Best Documentary

Belarus, a former Soviet Union republic, is the last dictatorship in Europe. Over recent weeks, the country has served as Russia’s rear base for its attack on Ukraine. Its president, Alexander Lukashenko, ally and accomplice of Vladimir Putin, seems even prepared to commit his own troops alongside Russian soldiers to take Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Exceptionally, teams from Enquête Exclusive bring you an exclusive plunge into this little-known country that, since its independence in 1994, has consistently shaken the international order. On May 23 last year, Belarus hijacked a commercial airliner in the open skies to capture an opposition journalist. Last autumn, it triggered a migration crisis when it threatened to open its border with Poland to hundreds of thousands of refugees. Today, this totalitarian state is completed closed to the Western world. The press is muzzled, the opposition hounded and gagged, freedoms shackled by an inflexible power. Several days before the invasion of Ukraine, our reporters entered the country undercover, passing themselves off as ordinary tourists. They were in Minsk, the capital, when Russia attacked Ukraine after massing its troops on the border. When filming the everyday lives of Belarussians they discovered a violent, intransigent police state that throws anyone who challenges the regime’s authority into prison. Here, people live in terror and even the young remain silent. “In Belarus, you don’t talk to strangers, and especially not about politics, it’s too dangerous,” they confess. Our crews also visited a bordering country, Lithuania, to film those who have fled the country to escape prison. In Vilnius, we interviewed Svetlana Tikanovskaia, the foremost opposition leader. To get near her, you have to observe the strictest security protocol. Even abroad, this woman fears for her life. Our reporters also investigated the Belarus president. For 30 years, Alexander Lukashenko has ruled his country with an iron fist and terrorized his people. His obsessions: remain in power by any means and authorise the return of Russian nuclear weapons onto his territory. At the time when Vladimir Putin, his ally, is doing his utmost to overthrow the Ukrainian government, we offer you an exceptional journey into a land that is already a vassal state of Russia. A foretaste of what awaits the Ukrainians if they are defeated. Authors : Emilie Iob, Pierre Chabert

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Irish-American Tom Murphy wants to marry an Irish woman and has the perfect opportunity to find her when his best friend marries in Ireland. He then discovers that the last person he wants to be with may be the only person he can't live without. Director: Sean Lackey Cast: Sean Lackey, Fred Willard, Colm Meaney Comedy Full length movie

On the border between China and Kazakhstan, lives the Kazakh people, including Alik, eagle trainer. Director: Frédéric Fougea

The Bouches du Rhone department has just been through the worst fire season in a decade. Fires made worse by drought and high winds have caused huge blazes across the region. More than 8000 acres of land have burned. After three months of constant battle, the firemen are exhausted and everyone is praying for rain. But at the beginning of September, the weather forecasts are predicting more wind. The fire season is far from over. Directors: Sacha Bollet, Benoit Demarle, Jacques Bedel Series: Firefighters in the Heart of Danger

For many years, scientists thought that animals were incapable of having emotions; they were merely living robots – biological machines ruled simply by urges, instincts and hormones.

Provence has the hottest, driest summers in France. Day after day, the sun shines over the exceptionally dry forests. The unique landscape is under threat from a phenomenon that is sometimes natural but often manmade – fire. Fire-fighters have succeeded in putting in place a system to keep fires under control. Fire engines are placed at strategic points and teams of fire-fighters are ready for action. For ten years, there are have been few fires…but this year, they’re back with a vengeance. Three months before the summer season, the area’s fire-fighters are preparing. They go through intensive training sessions on land, in the sea and in the skies. Directors: Sacha Bollet, Benoit Demarle, Jacques Bedel Series: Firefighters in the Heart of Danger

After a hot, dry spring, the woodland around Marseille was ready to go up in flames. Summer 2016 would be a record breaker in terms of fire. The fire-fighters would need to show what they were made of. To protect the Mediterranean forest, teams of fire-fighters require military technology, operational tactics, social networks and ancestral knowledge. But suspicious fires spreading into urban areas would take them to breaking point. Reinforcements from all over France would be sent to take control. Directors: Sacha Bollet, Benoit Demarle, Jacques Bedel Series: Firefighters in the Heart of Danger 0:00 Introduction 1:10 Fire Commissioner, Bouches du Rhône Fire and Rescue Brigade 5:22 Battalion Chief, Tactical fire unit 8:34 Châteauneuf-les-Martigues 9:37 Luynes fire department, near Aix-en-Provence 10:00 Driver engineer, CCF Forest fire truck 16:46 Marignane Civil security air base 17:11 Canadair pilot, instructor 19:13 Officer, Helicopter water bomber 20:49 Forest expert, Officer, Tactical fire unit 29:12 Calanque of Ensuès-la-Redonne 38:22 Officer, Tactical fire unit, National Fire Office 39:01 Marignane Civil security air base 39:24 Chief of technical operations 40:07 Martigues

