Films that bring previously obscured truths about the political process to the attention of the public, showing for example how offices of public trust are used for private purposes.
THE FATE OF FJORDS IN THE FUTURE OF NORWAY IN THE KING’S CHOICENorway played a unique role during World War II. Titles at the beginning of the film inform filmviewers that Norway became independent of Sweden in 1905, when King Haakon VII (played by Jesper Christiansen) was imported from Denmark, where his brother was on the […]
A QUEEN ENJOYS A NEW LIFE IN VICTORIA AND ABDUL In 2003, a chronicle of the role of Abdul Karim in the court of Queen Victoria came to light in Osborne House on the Island of Wight, the queen’s summer home. Shrabani Basu then wrote a book on the relationship, which is adapted to the screen with
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LESSONS OF MARK FELT MAY APPLY TO TRUMPOCRACY Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House explains who was the “Deep Throat” leaking damning information about President Richard Nixon’s role in Watergate to Time magazine and the Washington Post. As third in line to the FBI Director, Mark Felt (played by Liam Neesom) expects to be promoted when J.
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DETROIT REVEALS THE UNREPORTED RIOTERS—THE POLICE Fifteen major cities in the United States experienced riots during the “long hot summer” of 1967. In each case, the police provided the trigger, and the result was a national commission on the causes as well as numerous academic studies to explain who rioted and why. Detroit, directed by Kathryn Bigelow,
13 MINUTES SHOWS WHY HITLER COULD NOT FIND A CONSPIRACY Although the most famous plot to kill Hitler occurred in 1944, involving several military officials, less famous but celebrated in 13 Minutes was Johann Georg Elser (played by Christian Friedel). The film begins with the explosion of a bomb and Elser’s arrest on November 8, 1939. The bomb
WAR MACHINE IS THE BIGGEST ANTI-WAR FILM SINCE PLATOON Inspired by Michael Hastings’s book The Operators, director David Michôd has out-Oliver Stone’d us by deciding to tell the truth about the Afghan War. Although Barack Obama once called the intervention in Afghanistan as a “good war,” portrayal of the longest war in American history clearly seems anything but
THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE KEPT MORE THAN 4-LEGGED ANIMALS When the film begins, the Warsaw Zoo is reproduced as it was in early 1939 (though filming is in Prague), with Antonina Zabinski (played by Jessica Chastain) petting and showering love on many animals as she begins the morning and continues throughout the day and night. The zoo’s
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BITTER HARVEST FINDS 7-10 MILLION DEAD The film Bitter Harvest provides an historical account of the Ukraine from 1917 to 1933. Known as the “breadbasket of Europe,” the Ukraine in January 1917 was a part of the Russian Kingdom. By October, Lenin had taken over Russia and soon began to integrate the Ukraine into a new economic order
BOTSWANA STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE IN A UNITED KINGDOM Prince Seretse Khama (played by David Oyelowo), the heir to the kingdom of Bechuanaland, was only 4 years old when his father dies, so his uncle Charles (Arnold Oseng) not only serves as Regent but also rears him until he goes away to London for school, eventually enrolling
55 STEPS FEATURE THE ASCENT OF THE RIGHTS OF MENTAL PATIENTSPatients are now accustomed to signing their name multiple times before their blood is drawn or other medical procedures are undertaken. But up to 1985, mental patients were deemed incompetent, so decisions were made for them without consultation, as the opening scene vividly demonstrates. Diagnosed with