French War & Politics TV Shows

It's about human history, how humans shaped the world we live in. A history through cultures and civilizations - from early Mesopotamia to the industrial revolution. Documentary series from various european production company’s like BBC, SVT, NRK, DR, ARTE, Covering serveral topics of war, Persons Like Cleopatra, Hitler, George Washington, etc

The stories of the people of Villeneuve, a fictional subprefecture, in the Jura, in German–occupied France during the Second World War.

Set against the background of the French Revolution and based on Victor Hugo's classic novel this is the story of Jean Valjean who is sent to prison for stealing a loaf of bread and is released after nineteen years. He meets and cares for a beautiful but poverty-stricken young girl named Fantine who has daughter Cosette. After Fantine's death Valjean brings Cosette up but he is haunted by Javert - a policeman whose search for Valjean has become an obsession.

Marie Antoinette is just a teenager when she leaves Austria to marry the Dauphin of France. At Versailles, under the complex rules of the French court, she suffers from not being able to live her life the way she wants, under pressure to continue the Bourbon line and secure the Franco-Austrian alliance.

The French Special Forces are deployed in Iraq, on the eve of the battle of Mosul, in October 2016. The members of this commando have the mission of finding and exfiltrating the daughter and the grandson of an important French Emir of Daesh who captured and who will cooperate with them only on this condition.

A masterful soldier, tactician and statesmen, Napoleon Bonaparte's courage and love for his country sees him rise from an unpaid general consumed with ambition to the most powerful man in Europe, then his fall, and exile.

A protection officer and an MI6 operative team up after a terrorist attack. They suspect a mole as they race to thwart a larger conspiracy threatening Paris.

Dive into the depths of the Syrian civil war through the eyes of Antoine, a young Frenchman, in search for his estranged, presumed to be dead sister. While unraveling the mystery, piece by piece, Antoine’s journey crosses paths with adventurers and anarchists, spies and innocent victims, and provides a unique look on the tragic events in Syria, and the way they affect the entire world.

Kabul, August 14, 2021. The Taliban are at the gates of the city, and France prepares to evacuate its embassy. But the sudden fall of Kabul the next day rushes all the plans. French, Italian, German, American diplomats and the police must improvise the evacuation of hundreds of Afghans and refugees to the airport. While chaos reaches the city, the Afghans will soon have only two choices: to kneel or to run away.

Colorized historical footage in ascending order of World War 1. Not only the relatively known Flanders and France battles, but also the generally unknown Italian-Austrian, German-Polish-Russian, Japanese-German, Ottoman Empire- Allied and African German Colonies, and other unknown or forgotten fronts and battles.

After a plot to kill the president of the USA an agent with lost memories tries to recover his life and memories. Others use him to cover up some dirty business involving high ranking officials from the CIA and the White House.

Samy, a young parliamentary assistant, arrives in Brussels after the Brexit referendum. He is not fit for the job. Samy doesn't know much about European institutions and he hopes to get away with it thanks to his cleverness…

France, 1914. The destinies of four women intersect : Marguerite, a mysterious Parisian prostitute, Caroline, propelled to the head of the family factory, Agnes, Mother Superior of a requisitioned convent and Suzanne, a feminist nurse.

A six-part French documentary about the Second World War composed exclusively of actual footage of the war as filmed by war correspondents, soldiers, resistance fighters and private citizens. The series is shown in color, with the black and white footage being fully colorized, save for some original color footage. The only exception to the treatment are most Holocaust scenes, which are presented in the original black and white.

Historian Patrick Boucheron revisits the most important dates in history through the prisms of memory and collective imagination.

Describes everyday life in a Lyon LGBT centre, examining the initial political, emotional and sexual life of a man who recently came out as gay.

Witness the rise of the world's first celebrity chef, Antonin Carême, and his descent into espionage in Napoleon-era France—where manipulation is king. With his gifts for gastronomy and seduction, he becomes the perfect weapon in a fight for power.

Italy, March 16, 1978. Aldo Moro, president of Christian Democracy, the ruling party, is kidnapped by the extreme left-wing terrorist gang Red Brigades. While the criminals put him on trial and condemn him, the Italian government and Pope Paul VI pull their twisted strings to save his life.

How did the Soviet Union impose its communist ideology on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe after World War II? The story of how, from 1945 until the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, these countries were gradually subjected to the totalitarian Soviet yoke.

On May 11, 1987, the trial of Klaus Barbie, former head of the Gestapo and the first Nazi officer to be tried in France for crimes against humanity, began in Lyon. Tracked down and identified by Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, he was extradited from Bolivia through intergovernmental agreements. The charges centered on three major crimes: the roundups on Rue Sainte-Catherine, the roundup of the children of Izieu, and the final deportation convoy of August 11, 1944. During 37 hearings, filmed in their entirety, the survivors’ testimonies reveal a relentless and cruel torturer. Barbie, absent on the advice of his lawyer Jacques Vergès, was sentenced on July 4, 1987, to life imprisonment. This verdict marked a key milestone in the fight against impunity for Nazi criminals. Barbie died in 1991.

Today, Israel and the United States are Iran's enemies par excellence. Their reconciliation seems impossible. Is the history of these three countries the chronicle of a war foretold, delayed for decades but inevitable?

Set in 1965 in the midst of the Cold War, Totems follows a French scientist, Francis Mareuil, as he begins working as a spy. While working for the French Secret Service and the CIA, Mareuil meets Lyudmila Goloubeva, a pianist forced to work for the KGB. A romance blossoms between them but neither can be sure what is an expression of their true feelings, and what is the fruit of political shenanigans.

World War II is about to end. Benito Mussolini, il Duce, supreme dictator of Fascist Italy, sees his totalitarian dream crumbling and his power slipping away as the terrible day of his ignominious death at the hands of those he so ruthlessly oppressed for more than two decades draws inexorably near.

