Dec 13, 2024 | Smoking has an image problem, because everyone knows: it can kill you. That’s why tobacco multinationals are increasingly focused on e-cigarettes, enticing consumers with bright colors and fruity flavors. The target group: young people.
The World Health Organization says smoking results in the death of eight million people every year. That’s one reason why you’ll now often hear tobacco companies promoting the switch to e-cigarettes, with claims that these are less harmful to our health. It’s first and foremost young people who believe the industry’s promises, thereby taking the first step on the road to addiction. After all, nicotine is an addictive substance. And although it may taste better than tobacco, puffing on a vape is still going to get you hooked in precisely the same way as smoking a regular cigarette. The film investigates the cynicism of an industry that not only accepts this, but also deliberately aims for it.
Nov 19, 2024 | Is Javier Milei a savior or a destroyer? It’s been just over a year since the far-right, chainsaw-wielding 54-year-old was elected President of Argentina, and society is more divided than ever before.
Argentina’s poverty rate has soared to over 50% since Javier Milei took office. Many young voters opted for Milei because they wanted a radical break from the previous government. Many Argentinians in the business community are also hoping Milei's "shock therapy” will improve the economic situation - while others are stunned by the president's harsh reforms.
In his first year in office, Milei did not hold back, abolishing many ministries, scaling back publicly funded media and cutting many subsidies. We hear from both supporters and opponents of the president and his policies, including farmers, students, pensioners, trade unionists, journalists and entrepreneurs.
Nov 8, 2024 | The Berlin Wall divided Germany for almost 30 years. It tore families apart and destroyed lives. Both the construction and the fall of the Wall were key moments in German history -- and beyond. The film explores the history of this important structure.
The construction of the Wall was preceded by a veritable countdown. The supporters of the Wall defended it as an "anti-fascist protective rampart” and a bulwark against capitalism. Nearly three decades later, the Wall’s supporters were taken by surprise, unable to prevent it from coming down without risking a global crisis.
Back in 1961, it was just as hard to believe that a political system would imprison its own people as it seemed impossible, 28 years later, that the Wall could fall peacefully. The fall of the Wall was also preceded by a countdown. The film recounts the milestones that, starting with the autumn of 1988, culminated in the historic fall of the Wall in November 1989.
Nov 6, 2024 | "Everyone who survived has a story that you simply can't believe.” Charlotte Knobloch survived the Holocaust - because farmer's wife Kreszentia Hummel passed her off as her own, illegitimate child and kept her hidden on her farm.
Charlotte Neuland was born on 29 October 1932. She was born into a dark time: Just three months after her birth, Adolf Hitler came to power. Once the National Socialists were in charge, years of terror ensued. Boycotts against Jewish businesses and professional bans on Jews, including Charlotte's father, the established Munich lawyer Siegfried "Fritz” Neuland, were just the beginning. As time went on, life for Jewish people became increasingly threatened. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 denounced and banned relationships between Jews and non-Jews. Charlotte's mother, Margarethe Neuland, left the family. She had converted to Judaism but could not withstand the pressure from the Gestapo. Charlotte's grandmother, Albertine Neuland, now became the girl's most important caregiver. On the night of 9-10 November 1938, six-year-old Charlotte witnessed the November pogroms: Jewish stores were destroyed and looted in front of her eyes, people were beaten, abused and taken away.
When the first deportations from Munich to the concentration camps began in 1941, Siegfried "Fritz” Neuland took his daughter to the deeply religious Catholic farmer's wife Kreszentia Hummel in Middle Franconia. With her help, Charlotte Neuland survived the National Socialist dictatorship.
Now Charlotte Knobloch, she’s President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria and former President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. In this film, she tells viewers about her own life - and a past that is full of fear and loss. Despite all her devastating experiences, she would go on to become one of the most important figures representing Jewish life in the German-speaking world. She has dedicated her life to the fight for peace, equality and democracy.
Oct 23, 2024 | Nicolás Maduro has been president of Venezuela since 2013. He rules the country, which faces grave political and economic problems, with an iron fist. Despite massive criticism from home and abroad, Maduro is clinging to power. Successfully, so far.
