Olga Prud’homme Farges

Limits of Europe

A prominent Czech journalist Saša Uhlová leaves her family and joins “cheap labour force” in Western Europe. Undercover, she works at an asparagus farm in Germany, tries her hand as a maid at a hotel in Ireland and takes care of the elderly in France. She experiences first-hand the struggles of Eastern European low-wage workers whose sacrifice and hard work allow for the Western society’s comfort. What is the real price that Europe pays for exploiting its own citizens? How do the lives of economic migrants, who have been forced to leave their children and elderly parents, look like? And why are privileged Europeans looking the other way?

The Eden of La Ciotat

To give creativity free reign, in the space of fifty minutes: this is the strength of the documentary series Cinémas mythiques. This episode gives the critic Alain Bergala complete freedom to commemorate the original Éden de La Ciotat cinema. The oldest continuously operating cinema in the world first opened as a theatre in 1889, but the very same year it also hosted its first commercial film screening, comprised of nineteen Lumière “views”. Threatened with closure in the 1980s, the cinema was reopened in 2013 after a restoration project. This luminous documentary accompanies Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne over the course of a few days in October 2021 as they walk through the Teatro Éden, the shipyard and the Palais Lumière built by Antoine Lumière, the father of Auguste and Louis. And it does not forget the legendary station from L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat.

The Capitol of Singapore

Inaugurated in 1930, the Capitol has been able to survive through 90 years of successive ownership by prestigious families such as the Namazies or the Shaw brothers, and today by Perennial Holdings, as well as of various historical, cultural and architectural vicissitudes, always reborn like a phoenix, thus mirroring not only the cinematic history of Singapore, but also reflecting the many cycles of change that the city went through.

A Very Animated War

From 1945 to 1989, after the capitulation of Nazi Germany, two rival ideologies, communism and capitalism, faced each other in a merciless battle. On one side of the Iron Curtain and on the other, throughout the Cold War, the USSR and the United States sought to shape children’s imaginations through their magazines and films. Never in the history of mankind have so many comic books been published and so many cartoons produced for young people. In November 1989, communism collapsed with the Berlin Wall; capitalism was left to decide the future of the world. What if this victory had been prepared for a long time, and our thinking conditioned, from our early childhood, to ensure this absolute triumph?

Jiří Trnka: A Long Lost Friend

A story of an extraordinary artist who has unintentionally signed a deal with a devil. Jiří Trnka was one of the biggest Czech artists of the 20th century and one of the founders of the puppet animation. His work demonstrated the world that communist society can provide better conditions for extraordinary artistic creations. The ideological clash between West and East didn’t leave children and their stories apart from their struggle in ideological and political positions.

Jiří Trnka: A Long Lost Friend

A story of an extraordinary artist who has unintentionally signed a deal with a devil. Jiří Trnka was one of the biggest Czech artists of the 20th century and one of the founders of the puppet animation. His work demonstrated the world that communist society can provide better conditions for extraordinary artistic creations. The ideological clash between West and East didn’t leave children and their stories apart from their struggle in ideological and political positions.

Tuschinski's Dream

After 50 years of exile, an old man comes back to the cinema of his childhood. The Tuschinski Theater of Amsterdam was born from a foolish dream; the one of Abraham Icek Tuschinski who has left his shtetl from Poland, and settles in Rotterdam where he opens a canteen to welcome Jewish immigrants. He then opens three little cinema halls that become a fast success and that’s how he decides to built a real cathedral like cinema hall. Real Art Deco palace inaugurated in October 1920, the Tuschinski encounters a meteoric success. During 20 years of a brilliant activity and despite the rise of intolerance in the Netherlands, Abraham Tuschinski believes in his dream. And, though weakened by financial difficulties, Tuschinski will never give up his dream. It will be the Nazis, invading the Netherlands, organizing the deporting of Jews and despoiling the properties, that will make Tuschinski’s dream turning into a nightmare.

The Cambodian Room: Situations with Antoine D'Agata

Antoine D'Agata, Magnum photographer since 2004, is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where his artistic trail seems to reach an utmost point. After devoting himself to depicting desolated landscapes and borderline realities, D'Agata focuses his art on his intimate human relations. His latest work focuses on body and flesh, in a narrow room. This film catches the hidden part of his art making; his choice of living on the edge and experiencing sex with extreme vitality. It is an apocalyptic and sublime journey, similar to the ones of other heretic artists of contemporary culture, from Jack Kerouac to Antonin Artaud, from Francis Bacon to Pier Paolo Pasolini.