Film/Documentary tip top 5

Every issue we publish a tip top 5 of documentaries and films that we think are worth watching. In this issue five films dealing with the notion of resistance, selected by Nushin Naini and Jan-Pieter ‘t Hart of Filmtheater Kriterion. If available we share the content on our Youtube channel.

Landscapes of Resistance
Director: Marta Popivoda
Release: 2021
Topic: GWWII resistance and antifascist resistance in Serbia
Watch: From 1-9 May on Cineville’s online streaming platform Vitamine
A documentary film that traces the memory of Sonja (97), a Serbian resistance fighter who survived Auschwitz, interwoven with fragments of the lives of current-day antifascist activists. Online screening in the week of the Dutch Memorial Day and Liberation Day.

Decoder
Director: Muscha
Release: 1984
Topic: Cyberpunky Resistance
Watch: YouTube
A sleazy, colourful movie, on resistance against corporate systems. F.M. discovers that there’s something wrong with the monotonous muzak playing through the speakers of malls and fast food chains. These subliminal tunes are making people want to buy more and function better in the capitalist system. He forms a group of tape terrorists to counteract the indoctrinating sounds.

The Hourglass Sanatorium
Director: Wojciech Has
Release: 1973
Topic: Dreamy Sanatorium visit
Watch: easterneuropeanmovies.com
An anxious man visits his ailing father in a mysterious sanatorium which turns into a dream-machine, where time and space exude plasticity. Being banned in communist Poland at the time for its positive portrayal of Jews, the film had to be smuggled to Cannes where it received huge praise. This not only led to winning the Jury Prize, but also to Wojciech not being able to make movies for the next 8 years.

The Battle of Chile
Director: Patricio Guzmán
Release: 1975, 1976, 1979
Topic: 1973 Chilean coup d’état
Watch: First two parts are on Youtube, the third part can also be found online
Three-part chronicle of the Chilean political situation in the 70s. An impressive and moving piece of guerilla filmmaking, directly and clandestinely opposing the Chilean dictatorship under Pinochet.

Sambizanga
Director: Sarah Maldoror
Release: 1972
Topic: Black liberation struggle in Angola
Watch: Vimeo
A moving and historically important drama film with a cast of non-professionals who were involved in African anti-colonial movements. It follows an Angolan woman who is looking for her husband, who was taken by the Portuguese secret police.