Documentaries from around the world: a journey between the past and the future, from Abkhazia to China
Four magnificent European documentaries, now available on Video on Demand (VoD)
Following on from the Men on the Edge collection of thrillers released on 22 April, Documentaries from around the world (Trailer) brings together a selection of four European documentaries, now available on video on demand.
In My Way to Olympia (2013), German director Niko von Glasgow embarks on a journey with a number of athletes who are competing in the Paralympic Games in London in 2012. Having a disability himself, he hates sport and does not understand how anyone could voluntarily take on this challenge.
The film director Niko von Glasow undertakes a journey to athletes, who compete at the Paralympic Games in London 2012.
He himself is a short-armed avowed hater of sport who cannot understand how anyone could take on such an odeal voluntarily. Even more since everyday life for people with a disability is most often challenging enough. He meets U.S.archer Matt Stutzman, Norwegian table tennis player Aida Dahlen, German swimmer Christiane Reppe, Greek boccia player Greg Polychronidis and a Sitting Volleyball team. Niko neither spares the athletes nor himself asking questions about life, sport and fears. With an ever growing appreciation for sport Niko attends the Paralympic Games and travels back to the ancient city of Olympia, where everything began and where boccia playing is prohibited.
Now available on Video on Demand!
The Domino Effect (2014) by Elwira Niewiear and Piotr Rosolowski tackles the story of the prime minister of Abkhazia, a barely recognised Caucasus microstate. Whilst he is organising an international domino event to put his motherland on the world map, his Russian wife is treated like an unwelcome foreigner.
In Abkhazia, a post-Soviet “”frozen conflict”” zone, patriotism runs deep.
While Sports Minister Rafael is busy organizing an international domino event to put his motherland on the world’s map, his beloved Russian wife is just an unwelcome foreigner. A black sea black comedy with socio-political commentary.
Now available on Video on Demand!
The documentary Harbour of Hope by Magnus Gertten (2011) focuses on the mobilisation of the Swedish city of Malmö in 1945, which took place in order to take care of the thousands of concentration-camp survivors sent to the city when they were freed.
In Spring 1945 Red Cross liberated thousands of concentration camp survivors and rescued them to the Malmö Harbour, Sweden.
Among the thousands of survivors brought to Malmö were Irene Krausz-Fainman, Ewa Kabacinska Jansson and Joe Rozenberg, the protagonists in the documentary Harbour of Hope. Together with the Red Cross voluntary Stig Kinnhagen and Malmö citizen Bo Fröberg they are telling the amazing story of how The City of Malmö mobilized to take care of the survivors and helped save thousands of lives. In unique archive footage we see 10 year-old Irene at the harbour taking her first shaky steps in freedom. We see newborn Ewa carried from the boat by her mother. And we meet Joe, who arrived as a lonely child without his family. In Harbour of Hope they tell their amazing stories from the moment of liberation to the unsolved mysteries in present time. A film about dealing with war memories, the importance of a helping hand and finding a “harbour of hope”.
Now available on Video on Demand!
In Red Forest Hotel, Finnish director Mika Koskinen wanted to find out more about how China, the world’s economic powerhouse, is investing millions of yuan in recycling and renewable energy in response to climate change.
The director of Red Forest Hotel wanted to explore how China, the economic powerhouse, is pumping massive investment into recycling and renewable energy in response to climate change.
But the project takes a surprise turn when the Finnish filmmaker gets stopped by local government officials on his way to film tree plantations in Guangxi province, southern China. Here, huge eucalyptus plantations are being developed by the world’s second largest forestry corporation, Stora Enso, largely owned by the Finnish state. The filmmaker Mika Koskinen ends up trapped in a Kafkaesque situation: the officials praise the project’s benefits, but prevent him from approaching the plantations and interviewing locals. Instead he gets isolated in a local hotel, and finds out that all his contacts have been detained…
Now available on Video on Demand!
