Fictional
Film
Updated and edited by Mollie Smith (2002), Alexis Howe (2005) and Chang Wang (2005)
reproduced with permission
Abuladze, Tenghiz (director). Pokayaniye. Georgia: Cannon Group, 1987.
In Repentance (Pokayaniye), the Georgian mayor is a cruel, oppressive ruler. After he dies and his son tries to pick up the pieces of his life, a local woman refuses to let the father’s bones stay buried in order to express her own disgust at the man’s horrible regime. The Soviet Union refused the distribution of the film in 1984, but it won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes film festival when it was released in 1987.[1]
Apted, Michael (director). Thunderheart. United States: Columbia/Tristar Studios, 1992.
Thunderheart focuses on an FBI investigation of a murder on the Oglala Sioux reservation. Val Kilmer portrays a half Sioux FBI agent struggling to come to terms with the Native American heritage he has chosen to ignore. The agent discovers a conspiracy headed by the FBI to hide the source of toxins in the reservation’s water supply, a conspiracy that leads to the murder to a young Oglala Sioux woman. The movie is based on events surrounding an actual standoff between FBI agents and Indian activists in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
Attenborough, Richard (director). Cry Freedom. United States: Universal Pictures, 1987.
Cry Freedom is a portrayal of apartheid South Africa. A black activist, Steve Biko (Denzel Washington), and a liberal white journalist (Kevin Kline) become friends to fight the status quo. When Biko is murdered, Kline’s character must carry on alone.[2]
Attenborough, Richard (director). Gandhi. 1982.
Sir Richard Attenborough's 1982 multiple-Oscar winner (including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Ben Kingsley) is an engrossing, reverential look at the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who introduced the doctrine of nonviolent resistance to the colonized people of India and who ultimately gained the nation its independence. Kingsley is magnificent as Gandhi as he changes over the course of the three-hour film from an insignificant lawyer to an international leader and symbol. Strong on history (the historic division between India and Pakistan, still a huge problem today, can be seen in its formative stages here) as well as character and ideas, this is a fine film. --Tom Keogh ( Based on film review published on Amazon.com.)
Avildsen, John G. (director). The Power of One. Australia: Warner Brothers Entertainment, 1992.
The Power of One is the story of a South African English boy, P.K., and his determination to do what is right. P.K. has been taught to respect and admire his African neighbors instead of regarding them as inferiors, as most of the other English and Afrikaners do. P.K. learns to hate his country’s system of apartheid and, through friendships and his own ingenuity, attempts to undermine it.
Avnet, Jon (director). Red Corner. 1997.
Jack Moore is an American attorney having talks in Bejing about founding the first satellite TV joint venture. Suddenly he is arrested, accused of murder and has to prove it was a frame-up together with his court-appointed attorney Shen Yuelin.
(Based on information provided by Amazon.com.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6304883773/qid=1138024031/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-7669510-0088653?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130
Babenco, Hector. Caradiru. USA: Sony Pictures Classics, 2004.
This film portrays the living conditions and injustices that are allowed inside a Brazilian state penitentiary.
Babanco, Hector. Kiss of the Spider Woman. USA: Island Alive, 1985.
Based on the novel by Manuel Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman portrays the experience of cellmates in a South American prison – one “guilty” of being homosexual and the other a political prisoner.
Barroso, Mariano. In the Time of the Butterflies. USA: MGM Home Entertainment, 2001.
This movie is based on the novel by Julia Alvarez, which is based on the true story of the Mirabal sisters who resisted the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic during the 1960s and who were also killed by this same regime.
Benigni, Roberto (director). Life Is Beautiful. Italy: Miramax Home Entertainment, 1998.
Life Is Beautiful is a comic, yet tragic film about an Italian man’s efforts to protect his son from seeing the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. Guido (Roberto Benigni), tells his son that the concentration camp they have been deported to is all part of an elaborate contest in which the winner gets a tank. Benigni creates a wonderful comedy while simultaneously showing the tragedy of the Holocaust. Benigni received Oscars for Best Actor and Best Foreign Language Film. In Italian with English subtitles.[3]
Based on film information provided by Amazon.com.
