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After 30 years of conspiracy theories and myth making, this film uncovers the story of the CIA's most extensive clandestine operation in the history of modern warfare: The Secret War in Laos, which was conducted alongside the Vietnam War from 1964 -1973. While the world's attention was caught by the conflict in Vietnam, the CIA built the busiest military airport in the world in neighboring and neutral Laos and recruited humanitarian aid personnel, Special Forces agents and civilian pilots to undertake what would become the most effective operation of counterinsurgency warfare. As the conflict in Vietnam grew, the objective in Laos changed from a cost effective low-key involvement to save the country from becoming communist into an all-out air war to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail and bomb Laos back into the Stone Age that it had never really left in the first place. Conventional bombs equivalent to the destructive power of 20 Hiroshima-type weapons fell on Laos each year - 2 million tons

The year is 1945. The final battle for Vienna has begun. Hitler declares the capital of the "Ostmark", as Austria was called then, a stand-off of the Third Reich against the Red Army; a last attempt to turn the tables yet. A group of Austrian resistance fighters recognize the impossibility and enable the Russians to occupy the city - this action was known as the "Radetzky Operation" - and with it Vienna was saved from complete destruction by the Allies. The operation was headed by Carl Szokoll.

Teens Linda and Eta are inseparable friends, though they have plenty of disagreements, but one horrific argument has unexpected consequences.

Two 10-year-old girls, one Palestinian and one Israeli, recount their daily lives under bombardment in the West Bank. Two poignant perspectives on the same conflict.

Prussian general's son Friedrich, Freiherr (German baron) von der Trenck, is an unruly student whose countless affairs make him enemies, but he wins every duel. Frederic II the Great recruits him for his personal bodyguard. During his cadet training under the cruel stickler Graf (count) von Jaschinsky Friedrich falls in love with the king's headstrong oldest sister Amalia. She, however, refuses to be married off the the Swedish king's heir. When Prussia makes war on Austria over Silesia, Trenck's loyalty is dubious on account of an Austrian family branch. Janischky eagerly convinces the king there is more.

The story of the Battle of Stalingrad from the perspective of a Panzer commander and an officer in a penal battalion.

During WWII The German 'Wehrmacht' is heavily under fire after the invasion of Normandy. There are also a lot of women participating in the war, working at the front line as couriers for the air force. In this war, everyday, they put their lives on the line.

This documentary follows two long-lost Ukrainian friends, Arsalan and Nastya, as they reconnect in Germany after russia's full-scale invasion against Ukraine. Arsalan, an actor now in Frankfurt after time in a refugee camp, and Nastya, journalist and producer who stayed in Kyiv, reflect on the divergent paths their lives have taken due to the war. Through their conversations and therapy sessions, the film explores themes of displacement, identity, and the emotional impact of war on youth.

“Fear AI!” – “ warns Elon Musk back in 2014, joining other opinion leaders like Steve Wozniak, Noam Chomsky and Stephen Hawking in backing a petition against the development of autonomous weapons. As Vladimir Putin stated in 2017, “Whoever leads in AI, rules the world.”

Germany, 1914: The bourgeois austerity of the small, northern German town in which Ulyssa lives conflicts sharply with her desire to flirt with and be ensnared by charming, young men. That she's married is irrelevant; it's a marriage which exists only on paper. Among all the men Ulyssa flirts with, there is one for which she has genuine affection: Stefen Marbach, an upright and sincere man, far superior to her other men. And, indeed, the two are honest with one another about their feelings, but the outbreak of the First World War separates them. Sometime later, Ulyssa finds out that not only her husband, but Stefan, too, has fallen in battle. The news of this disaster leads her to reconsider and eventually give in to the constant urgings of the Viennese merchant Reindl. Ulyssa joins Reindl in Vienna and lives a life of wealth and comfort, until one day, Stefan shows up.

Their family name alone evokes horror: Himmler, Frank, Goering, Hoess. This film looks at the descendants of the most powerful figures in the Nazi regime: men and women who were left a legacy that indelibly associates them with one of the greatest abominations in history. What is it like to have grown up with a name that immediately raises images of genocide? How do they live with the weight of their ancestors' crimes? Is it possible to move on from the crimes of their ancestors?

