Fort St. David, Cuddalore, southern India, 1748. While colonial empires battle to seize an enormous territory, rich in spices and precious metals beyond the wildest dreams, and try to gain the favor of the local kings, Robert Clive (1725-1774), a frustrated but talented clerk who works for the East Indian Company and struggles to earn his fortune, makes a bold decision that will change his life forever.
This portait of life on the tea plantations is decidedly rosy – clearly, there are no exploited workers here. However, the film provides an intriguing overview of tea production – from the planting of tea seeds to the final shipping of the precious leaves across the globe.
In 1853, as the British and Russian empires compete to gain and maintain their place in the dreadful Great Game of political intrigues and alliances whose greatest prize is the domination of India and the border territories, Major Geoffrey Vickers must endure several betrayals and misfortunes before he can achieve his revenge at the Balaclava Heights, on October 25, 1854, the most glorious day of the Crimean War.
In 1880 South Africa, young Betsy has an adventure involving Zulu Tribesmen, Dutch Settlers, The Vortrekkers, and her older brother's romance of Katie Snee.
Barvitý historický snímek Zoltana Kordy Čtyři pera, natočený podle oblíbeného a mnohokrát zfilmovaného románu A. E. W. Masona, opěvuje anglické dobývání afrických území: boje se súdánskými vzbouřenci, zjednodušeně nazývanými derviši, v posledních dvou desetiletích 19. století se stávají barvitou kulisu pro osudy mladého důstojníka Harryho z váženého šlechtického rodu, jenž vzdá vojenskou dráhu a je proto svými kamarády i snoubenkou označen za zbabělce - dostane od každého z nich bělavé pírko.
Albany, New York, 1776. After marrying, Gil and Lana travel north to settle on a small farm in the Mohawk River Valley, but soon their growing prosperity and happiness are threatened by the sinister sound of drums that announce dark times of revolution and war.
Star-crossed lovers, Robert and Ariana, are caught up in the New Zealand wars of the 1860s. Ariana is claimed by the Maniapoto people as one of their own and, despite Robert's chivalrous defence, is taken by them and must help them prepare for war. Robert likewise must do his patriotic duty and enlists to fight on the other side. He volunteers to ride despatch, thinking it may give him an opportunity to see Ariana again, which it does, but their joy is short-lived; Maniapoto women fight beside their men, and furthermore she is a Rangitira (noble) and will not let her people down. The climax is the siege of Oraku Pa where 300 Maori hold off 2000 troops for three days. The Maniapoto are defeated, but Ariana, although wounded, survives to be reunited with Robert.
A jewel thief and a con artist are rivals in the theft of a valuable diamond and gem necklace in Bombay and as the Japanese Army invades China.
When notorious pirate Henry Morgan is made governor of Jamaica, he enlists the help of some of his former partners in ridding the Caribbean of buccaneers. When one of them apparently abducts the previous governor's pretty daughter and joins up with the rebels, things are set for a fight.
This 1944 black and white silent film provides brief glimpses of the lifestyle among Kenya's white/European settlers during the Second World War.
England, 1763. After being convicted of a crime, the young and beautiful Abigail Hale agrees, to escape the gallows, to serve fourteen years as a slave in the colony of Virginia, whose inhabitants begin to hear and fear the sinister song of the threatening drums of war that resound in the wild Ohio valley.
At the beginning of the 1960s, in Salisbury (now Harare), in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the government of Ian Smith hanged three black revolutionaries who had nevertheless been pardoned by the Queen of England. René Vautier, with ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Party for Unity), denounces this killing. Expelled by the Rhodesian police (informed by the French secret services), the filmmaker shoots a film in Algeria in the form of an indictment against colonial savagery. The film was first banned in France, then authorized in 1965.
Po vyhlášení svaté války za osvobození Súdánu od britsko-egyptské nadvlády v 80. letech 19. století zmasakroval fanatický súdánský vůdce Muhammad Ahmad osmitisícovou armádu pod britským vedením a pochoduje na strategické město Chartúm, jenž leží na soutoku Bílého a Modrého Nilu. Britská vláda premiéra Williama Ewarta Gladstonea rozhoduje vyslat Charlese George Gordona do Chartúmu, aby zajistil mír a zachránil město. Mezitím se Londýnské vládě nechce poslat nezbytné posily, protože vměšování v koloniích je politicky nepopulární. Aby předešel katastrofě, odkloní Gordon Nil a vytvoří tak kolem Chartúmu vodní příkop a navíc ukradne mahdiho dobytek, aby obléhanému městu zajistil jídlo. Když ale Nil ustoupí, tak bitvě, která rozhodne osud Chartúmu, už nestojí nic v cestě.(oficiální text distributora)
Set in 1815, this is the dramatic story of a child of the fur trade, son of a Native mother and a Scottish-Canadian fur trader. John Mackenzie's father is a wintering partner of the Montréal-based North West Company, which was for decades the wealthiest merchant enterprise in North America. To mark his entry into adulthood, twelve-year-old John is travelling for the first time to Fort William, the Company's lavish winter headquarters by Lake Superior. In following his journey, the film reveals the complex network of people--Scottish, French and Native Canadian--that made up fur-trading society and gave a unique flavor to the opening up of Canada's northwest.
Sunshine, an idyllic and almost forgotten island under British rule, is shortly to become independent. But a few days before this event is to take place, the British governor of the island is shot. Her Majesty's secret service is called in and Sam McCready asks Desmond Hannah of Scotland Yard to take charge of the case.
Shot with Malaysian skinheads in Penang, it’s a meditative fantasy on signs, signals and butterflies, leading to pointed reflections on the relationship between British colonial history and popular culture in South-East Asia
Ačkoli má tovární dělník jménem Quaid krásnou manželku, kterou miluje, výlet do mysli mu připadá jako perfektní dovolená od frustrujícího života – skutečné vzpomínky na život super špióna mohou být přesně to, co potřebuje. Ale když se proces zvrtne, Quaid se stane hledaným mužem. Quaid, který je na útěku před policií – kterou řídí kancléř Cohaagen, vůdce svobodného světa – se spojí s povstaleckou bojovnicí, aby našel hlavu ilegálního odboje a zastavil Cohaagena. Linie mezi fantazií a realitou se začne smazávat a osud jeho světa visí na vlásku, když Quaid objeví svou skutečnou identitu, svoji pravou lásku a svůj skutečný osud.
Concerning Violence is based on newly discovered, powerful archival material documenting the most daring moments in the struggle for liberation in the Third World, accompanied by classic text from The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon.
Perleťový knoflík je druhou dokumentární esejí, v nichž Patricio Guzmán rozjímá o historii své země prostřednictvím fenoménu, jenž výrazně určuje její ráz. V Nostalgia de la luz (2010) to bylo světlo z hvězd, které filmaře provázelo na cestě za traumatickým dědictvím pinochetovského režimu, v Perleťovém knoflíku si zvolil vodu. Zlomky vzpomínek, strhující scenérie a vizionářské pohledy do hlubin kosmu se ve filmu skládají v podmanivý celek, podbarvený autorovým emotivním komentářem.
As part of the 2017 UK-India Year of Culture, the British Council and British Film Institute share a unique collection of films documenting the sights and culture of a bygone India. Filmed between 1899-1947, and preserved in the BFI National Archive since then, these rare films capture many glimpses of life in India, from dances and markets, to hunts and pageantry.