S1.E8 ∙ Kiln Home

Award-winning filmmaker Robert Greenwald and Brave New Foundation deliver a ground-breaking documentary that shatters all perceived truths behind the war in Afghanistan.

It was one of the great crimes of the Second World War: from 1941 to 1944, a total of 872 days, the siege and starvation of Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht on Hitler's orders lasted. Over a million people fell victim to the blockade, most of them dying of hunger. Countless of these starving people wrote diaries with the last of their strength, and cameramen filmed in the paralyzed city. Evidence from the hell of the siege, many of the film recordings, but above all the written memories on which this documentary on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation is based, remained under lock and key after the war. The voices of those who had suffered through this terrible time should not be heard by anyone, because they did not fit the pathos of the Leningrad heroic song that was officially sung. Most of the recordings come from women. The writers feared neither the enemy nor the Communist Party or Stalin, who often proved incompetent in providing for the population.

The film is a series of interviews with veterans and soldiers. The characters share their life experiences and talk about the difficulties of re-adjusting to civilian life.

Described by Japanese sources of the time as a record of the Chinese city and the history of the "Sino-Japanese Affair" up to the present. A propaganda picture which naturally is very critical of the Chinese government prior to the Japanese Occupation, and which focuses on the Japanese troops stationed there. Of particular note is a memorial to a fallen Japanese soldier. Contemporary sense filmed in December 1937 and January 1938.