A biographical film, in English throughout, telling the story of film director Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) from his childhood in Riga, Latvia to receiving the ‘Stalin Prize’ in Moscow. Based on his own writings, the film uses actual film clips of Eisenstein at various points of his life as well as photographs, illustrations and archival film of a variety of locations around the world. Eisenstein’s talent as a satirical cartoonist and later an artist is particularly highlighted with many photographs of his work.
Category: Biography
American-born athlete Victor Herman becomes a prisoner of Soviet Russia’s mounting nationalism. At 16, he moves to Russia, where he excels in parachute jumping. As his accomplishments draw praise, Soviet officials ask that he renounce his American citizenship. When Herman refuses, he is exiled to Siberia and imprisoned in a hard-labor camp for 18 years because of his so-called “counterrevolutionary activities.” The film is based on a true story.
The life and slow death of Communist journalist and Prague City Council member Jozka Jaburkova in the Ravensbruck concentration camp is the focus of this wartime drama starring Jana Rihakova as the tragic Jaburkova. Suffering almost from the beginning as an illegitimate child burdened with extreme moral expectations by her fanatically religious mother, Jaburkova suffered at the hands of the teachers and authorities in her all girls’ school. Her sympathy for the oppressed or those experiencing unjust hardship or discrimination got her into trouble again and again, both as a student and when she went on to seek employment. As the camera focuses on scenes in the concentration camp, Jaburkova’s memories of her past are shown in flashbacks.
Charles Colson was involved in the infamous Watergate scandal that brought down the administration of former President Richard Nixon. Colson was sentenced to prison for the crimes he committed in the name of “national security”, and while in prison he underwent a religious conversion. This film tells the story of his life up to, including and after his conversion.
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This Soviet film is a biography of the Georgian primitive artist Nikoloz Pirosmanishvili (1862–1918), better known as Pirosmani, who died of starvation and sold his paintings to bars and restaurants for food and drink. The film experiments with color control techniques based on the painter’s style.
For many years, filmmaker Michel Drach wanted to tell the story of his childhood during WWII and his family’s escape from the occupying Nazis. The film explores his bittersweet memories, inter-cutting between his quest to make the film and the past.
This biopic centers on Knut Hamsun, a celebrated author in his native Norway. When fascism sweeps through Germany in the 1930s, the writer shocks his countrymen by allying himself with Hitler. Hamsun’s wife, Marie , also joins the Nazi cause, and goes so far as to tour in Germany, hosting public speaking engagements in the country. After the war ends, the author and his wife are further vilified in Norway, and ultimately sentenced for crimes against the state.