ARTE Distribution

A unique international investigation into how the system set up by the oligarchs and closely tied to the control of Russian oil and gas, corrupted global finance on Vladimir Putin's orders to serve his revenge against the West. Discover four decades of Russian economic and financial history, through the rise and fall of the oligarchs.

Featuring testimonies and archives, the series shows how a handful of men took control of the Russian economy and established themselves as partners of the major Western powers, not only for their own benefit, but also to serve Vladimir Putin's ambitions.

By focusing on their backgrounds, their motivations, methods and ambitions, the series exposes this mafia-like economic system, which reproduces itself like a sprawling octopus and adapts to geopolitical upheavals. This international investigation analyzes four decades of Russian economic and financial history, through the birth and rise of the oligarchs.

Like a film noir, this series presents a bitter Russian novel, depicting the homeland of the Tsars and Lenin as a mafia-like petro-monarchy, where cynicism, violence, greed, and the thirst for power appear to have no limit.

A thriller-like documentary based on an incredible true story, mixing cold war, new weapons, and worldwide geopolitical intrigues. More than 500 diplomats and members of the American intelligence services are victims of frightening symptoms called "The Thing":  a unique investigation with exclusive interviews.

December 2016, a few months after the historic re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba, an American diplomat, who had just arrived in Havana, passed out on the floor of his home, suffering from frightening symptoms. He claims to have been targeted by a shrill sound pressing down on his skull, "The Thing". Six years later, more than 1,000 American diplomats and intelligence officers stationed on every continent suffered the same fate that is threatening to paralyze American diplomacy. Cuban attack? Collective psychosis? Russian intelligence operations? This documentary unearths forgotten Cold War practices and redefines the rules of international relations at a time when Vladimir Putin has declared an all-out war on the West.

By the producers of the internationally acclaimed series The Great Greek Myths, this new series unveils for the first time the true essence of Nordic tales based on ancient texts.  These Nordic legends gave birth to the most popular culture block busters: Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Marvel’s Thor or George R. R. Martin’s GOT.

The fascination for this mythological world became widespread and and extended to the youngest, sensitive to the many explicit references in popular culture. All these references are only inspired by these myths, by modifying, adapting or transforming them. The original stories have never been faithfully retranscribed with the very soul of these legends, the complexity of their characters. More precisely, it seems that no documentary production has ever attempted to tell these stories as they have come down to us. This documentary series based on ancient texts is therefore unique. It aims to tell the stories in a rigorous  way to constitute a patrimonial answer to the interest in this mythological universe.

This 10-episodes series takes you to 10 destinations in all continents, for an anthropological and cultural dive, as well as a reflection on our globalized consumption patterns. An invitation to travel in the most beautiful way in the last bastions of countries customs and cultures.
 
10 episodes for 10 locations (to be confirmed):
 
1- The camel market of Nouakchott in Mauritania
2- The loincloth market of Cotonou in the Republic of Benin
3- The falcon market of Doha, Qatar
4- The fish market of Jagalchi in Busan, South Korea
5- The floating market of Cai Rang in the South Vietnam
6- The insects market of Skun in Cambodia
7- The jasmin market of Madurai in India
8- The esoteric market of Mexico City in Mexico
9- The wish market of Puno in Peru
10- TBC

Let us meet the men and women who make these markets a place of commercial and cultural exchange. While the globalized economy leads a standardization of tastes and consumption, going to a market allows you to dive immediately into the culture of a country, to meet its inhabitants, its food, its smells, its colors, its costumes. An invitation to travel in the most beautiful way, to feast our eyes with nature’s plentiful and diverse bounty, and meet people from different cultures around the world that makes the heart of these markets beat.

Little is known about the Chinese triads, the world's most influential mafias. Thanks to exclusive interviews with key protagonists, this in-depth thriller investigation takes us right into the heart of the world’s most powerful criminal organization, to reveal its far-reaching influence on geopolitics and economy.

Who are they? What are their activities and strategies?  What is their role in the Chinese culture and history? Appearing in the 17th century, the triads built their myth around the fight against China’s enemies. After Mao’s victory, they went into exile to two new territories where they established themselves and thrived: Hong Kong and Taiwan. Members of the triads have become businessmen, in order to control part of the underground economy, both in Asia and in the West. They are merging into the game of globalization, inventing new drug networks while investing in real estate in major Canadian or Australian cities and flood the world with fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.

Discover the history of European peasants, from the 6th century to the present day, in a four-part series that travels the European countryside following the traces of its hidden history, which has long remained unwritten.