Venezuela experienced many dramatic events in recent decades. There was the "Bolivarian Revolution" started by Hugo Chávez, who was elected president in 1998 and introduced a socialist system to the country. There were also attempted coups, violent protests, and severe economic crises — despite the fact that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world.
After the illness and death of Hugo Chávez in 2013, Nicolás Maduro succeeded as president. The former bus driver and socialist set himself the goal of continuing Venezuela's socialist revolution, at any cost.
His rule has been authoritarian. Corruption within Venezuela's state elite and mismanagement are widespread. Years of poor economic decisions have driven the country to ruin under Maduro's presidency. Millions of people in Venezuela are impoverished, and many have fled to neighboring countries.
Yet despite opposition attempts to force him out, Maduro has survived. He was declared the winner in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential elections in July - this, although the parliament had tried to remove him from office in 2017 already. People took to the streets to demand his resignation back then and this year again.
However, none of this seems to have affected Maduro - and following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting rift between Russia and North America and Europe, the international geopolitical situation has changed. The world is more desperate for oil than ever; and a vast quantity of oil is lying dormant underground in Venezuela.
Oct 17, 2024 | In the final months of the Second World War, the Nazis evacuated concentration camps near the front. More than 700,000 prisoners were forced on death marches, often lasting weeks, as the Red Army advanced.
To this day, little is known about this incredibly bloody chapter in the history of the Third Reich. From summer 1944 to spring 1945, the Nazis forced hundreds of thousands of deportees on death marches through Germany and Austria, often lasting weeks. Many prisoners died of exhaustion or were murdered - either by guards or by civilians they had to march past. The unbelievable brutality of these death marches testifies to the general brutalization that had spread throughout the declining Third Reich.
In essence, the death marches were a continuation of the extermination strategy pursued by the Nazis in the concentration camps. In the face of the Soviet advance, the Germans dismantled the camps and attempted to remove traces of the extermination facilities. Having thus lost the means to execute their planned mass killings, the Germans resorted to other methods. They continued the murders, even as the regime collapsed and the Allies advanced.
The death marches are one of the least known chapters in the history of the Third Reich. That’s because for a long time, information about the identity of the perpetrators - and that of hundreds of thousands of prisoners from concentration camps, prisons and labor camps - was restricted.
Today, many previously unanswered questions can be answered thanks to historical research, as well as the testimonies of Jewish and other survivors that has been gathered over the decades.
Sep 29, 2024 | Climate change is real, and it is dangerous. Some people are actively trying to stop it. Others deny or intensify it - or suppress information. Most don’t bother at all and continue to contribute to global warming through their lifestyle.
Anja Windl from Germany is a climate activist with a group called "The Last Generation." They take dramatic action in order to draw attention to climate change. Time and again, they have glued themselves to streets, defaced works of art and private planes, or loudly disrupted events. In Anja's opinion, politicians, business leaders and the majority of citizens in affluent Germany are all failing to do enough to combat climate change. Yet the country is a major contributor to global warming, Anja says.
For Thorsten Alsleben, the activities of climate activists are nonsensical and even dangerous. The managing director of the "Initiative New Social Market Economy" - a lobbying organization founded by German industrial companies - does not deny that climate change exists. However, he warns against governmental policies that stifle Germany's economic strength. In his opinion, the free market and a carbon tax will serve to ensure companies produce in more climate-friendly ways. Moreover, he says, Germany only contributes around 2 percent to greenhouse gas emissions - much less than front-runners China or the US.
Some 9,200 kilometers away from Germany, 38-year-old Anto Purnomo takes his boat through the mangrove forests of Langsa, in the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. He makes his living by felling mangroves and selling the wood. Mangroves bind CO2. But more importantly, the plants are key to coastal protection and home to valuable ecological systems, countless fish, and other marine animals. He knows about climate change, but he has to feed his family.
Taufik Hidayat, on the other hand, is trying to stop the deforestation of the mangroves. He knows how important they are for the people and nature of the coastal regions. If sea levels continue to rise due to global warming, the mangroves can at least provide some protection. The 24-year-old works for the NGO Indonesian Coastal Conservation Foundation in Langsa, Aceh. His father, a crab fisherman, already warned him about of the dangers to locals if the mangroves continue to disappear. Taufik is aware that everyone has to fight climate change in their own way. But he also knows that people in the wealthy industrialized countries have a special responsibility.
