1945: Buchenwald concentration camp shortly before liberation: Polish inmate Janowski rescues a small child hidden in a suitcase. A child in the world of death means hope and danger at the same time. When his fellow inmates and members of the secret resistance group discover the boy, they are faced with a difficult decision. But in the end, humanity prevails. The original and first German feature film about life and death in a concentration camp based on an authentic story.
Two American GIs are the only survivors of a unit wiped out in a battle with Japanese troops on an isolated island. The two, who don't like each other, find try to put aside their differences in order to evade the Japanese and survive.
An American patrol has to cross behind enemy lines by skis in order to blow up an important railroad bridge. The task is made harder by conflicts between the platoon's veteran sergeant and its inexperienced lieutenant and by constant attacks by pursuing German troops.
In wartime Italy nuns in a convent regularly smuggle Jewish children out of a nearby internment camp. The Italian army officer in charge suspects what may be going on but deliberately turns a blind eye. When the Germans take over the camp security the nuns' activities become far more dangerous.
During the naval battle of Midway in WWII, the battleship Mutsu was in its home port in Japan. The ship's officers and crew were frustrated at not being able to take part in the fighting. They had been held back by orders from the Naval Ministry, but there was also a plot by saboteurs, who were trying to prevent the sailing of the Mutsu. Director Komori developed a suspenseful plot by including a fictional adaptation of the Russian spy Richard Sorge, who had been captured in Japan and subsequently executed. Komori brings a fictional Russian spy to the screen by portraying him as a military attaché at the German embassy. As Germany was an ally of Japan in WWII, a secret agent being a mole in the German embassy is a perfect cover. The interaction of the saboteurs and the officers and crew of the Mutsu make an exciting story.
The film consists of 3 novellas. 1. On the eve of the Soviet advance into Hungary, workers at a military plant risk everything to strike in defiance, displaying unwavering courage and solidarity. 2. During a fierce battle, three Soviet soldiers shelter in a peasant’s hut where a dying mother begs them to baptize her newborn - an act of compassion they fulfill, leaving behind three stars from their caps as a lasting gift. 3. After liberating a Hungarian town, Soviet troops rescue a hidden throng of civilians, huddled in underground tunnels, from imminent Nazi brutality, saving countless lives in the process.
Sandesaya (Sinhalese language word meaning The Message) is a 1960 film. The film based on the war between the Sinhalese people and the Portuguese invaders in Sri Lanka. It was directed by Sri Lankan film director Lester James Peries. It was produced by K. Gunaratnam on behalf of the Cinemas Company on the request of Raj Kapoor.
Based on an excerpt from the novel by L.N.Tolstoy "War and Peace."
The war of 1812. The defeated Napoleonic army is retreating. Three Russian soldiers settled in a snowy forest near a fire: a young (Zaletayev), an elderly and a middle-aged one. Zaletayev fantasizes — as if he had captured Napoleon. The soldiers laugh good-naturedly at him. After dinner, they fall asleep...
Two Frenchmen go to the clearing — an officer and a soldier. Russian soldiers wake up and, seeing that the officer is barely standing on his feet from cold and hunger, take him to the colonel. The French soldier sits down to the fire. The Russians give him porridge and vodka. The soldier, encouraged, sings a french song. Zaletayev echoes him. A tired Frenchman falls asleep on Zaletayev’s shoulder. The soldiers carefully shelter him. “Also people,” an elderly soldier says with a sigh.
Five Yugoslav women who consorted with the German occupiers are publicly humiliated and banished by the Yugoslav partisans but they take up arms to fend for themselves.
The young sailor Morten returns home from his travels in the midst of the general strike of 1944, where he is confronted with the occupation. He joins a resistance group and actively participates in the struggle. There is no time for relaxation. He must always be on guard. Only with the sweet and charming young Lise can he relax a little and be himself. During a factory sabotage, the group is captured by the Germans.
The film depicts the first month of 1945 when the Russian Red Army broke into the eastern part of Germany and forced millions of civilians to flee in the coldest of winter. While the Russians invaded Ostpreussen hundred of thousands of civilians were evacuated by ships. Gotenhafen was the last open port and ships left the town almost by the minute, overloaded by refugees. One of the last ships to leave Gotenhafen was the 'Wilhelm Gustloff', a former 'Kraft durch Freude' pleasure cruiser designed for 1000 passengers. Until today it is unknown how many people were on board but it is said to be around 10.000. The ship sunk without a trace and only a handful of people survived this hellish nightmare.
A certain number of French fighter pilots who will not accept the Second Armistice at Compiègne nor Vichy's orders decide to join the USSR. Once they have reached Moscow they resume training and form a squadron they call "Normandie". Reinforced in 1944, the squadron wins many victories. Following the acts of valor displayed by its pilots during the Battle of the Nieman River, it becomes the "Normandie-Niemen" squadron for the rest of times...
In 1958, during Chiang Kai-shek’s threats to retake the mainland, the Kuomintang navy attacked Fujian Province’s coast. The landing ship “Dacheng” was sunk by our torpedo boats, and Captain Wu John led troops to an unnamed island. Naval political instructor Wang Yongzhi and others, who fell into the water after a collision, also drifted there. They launched a political offensive against the enemy, who, unaware of our capabilities, awaited rescue. Prisoner Sun Gui swam back to his comrades, witnessed the cook’s beating, and returned to our side. Wang Yongzhi, seeing the enemy’s wait for rescue, forced them to reveal themselves. The enemy tried a fake negotiation to delay time. At night, Cai Dage brought reinforcements, eliminating the enemy on the island and their rescue ship.
A remake and rewriting by director Bernard Borderie and scripters of a well-made 1932 film, this routine French drama seems a little outdated. The story has changed from a Russian officer who returns home from the war to find his wife has remarried, to a former paratrooper who tries to drive a stolen truck back from Morocco and suffers an accident -- and the same fate as the Russian. As a result of his injuries and the subsequent delay, the ex-military man is unable to get home as scheduled, and the woman he loves decides that he has left her. Once she "realizes" that supposed truth, she decides to marry her boss. As in the earlier film, one of the protagonists ends up in the French Foreign Legion and all three head toward a fateful meeting in a North African desert.
The film focuses on life in a World War II German penal battalion camp somewhere in Russia. The convicts include a heroic doctor unjustly convicted of avoiding military service, an officer who retreated against orders, and common criminals. It shows their life in the camp, clearing mines, living in trenches on the front line.