cinema ’59
Cinema ’59
Films of Freedom Struggles
Though the whole Communist experiment has deservedly failed, the Russian Revolution’s use of the cinema to spread its political message and galvanize its mainly rural population, is certainly something that the Tibetan freedom movement could emulate to spread and keep the Rangzen message alive among Tibetans and friends.
2006, Germany, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Winner of the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign films
Jamyang Kyi on The Lives of Others
Before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, East Germany’s population was closely monitored by the …
2001, India, Santosh Sivan
Prince Ashoka, heir to the Magadha Kingdom, bowing to his mother’s demand forsakes his princely status and goes to live in the wild for awhile. There he meets and falls in love …
2005, Belgium, Hany Abu-Assad
The story places two close friends, Palestinians Said and Khaled, recruited by an extremist group to perpetrate a terrorist attack in Tel-Aviv, blowing up themselves. However, things go wrong and both friends …
1995, USA, Saul Landau
The film does a good job of explaining in unsensationalized terms what the Zapatistas are about, and how U.S. corporations, NAFTA, and the WTO are directly responsible for the uprising. The Zapatistas …
2003, Czech Republic / Slovakia / Austria, Ondrej Trojan
Two very different people meet and fall in love in “Zelary,” the Oscar-nominated (Best Foreign Language Film, 2003) romantic epic from director Ondrej Trojan. Eliska, a sophisticated …
2006, Estonia / USA, James Tusty (Documentary)
The Singing Revolution traces the history of Estonia and the Baltic region from its very roots between 5,000 to 8,000 years ago through to the Singing Revolution. It tells …
1966, Czechoslovakia, Jiří Menzel
Milos Hrma, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice at a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, he …
1988, UK, Philip Kaufman
Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, the happily irresponsible Czech lover of Milan Kundera’s novel, which is set in Prague just before and during the Soviet invasion in 1968. Lena Olin and Juliette …
1982, Poland, Ryszard Bugajski
Based on a true story reflecting the Stalinist terror of the early 1950s, Ryszard Bugajski’s harrowing film was banned under martial law in Poland and only became available after the director smuggled …
1981, Poland, Andrzej Wajda
Fictionalized documentary capture’s rise of Poland’s Solidarity movement. Viewers interested in the human stories that make up history will be intrigued by this portrait of a government reporter covering events.
It depicts the …
