Resistance to Oppression


Films suggested by Friends about resistance to oppression.


Peaceweb's Movies with a Conscience


Last updated: November 21, 1997
* Burnt by the Sun
France/Russia, 1994, Drama, D: Nikita Mikhalkov, Stars: Oleg Menchikov, Nikita Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, 146 m
Colonel Sergei Kotov, a hero of the Soviet Revolution, spends an idyllic summer at his wife's dacha with wife and his six-year-old daughter. His world changes when cousin Dmitri arrives from Moscow, and the hero suddenly become an enemy of the people.

* Cry Freedom
UK, 1987, Drama, D: Richard Attenborough, Stars: Denzel Washington, Kevin Kline, 154 m
A white liberal newspaper editor in South Africa befriends a Black political leader, Steve Biko, who later dies at the hands of the police. The editor, charged under the censorship laws, escapes the country under a false passport.

* Cry, the Beloved Country
USA, 1995, Drama, D: Darrell Roodt, Original Book: Alan Paton, Stars: James Earl Jones, Dembisa Kente, 120 m
In South Africa, a poor Black man, Absolom Kumalo, moves to Johannesburg and falls in with bad company. He is involved in the murder of a good white man. Absolom's brother, preacher Stephen Kumalo (James Earl Jones) is befriended by the white landowner whose son was killed.

* Devil in a Blue Dress
USA, 1995, Drama D: Carl Franklin, Stars: Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, 101 m
In 1948, an African-American veteran gets involved in tracing a wealthy white woman hiding in the East Los Angeles ghetto. This sexually explicit mystery highlights the two worlds of 1940s America: the Black ghetto and the white neighborhoods.

* Front, The
USA, 1976, Drama, D: Martin Ritt, Stars: Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, 94 m
A man of no talent or convictions (played by Woody Allen) is hired to be a front man for a group of blacklisted Hollywood writers during the 1950s.

* Guilty by Suspicion
USA, 1991, Drama, D: Irwin Winkler, Stars: Robert de Niro, Annette Bening, George Wendt, Patricia Wettig, 105 m
A fictional Hollywood director (Robert de Niro) finds himself hauled up before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s. First he is asked about his own involvement in the Communist Party in the 1930s. Then he is asked to "name names" of friends of his who are now, or ever have been, members of the Communist Party or any organizations the committee deems to be its front groups.

* Milagro Beanfield War, The
USA, 1988, Drama, D: Robert Redford, Stars: Ruben Blades, Richard Bradford, Sonia Braga, Julie Carmen, 117 m
A rugged individualist in New Mexico decides to stand up against the housing developers who are trying, by fair means or foul, to assemble the land his ancestors and his people have owned for centuries.

* Mississippi Burning
USA, 1988, Drama, D: Alan Parker, Stars: Gene Hackman, William Dafoe, Frances McDormand, 128 m
Two FBI agents, one straight-arrow type and one Southern lawman, set out to solve the murders of two civil rights workers murdered during Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964.

* Nasty Girl, The (Das schreckliche Maedchen)
West Germany, 1990, Drama, D: Michael Verhoeven, Stars: Stella Adorf, Helmut Alimonta, Cordula Bachl, 92 m
A young woman in West Germany sets out in the 1970s to uncover the history of the town during the "braune Jahren" of the Hitler's Germany. Of course, no one in the town except the Mayor was ever a Nazi ...

* Spartacus
USA, 1960, Drama, D: Stanley Kubrick, Stars: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, 161 m (restored version 198 m)
Spartacus, a slave trained as a gladiator, was forced to fight to the death with an opponent around 71 B.C. His opponent spared him, and Spartacus went on to lead a slave revolt which spread over half of Italy.

* Warzawa
Poland, 1992, Drama, D: Janusz Kijowski, Stars: Julie Delpy, Hanna Schygulla, Lambert Wilson, 110 m
In the winter of 1943, Stefania, a Christian Polish woman (Hanna Schygullla) hides two Jews, Alek and Fryda (Julie Deply and Lambert Wilson). But Fryda, suspicious and jealous, goes on to risk the trio's lives.

* Weisse Rose, Die (The White Rose)
West Germany, 1982, Drama, D: Michael Verhoeven, Stars: Martin Benrath, Wulf Kessler, Lena Stolze , 123 m
In Munich in 1942, two students, Hans and Sophie Scholl, join an underground resistance group against Hitler. They distribute leaflets and make contacts in other cities. Then the Gestapo finds their trail.

* World Apart, A
UK, 1988, Drama, D: Chris Menges, Stars: Barbara Hershey, Jodhi May, 112 m
A 13-year-old white girl, growing up in South Africa in the 1960s, has all the usual trappings of power - except that her parents are anti-apartheid activists. Her father is forced to flee the country, and her mother goes to work for an anti-government newspaper.


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Co-ordinator: Carl Stieren, Peace and Social Concerns Committee, [email protected]
Peace and Social Concerns Committee, Ottawa Monthly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends, 91A Fourth Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 2L1 CANADA
Revised November 21, 1997