Blanke, Alfred (director). The Life of Emile Zola. 1937. Warner Bros.
The Life of Emile Zola episodically explores the career of the novelist who championed the cause of France's oppressed. Zola (Paul Muni) is a hugely successful French author who risks all his success and comfort to come to the defense of the unjustly jailed Capt. Dreyfus (Oscar winner Joseph Schildkraut). Winner of three Oscars overall-and of immense critical and popular success-this distinguished film is a must-see portrait of a life that's "a moment of the conscience of man."
(Based on information provided by Amazon.com. )
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006HBV3W/qid=1138024257/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-7669510-0088653?v=glance&s=dvd
Buñuel, Luís. Los Olvidados. USA: Arthur Mayer-Edward Kingsley Inc. , 1952.
This movie portrays the life and struggles of poor slum children in Mexico City, demonstrating the destructive effects of poverty on children.
Caro, Niki. North Country. 2005
" North Country ," is inspired by the life of a real person, Lois Jenson, who filed the first class action lawsuit for sexual harassment in American history. That the suit was settled as recently as 1991 came as a surprise to me; I would have guessed the 1970s, but no, that's when the original court decision came down. Like the court's decisions on civil rights, it didn't change everything overnight.
(Roger Ebert, regerebert.com)
Chen, Joan (director). Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (Tian Yu). China. 1998.
Directed by Joan Chen from an award-winning novella banned in China because of political and sexual content, "Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl" is a powerful love story. Between 1967 and 1976, nearly 8 million Chinese youths were "sent down" for specialized training to the remotest corners of the country. Before being sent down, the young and beautiful Xiu Xiu dreams of becoming a horse trainer in the wide open plains of Tibet, far away from her busy city home. Her journey begins in a training camp in the isolated plains with a solitary and mysterious man. Slowly, Xiu Xiu discovers that she is unlikely to ever see her home again without a wealthy sponsor. Her world becomes a horrifying cage, where "patrons" promise her escape in exchange for her sexual compromise. This is one girl's story and a compassionate deed that inspired one special man and everyone who hears her tale.
(Based on information provided by Amazon.com.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00001O2GH/qid=1138023796/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/103-7669510-0088653?n=130
Chen, Kaige (director). Farewell My Concubine. China.
The panorama of 20th-century Chinese history swirls past two men, celebrated actors with their own decidedly specialized view of things. We first observe their lives as children at the Peking Opera training school, a brutal and demanding arena for future actors. While still in training, the effeminate Douzi is chosen to play the transvestite role and the masculine Shitou is chosen to play the royal role in a ritualized play about a king and a concubine. The actors are so good at this performance that they become identified with these roles for their entire careers; through World War II, through the takeover by the Communists, through the insanity of the Cultural Revolution, they are known for their famous parts. Leslie Cheung and Zhang Fengyi are powerful as the two men, and Gong Li (the beautiful leading lady of Raise the Red Lantern) plays the wife of the latter. The movie may be stronger on good old-fashioned melodrama than on profound conclusions, but boy, does it fill up the eyes. The director is Chen Kaige, one of the most talented members of China's "Fifth Generation" of filmmakers, whose daring subject matter (and sometimes bald international ambitions) have often irked the Chinese government. Indeed, though Farewell My Concubine shared the top prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and snagged two Oscar nominations, it had difficulty gaining official approval from China. --Robert Horton
(Based on film review published on Amazon.com.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00002RAPT/qid=1138023822/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-7669510-0088653?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130
Clooney, George (director). Good Night, and Good Luck. 2005.
