Communism: History of an Illusion

Abeceda komunistických zločinů

Stalin

Three years in the making, this comprehensive study of the Soviet dictator blends documentary footage and interviews with experts and surviving witnesses.

Dvojí život jedné strany

The Cuba Libre Story

Recounts the tumultuous history of Cuba, a nation of foreign conquest, freedom fighters and Cold War political machinations.

Faith of the Century: A History of Communism

Communism spread to all of the continents of the word, lasting through four generations and over seven decades. Hundreds of millions of men and women were affected by this political system, one of the most unjust and bloodiest in history. Using newly discovered propaganda films and archival photos, these four episodes explore the mysteries of this totalitarian political machine that lured its share of important followers into the fold. Known as the red church, communism seduced its ardent followers like some earthly religion.

Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone

What it felt like to live through the collapse of communism and democracy. A series of films by Adam Curtis.

The Red Empire

The story of an empire: From its founding in 1922 to its dissolution in 1991, the Soviet Union was shaped by revolutionary idealism, but also by oppression and decay. The USSR evolved from Stalinist terror through the Thaw under Khrushchev to political processes such as glasnost and perestroika under Gorbachev. Finally, in 1991, it collapsed.

Phantom India

Louis Malle called his gorgeous and groundbreaking Phantom India the most personal film of his career. And this extraordinary journey to India, originally shown as a miniseries on European television, is infused with his sense of discovery, as well as occasional outrage, intrigue, and joy.

Rudí prezidenti

China: The Making of a Nation

China: The Making of a Nation is the story of the painful transformation of the vast Qing Empire into the Chinese nation after the 1911 revolution. Spanning more than a century up to the Xi Jinping era, the story pits the two pivotal leaders of this transformation against each other: Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Republic of China for 47 years, and Mao Zedong, who rose from ‘red bandit’ to master of the mainland in 1949. Sworn enemies, they fought a merciless battle: first military, then diplomatic, and finally, beyond their deaths, in the conflicting memories of the Taiwanese and the Chinese of the People's Republic. Beyond their fierce hatred, the two tyrants also had much in common: a certain vision of Chinese territory and the greatness of China, the desire to regain the country's sovereignty and the quest for a Chinese identity in a nation that also includes Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongols... and a certain ability to rewrite history.

The Vietnam War

An immersive 360-degree narrative telling the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on film. Featuring testimony from nearly 80 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both the winning and losing sides.

The Struggles for Poland

This 9-episodes documentary series extensively examines the history of Poland in the 20th Century, telling the story through archival films, newsreels, interviews, and readings from novels and poems.

Persons of Interest

Four episodes, each featuring a "person of interest" — Roger Milliss, Michael Hyde, Gary Foley and Frank Hardy — exploring their previously secret ASIO intelligence file.

Mémoires d'ex

The Eight Session

A gripping two-part documentary miniseries about the political struggle that changed the course of Serbia and Yugoslavia. Through rare archival footage, live broadcasts from the historic Eighth Session of the Serbian Communist Party in 1987, and testimonies from key participants more than 30 years later, the series examines the rise of Slobodan Milošević and his dramatic split with mentor and ally Ivan Stambolić. Why did Stambolić insist that Milošević succeed him as leader of the Serbian communists? How did the Kosovo crisis, internal Party conflicts, and a series of explosive events push Yugoslavia toward a historic turning point? Featuring politicians, journalists, and historians who witnessed the events firsthand, the series reveals the ambitions, betrayals, and power struggles behind one of the most consequential moments in modern Balkan history.

Red Chapters

The Lost World of Communism

The Lost World of Communism is a three-part British documentary series which examines the legacy of Communism twenty years on from the fall of the Berlin Wall. Produced by Peter Molloy and Lucy Hetherington, the series takes a retrospective look at life behind the Iron Curtain between 1945 and 1989, focusing on three countries in the Eastern Bloc - East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania. Through film and television footage and the personal recollections of those who lived in these countries, the series offers a glimpse of what daily life was like during the years of Communist rule. The Lost World of Communism debuted on BBC Two on Saturday 14 March 2009 at 9:00pm. There is also a book which accompanies the series.

Reinventing China

China's history of the last 200 years seems like a boomerang, returning to the West what it once unleashed. The series reveals how devastating the struggles for identity and power have been for the population since the fall of the "Middle Kingdom," and how closely these tragedies are intertwined with our own. Great hopes were placed in a wide variety of visions for the future—and each time, bitter disappointment ensued. From the decline of the empire to its resurgence as a superpower, China's history is both a dream and a nightmare, in which human life is of little value.

Russia's War: Blood Upon the Snow

An account of the Eastern Front, epic in scale and savagery, as Soviets experienced it and Stalin commanded it.

Rodáci