Aug 16, 2024 | The Baltic states regained independence more than 30 years ago. Now, Russia has them looking over their shoulder, again. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has left many people wondering whether Russia will set its power-hungry sights on the Baltic states, once more.
"There’s only one enemy and that’s Russia," says Estonian national Ain Tähiste, summing up his views on the issue in a sentence: "Latvia, Finland, Sweden - and on the Baltic Sea Poland, Germany, Denmark," he continues, "they’re all friends, but not the Russian neighbor.” "It’s naïve to think Russia’s far away," he adds.
Ain Tähiste guides the reporter team through the military museum on Hiiumaa. The Estonian island in the west of the country was off-limits to tourists during Soviet rule, because its location on the Baltic Sea made it strategically important to Moscow. Since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine, Estonia has removed old Soviet monuments form public spaces and banished some of them to museums. "The Soviet Union occupied Estonia in 1940," Ain explains. "Are we still expected to pay our respects to the troops that occupied us? No, it was high time this happened!”
22-year-old Matthias Merelaine is from Tallinn and has no direct experience of the Soviet era. He’s nevertheless preoccupied by the question of whether Russia will try to return to the Baltics. "We’d be ready," he says, "to go to the front, weapon in hand, to fight the enemy and defend the homeland."
National guards are booming in Baltic nations - including Lithuania. Paulus Jurkus, son of a fisher from Kleipėda, says he wouldn’t run away, if attacked. The only port city in Lithuania, his home is not far from the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
This new aversion to Russians is also omnipresent in Latvia. Lauris Aleksevejs is a top chef in Latvia’s traditional seaside resort of Jurmala. The Russians used to be big spenders at Lauris’ restaurant. And since Latvia closed its borders to Russians, his income has nosedived. But he refuses to do business with the enemy.
Aug 5, 2024 | Amid far-right populism and growing support for the AfD, what can Germany do to ensure the atrocities of its history are never forgotten or repeated?
In recent decades Germany has worked to build a culture of remembrance that includes coming to terms with difficult chapters in its history, such as German colonial genocide and the Nazi dictatorship. Remembrance of Nazi crimes and commemoration of the victims should help ensure that these atrocities are never repeated. But increased far-right populism and growing support for the AfD party are a serious cause for concern. What can be done to keep awareness of Nazi crimes and the Holocaust alive in Germany, to prevent people playing down this terrible chapter in its history, and to convey its significance to the younger generation?
Jul 13, 2024 | On 6 January 2021, hundreds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington. Five people were killed and many injured. Some 15 per cent of those involved were former members of the US military or police.
By storming the Capitol, hundreds of supporters of former US President Donald Trump aimed to prevent the Senate and House of Representatives from officially confirming Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential elections. Some 15 per cent of those involved were former members of the US military or police. This shocking statistic prompts an important question: Why are the very people who have sworn an oath to protect the nation’s democracy attacking it?
The US-American filmmaker Charlie Sadoff and his co-writer and producer Kenneth Harbaugh both used to be in the military, something that allowed them to delve deep into the veterans’ world. Through them, they gained access to violent rightwing extremist circles in America, including anti-government militias such as the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers.
These groups - organized and led by well-educated, highly motivated military veterans - represent the greatest threat to democracy in the United States today. The documentary examines the complexity of this development, tracing it back to its historical roots. The smoke over the Capitol may have cleared, but the problem remains: US society remains deeply divided. The groups are still active and the next elections are imminent.
This documentary cannot be embedded on external websites as it is age-restricted. It can only be viewed on YouTube itself. So, in order to watch it, please click here. – Mark
Jul 10, 2024 | Today, Pembe Özkan lives in Turkey. Before that she’d lived almost her entire life in Germany, where she came out and married a woman.
After divorcing her wife, Pembe returned to her home country. Now, she lives in İzmir, known as the most liberal-minded city in Turkey. That has made it something of a magnet for gay men and women, trans people and anyone else who wishes to pursue a lifestyle different from the one Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan envisions for Turkey’s people. We meet up with Pembe, who now has to brave the repressive atmosphere in Turkey. A report by Almut Röhrl.
Jun 15, 2024 | Three letters that are synonymous with racism, violence and hatred: KKK. This is the abbreviation for the Ku Klux Klan. The terrorist organization has been active in the USA for over 150 years, especially in the rural areas of the South.
