S56.E40 ∙ Winter Specials 2023/24 4

China's greatest living filmmaker Jia Zhangke (Platform, The World) travels with acclaimed painter Liu Xiaodong from China to Thailand as they meet everyday workers in the throes of social turmoil. Liu Xiaodong is well-known for his monumental canvases, particularly those inspired by China's Three Gorges Dam project. In DONG, Jia Zhangke visits Liu on the banks of Fengjie, a city about to be swallowed up by the Yangtze River. The area is in the process of being "de-constructed" by armies of shirtless male workers who form the subject of Liu's paintings. Liu and Jia next travel to Bangkok, where Liu paints Thai sex workers languishing in brothels. The two sets of paintings are united in their subjects' shared sense of malaise in the face of the dehumanizing labor afforded them.

When Ryan and Amy Green learned that their baby son Joel's rare cancer was terminal, Ryan, an indie game developer, found solace in the only creative outlet he knew: a video game, the critically acclaimed "That Dragon, Cancer."

A woman's love for her pet ducks, chickens, geese, and turkeys - all 200 of them - ignites a battle with local animal rescuers and puts her marriage in jeopardy.

DISTANT is a film that is made up of 13 sections, each comprised of a single long take. Each section tells a story about distance between different time and space, focusing on the subtle moments when people are suddenly confronted with modernity and gradually become lost in the transition between this and their present lives. Without any dialogue, simply working with image, sound and actions of the characters, these 13 dramatic, realistic and mysterious scenes are painted. It tries to describe today's human condition in an abstract way - its alienation, abandonment and eternal loneliness.

The extraordinary story of a a race driver coaching legend, his long lost son and the car that connects them after 60 years. A touching and fascinating story set against the backdrop of the European Historic Grand Prix race series.

Documentary examining claims that CS Lewis's Narnia Chronicles contain a hidden meaning. CS Lewis wrote the Narnia Chronicles over 50 years ago, yet they are more popular today than ever. When they were first published, many critics thought them little more than childish scribblings, replete with random characters and unexplained events. Even Lewis's good friend JRR Tolkien thought them confused and misconceived. Other scholars were sure there was something more, something hidden beneath the stories. Although many tried, none could find this secret key of Narnia - until now. Dr Michael Ward, a young academic and expert in all things Lewisian, claims he has found the answer at last: he has discovered the Narnia Code. Using dramatisations of Lewis's early life and career, the programme travels the world, from the Mid-West of modern America to the battlefields of the First World War, meeting experts, testing evidence and uncovering surprising questions and ideas that still challenge readers today.