Barko, and therefore wants to cancel his phone contract.

At the Star Palace, Nikolaï performs his usual magic act: poetic, but a bit old-fashioned. The same evening, his career is shattered when the owner of the place announces that he will not book him again, despite the magician's promise to renew his style with “Meteor”, a new and modern trick that is very visual. Disillusioned, Nikolaï wanders in the deserted surroundings when, as if by magic, Maxime appears - it's Ariane von Star, a drag queen artist from the cabaret.

Leni and Paul are „all good!“, as Paul likes to emphasise. But on this evening even he realises that this is not true at all. Their new neighbours, Mariam and Ayla, who come over for dinner embody exactly what Leni and Paul have not been for one another as a couple for years. While finishing up dessert, the relationship of the perfect couple, centered on their fluffy dog Amor, unfolds.

The beauty of the Arctic is breathtaking. For as long as we can remember, the Arctic has been associated with inhospitable cold. But the climate is changing, and with it the northern polar region, which begins beyond latitude 66.5 degrees north. Climate change is now happening four times faster north of the Arctic Circle than on the rest of the planet, making the future outlook dire. At the moment it is still possible for polar bears to raise their cubs, but hunting is becoming increasingly difficult on the drastically shrinking pack ice. The disappearance of the ice also affects the marine fauna. The wintry ice bridge between Canada and Greenland is threatened with collapse. The unstoppable melting of the permafrost, which has held the tundra together for thousands of years, is worrying. But the Arctic is still one of the wildest and loveliest regions on earth. A documentary visit to the Arctic - as long as it still exists.

In southern Germany, winter can still be admired in all its glory every year. With its white coat of snow and icicles and myriads of small crystals that look like geometric works of art. In the valleys and on the slopes the snow is still so thick every year that the alpine huts are snowed in up to the windows. Cows and dairymen are safe in their farms at lower altitudes. But not the wild creatures of the mountains! They need strategies to survive the cold season and to defy snow masses, cold and ice. And some seem to do it so easily that they even raise their young in the middle of winter. But how do animals, plants and fungi cope with the annually recurring ice age, which from our perspective is a time of need? The many adaptations in nature prove that winter is an integral part of the natural cycle of the year and the living environment of species. They are adapted to cold and frost. That is why the animals and plants at the edge of the Alps suffer particularly from climate change!

Kingdom of Granada, al-Andalus, 14th century. After recognizing that his land, always under siege, is hopelessly doomed to be conquered, Sultan Yusuf I undertakes the construction of a magnificent fortress with the purpose of turning it into the landmark of his civilization and his history, a glorious monument that will survive the oblivion of the coming centuries: the Alhambra.

Adele is afraid of the outside world. She is depressed. She can't leave her house anymore. So Alice joins her to understand what is eating away at her.

It's midsummer in the year 2000 and when a strange girl turns up at the skate park and impresses the teenagers with her skating skills, Lily has to prove that she's more than just a groupie.

At first glance, the Hudson appears to be just another industrial river. Tree-lined riverbanks are interspersed between cultivated land, bridges, shipping docks, private homes and marinas, factories, chemical plants and brickyards. But go a little deeper and you begin to see sandbars, marshes, waterfalls, lakes and surging rapids. The Adirondacks. The Catskills. Thousands of acres of untamed habitat transform and amaze us with each changing season. It is arguably one of America’s greatest secrets and untold stories. The majestic bald eagle, symbol of the United States, becomes our guide and cinematic touchstone. We will follow the eagle, from courtship to parenting, while moving down the river towards the Atlantic exploring the richly diverse and changing habitats and the profound beauty and challenges to wildlife that come with the changing seasons.

What is there after death? It is everywhere and shapes religious beliefs, culture and social relations: a history of death from antiquity to the present day.

An account of the life and work of the Swiss writer Johanna Spyri (1827-1901), the barely known artistic mother of Heidi, her brave alpine heroine, who was first introduced to the world between 1880 and 1881, in a novel published in two parts, and became definitely immortal thanks to an anime series, released in 1974, directed by the Japanese genius Isao Takahata.

Nele is a young call center agent who moonlights as a cloakroom attendant at the State Opera. When she falls in love with the small-time street dancer Kolja, she must confront the demons of her past and descend into the underworld. At the same time, talent scout Höllbach notices Nele's singing talent and offers her a great opportunity for a career as an opera singer. Axel Ranisch's modern adaptation of Orpheus and Eurydice is a cinematic opera pastiche between Puccini, Handel and Christian Steiffen.