Once founded as a racist secret society to oppress the black population of the USA, the movement has split into many splinter groups over the course of its history. At times, these were almost inactive. But since 2016, when President Donald Trump was elected, the Ku Klux Klan has seen a resurgence.
The film reconstructs the history of the movement and talks to former judges and FBI agents who tried to fight the organization. A KKK dropout also weighs in. This film charts the development of the most notorious racist criminal organization in the United States.
This documentary is age-restricted. Therefore, it cannot be embedded on external websites. It must be watched on YouTube. Please cleick here to watch it. – Mark
Jun 24, 2024 | Gisela, Inga and Ulrich are pensioners – and poor. They’re constantly short on cash, even though they worked as hard as they could.
One out of five pensioners in Germany is considered to be at risk of poverty. Among women, the figure is even higher. The reasons vary widely. Gisela had decided to take care of her elderly father – meaning she couldn’t make enough payments into the pension fund. She’s feeling the consequences now, as she must count every penny.
Inga is in a similar situation. She had an accident that stopped her from working full-time. Now she’s trying to save money wherever possible – especially on groceries.
Ulrich was self-employed and earned well. But then his business went bust, and his savings are long gone.
Three different life stories, one problem: With retirement came poverty.
A film by Tessa Clara Walther and Melina Grundmann.
Nov 30, 2023 | For years, Henry Kissinger shaped US foreign policy like no other statesman. As National Security Adviser and Secretary of State under US President Richard Nixon, the German-born politician wielded America’s power with severity.
During his tenure as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State under US President Richard M. Nixon, the United States escalated attacks on the enemy Vietcong in the Vietnam War. In the years that followed, the conflict claimed the lives of another 100,000 Vietnamese and more than 25,000 American soldiers. The neighboring and neutral nation of Cambodia was also bombed by US planes in contravention of international law. Kissinger eventually negotiated an end to the Vietnam War in secret talks with North Vietnamese leader Lê Đức Thọ. Both men were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 (an honor accepted by Kissinger but refused by Lê Đức Thọ).
With regard to China, Kissinger was viewed as an architect of détente and a pioneer of rapprochement between Washington and Beijing, a process he paved the way for in secret trips to the Middle Kingdom. When the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973 with the Egyptian and Syrian attack on Israel, Kissinger once again assumed the role of mediator and brought about a cessation of hostilities.
Kissinger’s tenure also witnessed the Chilean army’s coup d’état against President Salvador Allende, supported by the CIA with the full knowledge of the Secretary of State. Kissinger was also criticized for green lighting the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in violation of international law.
Although he left government in 1977, Henry Kissinger was one of the chief advisers to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Now a Harvard professor, Kissinger, who was born in the Bavarian city of Fürth, personally knew almost all the key statesmen and women of the second half of the 20th century and was a close friend of former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
In 2007, documentary filmmaker Stephan Lamby had the opportunity to quiz Henry Kissinger on his political life and actions. The outcome was an extraordinary conversation about power and morals. The meticulously researched film also hears the views of many distinguished contemporary witnesses, including George W. Bush, Alexander Haig, James R. Schlesinger, Helmut Schmidt, Norman Mailer and Carl Bernstein. The film makes use of private Super 8 footage and secret wiretaps from the Oval Office providing some unusual insights into the White House of the 1970s. The secrets of superpower America, bombings, CIA operations, undercover missions to infiltrate enemy governments, the wiretapping of employees - all cast in a new light by the recollections of a man at the center of power: Henry Kissinger.
Nov 24, 2023 | Interest-based investment portals on the Internet are one of the biggest scams of our time. People sign up, hoping to invest. Instead, they are cheated out of billions. In Germany alone, thousands of victims have fallen victim to their own gullibility.
Filmmakers Niklas Resch and Caroline Uhl meet with victims and investigators, then track down some of the perpetrators behind the scams. They discover that trying to put a stop to this kind of fraud is like tilting at windmills. Moreover: Victims and perpetrators may have more in common than they think.
Ulrike Schneider was cheated out of a lot of money. Ironically, she lost over 10,000 euros because she tried to do a good job investing her savings. She invested money with an online financial portal called TradeInvest90 because it promised good profits in a short time. What Schneider did not suspect: The portal was run by an international gang of fraudsters.
