The Forger

Adolfo Kaminsky started saving lives when chance and necessity made him a master forger. As a teenager, he became a member of the French Resistance and used his talent to save the lives of thousands of Jews. The Forger is a well-crafted origin story of a real-life superhero.

2017-05-05 | en

Cartoons Go To War

This remarkable documentary dedicates itself to an extraordinary chapter of the second World War – the psychological warfare of the USA. America’s trusted cartoon darlings from the studios of Warner Bros., Paramount, and the “big animals” of the Disney family were supposed to give courage to the people at the homefront, to educate them, but also to simultaneously entertain them. Out of this mixture grew a genre of its own kind – political cartoons. Insightful Interviews with the animators and producers from back then elucidate in an amusing and astonishing way under which bizarre circumstances these films partially came into existence.

1996-04-26 | en

When the Wind Blows

With the help of government-issued pamphlets, an elderly British couple build a shelter and prepare for an impending nuclear attack, unaware that times and the nature of war have changed from their romantic memories of World War II.

1986-10-24 | en

Foxes of Chironup

Foxes Ken and Chin become the proud parents of cubs, Koro and Kan, who enjoy a carefree life on the northern Japanese island of Chironup. They befriend a fisherman and his wife but are forced to run for their lives when soldiers on a military exercise decide to take home some fox pelts as souvenirs. A sweet little film that obliquely symbolizes the plight of Japan's aboriginal Ainu people and the northern islands that have been contested with Russia since they were occupied by Stalin's soldiers in 1945.

1987-08-15 | ja

Charlotte

The true story of Charlotte Salomon, a young German-Jewish painter who comes of age in Berlin on the eve of the Second World War. Fiercely imaginative and deeply gifted, she dreams of becoming an artist. Her first love applauds her talent, which emboldens her resolve. When anti-Semitic policies inspire violent mobs, she escapes to the safety of the South of France. There she begins to paint again, and finds new love. But her work is interrupted, this time by a family tragedy that reveals an even darker secret. Believing that only an extraordinary act will save her, she embarks on the monumental adventure of painting her life story.

2022-04-22 | fr

Barefoot Gen

A story about the effect of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.

1983-07-21 | ja

Poland 1939: When German Soldiers Became War Criminals

September 1st, 1939. Nazi Germany invades Poland. The campaign is fast, cruel and ruthless. In these circumstances, how is it that ordinary German soldiers suddenly became vicious killers, terrorizing the local population? Did everyone turn into something worse than wild animals? The true story of the first World War II offensive that marks in the history of infamy the beginning of a carnage and a historical tragedy.

2019-08-31 | de

Duce Narrates...

The first Greek animated film was shot by the cartoonist Stamatis Polenakis (1908-1997) with the title "The Duce tells...". The seven-minute "Mickey-Mouse-style" film, as its creator mentions in the credits, satirizes the Italian invasion of Greece on October 28, 1940, and especially Mussolini, who recounts his exploits, but reality constantly contradicts him. Stamatis Polenakis, one of the leading Greek cartoonists of the 20th century and a pioneer of animation in our country, began drawing the sketches for the film in 1942 in his hometown, Sifnos, where he had taken refuge during the Occupation. He worked under the boot of the Italian conqueror, risking arrest. The film was lost during the Civil War and it was not until 1980 that a negative was found and restored.

1945-12-04 | el

A Few Quick Facts: Japan

Short US propaganda cartoon.

1945-07-01 | en

Wizards

After the death of his mother, the evil mutant wizard Blackwolf discovers some long-lost military technologies. Full of ego and ambition, Blackwolf claims his mother's throne, assembles an army and sets out to brainwash and conquer Earth. Meanwhile, Blackwolf's gentle twin brother, the bearded and sage Avatar, calls upon his own magical abilities to foil Blackwolf's plans for world domination -- even if it means destroying his own flesh and blood.

1977-02-09 | en

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Three children evacuated from London during World War II are forced to stay with an eccentric spinster. The children's initial fears disappear when they find out she is in fact a trainee witch.

1971-10-07 | en

Mynarski Death Plummet

A completely hand-made historical micro-epic about the final minutes in the life of Winnipeg's doomed Second World War hero, Andrew Mynarski (1916-1944). Combining wartime aviation melodrama with classical and avant-garde animation techniques (including stop-motion, silhouettes, bleaching, scratching, hand-painting and rubbing letratone patterns directly on the celluloid) Mynarski Death Plummet is a psychedelic photo-chemical war picture on the theme of self-sacrifice, immortality and jellyfish.

2014-09-05 | fr

Shielding the Flame

2023-04-19 | pl

Der Fuehrer's Face

A marching band of Germans, Italians, and Japanese march through the streets of swastika-motif Nutziland, serenading "Der Fuehrer's Face." Donald Duck, not living in the region by choice, struggles to make do with disgusting Nazi food rations and then with his day of toil at a Nazi artillery factory. After a nervous breakdown, Donald awakens to find that his experience was in fact a nightmare.

1943-01-01 | en

The Incredible Mr. Limpet

Milquetoast Henry Limpet experiences his fondest wish and is transformed into a fish. As a talking fish he assists the US Navy in hunting German submarines during World War II.

1964-03-28 | en

Lupin the Third: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure

The infamous bandit Harimao hid a treasure, and to retrieve it, Lupin and the gang must gather three lost statues. When the Nazi-like group Neo-Himmel make a run for the goods, Lupin reluctantly partners with the aging "double-O" MI-6 agent Sir Archer and his granddaughter Diana to gather the statues first. Can this unorthodox team bond well enough to see this mission through?

1995-08-04 | ja

Sainsbury's: Mog's Christmas Calamity

Christmas 2015 saw Judith Kerr's family favourite literary character, Mog, reimagined in her first-ever animated foray.

2015-12-01 | en

Fable of the Fabrics

A particularly vicious Father Time with a hit-list in his Book of Doom seeks to wipe out characters brought to life from fabric patterns. This neat concept for a cartoon washing powder commercial can be credited to Alexander Mackendrick, who worked at the J Walter Thompson advertising agency before making films at Ealing and then Hollywood.

1942-01-01 | en

The Man Who Planted Trees

The story of one shepherd's single-handed quest to re-forest a desolate valley in the foothills of the French Alps throughout the first half of the 20th century.

1987-05-13 | fr

Health for the Americas: Cleanliness Brings Health

The comparison of two rural families to demonstrate the need for proper hygiene and the consequences of its neglect.

1945-06-29 | en