The film around the intelligence officer Captain Smith plays in the headquarters of a British tank regiment shortly after the beginning of the invasion of 1944, where Le Havre waws to be overrun by allied troops and forced to surrender. Smith refuses to continue the fight as he is convinced that the war has become meaningless, he came to that conclusion due to the denial of the request of a German general to evacuate the French civilian population.

Since the spring of 1943 and during the national socialist regime, a branch of the Mauthausen concentration camp had been located in the Upper Austrian village of Zipf. The prisoners were forced to work in a factory in which the propellants for the "Wunderwaffe" (wonder weapon), the V2 rocket were tested. Most of the people who live in the vicinity of the former concentration camp deny this. A documentary film which confronts a historic actuality with oral witnesses.

Switzerland 1523. The mercenary Hansli Gyr returns with his soldiers from Italy to his home in the Oberland. They have fought for the Pope and now find a religious upheaval in Switzerland.

Ihr Unteroffizier offers a private and "childish" view of the war: that of a young girl who writes to three soldiers and sends them food and warm socks.

April 1945. In a dramatic operation the SS transports 139 special prisoners, and kin of the prisoners, into the Alps. The plan: to use the prisoners as bargaining chips in possible negotiations with the Allies. During the journey a number of prisoners plan their escape and experience six days between liberty and death, their fates in the hands of ruthless and increasingly nervous criminals. But the hostages band together and turn the tables with a clever ploy: they call in the Wehrmacht to aid them…

Paris, 1944. With France under Nazi occupation, General Quade entrusts an important mission to Furstenwerth, the commander of the Wermacht: to secretly transmit secret documents to the Allies. While carrying out this mission, the commander falls under the spell of a young French resistance fighter, Yvonne. He is discovered and arrested by the Gestapo. Yvonne and her group of resistance fighters will do everything to free him.

1934, Hamburg. Adolf Hitler is about to visit the city. Hamburg's executioner falls ill, and is unable to deliver the sentence of four communists who are awaiting capital punishment in jail. Fearing that this would spoil Hitler's visit, SS leader Footh offers a local bankrupt butcher, Albert Teetjen, 2,000 Marks in order to carry out the verdict. The broke Teetjen agrees and follows suit. When his neighbors hear of the execution, they shun him. His wife cannot tolerate her husband's deed and puts an end to her life. Eventually, Teetjen also commits suicide.

When they start losing family members and neighbors due to WWII and the Nazi government's policies, a quiet married couple becomes disillusioned and begins spreading leaflets against the government - a crime punishable by death.

The film begins with the First World War and ends in 1945. Without exception, recordings from this period were used, which came from weekly news reports from different countries. Previously unpublished scenes about the private life of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were also shown for the first time. The film was originally built into a frame story. The Off Commentary begins with the words: "This film [...] is a document of delusion that on the way to power tore an entire people and a whole world into disaster. This film portrays the suffering of a generation that only ended five to twelve. " The film premiered in Cologne on November 20, 1953, but was immediately banned by Federal Interior Minister Gerhard Schröder in agreement with the interior ministers of the federal states of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Set in the 1800s when Napoleon’s French ruled Europe, the film follows young Austrian carpenter Franz and his Bavarian wife, Katharina as an unforeseen event forces them to flee from Augsburg, Bavaria for Franz’s family home in Tyrol, Austria. Tyrolian sentiment is rising strongly against Napoleon and trouble is stirring. In no time it sweeps up Franz and his brothers along with the whole town.

A group of people gathers back in the post-war ruins of a luxurious Munich hotel they inhabited at one point or another years before; each trying to cope with the tragic consequences of the war and their own actions.

Between 1933 and 1945 roughly 1200 films were made in Germany, of which 300 were banned by the Allied forces. Today, around 40 films, called "Vorbehaltsfilme", are locked away from the public with an uncertain future. Should they be re-released, destroyed, or continue to be neglected? Verbotene Filme takes a closer look at some of these forbidden films.

A recording of the 1939 play "Mother Courage and Her Children" for German TV.

On June 28, 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was shot to death in Sarajewo. His assassination caused a chain of events that brought about World War I and the downfall of old Europe. Who is the assassin? Who is GAVRE PRINCIP, a man that fate brought into the center of world attention. The subject of the film is not the historical background but rather the psychological makeup of PRINCIP at the age of seventeen.