00:00 Like us, animals are exposed to parasites, bacteria and viruses – the germs which cause disease. How do they survive these attacks? 6:35 Dogs cleaner than some 10:22 Chicks ready to be eaten 16:03 Why are herbivores never sick ? 20:15 Oldest primates living deep in the forest 26:25 Porcupine using animals to their advantage 32:30 Special plant used to treat every illnesses 38:57 Rare fruits and rare animals 46:00 Time to hunt ! 50:47 Conclusion

Summer has arrived sooner than normal in the Bouches du Rhone with temperatures well over 30° Celsius and the forests and woodlands are already suffering from the drought. The spring was hot and dry and there hasn’t been a drop of rain for over a month. A pyromaniac is on the loose and the area has already experienced major blazes. From the start, it looks like this fire season is going to be a tough one. Director: Sacha Bollet, Benoit Demarle, Jacques Bedel Series: Firefighters in the Heart of Danger

00:00 Altruism, an act that bestows a benefit on the recipient while conferring a cost to the actor, is one of the central paradoxes of evolution. In the wild, where only the fittest survive, adopting other animals’ offspring is not really in line with Darwin’s theory of evolution. 7:27 Helping others to survive 19:22 Long grooming 28:22 Babies need help to survive 39:51 How are nests created ? 47:27 Fast Runners and Climbers

00:00 In Guatemala, drivers and travelers, installed in old American buses with random reliability, solve the problems that arise on their way in a very Latin way. To get to the end of these mountain tracks ravaged by floods and landslides, they have a secret: never get upset. 08:30 For people in Guatemala, taking the road without praying is impossible. 15:00 In town, many old buses leave in all directions to cross the country. 25:40 In the region, more than 11 million people live in poverty, especially the descendants of the Mayas decimated by the colonists. 27:55 The Pacaya volcano is often active, terrifying the villagers, its last eruption was in June 2018. 31:55 With these roads, an accident can happen so quickly! 37:22 To celebrate the fight back against Spanish colonization, the inhabitants of Todos Santos drink, dress up and organize a large equestrian gathering. 43:40 To get out of the jungle, Jose drove 18 hours in a row. Directed by: Alexandre Spalaikovich, Guillaume Lhotellier

In the 1950s, rhesus macaques living on the island of Koshima in Japan started to wash the sweet potatoes researchers gave them to eat.

It is the most closed country in the world, the last great communist, paranoid and aggressive dictatorship. In North Korea, nothing or almost nothing has changed since the creation of the country by Kim Il-Sung in 1953. 23 million North Koreans survive in absolute misery, without any freedom, prisoners of impassable borders. It is in this distressing universe that a group of French people have decided to spend their holidays. 8500 euros for three weeks is as expensive as a stay in the Seychelles. But for this price they will have to be satisfied with rationed food, hotels without comfort, outdated buses... Not to mention the permanent surveillance of threatening guides. Claude, Henri and Jacqueline will discover cities without cars, empty shops, casinos without money. They will have to submit to mandatory visits, propaganda and forced tributes to the eternal president of North Korea. An incredible journey, as North Korea prepares for the rise to power of Kim Jong-Un, grandson of the founder of the first communist dynasty in history. 00:00 Every stranger is a potential spy 01:35 North Korea, the most closed country in the world 06:32 North Korean amusement park 09:37 1953, Korea is officially divided in two 10:27 Korean Demilitarized Zone 13:35 The War Museum 15:02 In North Korea, we are rewriting history 19:13 An old air force fighter 19:37 Trophies, weapons taken from the enemy 20:26 Mural on the Battle of Seoul 21:22 Pyongyang, the capital of the communist regime 24:47 Kim Il-Sung, the local Stalin 27:38 The only pizzeria in the country 30:13 Pyongyang Embroidery Institute 32:23 The totalitarian regime 33:55 Model schools 38:48 The North Korean army 40:46 Mount Paektu 43:50 Kim Il-Sung's birthplace 48:46 Ultra sensitive classified area Director: Brisard JC; Spalaikovich A.

Here is an original journey, a journey that tells the story of British Columbia: the journey of a log from the forest to the sawmill. We come across a lumberjack who cuts down thousand-year-old trees in perilous conditions. A tugboat captain dragging behind him a raft of 30,000 tons of wood. A beachcomber, a sort of sea scrap merchant, who lives off the logs he harvests on the shore. Operators who operate sort of tumbling boats to bring the wood to the sawmill. And there is the ocean everywhere. Because in British Columbia, wood and sea are intimately linked…

Man is not the only social animal. At the beginning of 2001, Franz de Waal published his work on a group of chimpanzees in the Arnhem zoo, in the Netherlands. He showed the existence of elaborate and subtle rites which, according to him, revealed a political organization. This fueled the foundation of an argument much debated in today’s scientific world. Man would therefore no longer stand as the only «political animal » as defined by Aristotle. Schemes, coalitions, and mediation are all aspects of chimpanzee behavior. Long before man took hold of the political domain, nature had provided other animal species with a whole array of political stratagems, from the most cunning to the most egalitarian: polyergus ants have been practicing slavery for millions of years, hamadryas baboons have a right of veto and deer on the Isle of Rum have established their own democracy. Biologists have even realized that some traits of character used by politicians to fulfill their ambitions (and reach their goals) can be found in other animal species. Domination, alliance-building, seduction and manipulation are forms of intelligence no longer monopolized by man. Barriers continue to fall as discoveries on animal societies throughout the world progress. Author(s) : Bertrand Loyer, Guillaume Poyet Director(s) : Guillaume Poyet

