Beetz Brothers Film Production

October 7, 2023: Hamas terrorists attack Israel, murder and take hostages. Israel reacts with severity. The goal: the destruction of Hamas. But with the war in Gaza, Israel is awakening the great trauma of the Palestinians: the expulsion of 1948. How can the lack of empathy on both sides be explained?

Red carpet, flashbulbs, tuxedos and evening gowns: Hollywood celebrates its birthday. For a hundred years, this has been the place where films and their stars are celebrated. Hollywood is the most American of dreams. But hardly anyone suspects that this story began in the German provinces - with the Swabian emigrant Carl Laemmle from Laupheim near Ulm, who founded Universal Studios in Hollywood in 1912. Together with his niece Carla Laemmle, who is as old as the dream factory itself - namely one hundred years old - the film takes us on a fantastic journey back to the beginnings of film history - to a time when everything was simply "wild", when Indians, elephants and monsters ran around on the Universal premises and things were still loud and hearty during filming.

In times of rampant populism and increasing distrust of the elite, the filmmaker accompanies the 81-year-old founder of the controversial World Economic Forum over the period of one year in his efforts to implement his leitmotif: to improve the state of the world. Can the WEF contribute to solving global problems? Or is it rather an integral part of the problem?

After 30 years of conspiracy theories and myth making, this film uncovers the story of the CIA's most extensive clandestine operation in the history of modern warfare: The Secret War in Laos, which was conducted alongside the Vietnam War from 1964 -1973. While the world's attention was caught by the conflict in Vietnam, the CIA built the busiest military airport in the world in neighboring and neutral Laos and recruited humanitarian aid personnel, Special Forces agents and civilian pilots to undertake what would become the most effective operation of counterinsurgency warfare. As the conflict in Vietnam grew, the objective in Laos changed from a cost effective low-key involvement to save the country from becoming communist into an all-out air war to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail and bomb Laos back into the Stone Age that it had never really left in the first place. Conventional bombs equivalent to the destructive power of 20 Hiroshima-type weapons fell on Laos each year - 2 million tons

Khalo Matabane spent two years making the film, interviewing those who knew and loved Mandela, and also those who criticised him. Global thinkers, politicians and artists including the Dalai Lama, Henry Kissinger and Ariel Dorfman talk about the effect of his policies and his decision making. Their thoughts are weighed equally with ordinary South Africans like Charity Kondile, who refuses to forgive her son's apartheid operative murderer. Through these interviews, completed in the last months of Mandela's life, Matabane interrogates for himself the meaning of freedom, reconciliation and forgiveness. By doing so he challenges Mandela's enduring impact in today's world of conflict and inequality. Thought-provoking and reflective, Mandela, the Myth and Me is a moving film which frames Mandela from a fresh, deeply personal perspective. (Storyville)

Ashkenazi, Mizrachi, ultra-Orthodox, Israeli Arabs... The different groups that make up Israeli society seem irreconcilable. Who are they? Can their complicated history explain the current situation in the country?

In the 1980s, Sankt Pauli, a district of Hamburg in Germany, was a hotspot for prostitution and drug trafficking. More or less large thugs cross paths or clash there, sometimes fatally. A recently created police unit is working to eradicate organized crime in this city, one of the most densely populated in Germany.

A group of Kuchi children are living in a minefield around Bagram airfield, Afghanistan. They dig out anti-personal mines in order to sell the explosives to child workers mining in a Lappis Lazulli mine. The trajectory of the blue precious stones goes towards Tajikistan and China, through an area controlled by child soldiers. When they are not waging their own mini-wars in the daily madness of life in Afghanistan, the children are fleeing away in their personal fantasies and dreams, while the American soldiers are planning their retreat...

With "Emil and the Detectives" Erich Kästner is revolutionizing children's book literature. In the Weimar Republic, he quickly rose as an editor, writer and screenwriter. His books were burned in 1933. Nevertheless, he does not emigrate, published under a pseudonym and abroad. In the post-war period, Kästner was a moral authority. But he can no longer build on his previous success, gets caught up in love affairs and fights his frustration with alcohol. Until his death in 1974, he struggled with the decision not to go into exile. The documentary drama takes a new look at Kästner's picture.

It is an unknown chapter of the German post-war history: On April 23rd, 1949, the kingdom of the Netherlands occupied German soil as a pledge for demanded war reparations. Part of the annexed territories was also the small municipality of Elten. While the people of Elten were initially afraid of the occupation, the time “with Holland” actually became a miracle of prosperity and economy about which many people from Elten still rave today. The occupation period ended with the largest organized smuggling in the history of the federal republic of Germany. The Documentary shows this in never before released 8 mm footage!

A deep dive into the hidden industry of digital cleaning, which rids the Internet of unwanted violence, porn and political content.

Documentary - In 2008, Hervé Falciani left his job at the Swiss branch of HSBC, taking with him - without authorisation - a hard-drive containing a database of 130,000 named bank accounts, held by citizens from 180 countries. This database found its way into the hands of many world governments. The purpose of this film is to examine the tax debate in a critical and engaging but also a balanced way. - Peer Steinbrück, Hervé Falciani, Michael Lauber

The story of how Aurora Mardiganian (1901-94), a survivor of the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire (1915-17), became a Hollywood silent film star.

Kleist's death at Wannsee - a spectacular case that has disturbed and fascinated posterity to this day. The German poet is found shot - what does that mean? What exactly happened on the afternoon of November 21, 1811 at Kleiner Wannsee? What do you know about the woman who died with him?

This film provides a retrospective of 24 hours at the Nova festival in Re'im through the lens of young individuals who endured the horror.

In the film, three young Israelis confront themselves with their and thus their shared German-Jewish history. They try to restore the apartment of the Jewish Adler family to the way it looked before their deportation. But it turns out that the Holocaust means something different to them than it does to the German director who invited them to travel back in time.