Radical Islamist militants attack a village in Iraq where a young Yazidi love couple prepares for marriage. From that moment onwards their lives are turned into a nightmare.

Director Brakke has good reason to be happy: he has just received the news that his son, Theo, won first place in the local boat race. To be sure, he had forbidden his son to take part in the competition, because the son's grades in school are substandard. In the end, Brakke sees no other way than to pull Theo from school and install him as an apprentice in his airplane manufacturing plant. Although Theo is received by the other 150 apprentices in a friendly fashion, he behaves in an arrogant and disrespectful tone towards them. He feels himself to be better than them, because his father is the director of the factory.

Special care has been taken by International Historic Films to assemble this monumental documentary, which tells the story of what is left for a people after its land has been ravaged by war. Situated between the powerful antagonists Germany and the Soviet Union, the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia bore witness to some of the most ferocious land battles of the Second World War.

Dany Dattel, a survivor of Auschwitz, where he was deported as a child, returns to the concentration camp eighty years later and tells of the two persecutions to which he fell victim in the course of his life.

The film chronicles East Prussian history from its pagan origins to the start of World War I in 1914, highlighting the Battle of Tannenberg. The first three acts cover the region’s early history, including the Teutonic Order’s founding, the Brandenburg electors’ era, and the impact of Napoleonic troops, with Queen Luise as a comforting figure. The third act depicts modern Prussia’s resurgence affecting East Prussia. The final two acts focus on the Russian invasion of Masuria in August 1914, showing the devastation and the portrayal of Cossack hordes as destructive. Retired General Paul von Hindenburg arrives, ending the atrocities and leading to a decisive Russian defeat at Tannenberg, culminating in East Prussia’s liberation.

Following the Battle of Jena in 1806 as the French armies commanded by Napoleon overrun Prussia, a small detachment of Prussian troops take up position in a windmill and resolve fight to the last man to hold them off for as long as possible. Meanwhile, the windmill owner's daughter chooses to stay and fight alongside them.

Sisters Eugenia and Nastya are warmly welcomed in Munich after fleeing Ukraine. While Nastya tries to enjoy her new life, Eugenia struggles to adjust while there's war at home and worries that Nastya is becoming a stranger to her.

During the final days of the Second World War, British intelligence sends an agent to Berlin to try to discover the secrets of Nazi Germany's nuclear weapons program.

An American transport squadron led by former General Lee supports the French colonial army in Vietnam in return for high pay. Originally their mission was only to help the wounded, but as the advance of the Vietnamese liberation army puts the French under increasing pressure, they also fly ammunition - in return for even more money and in defiance of international law. Chief pilot Bryk refuses to fly, secretary Flessy becomes the unscrupulous general's mistress after one lover after another fails to return from a mission, and the rest of the squadron is shot down during an ammunition flight. The French army shows up at the camp to arrest the interpreter Thao for espionage. Bryk rescues her and flees with her to the liberated part of Vietnam.

June 1940. The Wechrmacht appropriates the houses in which are living Pierre, his wife Magdeleine, their son Charles, their two servants Louise and Lea, and Mademoiselle, the beautiful jewish governess.

In Nicaragua, 1977, corruption and abuse of power are everyday occurrences under the Somoza family’s dictatorship. Eruptions of violence lead to a civil war, which the Sandinista revolutionaries win – at least for the time being. Against this backdrop, the conflict between a young soldier of the Somoza regime and his family, who sympathize with the insurgents, is illustrated.

In this war drama, three Nazi survivors are rescued after their battleship sank. Initially they are given heroes' accolades for their courage, but then it becomes apparent that these men actually jumped ship three hours before the boat sank. The men are tried and subsequently executed.

This film is based on the actual events referred to as the "Mühlviertler Hasenjagd" (Hare-hunt in the Mühlviertel) which occurred in February 1945 around the Mauthausen concentration camp. 500 Soviet officers form death block 20 attempt to escape, but only 150 of them actually succeed. Following the tally-ho of the SS, a barbaric manhunt begins. Only very few fugitives survive. With a lot of good luck, the two young officers Michail and Nikolai reach the Karner family's farm. Frau Karner persuades her husband to hide the two escapees.