" Good Night, and Good Luck" is a movie about a group of professional newsmen who with surgical precision remove a cancer from the body politic. They believe in the fundamental American freedoms, and in Sen. Joseph McCarthy they see a man who would destroy those freedoms in the name of defending them. Because McCarthy is a liar and a bully, surrounded by yes-men, recklessly calling his opponents traitors, he commands great power for a time. He destroys others with lies, and then is himself destroyed by the truth. helped to bring down one of the most controversial senators in American history.
(Roger Ebert, regerebert.com)
Costa-Gavras, Constantin (director). The Confession. France: Pomeren-Valoria, 1970.
Costa-Gavras’s film is about the Stalinist puppet trials in Czechoslovakia in 1952 and the extracted and false confessions drawn out of dissidents through torture. An Eastern European Communist official, who had been a loyalist during the Spanish Civil War, finds that he is being followed. He is soon arrested, tortured, and put in a show trial without being told why. In French.[4]
Costa-Gavras, Constantin (director). Music Box. United States: Tri-Star Pictures, 1990.
An American woman defends her father as the U.S. attempts to deport him. The father, a Hungarian immigrant, is accused of having committed crimes against humanity while serving in a Nazi-allied police force in his home country. The daughter discovers things about her father that she never imagined and her story becomes an allegory of American ignorance and innocence.[5]
Dash, Julie (director) The Rosa Parks Story. 2002. US
The story of the civil rights heroine whose refusal to obey racial bus segregation was just one of her acts in her fight for justice.
Demme, Jonathan (director). Beloved. United States: Buena Vista, 1998.
Jonathan Demme’s Beloved is a close adaptation of Toni Morrison’s acclaimed novel. The film revolves around Sethe (Oprah Winfrey), a runaway slave living in Ohio with the remnants of her family. The family is haunted by Sethe’s dead baby, whom she had killed rather than let be taken back into slavery. Their lives are thrown further into mystery and chaos as an enigmatic girl named Beloved appears at their house one day.
Duigan, John. Romero. USA: Four Square, 1989.
This film chronicles the life, death and struggles of the Archbishop Oscar Romero, who resisted and was murdered by the oppressive regime in El Salvador during the 1980’s.
Eisenstein, Sergei (director). Battleship Potemkin. Soviet Union. 1925.
Sergei Eisenstein's revolutionary sophomore feature has so long stood as a textbook example of montage editing that many have forgotten what an invigoratingly cinematic experience he created. A 20th-anniversary tribute to the 1905 revolution, Eisenstein portrays the revolt in microcosm with a dramatization of the real-life mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin. The story tells a familiar party-line message of the oppressed working class (in this case the enlisted sailors) banding together to overthrow their oppressors (the ship's officers), led by proto-revolutionary Vakulinchuk. When he dies in the shipboard struggle the crew lays his body to rest on the pier, a moody, moving scene where the citizens of Odessa slowly emerge from the fog to pay their respects. As the crowd grows Eisenstein turns the tenor from mourning a fallen comrade to celebrating the collective achievement. The government responds by sending soldiers and ships to deal with the mutinous crew and the supportive townspeople, which climaxes in the justly famous (and often imitated and parodied) Odessa Steps massacre. Eisenstein edits carefully orchestrated motions within the frame to create broad swaths of movement, shots of varying length to build the rhythm, close-ups for perspective and shock effect, and symbolic imagery for commentary, all to create one of the most cinematically exciting sequences in film history. Eisenstein's film is Marxist propaganda to be sure, but the power of this masterpiece lies not in its preaching but its poetry. --Sean Axmaker ( Based on film review published on Amazon.com.) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001EFTXI/qid=1137989254/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7669510-0088653?n=507846&s=dvd&v=glance
Falconetti, Maria (director). The Passion of Joan of Arc. 1928.
The sufferings of a martyr, Jeanne D'Arc (1412-1431). Jeanne appears in court where Cauchon questions her and d'Estivet spits on her. She predicts her rescue, is taken to her cell, and judges forge evidence against her. In her cell, priests interrogate her and judges deny her the Mass. Threatened first in a torture chamber and then offered communion if she will recant, she refuses. At a cemetery, in front of a crowd, a priest and supporters urge her to recant; she does, and Cauchon announces her sentence. In her cell, she explains her change of mind and receives communion. In the courtyard at Rouen castle, she burns at the stake; the soldiers turn on the protesting crowd.
