Pope Benedict XVI led the Catholic Church into its greatest crisis since the Reformation: the global child sex abuse scandal. We tell the story of his rise and fall which is symptomatic of the failings of the Church. We tell the story of a man who dedicated his life to preserving the Church but instead led it into its greatest crisis: Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. During his 30 years working within the Vatican he was the key figure in […]
Read more »
Rising seas will be one of the biggest challenges we face in the next few centuries. Island states will disappear, coastlines will shift. On the basis of scientists’ predictions, billions of dollars are being invested in coastal protection measures. But not everything can be protected. The polar ice caps are melting and water is on its way. If all the ice in Antarctica and Greenland melted, the seal level would rise by over 66 metres. Rising sea levels will be […]
Read more »
In 2004, German citizen Khaled El-Masri was kidnapped and detained by the CIA. The story of an innocent man who fell victim to geopolitical power interests. In 2004, while on a bus trip close to the Macedonian border, the German citizen Khaled El-Masri disappeared. He was kidnapped by the CIA and taken to a secret prison near Kabul as part of an “extraordinary rendition”. Five months later, he was released in a forest in Albania. His case was the […]
Read more »
Until recently, an elephant was killed in Africa every 15 minutes. Today, nature protection has risen to defend itself. Thanks to Western funding, military training, and cutting-edge high tech, rangers are cracking down on poachers. However, this aggressive militarisation has a dark side. An alarming view behind the scenes of Africa’s armed conservation efforts that Western aid has actively propelled. Today, many African national parks seem to finally have achieved, what nature conservationists around the world have been demanding for […]
Read more »
In Lebanon, Hezbollah now controls broad areas of political and social life and has become a state within a state. How can the “Party of God” be confronted. In Lebanon, no important political decisions are taken any more without Hezbollah, the Shiite “party of God”. Since the end of the civil war in 1990, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Lebanon has been exposed to growing political divisions. Supported and financed by Iran, Hezbollah now threatens to destabilize the country and the region. […]
Read more »
Our world is defined by the failure of communism, the rise of market economics, and by the power of politicised religion. All of these forces came together in the dramatic year of 1979. The Islamic revolution in Iran under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, Pope John Paul II’s visit to Poland, the opening of China under Deng Xiaoping, Great Britain’s neoliberal shift under Margaret Thatcher and the invasion of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan – these are just some of […]
Read more »
Twenty years after Yeltsin’s resignation and Putin’s inauguration in December 1999, we take a look at the children born that year who are now coming of age. What do they think? How do they want to live in the future? The Putin era in Russian politics began on 31 December 1999, after Yeltsin’s resignation and shortly before the millennium celebrations. In his first New Year’s address, the new head of state assured the Russian people that “freedom of speech, freedom […]
Read more »
Since 1977, 36,000 African Jews have been sent from Ethiopia to Israel. But since their evacuation, many have felt like second-class citizens. The younger generation protests against discrimination. In several, sometimes secret evacuations which began in 1977, over 36,000 African Jews were taken from Ethiopia to the Promised Land. They were supposed to “arrive home” at last. But in Israel, many have always felt like second-class citizens. The first generation of immigrants had to survive on low-paid jobs; the younger […]
Read more »
An investigation into the German intelligence agency’s involvement in arms exports to war zones around the world. Tanks to Sudan, weapons to Myanmar or Yemen… Secret documents leaked to our film team after years of research prove that the German intelligence agency BND is heavily involved in arms exports to crisis and war zones around the world. The top secret missions are carried out so that they dodge the responsible authorities, and bypasss the War Weapons Control Act and international […]
Read more »
There’s a war going on in Yemen that the world hears very little about. Journalists rarely manage to report from the country. We offer rare insights and highlight the plight of the war-ravaged population. There’s a war going on in Yemen that the world hears very little about. Large parts of the country have been completely destroyed. Of its total population of 28 million, 22 million Yemenis depend on humanitarian aid and eight million are at direct risk of starvation. […]
Read more »
With the collapse of the economy, thousands of Spanish horses were abandoned by their owners. Lois runs a rescue farm where she has been saving horses for the past ten years. We follow her as she goes about her daily work. During the building boom in Spain, horses became a new status symbol. People with no experience of horses suddenly saw an opportunity to breed valuable thoroughbreds for money. Then the crisis hit, demand declined and the owners had to […]
Read more »
The suspension of the INF Treaty between the US and Russia shows just how little the superpowers trust each other today. Are we facing nuclear re-armament and the end of a peaceful era? At the end of the Cold War, thousands of nuclear weapons were withdrawn from Europe. Since then, however, the political situation has deteriorated drastically again, and a nuclear arms race between the US and Russia is already in full swing. Are we facing a new Cold War? […]
Read more »