The plains of the Masaï Mara in Kenya, a dominant male, twenty submissive females, two warring brothers, a tree of forbidden fruit, a snake : this is the olive baboon version of Genesis. Effortlessly combining scientific rigor, objectivity and humor, this documentary spends eight months around a "dormitory-tree" in the intimacy of a troop of baboons caught up in hierarchical conflicts. They have to put up with anything : floods, rivalries, alliances, parasites, and even cheetah attacks. Only a unified troop could possibly overcome these ordeals...

00:00 In the vast emptiness of the Pacific Ocean, tectonic movements construct or swallow islands. In the Tongan archipelago, two little-known animals have learned to cope with these ephemeral lands risen from the ocean depths: the sooty tern, a seabird that never dares wet its wings for fear of drowning, and the Alvin shrimp, a blind crustacean that manages to find its way around the abyss. 5:47 This bird Never gets tired 19:57 Life in the void 26:36 an endless banquet of tuna 34:11 Russian Roulette under water 45:00 Whales fishing near the island

Roads in remote provinces of Ukraine are in a disastrous state. Mikola must allow two days to get to work in Sarata, an isolated village in the mountains. In some parts of the country, life is still like it was in 1950. At the wheel of his Jigouli, which he repaired himself, Dimitri, a postman, faces chaotic paths to deliver mail to the inhabitants of remote villages. His miserable salary barely allows him to live. 00:00 Ukraine: In the mist of the Carpathians 5:12 Coveted gems waiting to be discovered. 19:55 Repairing your tank to get to work 24:50 radioactivity kills some but not all 37:43 a drop of vodka before going to bed 45:16 Ukraine, the land of the sun stone

00:00 Around the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua, life has struggled for thousands of years to re-emerge from the ashes. Underground, vampire and other bat species have colonized the miles of tunnels created by hot flowing magma. In the crater, parakeets and vultures have made nests on cliffs exposed to toxic gases. On the flanks of this still active mountain, the vegetation has been burnt away by lava. 7:44 Greenry inside magma 17:06 Agitation in the dusk 28:03 Life over the volcanos 37:17 The threat is here 47:04 Animal eating crows

In Alaska, the fresh water that feeds the rivers is snowmelt from North America’s highest mountains and most active volcanoes. Time and again, they erupt and poison the rivers. Scientists have only just begun to piece together what might have happened nearly 2,000 years ago, when one race of salmon faced the death of their natal river and were forced back to the open ocean.

Deva and her three monkeys, Shankar, Gori and Illama travel from village to village in deep India, performing to entertain local spectators. Director: Frédéric Fougea Series: The Lords of the Animals

Located at the tip of Florida, Miami is one of the most attractive cities in the United States. For many, it is also the most rebellious in America. Since the pandemic, Miami is the place where Covid-19 does not exist. While New York was left a shadow of its former self, Miami continued to thrive by breaking the health rules. Historically, Florida has always been the subversive state of the United States: drug lords, Cuban refugees and the fiery stars of the 1980s all found refuge there. In recent months, Miami has become “The Place to Be”, the city unlike any other, regaining its nickname of “Miami Vice”. Today, the city attracts Americans from all over the country. Young people, entire families, but also business leaders and investors. Miami is also the place of choice for the rebellious, those who value their freedom and their life choices above all else. In Miami Beach, Little Havana, Biscaine Bay, as far as the Keys and the Everglades, is the meeting place for party people, like Suzy Tailor, the emblematic figure of the city, queen of Cuban parties, deemed “the Diva of Miami”. The city is also the place to be for creators, artists, eccentrics and libertarians, such as Cris Nelson, creator of “Free Florida” who, every weekend, gathers hundreds of people to burn anti-Covid surgical masks. Not to mention the survivalists, fringe people, rednecks and early Trumpists, who include Karyn Turk, a 48-year-old former Miss Florida and mother of three, someone with her fingers in the pie at Mar-a-Lago, former President Trump’s spectacular Palm Beach residence. She calls for a Republican revolt. An unconstrained immersion into Miami, the most rebellious city in America. © BABEL DOC-BABEL PRESS Director: Sophie Przychodny, Manon Heurtel, Sebastien Daguerressar

00:00 On the volcanic island of New-Britain off the coast of Papua New Guinea, a handful of animals have learned to live with the Earth’s moods. When ash from a volcanic eruption invades their habitat, the choice is simple: leave or stay and adapt. In truth, it’s not that easy, since volcanoes and their actions are unpredictable and each creature responds in its own way. 8:52: The call of the volcanos 16:32 Life under the ashes 23:33 Love under the volcano 35:30 Animals run as the volcano explodes 43:30 Calmer life on the other side