(Based on information provided by Amazon.com.)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0780022343/qid=1138024288/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-7669510-0088653?v=glance&s=dvd
Frankenheimer, John (director). The Fixer. United States: MGM Studios, 1968.
In The Fixer, a Jewish handyman, or "fixer" attempts escape from an unjust prison sentence in harsh and anti-Semitic Czarist Russia. The film is based on the novel by Bernard Malamud.
Freeman, Morgan (director). Bopha! United States: Paramount Pictures, 1993.
Bopha! is the story of a black police officer in a modern apartheid South Africa; a man who is amiable with his white superiors and glad to have his job and family. His peaceful world comes apart, however, when his son begins participating in strikes against the local white-run school and the authorities crack down violently.[6]
Friedkin, William (director). Rules of Engagement. United States: Paramount Pictures, 2000.
In Rules of Engagement, a Marine commander (Samuel L. Jackson) is accused of ordering his men to shoot innocent civilian protesters while they were removing the U.S. ambassador and his family from the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. His friend (Tommy Lee Jones), a retired military attorney, must search for the truth in order to save his friend from court martial.
Gance, Abel (director). J'Accuse! ( I Accuse!), 1919/1938. France.
Abel Gance’s powerful anti-war film still has the power to move and shock. Through the intimate microcosm of two soldiers united on the battlefield, Gance shows the horror and absurdity of war for all its worth.
(Film review by James Travers. http://frenchfilms.topcities.com/index3.html#http://frenchfilms.topcities.com/nf_J_Accuse_1919_rev.html)
George, Terry (director). Hotel Rwanda. United States. 2005.
Ten years ago some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the country of Rwanda--and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million people were brutally murdered. In the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees, by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages.
(Based on information provided by Amazon.com.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007R4T3U/qid=1138023697/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-7669510-0088653?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130
Gilbert, Brian (director). Not Without My Daughter. United States: MGM Studios, 1990.
In Not Without My Daughter, an American woman and her child accompany her Iranian husband to his homeland, where he decides the family will stay. To her horror, she realizes that Iranian women have no rights, and she must flee the country with her daughter.
Gorin, Serif (director). Yol. Turkey: Triumph Releasing, 1982.
Yol is a drama about five Turkish convicts let out of prison for one week. Each of them experience tragedy, however, in their short time of liberty. One discovers his brother has been killed by police, another that his wife has been unfaithful. Yol reveals the very non-Western aspects of Turkish society and tradition as well as different sides of freedom.[7]
Griffith, D.W. (director). Intolerance. United States. 1916.
Intolerance and its terrible effects are examined in four historical eras. In ancient Babylon, a mountain girl is caught up in the religious rivalry that leads to the city's downfall. In Judea, the hypocritical Pharisees condemn Jesus Christ. In 1572 Paris, unaware of the impending St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, two young Huguenots prepare for marriage. Finally, in modern America, social reformers destroy the lives of a young woman and her beloved.
Based on film information provided by Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007CVS8/qid=1137989288/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-7669510-0088653?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130
Hackford, Taylor (director). Proof of Life. United States: Warner Studios, 2000.
In Proof of Life, Peter and Alice Bowman (David Morse and Med Ryan) live in the fictional country of Tecala in Latin America, where Peter works for a corporation building a dam. When Peter is kidnapped by rebels seeking to collect a hefty ransom from the corporation, Alice turns to a professional kidnap and ransom negotiator (Russell Crowe) for help.
Herzog, Werner. Aguierre: der Zorn Gottes. USA: New Yorker Films, 1977.