It is the start of the 14th century and Philip IV the Fair reigns supreme over France. His three sons would rule after him. Isabelle, his only daughter, is married to King Edward II of England. Under Philip's reign, France is great but its people are unhappy. Only one power dares to stand up to him: the order of the Knights Templar. When the last Grand Master of the Temple, Jacques de Molay, is burned at the stake, he curses Philip and so begins a dark period, full of blood and violence, death and tears ...

In occupied France, 17-year-old Lili encounters war before love, and joins the Resistance. Through the interconnecting destinies of its teenage heroes, Resistance tells the story of young people going to any lengths to defend their country.

Léa, the daughter of a wealthy Bordeaux family, is spending happy days at the Montillac family estate at the end of the 1930s. Radiant with youth, she charms all the men who meet her on the blue bicycle offered to her by her father. She is in deep love with Laurent, when she tells him, he lets her down. He is in love with Camille, Lea's best friend. The war sounds the death knell of her carelessness. She takes refuge in Paris. There, she finds Laurent, his secret love, who has just married Camille. During a party given him, she meets mysterious François -a friend of Laurent who works for the government. He goes right on and starts to win Lea's heart, but she is not interested. Laurent has to go to the front-line. He asks Lea to stay with Camille in Paris, to look after her and the unborn baby. But the German troops are progressing, and Léa and Camille are forced to leave the capital.

The series Mazarin (1978) recounts the rise of Jules Mazarin, first an Italian diplomat and later France’s chief minister after Richelieu. The story shows how he earns the trust of Anne of Austria and becomes the political mentor of the young Louis XIV. Over the course of the episodes, Mazarin faces court intrigues, the hostility of powerful nobles, and the turmoil of the Fronde, which threatens royal authority and forces him into several periods of exile. Despite pamphlets and conspiracies, he manages to restore order and prepare the emergence of the future Sun King. The series thus portrays a skilled statesman, often contested but essential in shaping absolute monarchy.

No overview available

A deep dive into the Bosnian War, that tore the country apart at the dawn of the 1990s, A Life’s Worth explores with intensity the unimaginable dilemma faced by the peacekeepers sent to the region, unable to intervene in a conflict that was beyond their control. A gripping series and a much-needed look back at one of the most violent wars in recent European history, prompting an essential discussion about the weight of commitment, interventionism, and the cost of peace.

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, most people thought the conflict would be over by Christmas; they could not imagine how wrong they were. An attack in Sarajevo ended up becoming a snowball that swept the world: a new kind of warfare had begun, waged with techniques and means never seen before. By November 1918, ten million people had died and the political map of the planet had been redrawn.

The series follows a group of Allied pilots who crashed in occupied territories during WWII. A network of civilians and Resistance fighters, "La Filière", is in charge of helping them pass from France to Spain so they can avoid capture.

In September 1939, Colette and Ernest are welcomed by their maternal grandparents in a fictional village named Grangeville, near Dieppe in Normandy. The short vacation becomes semi-permanent when their father goes off to fight, following the mobilization of France to fight the invading German Army, and the poor health of their mother, required to leave to be treated for tuberculosis in a sanatorium in Switzerland. The two little Parisians discover life in the countryside during wartime, including occupation, Resistance, deprivation, but also life with friends.

A history of the French Revolution from the decision of the king to convene the Etats-Generaux in 1789 in order to deal with France's debt problem. The first part of the movie tells the story from 1789 until August 10, 1792 (when the King Louis XVI lost all his authority and was put in prison). The second part carries the story through the end of the terror in 1794, including the deaths by guillotine of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Danton, and Desmoulins.

A major political, historical, human and economic fact of the 20th century, the Gulag, the extremely punitive Soviet concentration camp system, remains largely unknown.

The President of the French Republic, visiting Saint-Etienne in the Loire, in a striking plant dies, victim of a bomb attack. The political world is agitated: early presidential elections to be held within the next thirty-five days. There is no doubt that Philip Deleuvre, the prime minister, will run for the Elysee. But what few people know is that the leader of the government knows more things he claimed. This state causes lie back to business Kapita Simon, a former communications adviser (spin doctor) of the late president. Anxious to preserve the honor of his deceased friend and some form of political ethics, the man of the shadows has now set a goal: to find a candidate who will be able to beat Deleuvre.

From the armistice of 1918, which marked the end of the First World War, to the declaration of war in September 1939, the beginning of the Second World War: an era during which there was an aspiration to create a new world, prosperous and at peace, but which provoked a new tragedy, seen through the destinies of thirteen people who were both actors and witnesses of the upheavals of the so-called inter-war period.

The Russian army has no shortage of weapons despite sanctions: With an arsenal mixing old Soviet stocks and modern hypersonic weapons, the country could strike Europe in minutes. An opaque network of spies, shell companies and oligarchs ensures its war capacity through the arms trade, technology theft and state-organized policy of terror.

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was a mediocre who rose to power because of the blindness and ignorance of the Germans, who believed he was nothing more than an eccentric dreamer. But when the crisis of 1929 devastated the economy, the population, fearful of chaos and communism, voted for him. And no one defended democracy. As the dictatorship extended its relentless shadow, the leader claimed peace, but was preparing the Apocalypse.

6 June 1944. A titanic fleet launched an assault on the beaches of Normandy. Objective: to liberate Europe from Hitler's yoke. Drawing on the lessons learned from the Dieppe raid in August 1942, the mission was a spectacular success.

Madrid, Spain, February 23, 1981. A group of Civil Guards storm into the Congress of Deputies and terrorize those present by firing shots into the air. Only three men remain unmoved: Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez; Vice President Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado; and Santiago Carrillo, leader of the Communist Party.