In the film, we also meet Adrian. In his late 20s, he was living in Kosovo with hardly any money. So when he received an offer for a well-paid call center job, he jumped at it. But he quickly realized that his job was illegal. His job was to pretend to be a financial market expert for portals such as TradeInvest90 - and thus to take money from German-speaking investors such as Ulrike Schneider over the phone.
Adrian and his colleagues bilked their victims out of millions - and earned enormous sums themselves. The head of this gang of fraudsters has become a multi-millionaire. He shamelessly squanders the savings of his victims.
The fraud continued for several years until investigators from the State Criminal Police Office in Saarbrücken put a stop to the gang - following a complex investigation. But others continue to steal vast sums of money using the same scam to this day.
The filmmakers have succeeded in providing a deep insight into the innermost workings of a highly organized gang of fraudsters. For the first time, the film shows original material from inside the call center. The documentary contrasts the views and motives of victims, perpetrators and investigators - and shows the psychological mechanisms at work in both the deceived and the deceivers.
Nov 23, 2023 | Germany is flooded with cocaine. Since 2017, cocaine residue in Berlin's sewage has doubled. Since the pandemic, sales of cocaine across Germany have rocketed. The addictive potential of the drug is often underestimated and legal prohibitions do little to deter dealers or users.
This documentary sheds light on new international smuggling routes and methods that are causing ever greater problems for law enforcement agencies. One indication of the rising wave of cocaine: although the number of controls in Germany has stagnated, the amount seized has doubled in recent years. In early 2021, customs investigators in the port of Hamburg made the largest cocaine find in Germany and Europe to date: 16 tons. Where does the cocaine come from and who is profiting from its smuggling and sale?
I wish Rishi Sunak would watch this alarming documentary. All Sunak worries about is people enjoying a relatively harmless cigarette made of tobacco. The scourge of hard drugs like this is what I call problematic, not whether a person enjoys the occasional cigarette, or not. The man needs to get some perspective.
May 13, 2023 | Edit 10.10.23: The attack on Israel by the militant Islamist group Hamas that started on 7 October 2023 adds a new dimension to the Middle East conflict: From the Gaza strip, fighters of the Palestinian terrorist organisation were able to cross into Israeli territory, take Israeli hostages, and kill hundreds of soldiers and civilians. Israel responded by declaring a state of war and retaliating with full force. In the Gaza strip, hundreds of Palestinian Hamas fighters and civilians were killed. The documentary tells the complex story of how the state of Israel was founded – a story that lies at the heart of the violence and conflict in the region to this day.]
On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel announced its independence. For many, this was a long-time dream come true: "Eretz Israel" - a home for all Jewish people and for survivors of the Holocaust. Palestinians call this period the "catastrophe.”
The State of Israel was founded 75 years ago. The effects can still be felt today in the ongoing Middle East conflict. What are the historical roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? This documentary sheds light on the decisive years from 1897 to 1948. Israeli and Palestinian historians and experts share their reflections and contextualize the global political events of those years.
The pivotal turning point came in November 1947 with the United Nations plan to partition British Mandatory Palestine. For some, it was a dream turned reality - an independent state offering Jews protection, refuge, and a homeland. For others, it marked the beginning of a "catastrophe,” what Palestinians call the "Nakba,” defined by the loss of homeland, displacement, and uncertainty. More than 75 years after the historic UN vote, the conflict between Israel and the now occupied Palestinian territories continues. It is a source of unresolved tension in the region with reverberations in and beyond the Middle East.
Oct 7, 2023 | Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed wants an Islam that is more tolerant of the LGBTQ community. He’s fighting for gay Muslims to be able to live their lives openly without fear or shame.
Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed trained as an imam in Algeria. In his homeland he didn’t dare talk about being gay. It was only in Marseille, France that he came out. Zahed is the founder of France's first inclusive mosque and the CALEM Institute in Marseille, where he trains new imams in a more progressive Islam. Same-sex marriages are taboo in Islam, but Zahed wants to break new ground. He’s not afraid to circumvent this taboo and bless the marriages of LGBTQ couples. A report by Simon Laurens and Susanna Dörhage.