After the destruction of the Incan Empire during the Spanish Conquest of the Americas, a group of Spaniards, led by Lope de Aguirre, leaves the mountains of Peru to sail down the Amazon River in search of gold ( El Dorado) and eternal fame. The journey quickly becomes perilous as the group is depleted, morale deteriorates and fights ensure among the crewmembers.
Hou, Hsiao-hsien (director). A City of Sadness (Bei Qing Cheng Shi). Taiwan.
By presenting the tragic consequences that resulted from the mainland authorities' ever-escalating pattern of abuse of power, A City of Sadness compassionately articulates the suppressed, silent despair of a people repeatedly victimised as they search for inclusion and cultural identification. Through the film's pervasively alienated perspective, Hou reflects contemporary Taiwan's vestigial legacy of demoralisation, abandonment, isolation, and betrayal at the politically motivated hands of intrusive external forces.
Film reviewed by Acquarello, http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/03/26/city_of_sadness.html
Joffé, Roland. The Mission. USA: Warner Bros., 1986.
This film portrays the conflicting ideologies that characterized the Conquest of the Americas, specifically showing the Jesuits in Brazil who attempted to protect the indigenous population from the mistreatment of the pro-slavery Portuguese conquistadors.
Kaplan, Betty (director). Of Love and Shadows. Spain: Miramax, 1994.
Of Love and Shadows is a film adaptation of the Isabella Allende book featuring magazine reporter Irene Beltran in Chile in 1973. She lives a sheltered life and is unaware of the atrocities befalling the public until she becomes involved with a photographer whose brother is a member of the human rights underground. A story lead subsequently leads her to a disgruntled soldier who gives her a notebook detailing the military regime’s terrors perpetuated against the people. As Beltran and her photographer start revealing the wrongdoing publicly, they are attacked by the regime and forced to flee to Spain. The two later return to a democratized Chile to witness the changes.[8]
Kassovitz, Peter (director). Jakob the Liar. Unites States: Columbia Tristar, 1999.
Jakob the Liar is about a Polish Jew, Jakob (Robin Williams), living in a Nazi-occupied ghetto during WWII who overhears a radio broadcast that the Allies are advancing against the Germans. In order to keep the hopes of those around him alive, Jakob begins telling fictitious stories about the victories the Allies are achieving against the Germans, claiming he heard them on the radio. When the Germans learn of the reports, they begin looking for the owner of the mythical radio.[9]
Kaufman, Philip (director). The Unbearable Lightness of Being. 1988.
Let others in 1968 Prague fret over liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Prague surgeon and avowed womanizer Tomas is focused on the happiness of pursuit. He's determined to live with a lightness of being unfettered by things like commitment and Communism. A young doctor's quest for sex and his stumbling into love are part of the rich storyline of this lyrical film from the landmark Milan Kundera novel, produced by Saul Zaentz (The English Patient, Amadeus) and directed by Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff, Henry & June). Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin indelibly form the romantic triangle at the center of Tomas' world. It's a shifting world of hope spoiled and renewed, of lives blighted by oppression and reinvigorated by deep, maturing love.
Based on film information provided by Amazon.com.
Kaye, Tony (director). *American History X. United States: New Line Cinema, 1998.
American History X is the story of the experiences of a reformed neo-Nazi and white supremacist. The movie begins as Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) is released from a three year prison term, imposed for the murder of a black gang member. Derek is idolized by his younger brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), who has followed his brother into a life of hatred and racism. Through flashbacks, the audience learns Derek’s whole story, from the murder of his father which stoked the fire of his hatred to his eventual renunciation of his views in prison. Now that Derek is out of prison and on the right path, he attempts to save the mind and soul of his brother. The movie addresses real issues in American race relations and the long road ahead to gain full social integration and harmony.
Kazan, Elia. Viva Zapata!. USA: 20 th Century Fox Film Corp, 1952.
This film depicts the story of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata who led a rebellion against the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz in the early 1900’s.
Koller, Xavier (director). Journey of Hope. United States: HBO Video, 1990.