Films that demonstrate the folly of political violence as a means for resolving conflict and/or show the superiority of nonviolent political conflict resolution.
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 […]
ARMENIANS “EVACUATE” IN THE PROMISE The Armenian genocide has never been so vividly depicted as in The Promise, directed by Terry George, winner of a Political Film Society award for best film on human rights of 2004 for Hotel Rwanda. The film focuses on Mikael Boghosian (played by Oscar Isaac), son of a pharmacist in a small Armenian
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
LAND OF MINE SHOWS GERMAN SOLDIERS IN A POSITIVE LIGHT After Germany surrendered in 1945, the German people not only experienced a country in rubbles but left 1,500,000 land mines dotting the West Coast of Denmark, as the Nazis thought that the Allied invasion would come from there. The Danes, while marching German POWs out of
EYE IN THE SKY HAS NO ROOM IN THE BOMB FOR A HEART The case for and against the use of drones is made in Eye in the Sky directed by Gavin Hood. Thanks to on-the-ground intelligence, terrorists high on the “most wanted” list in Nairobi are being tracked by a drone armed with a
CHAOS IN CENTRAL AFRICA REIGNS IN BEASTS OF NO NATION Continual civil war reaches the town where 12-year-old Agu (played by Abraham Attah) is living with his family soon after Beasts of No Nation begins. When government forces are about to enter the town to track down rebels, women and babies flee, men stand their
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TANGERINES IS AN ANTI-WAR FILM ABOUT NEUTRALS During the 19th century many Estonians took up residence in Georgia. They were caught up as neutral parties in war when Vladimir Putin decided to support Russians living in Georgia by financing wars in 1992 and 2006 on behalf of the self-proclaimed republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia
TIMBUKTU DEMONSTRATES WHY JIHAD MASKS FOR COLONIZATION Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, but filmed in nearby Oualata, also dating back to the 12th century, Timbuktu begins by showing the peaceful lives of citizens of rural Mali—cattle farming, fishing, and an open market amid sand dunes and ruins of ancient structures. Arabic-speakers with weapons have arrived in
DIPLOMACY IS ABOUT THE ART THAT SAVED ART The order had been given by Hitler—destroy Paris. As allied forces approached in mid-1944, ailing General Dietrich von Choltitz (played by Niels Arestrup) was transferred to be the city’s occupying general who would carry out the order; disobeying the order would mean that his own children would be