Moving to Mars

Top Gear: The Burma Special(en)

In this special Clarkson, Hammond and May don’t just buy three knackered old lorries and drive miles through the beautiful landscapes of Burma. Oh dear no. They actually have to use their lorries to do something useful. They have to build a real, use able bridge over the River Kwai. On their way to the river they almost bring down Burma’s power supply, encounter the world’s least relaxing truck stop, race around the streets of a deserted capital, saddle up a trio of unhelpful horses and attend a completely deranged party.

A Life on the Farm(en)

A strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.

My Boyfriend, The Sex Tourist(en)

A look at global sex tourism, focusing on the situation in Venezuela and Thailand.

1979: Big Bang of the Present(de)

Deng Xiaoping's economic and political opening in China. Margaret Thatcher's extreme economic measures in the United Kingdom. Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution in Iran. Pope John Paul II's visit to Poland. Saddam Hussein's rise to power in Iraq. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The nuclear accident at the Harrisburg power plant and the birth of ecological activism. The year 1979, the beginning of the future.

Human Flow(en)

More than 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war, the greatest displacement since World War II. Filmmaker Ai Weiwei examines the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. Over the course of one year in 23 countries, Weiwei follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretch across the globe, including Afghanistan, France, Greece, Germany and Iraq.

Beyond Now, Nyein(ko)

Choi Jinbae from Korea and Nyein Thazin from Myanmar are an international couple. They married seven years ago in Mandalay and, after a ceremony in Korea, planned to return. But COVID-19 left them stranded in Seoul. One day, a photo arrives from Myanmar showing a village destroyed by the coup. Urged by fellow Myanmar people to share their country's reality with the world, Choi picks up a camera. An ordinary family's life is suddenly thrust into questions of pain, solidarity, and the ethics of bearing witness.

Britain and the Blitz(en)

Documentary looking back at a Britain during the darkest days of WWII using stunning new archived footage and interviews with people who lived through it.

Look at Life: Everything Stops for Tea(en)

A short documentary about the tea drinking culture in the UK and the industry behind it.

Freedom Runners(en)

Rotem Genossar, a teacher at the Bialik-Rogozin campus in south Tel Aviv, founds a running group for his students, young African refugees whose families fled their homeland and now live in Israel without any legal status. At first running is just a social activity for the students, but it quickly becomes a means to fight for their civil rights, part of a struggle to secure them a place of their own, out of the margins of Israeli society.

Draussen bleiben(de)

Art as a Weapon(en)

Street art, creativity and revolution collide in this beautifully shot film about art’s ability to create change. The story opens on the politically charged Thailand/Burma border at the first school teaching street art as a form of non-violent struggle. The film follows two young girls (Romi & Yi-Yi) who have escaped 50 years of civil war in Burma to pursue an arts education in Thailand. Under the threat of imprisonment and torture, the girls use spray paint and stencils to create images in public spaces to let people know the truth behind Burma's transition toward "artificial democracy." Eighty-two hundred miles away, artist Shepard Fairey is painting a 30’ mural of a Burmese monk for the same reasons and in support of the students' struggle in Burma. As these stories are inter-cut, the film connects these seemingly unrelated characters around the concept of using art as a weapon for change.

Building the Channel Tunnel(en)

The Channel Tunnel linking Britain with France is one of the seven wonders of the modern world but what did it take to build the longest undersea tunnel ever constructed? We hear from the men and women, who built this engineering marvel. Massive tunnel boring machines gnawed their way through rock and chalk, digging not one tunnel but three; two rail tunnels and a service tunnel. This was a project that would be privately financed; not a penny of public money would be spent on the tunnel. Business would have to put up all the money and take all the risks. This was also a project that was blighted by flood, fire, tragic loss of life and financial bust ups. Today, it stands as an engineering triumph and a testament to what can be achieved when two nations, Britain and France put aside their historic differences and work together.

War Dance(en)

Three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.

Beyond Utopia(en)

A courageous pastor uses his underground network to rescue and aid North Korean families as they risk their lives to embrace freedom.

Once My Mother(en)

Australian filmmaker Sophia Turkiewicz investigates why her Polish mother abandoned her and uncovers the truth behind her mother's wartime escape from a Siberian gulag, leaving Sophia to confront her own capacity for forgiveness.

Best Ever Spitting Image(en)

A documentary about Spitting Image (1984) and the impact it had, including clips of the most memorable moments and contributions from many of the cast, crew and some of celebrities portrayed on the show.

A.W. A Portrait of Apichatpong Weerasethakul(en)

Canadian actor and filmmaker Connor Jessup (Closet Monster, Falling Skies) profiles Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a maverick of Thai cinema who explores the slippery nature of time and consciousness with a sublimely idiosyncratic, often surreal approach to film form.

A Happy Man(cs)

People who knew R. perceived her as a happy woman. A woman from Brno in her thirties who moved to Sweden together with her Slovak husband, psychiatrist Ivan. In their new home country, the young couple bought a house and had two children. It seemed that R.’s life would continue in a predictable way. As a distraction from the routine, she chose an unusual hobby. She created a male alter-ego and started writing novels for LGBTQ+ audiences. R. was happy but felt empty on the inside. She could only fill it by living out her true self. Things started speeding up and R. began changing. R. is now Marvin. And Marvin is a man.

Rod Stewart, le trublion de la pop anglaise(fr)

In a career spanning sixty years, Britain's absolute darling has brought his mocking nonchalance and formidable gravelly voice to every genre, from hard rock to jazz and pop. Portrait of a pop aristocrat who has managed to stay in touch with the people.

A Gentle Glow(en)

The camera floats quietly to capture the beauty that emerges from the mundane. Accompanied by Ryuichi Sakamoto's composition, Arseny Tarkovsky's poem celebrates life.