ARTE Distribution

What if bodybuilding was not just a simple sporting and aesthetic discipline? What if the practice was actually conforming to the social pressures of our neoliberal society, by celebrating and encouraging the constant surpassing of oneself?

With the help of illustrious weight trainers and experts, All Brawn offers a fascinating look into the history and culture of this art of performance. Gain insight into this mass phenomenon, a metaphor for the obsession with control and cost-efficiency.

In remote Morocco, in 1960, in the archeological site of Jebel Irhoud, a remarkable find was made: remains of Homo Sapiens. Today we can date them back to 300.000 years old.

A discovery that rewrites the story of Mankind’s origins, because up until now, the oldest remains found went back to 200.000 years ago! A revelation that not only stretches the timeline of Homo Sapiens’ story, but also changes the geography of where we came from, the whole sub-Sahara region.

40 minutes in total immersion in the fashion world with Mademoiselle Agnès. Ten days of fashion, stimulated by the new generation of designers, reassured by the old guard, and dazzled by hallucinating scenography.

As every season Mademoiselle Agnes immerses herself in the backstage of women's ready-to-wear to take the tension of the business, to measure the height of the heels as well as the morale of the troops.
 

The story of several Afghan women who fled their country after the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021, and are now living in exile in Canada. Former MPs, ministers and journalists, they are fighting to keep the spotlight on the plight of women in Afghanistan. 

Forced to flee their country after the Taliban seized power in 2021, several Afghan women are working to keep the spotlight on what is happening in Afghanistan, while at the same time accepting that their power has been usurped and that over two decades of progress have been wiped out. Now in exile, they are reinventing the struggle to keep fighting for a free and just Afghanistan. As the world's eyes are fixed on the next headline news, and even the greatest superpower admits defeat, can these women achieve their goal? 

Does power erode dreams? This documentary explores the ANC's transition from liberation organization to ruling party in South Africa, through the evolution of the relationship between two of its most prominent members, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.

Exiled under the apartheid they were brothers in arms, under Mandela they loyally worked to build a non-racial state, now they are bitter rivals. Their duel threatens to tear apart the ANC and the country, as the poor desperately seek hope in change and the elite fight for the spoils of victory.
 
Behind the Rainbow features key interviews with ANC current and former leaders including Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe, Jacob Zuma, Pallo Jordan and Terror Lekota.

Over thousands of years, we humans have mastered the use of alcohol, caffeine, cocaine, LSD, psilocybin, THC, morphine...
 
But did you know that our feathered, furry and leggy cousins have mastered it too? Way before we did, animals discovered plants, fruits, mushrooms and other animal species that get them high...

Does this altered state of consciousness serve any useful purpose for the species that indulge in it, or does it actually harm them? Do some animals seek pleasure for pleasure's sake? What are the effects of this high on the group? Can animals become addicts? And finally, what can they teach us about our own taste for these substances?
 
From elephants in South Africa to cats in Majorca, from American cows to Finnish reindeer, dolphins, shrews and birds, this is a film entirely shot and delivered in 4K.

He was the world's best-known Russian opposition leader: Alexei Navalny was in serious condition after being poisoned in 2020, arrested in 2021, and has been locked up in prison camps ever since and repeatedly sentenced to additional years in prison. How did Navalny become Putin's fiercest opponent? Where did he stand politically? Was he the democratic hope that his inner circle portrayed him to be?

Russian filmmaker Igor Sadreev has been working on Navalny in secret for a long time. After the Russian attack on Ukraine, he smuggled his extensive filming equipment out of the country and left Moscow. On arrival in Berlin, he was able to complete the film with his colleague, journalist Aleksandr Urzhanov. Alexei Navalny died in prison on February 16, 2024.

A suspenseful diplomatic chronicle about how the US tried to balance its democratic ideals with the practical considerations of its realpolitik during WWII. The climax of this struggle happened at the 1945 Yalta conference, where the “Big Three” (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) met to plan the postwar reorganization of Europe.

The documentary unfolds like a theatrical drama, with Roosevelt, a dying idealist symbolizing a military superpower; Churchill, the leader of a declining empire with sharp political acumen; and Stalin, a master of deceit at the height of military dominance. A fresh perspective on the 1945 Yalta critical conference through a narrative focusing on the interactions among these key figures. From a macro to a micro viewpoint during the conference, using the lens of "the little mice," witnesses like Charles Bohlen Roosevelt’s’ translator and diplomat, the documentary captures the human interplay before and during Yalta.