The plight of the powerless

The 12th-annual One World Festival is the largest human rights film festival in Europe and one of the major cinema events here in the Czech Republic.

What is a human rights film festival, exactly? Organizer Scott Hudson explains it is pretty much just what it sounds like: "We focus on strong human rights themes, women's issues, the plight of refugees and other oppressed peoples around the world."

This year's festival will present more than 100 films, along with forums for debate and appearances by internationally recognized filmmakers and activists at seven separate locations. After it plays in Prague, the show goes on the road to no less than 29 towns and cities throughout the country.

This year's primary focus is on recent political and cultural events in Iran, though the larger program encompasses a broad range of human rights issues around the world. The sheer volume of films can be daunting, so we've highlighted some of the more promising selections that will be accessible to English speakers.

The following directors will be at the festival to present their films in person and should have some interesting things to say:

Lixin Fan-This relative newcomer has collaborated on some exciting and illuminating documentaries about life in modern-day China, including 2007's luminous and widely acclaimed Up the Yangtze. He will be showing Last Train Home, his debut feature documentary, which examines the fate of one family as they struggle to survive and prosper in the midst of China's reckless, headlong rush into economic development. Lucerna, March 15 at 7:45

Yoav Shamir-The central question driving Israeli director Shamir's Defamation is both simple and seemingly impossible to answer in a satisfactory manner: Where exactly does anti-Semitism come from? But Shamir goes a considerable distance toward illuminating the subject, as he follows Israeli schoolchildren to Polish concentration camps and a delegation of Holocaust survivors as they visit with representatives of countries where concentration camps were established. Světozor, March 11 at 7

Andrei Nekrasov-Filmmaker, playwright and theatrical director Nekrasov has the sort of reputation that precedes him wherever he goes. Recently, Nekrosov's efforts have included Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case (2007), an examination of the allegedly nefarious ways and means of the Russian state security services (FSB), which features interviews with Alexander Litvinenko and journalist Anna Politkovskaya, both of whom were assassinated after criticizing or otherwise compromising the FSB. Nekrasov's entry in this year's festival is Russian Lessons, a look at the complexities and implications of the Russian-Georgian war of 2008. The French Institute, March 15 at 5:30

Along with the aforementioned directors and their respective works, the following films are of particular interest:

Videocracy-Sweden, 2009. Erik Gandhi, director. It's a widely known fact that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi personally owns the vast majority of his country's television stations. What is not as widely recognized is the multitudinous ways in which the canny politician and media mogul manipulates the public in order to promote himself and generate profits. Director Gandhi offers a long-overdue examination of the base and underhanded tactics employed by Berlusconi and his ilk. Lucerna, March 12 at 7:45; Atlas, March 13 at 10; Municipal Library, March 17 at 8

Enemies of the People-UK/Cambodia, 2009. Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, directors. After more than 10 years' worth of weekends spent in the Cambodian countryside interviewing former members of the Khmer Rouge, journalist Sambath, with the help of British director Lemkin, has produced an extraordinary documentary exploring the mentality of those who participated directly in the genocide. Featuring interviews with rank-and-file soldiers as well as some of those who were instrumental in carrying out the atrocities (namely Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's right-hand man), Enemies of the People offers a rare glimpse into the true banality of evil. Evald, March 12 at 9:30; Lucerna, March 14 at 1:30 and March 16 at 7:45; Atlas, March 17 at 6

Moving to Mars: A Million Miles from Burma-UK, 2009. Mat Whitecross, director. Sprung from the mind of the auteur behind the award-winning exposé of imperialist abuses of power (2006's The Road to Guantanamo), Moving to Mars transports us to a refugee camp on the Burma-Thai border that houses as many as 40,000 Karen Burmese who have left their homes in order to escape persecution at the hands of the military junta in Burma. The film focuses on the difficulties of two families - those of Thaw Htoo, a former civil engineer, and Jo Kae, a former farmer - as they attempt to adapt to their new lives in the British city of Sheffield. Světozor, March 14 at 3:30; The French Institute, March 15 at 8:15; Municipal Library, March 16 at 6; Atlas, March 17 at 10

James Walling can be reached at
jwalling@praguepost.com