From the sixth to the twentieth century, most Europeans were peasants. In other words, peasant history is part of the history of Europe too. However, because their culture and historical tradition was oral, most of the peasant history is unkown. The dominant were the only ones to have recorded history and they hardly ever spoke about peasants. There are many descriptions of fields and harvests, but the peasants remained invisible – as if the wheat grew by itself. They were mentionned on very few occasions, but it was always from the masters’ perspective. They were described as a wild and ignorant mass that should not be educated because it would prevent them from working the land. Today, the contemporary historians’ perspective sheds a new light on the history of the rural world to see the peasants no longer as passive objects but as the actors of their own history. Haut du formulaire

Thanks to the Internet which helped spread stand up comedy internationally, this popular form of humor has become the prism through which contemporary issues are seen: in the abundance of identities, a global movement challenges the established order.          
Stand up told by its icons: Jamel Debbouze, Blanche Gardin, Ali Wong, Vir Das, Fary and Hannah Gasby.

The success of stand-up comedy can be measured by the growth of comedy clubs in cities around the world in recent years. It can also be seen through the investments of an international streaming platform like Netflix, which keeps producing and broadcasting shows, while scouting for new local talents. All over the world, young people are picking up just an ordinary microphone to laugh at themselves, society and its morals.
The protest dimension of this comic art is also the instrument of an untimely and sarcastic speech, where the most agitated fringe of a society, its youth, gives itself the right to express its moods on its state of health, its palpitations, its dreams and its disappointments. Stand-up comedy is a way of breaking down minds and fixed opinions, to slip in, through its sense of observation and absurdity, new considerations on our social relationships. When talking about stand-up comedy, we are  talking about the contemporary state of society.

This 3-film series explores the depth of the connection, both physical and spiritual, between three nomadic tribes of Mongolia and animals. In each film, the protagonist struggles with an identity crisis between modernity and tradition. However, by returning to the wilderness and bonding with the sacred animal, they find a way to resolve their inner conflict.

Whether it's a woman convincing a camel to adopt a baby through music, a child trying to cure her illness by finding her protective reindeer, or a teenage girl breaking free of gender codes by training a golden eagle, these three stories expose the strength of the relationships between the nomadic tribes of Mongolia and the local animals. While the relationships between the protagonists and the animals may seem strange, exotic, the conflicts and problems they face are universal. They awaken something familiar in us, evoke myths and common beliefs. In each story, the iconic animal acts as a mirror through which humans learn about themselves and the dilemmas they face in a changing modern world. 
 
"These ancient rituals of human-animal connection are among the last authentic forms of cultural expression for nomads. As an ethnographic filmmaker, I would like to document these rituals before they disappear, these ancient bonds that connect us to nature and animals. It is this secret language that I would like to convey in this trilogy." Hamid Sardar

The imaginary universes of fantasy irrigate literature, cinema, video and role-playing games. But what crucible was it forged in? What are its founding works? Illustrator John Howe, the concept artist of the Lord of the Rings series, takes us on a four-part journey to discover the artists who have crafted fantasy.

Over the past twenty years, our views on Fantasy have shifted tremendously. Long reduced to repetitive adventures in comic books or movies with kitschy settings and poor scenarios, Fantasy now faces higher expectations from readers and critics alike, who demand complex heroes, strong female characters, original universes, in tune with more modern issues.
From its distant origins in myths and legends to its emergence into popular culture in the second half of the 20th century, fantasy has gradually taken shape over a history spanning more than a century. From the romantic Germany of the Brothers Grimm to the Texas plains where Robert E. Howard gave birth to the character of Conan, from the socialist utopias of William Morris to the tortured and eccentric mind of HP Lovecraft, John Howe’s travels will be interspersed with animated sequences breathing life into the stories that laid the foundations of the genre. To understand what makes these works so relevant and prevalent today, John Howe will be assisted by renowned experts such as S. T. Joshi, author of a 1200-page biography of Lovecraft, and Patrice Louinet, editor and translator of Robert E. Howard.
 

A series made of hijacked images to understand in a funny and quirky way how our opinions are influenced, and our consent manufactured. Discover from the inside the range of strategies used without our knowledge to shape our desires!

The incredible and untold story of the invention, development and improvement of China's surveillance and repression system over the decades. A new light on China’s totalitarian power following the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.

LAOdong and GAIzao mean "work" and "reform" in Chinese, so LAOGAI is the concept of reform through work. Starting from the present time – the Communist party dealing with Covid – the series will take you back to the origins of the laogai and follow its evolution at the rhythm of the great political caesuras of contemporary China, each period having its share of purges, accumulating one on top of the other, and sparing no sector of Chinese society. A spectacular documentary series that will reveal that China is the greatest totalitarian power of all times.

A new globalized phenomenon : cell phones recording images of over-equipped police facing unarmed furious crowds. The war of images further polarizes police and protesters.

How did it come to this? New revolts, less and less supervised, subjected to a low intensity war. We must avoid killing. “Less lethal” is the new norm: rubber bullets, grenades... But these dangerous weapons can cause harm.
For democracies, the challenges are multiplying. How can the relationship between the population and the police be restored? What are the responses to street disturbances?