Big World Pictures

As anger and resentment grow in the face of social inequalities, many citizen-led protests are being repressed with an ever-increasing violence. In THE MONOPOLY OF VIOLENCE, David Dufresne gathers a panel of citizens to question, exchange and confront their views on the social order and the legitimacy of the use of force by the State.

In 1981, chalk slogans written in uppercase letters started appearing in public spaces in the Romania. They demanded freedom, and called for improvements in the food supply. Theatre director Gianina Cărbunariu created a documentary play based on this material. Besides presenting the play, Radu Jude also uses archival footage from Romanian TV of the era.

Iran’s Mohammad Rasoulof, whose latest feature THERE IS NO EVIL won the Golden Bear at THE 2020 Berlinale, has been making scathing social commentary of the Iranian regime for over a decade,  A MAN OF INTEGRITY reveals the corruption and state cronyism at the heart of one of the most powerful and influential regimes in the Middle East. 

Still Life, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2006, is an empathetic portrait of those left behind by a modernizing society and, as in director Jia Zhang-ke’s earlier films (Platform, Unknown Pleasures, The World), it is a unique hybrid of documentary and fiction. 

Still Life, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2006, is an empathetic portrait of those left behind by a modernizing society and, as in director Jia Zhang-ke’s earlier films (Platform, Unknown Pleasures, The World), it is a unique hybrid of documentary and fiction. 

From Tsai Ming-Liang, set just prior to the start of the 21st century, this vaguely futuristic story follows two residents of a quickly crumbling building who refuse to leave their homes in spite of a virus that has forced the evacuation of the area.

A prizewinner in Madrid, Minsk, Sarajevo, San Francisco and Tbilisi, CITY OF THE SUN features stunning vistas—still beautiful in their state of melancholy neglect—and puts a human face on a city devastated by an industrial and economic system that sated its needs and moved on.

A GERMAN YOUTH chronicles the political radicalization of some German youth in the late 1960s that gave birth to the Red Army Faction (RAF). The film is entirely produced by editing preexisting visual and sound archives.

One of contemporary Europe's most distinctive creators, Jude has come out with an ingeniously conceived film. While it unfolds slowly and in detail, it hits the viewer with a singular emotional punch. The film chronicles a young theatre director’s efforts to stage an accurate re-enactment of the Odessa Massacre - in which Romanian soldiers slaughtered tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews