When You Listen to This Song

Hard Bargaining: Museums Face Claims for Return of Artefacts

2011

Four French museums, the Louvre, the Quai Branly, the French National Library, and the Rouen Museum, are faced with pressing demands for the return of works of art. The number of demands is multiplying. They come from all over the world, and in particular from Egypt, Mali and New Zealand. The question of returning works of art to their countries of origin is increasingly making news. Take for example the emotions aroused by President Sarkozy’s decision, on the 12th November 2010, to return 297 royal manuscripts to South Korea. The ensuing row involved diametrically opposed points of view. Was it a violation of the principle of inalienability of France’s national collections or was it a just reparation for the victims of colonization? The rich countries’ great museums and the countries of origin have completely different visions of the issue. The museums defend the idea of a universal museum whose works belong to the whole of humanity.

Returning to Reims

2022

An intimate and political history of the French working class from the early 1950s to the present day.

The Black Shield of Falworth

1954

In the days of King Henry IV, stalwart young Myles and his sister Meg have been raised as peasants, without any knowledge of who their father really was. But one day, they journey to Macworth Castle. There, Myles falls in love with Lady Anne Macworth, makes friends and enemies, and learns to be a knight.

Pulakapina

1977

Based on a true story about the so called 1932 Horse Rebellion in Nivala, Finland. The decision to put down a sick horse owned by a poor farmer rises the farmers in open rebellion against the authorities.

Ivanhoe

1952

Sir Walter Scott's classic story of the chivalrous Ivanhoe who joins with Robin of Locksley in the fight against Prince John and for the return of King Richard the Lionheart.

Marketa Lazarová

1967

Mikolás and his brother Adam end up with a young German hostage of noble blood during a robbery. While their clan prepares for the wrath of the German king, Mikolás is sent to pressure his neighbor Lazar into a defense pact. Persuasion fails and he abducts Lazar's daughter Marketa on the eve of her initiation as a nun in an act of vengeance.

The Last of the Mohicans

1992

In war-torn colonial America, in the midst of a bloody battle between British, the French and Native American allies, the aristocratic daughter of a British Colonel and her party are captured by a group of Huron warriors. Fortunately, a group of three Mohican trappers comes to their rescue.

Vito-Man

2024

Vito is a sweet little boy with Down syndrome, and this short documentary puts his energetic, jolly personality on full display as he interacts with his loving family. By showing Vito’s dignity and inherent value, Vito-Man tackles the difficult conversation that is the eradication of people with Down syndrome, proving that an extra chromosome should not be a death sentence.

Gangubai Kathiawadi

2022

Duped and sold to a brothel, a young woman fearlessly reclaims her power, using underworld connections to preside over the world she was once a pawn in.

Stamped from the Beginning

2023

Using innovative animation and expert insights, this documentary based on Ibram X. Kendi's bestseller explores the history of racist ideas in America.

Earth

1998

It's 1947 and the borderlines between India and Pakistan are being drawn. A young girl bears witnesses to tragedy as her ayah is caught between the love of two men and the rising tide of political and religious violence.

Madame Bovary

1991

Bored with the limited and tedious nature of provincial life in 19th-century France, the fierce and sensual Emma Bovary finds herself in calamitous debt and pursues scandalous sexual liaisons with absolute abandon. However, when her volatile lifestyle catches up to her, the lives of everyone around her are endangered.

Na dvoře vévodském

1979

The Bridge on the River Kwai

1957

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

Black Hawk Down

2001

When U.S. Rangers and an elite Delta Force team attempt to kidnap two underlings of a Somali warlord, their Black Hawk helicopters are shot down, and the Americans suffer heavy casualties, facing intense fighting from the militia on the ground.