ARTE Distribution

From Gamal Abdel Nasser to Anwar Sadat, to Hosni Mubarak, “The Pharaohs of Modern Egypt” follows the path of the successive regimes in power, and reveals their common goal to carefully lay the basis of a solid independence, but which, on the other hand, led to the revolution on Tahrir Square in 2011. 

Between democracy and a military dictatorship, President Gamal Abdel Nasser tried to forge a tailor-made brand of socialism to eradicate deep inequality. But in order to do so, he did not hesitate to repress and gag the opposition, while further crushing civil society. His sudden death rendered his socialist vision obsolete, paving the way for his successor, President Anwar Sadat. 

2 formats available for this episode: 52' and 97'.
 
World Premiere at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in September 2015

Best Documentary - 2015 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) - Lagos, Nigeria 

Every 5 seconds, a BILLY bookcase is sold. But the staggering figures of the Swedish brand have a cost: they depend on the uncontrolled exploitation of wood and human labor. A unique investigation, tracking the production line of the furniture giant.

Investigative journalists working for Disclose spent over a year investigating the production chain of the furniture giant which generated a 44.6 billion euros revenue in 2022 and attracts over 5 billion visitors to its stores and website every year.
From the boreal forests of Sweden to Brazilian plantations and New Zealand coastlines, they uncovered how IKEA intensively exploits wood around the world, fuels the illegal trafficking of this resource and threatens the last precious European forests. Long overlooked, intensive logging is now sparking outrage and anger among citizens in Poland and the Baltic countries, who are increasingly concerned about the fate of their countries' public forest domains and biodiversity loss. In Romania, where IKEA owns 50,000 hectares of forests, activists are risking their lives mobilizing against the timber mafia. This film tells the expansion of a discreet forest predator, grappling with the limits of the planet's resources. A resource that is at the center of the fight against climate change. 

An international team of archaeologists explores the heart of Saudi Arabia and the Black Desert of Jordan to find out more about the oldest megastructures in human history. An extraordinary story with spectacular discoveries and breathtaking landscapes.

In the North of Saudi Arabia and South of Jordan lie thousands of mysterious geoglyphs whose shape, when seen from the air, reminds us of giant kites. The oldest of these immense stone structures were built around 7000 BC, predating the Egyptian pyramids and the spectacular Stonehenge monument by over 4,000 years. Who designed these structures and why were they built? Using cutting-edge technologies, an international team of archaeologists led by French researcher Rémy Crassard and Franco-Jordanian research fellow Wael Abu-Azizeh are trying to solve this mystery, as they are determined to shed a new light on the little-known Neolithic period.

She changed the course of history: a cold case about the most enigmatic heroine of the Middle Ages. Dive into her epic rise and spectacular fall, with 3D animations and never-before-seen documents from her rehabilitation trial. 

An epic rise and a spectacular fall: the destiny of a young village girl who claimed to have been sent by God to save France from the English invaders. Worshipped by an entire people, she was adviser to the powerful, became a war leader, won decisive battles, liberated cities and had her king crowned. Her adventure would take a tragic turn – at the age of 19, when she got burned alive at the stake after a mock trial. A deep dive into European medieval history, between animation and historical documentary.

The rise and fall story of a troubling and fragile actor who would eventually get recognition for his talent. The case of Mickey Rourke is a real turning point in the way men have portrayed themselves in American cinema. 

How did Mickey Rourke, a beloved actor of the 80's who played the motorcycle boy in Rumble Fish, the crusading cop in Year of the Dragon and the cursed investigator in Angel Heart, turned so quickly into the ultimate persona non grata, a sad, tabloid-accustomed bad boy, a failed boxer and a living illustration of the excesses of plastic surgery? This film offers, beyond the classic story of a fall and a possible redemption, to draw the complex portrait of a fallen sex symbol who became an icon of trash by the force of representation of the Hollywood system.

Organic farming is becoming increasingly mechanized and globalized. An international investigation inside the organic industry, filmed with hidden cameras and revealing the first in-depth study on the exact composition of the biopesticides that are produced by agrochemical giants.

Behind the fantasy of purity lies a darker reality: the agroindustry has progressively set aside the principles of organic farming to apply the same methods as conventional agriculture. The crisis in the sector, which has been lasting for over two years, is twofold: it's first a trust crisis due to numerous scandals involving fake organic products, the discovery of dubious social and production practices and state attempts of corruption but it's also a production crisis. Indeed, it's no longer possible to keep up with demand and the lowering of production costs to meet the demands of mass distribution, which has become the main sales channel. This exclusive investigation is produced by the same team as Mass-market retailing: The End of a System?

Today, the Louvre Museum picks up where the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette left off in 1850! Join a team of archeologists and get exclusive access to (re)discover the Serapeum tomb of the Bull Apis, one of the most sacred places in Saqqara, Egypt.

He also managed to map out a network of underground tunnels leading to other burial sites he did not have time to uncover. We have exclusive access to follow a team of archeologists, commissioned by the Louvre Museum, to pick up where Mariette left off.

Researchers are delving into the grimoires of the brilliant medieval Arab civilization to find treatments for infectious diseases. Over a 1000 years ago, Arabic scientists initiated modern pharmacy by bringing together knowledge from ancient history and faraway lands, which they then experimented with and enriched.

To help invent the medicines of the future, a cross-disciplinary team has come up with an innovative approach: making something new out of something old! A microbiologist with a passion for history and a historian who was also trained to be a chemist, immersed themselves into old manuscripts from the medieval Arab world, which dated back to the year 1000, to unearth forgotten anti-infective treatments, replicate and test them in a lab. Using modern techniques, the team hopes to derive new antibiotics and thus contribute to the fight against antibiotic resistance, which is one of the greatest challenges that medicine is facing today. In following their quest, we uncover a fascinating and little-known period of history, between the 7th and 15th centuries, when a brilliant civilization stretched from Spain to the banks of the Indus. These two stories, though a millennium apart, are proof that the future can be rooted in a brilliant past, provided we can revive long-neglected knowledge.