Agnieszka Holland
1) Mr. Jones
Description
Set on the eve of WWII, Hitler is rising to power and Stalin's Soviet propaganda machine is pushing their "utopia" to the West. Meanwhile an ambitious young journalist, Gareth Jones, travels to Moscow to uncover the truth behind the propaganda, but then gets a tip that could expose an international conspiracy, one that could cost him and his informant their lives. Jones goes on a life-or-death journey to uncover the truth that inspired George Orwell's...
2) Charlatan
Description
Jan Mikolasek, a 20th century Czech herbal healer won fame and fortune treating celebrities of the interwar, Nazi, and Communist eras with his uncanny knack for 'urinary diagnosis'. But his passion for healing welled up from the same source as a lust for cruelty, sadism, and an incapacity for love that only one person could ever quell, his assistant, Frantisek. As a show trial threatens to pry open these secrets and undo him, Jan's dichotomies are...
Description
A young orphan named Mary is sent to live at the dark and foreboding English estate of her widowed uncle. She discovers a secret garden which was abandoned after a tragic accident. With the help of her crippled cousin Colin, and Dickon the country boy, her spirit is gradually reawakened as they bring the garden back to life.
Series
Criterion collection volume 985
Description
"As World War II splits Europe, sixteen-year-old German Jew Salomon (Marco Hofschneider) is separated from his family after fleeing with them to Poland, and finds himself reluctantly assuming various ideological identities in order to hide the deadly secret of his Jewishness. He is bounced from a Soviet orphanage, where he plays a dutiful Stalinist, to the Russian front, where he hides in plain sight as an interpreter for the German army, and back...
6) In darkness
Description
"Based on a true story. Leopold Socha, a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi-occupied city in Poland, one day encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. He hides them for money in the labyrinth of the town's sewers beneath the bustling activity of the city above. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something very unexpected: the unlikely alliance between Socha and...
7) Danton
Series
Criterion collection volume 464
Description
Georges Danton, the popular revolutionary leader, returns to Paris at a time when the new Republic is in disarray. Robespierre and his allies have set up a monstrous dictatorship, beginning the infamous "Reign of Terror." Danton pleads with the people for an end to the bloodshed which violates the spirit of their revolution.
8) Green border
Description
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, Green Border immediately drew controversy from the Polish government for its depiction of the European migrant crisis on the Poland-Belarus border. Shot in stark black-and-white, this riveting thriller explores the intractable conflict from multiple perspectives: a Syrian family fleeing ISIS caught between cruel border guards in both countries; young guards instructed to brutally reject...