Though almost forgotten today, Veit Harlan was one of Nazi Germany's most notorious filmmakers. His most perfidious film was the treacherous anti-Semitic propaganda film Jud Süß - required viewing for all SS members. This documentary is an eye-opening examination of World War II film history as well as the story of a German family from the Third Reich to the present; one that is marked by reckoning, denial and liberation.

Romantic war film in which the daughter of a German baron falls in love with the crippled Hans who has been declared unfit for the army, to the jealousy of his brother.

The World War II. 1944. Nazis staged a cache which stores archival documents of its agents, rescued from the east during the retreat, near a small German town Ostburga.

As the end of the Second World War approaches and the Soviet Red Army is advancing, a group of concentration camp inmates is helped to escape by a Polish doctor. They hide in a wood where they meet other fugitives, who have been there for months, constantly in fear of being discovered. Out of fear of the German army patrols, they do not dare to leave the forest, even as the food supplies run low.

Short film.

Germany, January 1939: a day in a concentration camp. Subjected to harsh military discipline the hungry prisoners are digging a huge hole and filling it up again. Several are tortured, die of exhaustion, in the electric fence, or are shot.

This is the war and everybody in Germany should beware : the enemy is listening. One family in particular had better be even more careful than the average citizen of the Reich : the Kettwigs. Indeed they own an armament factory and their engineers, technicians, workers and of course themselves belong to a highly sensitive sector. They are under the constant scrutiny of those who want to get hold of the secret weapons devised in the plant, notably of a wire which, when attached to a balloon, may become the most effective anti-aircraft ever. For sure, they should distrust everybody. Isn't Nolte, the waiter, an enemy agent? Should young Bernd Kettwig allow himself to be seduced by this pretty woman ? As for Bernd's secretary, is she right when she lets this handsome man woo her?

Oral witnesses tell about their work in the Austrian underground movement against the national socialist regime. Agnes Primoschitz, Johanna Sadolschek-Zala, Rosl Grossmann-Breuer and Anni Haider talk about helping concenreation camp prisoners escape, fighting with the partisans and imprisonment, and about various experiences which bring back happy and sad memories. Many of their friends and relatives did not survive the terrible time. Some of the oral witnesses hadn't counted on surviving the prisons and concentration camps.

Spain in the 1930s. The film tells of the fight of international troops against General Franco's army. It tells of the fate of three brigadists, the American Gary, the German Hans and the Englishman Joe, who are taken prisoner by Franco's army. Their attitude in this difficult situation is a living example of international solidarity and creates a memorial.

In his experimental short film "Brutalität in Stein" (Brutality in Stone), Alexander Kluge demonstrates how Nazi architecture used dimensions of inhuman and super-human scale to bolster the regime's politics of the same kind. Shots of huge neo-classical architectural structures from the Nazi period are confronted with equally anti-human national-socialist language as a voice-over.

This documentary re-examines the story of the Red Orchestra: the most important resistance network in Nazi Germany, whose operations extended from Berlin and Brussels to Paris.

Two lovers find themselves on opposite sides in a war that has engulfed their village. They are separated by a bridge fiercely guarded by snipers. The only way to cross is to bribe the snipers. It is a story about the precarious balance between the unshakeable optimism of young lovers and the very real potential for unthinkable disaster.

In the time of WW2 Sgt Holt and his platoon were ordered to clear the forest from the enemy troops, with no mercy. The men experienced the war cruelty and learned that each freed meter cost them victims.

World War I, Eastern Front. A special battery consisting of thirteen soldiers and one cannon successfully holds back the enemy. But then the position of the gun is betrayed to the Russians and the cannon is destroyed. Each of the thirteen men is now suspected of being the traitor.

The very successful actress Lena Andres marries Dr. Paul Meinhardt. For his sake she gives up her acting career.

Based on historical events, the film tells the story of Operation Anthropoid which led to the assassination of the German SS leader Heydrich in Prague by Czech rebels led by Josef Gabcik and Jan Kubis.

The film depicts the failed 1809 uprising of Prussian soldiers led by Ferdinand von Schill against the occupying French during the Napoleonic War.