HBO Europe

Gerta grows up in 1930s Brno in a mixed Czech-German family, which brings her into conflict with her father as he embraces Nazi ideology. Despite this, they remain connected through their shared love of music. During the occupation, Gerta joins the student resistance with her beloved Karel, but the war takes everything from her and leaves her with a dark secret that shapes her future. After the war, though innocent, Gerta is violently forced into the wild expulsion and must leave her hometown with her infant daughter. She survives the hardest years on a rural farm, reunites with Karel, and returns to Brno hoping for a normal life—yet the past continues to haunt her. The two-part TV film Gerta Schnirch offers a personal view of 20th-century history through the fate of a woman caught between two worlds.

In late eighties, in Ceausescu's Romania, a black market VHS bootlegger and a courageous female translator brought the magic of Western films to the Romanian people and sowed the seeds of a revolution.

Composed from the conversations that the director holds with people passing by in the street under his Warsaw apartment, each story in 'The Balcony Movie' is unique and deals with the way we try to cope with life as individuals. All together, they create a self-portrait of contemporary human life, and the passers-by present a composite picture of today's world.

A dynamic and emotional story of fighting, passion and sacrifice. From 2016 to 2018, the filmmakers accompanied Joanna Jedrzejczyk, a multiple UFC champion, who at her time conquered the world of female MMA. To stay on top, the Polish fighter has to constantly confront her opponents and her own body, which is forced to make superhuman efforts over and over again. "Invincible" reveals the behind-the-scenes fights of modern gladiators, bluntly showing the blood, sweat, tears and overwhelming loneliness that are the price of the road to success in sports on a global scale.

69-year-old Jola puts on elaborate make-up, while her husband spouts casual abuse in the background, how she never had much in her head and is basically worthless when it comes down to it. So Jola leaves Italy on a train bound for her native Poland. There, on the beach, she takes a trip down memory lane with her girlfriends: how she married the young man who got her pregnant, swore to care for him “in good times and in bad”, raised her six children and put up with punches, put-downs and her husband’s drinking problem. And now? Now she dresses elegantly, and takes singing and dance lessons. In the process, she meets a gentleman her age, Wojtek, and the two strike up a friendship. But divorce, at her age? What will her family, her friends or the church say? Of course, one can just leave, everyone is free to choose, but is it the right move?

In the faded beauty of Berlin, Sebastian and Alicja seem to have it all - a thriving business and a loving family. But beneath the surface, Sebastian's yearning for freedom sparks a turbulent journey. Alicja, the devoted wife, reluctantly unlocks the door to his exploration of other women. As love, independence, and societal norms collide, Alicja's convictions are pushed to their breaking point. 'Trust Me' unveils the raw truths, exposing a wife's quest for self-discovery amidst the seductive allure of East Berlin. In the heart of the city, the pursuit of freedom becomes an intoxicating reverie.

A story about Janina Duszejko, an elderly woman, who lives alone in the Klodzko Valley where a series of mysterious crimes are committed. Duszejko is convinced that she knows who (or what) is the murderer, but nobody believes her.

In a country where an average of four cars vanish each night, you can never be certain that your vehicle won’t be part of the statistics by morning. The true-crime documentary Car Gangs offers a unique glimpse into the world of Slovak car thieves. It explores car theft from the perspectives of the thieves, their victims, and the police investigator working on the case. This creates a distinctive triangle filled with tension, unexpected twists, and compelling stories of those affected.

A team of Romany football players try to overcome prejudice in this Czech documentary.

Right outside of Moscow – home to the highest number of billionaires pr. capita – you’ll find the largest junkyard in the world: The Svalka. It’s a hard place run by the Russian mafia. And it's where Yula lives with her mother, her friends and many other people. Life is tough in the Svalka, but it’s also a place where beauty and humanity can arise from the most unlikely conditions. It is from this place that Yula dreams of escaping and changing her life, even if it seems impossible. Oscar-nominated director Hanna Polak followed Yula for 14 years, bringing us along on Yula's journey to achieve this dream.

Martin Kollár’s acclaimed cinematography reigns resplendent in the silent story of a man waiting for important surgery. Discovering he's facing the possibility of only having a few months left to live, Ján Kollár embarks on a journey with no destination and only a deadline.

Oddsockeaters are small invisible creatures, responsible for socks that go missing when we only have one left from a pair. But unlike them, Seed’s gang wants to have a pair. In the end, they began their fight between two sets of values.

Follows the story of Viktor Purice - manager, former projectionist and lifetime cinephile and his two loyal employees, Cornelia & Lorena, in their everyday battle to preserve Dacia Panoramic Cinema in Piatra Neamt - one of the last remaining cinemas in Romania today. Having lived through "the golden age" of cinema, Viktor dreams of bringing back the good old glory days, yet struggles to keep up with the new harsh reality. In a theater that lacks heating and is slowly falling apart, with no support from the State who owns the place, it’s almost a Don Quixote fight.

Karolina Poryzała and Monika Kotecka follow the rise of a women’s amateur equestrian vaulting club, led by the energetic Natalia, who dreams of turning it into a professional national team. The camera fluidly captures the relationships between the riders, in a documentary melodrama that reveals the strength of the bonds that this adventure forges between these passionately anachronistic teenagers.

The film Mečiar is the confession of the young director Tereza Nvotová about Vladimír Mečiar and the influence that this politician had on Slovak society, but also on the life of Tereza herself. When the totalitarian communist regime fell in Czechoslovakia in 1989, Tereza was one year old. The leaders of the Gentle Revolution then decided to hold an audition for the Minister of the Interior, to which Vladimír Mečiar, an unknown business lawyer from the Slovak countryside at the time, applied. After success in bankruptcy, Vladimír Mečiar reaches the political top, from where he rules the country with a series of questionable practices. Against the background of events such as the division of Czechoslovakia or the kidnapping of the son of the president of the Slovak Republic, Tereza and her peers relive their childhood.

The documentary follows and underground benevolent network of people who are buying chemotherapy drugs abroad and transporting them to Romanian patients, since in Romania chemotherapy drugs are not available.

A documentary survey of urban night life and insomnia. Following several characters who inhabit the dark world of 24-hour bars, slot machine dives, night clubs and casinos, this film offers a glimpse into the world of people who live in an eternal night.

A music-driven documentary about a deaf Roma girl falling in love with Bollywood.