March 8, 2013
Based on a true story, 'God Is The Greatest' is a short film about hope, humanity, and loss. Focusing on a brief moment in a complicated conflict, the film depicts how the lives of ordinary people are being unraveled on the periphery of the brutal civil war in Syria.
March 8, 2013
Inhospitable at the best of times, the snow-covered mountainscapes of Eastern Anatolia constituted a fatal frontier for many war exiles after the battle of Sarikamish in 1915, and provides a canvas laced with beauty and threat for this bone-chilling survival yarn, the superb debut feature of Alphan Eşeli. Starting out with three characters – a refugee mother and daughter and their grizzled guide – the film traces their daunting trek across this barren terrain to safety, with the Russians encroaching and other stragglers, including a pair of wounded, frostbitten Ottoman soldiers, all orbiting the same burnt-out village they find in their path. Puncturing its aura of ghostly impasse with some shocking narrative reversals, and constantly prickling with the mutual dread of strangers in gruelling extremes, the movie stakes out hugely credible ground next to established Eastern Front war classics (In the Fog, Come and See) while remaining thoroughly its own beast. (Source: LFF programme)
March 6, 2013
Two eight-year-old boys compete in a game of childish bravado. Ken is a Ninja, Nito a child soldier from the Congo who was forced to kill his own mother. Their naïve game addresses cruel realities, and they talk about their differences and what they have in common. Accompanied by contrasting graphics, the film explores the types of acts of which humankind is capable.
March 5, 2013
In Slot in Memory, a 2013 short from Syrian filmmaker Khaled Abdulwahed, images of war are only visible through a tiny crack in an otherwise dark frame. Abdulwahed cuts between this crack and simple footage of children from Lebanon’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps playing happily on a swing. Abdulwahed has said he had initially set out to tell a more direct account of war and trauma, but because he was physically unable to reach warzones inside Syria, he felt he couldn’t do such a project justice. Instead, filming the kids, he discovered the swing they were playing on had a crack in it, which inspired him to make the visual connection with the obscured war footage.
March 1, 2013
Scott Castle served in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years. While assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division he served three combat tours in Iraq, including the First and Second Battles of Fallujah.
March 1, 2013
Bobby served in the United States Army for 10 years in a Criminal Investigation Division (CID) unit. During that time, he was deployed once to Iraq in September 2006, where he developed PTSD.
March 1, 2013
Julie Mendez was a 17 year old teenager when she saw the "be all that you can be" Army recruiting messaging and decided to enlist. Her life would change forever when she was deployed to serve in the Iraq War. Her experiences changed her and she returned home to face feelings of isolation and depression. Always a creative person, Julie turned to art to help her process her experiences and begin to heal her PTSD.
March 1, 2013
Jack Lyon used his experience as a Vietnam Veteran to help found the Veterans Village of San Diego. With a mission of offering peer support and spiritual guidance, Jack immerses himself in a life of helping young U.S. veterans.
March 1, 2013
Casey Conklin joined the 3rd Ranger Battalion as a medic, because he always believed they were the toughest group around. After his experience in the Battle of Mosul in Iraq and receiving his Ranger tab, he doesn't question how tough he is. After returning home, he finds that he still must challenge himself to stay healthy and redefine toughness at home.
March 1, 2013
Maria Zoe Dunning is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and gay rights activist. She is known for being the only openly gay person remaining on active duty following a series of lawsuits against the U.S. Military and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy during the 1990s. This is her story.
March 1, 2013
Ken Burns meets Spinal Tap in a subversive tour de force relaying the outrageous life stories of four forgotten Civil War heroes: an opium-addicted gay Colonel, an aging Chinese launderer, a nerdy escaped slave, and a one-armed teenage prostitute. Both wickedly satirical and deeply affectionate, The Battle of Pussy Willow Creek tells the "100% true" story of how these oddball outsiders saved the Union from a nefarious foreign plot, how the forces of bigotry expunged their stunning victory from the history books, and - most importantly - how meeting one's ex on the field of battle can be just the thing to re-spark a detoured romance.
February 25, 2013
American soldiers lost behind enemy lines during the WWII make a horrific discovery: Hitler has a super bomb in development. Against all odds, they set out to find the scientist in charge of the program who is looking to defect.
February 21, 2013
The main character, Helmi, is born into the house of Baron von Strandmann in Old-Town Tallinn, in 1908. The only thing that she knows for sure about her past is that her mother was an Estonian servant girl. Everything else is a discovery during a life that runs the course of a century - a life that has quite a lot of surprises in store for Helmi. In this house she finds happiness and suffering, passion and disappointment. She grows up alongside young Erik and waits for her big love to blossom. But one floor down lives projectionist Julius - a man who is far from indifferent when it comes to Helmi. All of the biggest historical events of the century leave their mark on the house. Its hardwood floors have born soldiers' gruff boots and gentleman's shiny oxfords. Its walls have held the fates of people from far and near, foreigners and locals. Helmi's home becomes a German salon, a revolution museum, and a working class commune. And as freedom comes, real estate crooks start sniffing ...
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February 17, 2013
February 16, 2013
A Terrible Beauty is the story of the men and women of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, Irish and British, caught up in a conflict many did not understand and of the innocent men and boys, executed because of what transpired in The Battle of Mount Street Bridge. The British soldiers were the last of the Great War volunteers, who joined up together to fight the Germans. They knew that there was a strong chance they would die in France, but to die in Dublin would never have crossed their minds. The Irish Volunteers were weekend warriors many of whom had no idea they were about to take part in large scale battles on the streets of Dublin.
February 9, 2013
Set in the 60s during the war, Vietnamese soldiers have to overcome numerous hardships and dangers to build an oil pipeline all the way from the north to supply the fighters in the South.
February 9, 2013
A bitter conflict has raged between guerrillas and the army in Turkey's Kurdish regions for over 30 years. Large expanses have now become war zones. Countless young people have lost their lives to the conflict. This dangerous but incredibly beautiful mountainous country is home to 17-year-old Jîn. But she is no longer safe since she secretly stole away from a group of rebels with whom she was fighting. Now she wanders the picturesque landscape alone, caught between two fronts. All of a sudden, the sound of gunfire and explosions rend the air above the untouched natural scenery. Attack is threatened from all sides. Desperate to find peace, Jîn decides to escape to another part of the country – an impossible plan, since the military is omnipresent and there are road blocks everywhere. As a Kurd without identity papers she risks arrest at every turn. In addition, as a woman with no family to shield her, many men will see her as fair game. But her courage is unbroken.
February 1, 2013
Based on the opera “The Ring of the Nibelung,” Valkyrie tells the story of a conflict where a son turns against his father and must be punished. The love of his sister may become the bond of reconciliation between father and son.
February 1, 2013
A man has left his country when his wife was killed during the war. Now he must go back to Kabul for wedding of one of his daughters. Unwillingly he gets involved in an internal conflict...