Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

Chronicling events that unfolded over 93 days in 2013 and 2014, this documentary witnesses the formation of a new civil rights movement in Ukraine. What started as peaceful student demonstrations supporting European integration morphed into a full-fledged violent revolution calling for the resignation of the nation's president. The film captures the remarkable mobilization of nearly a million citizens from across the country protesting the corrupt political regime that utilized extreme force against its own people to suppress their demands and freedom of expression.

Austrian director Michael Glawogger travels to five countries to focus on some of the worst jobs imaginable: Ukrainian miners crawl into tiny cracks in old coal pits to scratch out a few bags of winter fuel; Indonesian workers trudge long distances carrying baskets with hundreds of pounds of sulfur chunks extracted from a steaming mountain; Pakistanis risk explosions and burial under tons of scrap iron as they dismantle huge carrier ships. The visuals are everything here. Despite the hardships depicted, many sequences have a dreamlike beauty. In addition, the director has a bone-dry sense of irony; during the Ukraine scenes, he frequently cuts away to a statue of Stakhanov, the "hero" lauded by the Soviets for his superhuman work habits. He also shows us an old German smelting works that's been converted into a theme park.

A team of Ukrainian journalists from The Associated Press trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. As the only international reporters who remain in the city, they capture what later become defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and more.
Drawing on director Mstyslav Chernov's daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war, the film is a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it's like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe.

A catastrophe still reverberating today with Chernobyl on the front line of war. Formerly secret KGB files reveal the astonishing truth about the 1986 explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine, with leading experts and eyewitness accounts.
Newly declassified evidence from KGB archives reveals that the KGB had concerns about the safety of the Chernobyl nuclear plant even as it was being built. The film includes first-hand accounts from survivors, including Oleksiy Ananenko, who braved radioactive waters to prevent a second explosion, and Maryna Sivets, whose unborn child's life was put at risk.

Although the end of the Soviet Union also meant the end of the KGB, it did not mean the end of secret service activities. FSB and the foreign intelligence service SVR took over the tasks. Under the secret service officer Vladimir Putin, the tasks of the secret service were redefined, and digital age with the Internet brought new possibilities for internal and external espionage and for the manipulation of public opinion.
Coup d'etats, assassinations, sex scandals, radioactive poisoning....it's the stuff of a Bond movie. But in today's Russia, it's all very real. Under Vladimir Putin, the FSB rules Russia with an iron rod directly from the Kremlin. To challenge its authority, even from apparent safety abroad, means risking your life. The KGB has even managed to outlive communism itself. Today, Russia is no longer a State with a Security Service: instead, the Security Service has a State.

Lev Parnas' rise from a small-time hustler to a key figure in one of the biggest political scandals of recent years is nothing short of astonishing. This documentary unravels how a non-political businessman became entangled in Donald Trump’s inner circle, working alongside Rudy Giuliani to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Through Lev's own words, and insights from his wife Svetlana, we witness his journey from being a pawn in Trump’s orbit to the courtroom where he faced his 2021 conviction.
The film delves into Lev's realization of being manipulated for political gain, as well as the personal and legal consequences that followed. With a unique insider perspective, the documentary paints a gripping portrait of Lev's involvement in the Trump-Ukraine scandal, shedding light on the complexities of power, loyalty, and the destructive reach of political ambition.