All Episodes 2003 - 2021

For more than 50 years, the Moscow Skyscraper, this “unsinkable Titanic”, has been a metaphor for Russia and its vast people. It was after the victory over Nazi Germany that Stalin launched the project of the Skyscraper. And barely a few months before he died, the skyscraper’s first inhabitants moved into their new homes. They were all members of the Nomenklatura: KGB officers, military personnel, poets, ballerinas, actors, theatre people… Fifty years later, some still live there. Others bequeathed their apartment to their descendants, who live alongside the new Russians, whose fortunes were made in a matter of months.

History Documentary hosted by David Kersten, published by Arte in 2006 - English narration

Near Trianon, the young Queen Marie-Antoinette built a small and secret theater, to act and sing herself with friends and family. The little theater is still there, newly restored. For the first time since the XVIII century, opera arias and symphonies by Gretry and Gossec, two of the queen's best composers, are played with ancient sets and instruments. A cycle of late 18th century music, programmed by the Baroque Music Center of Versailles, showcases the finest compositions of the musical repertoire played in Paris, under the influence of Marie-Antoinette, during the reign of Louis XVI. The Center joined with French-speaking musicians from different horizons, giving pride of place to the great French-Walloon composers, Andre-Modeste Gretry and Francois-Joseph Gossec. Both enjoyed major careers under Louis XVI: the first built his reputation on his comic operas, which Marie-Antoinette greatly admired; the second came to be considered the true father of the French symphony. Camera Lucida Productions; A Coproduction by le Chateau de Versailles, le Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and ARTE France.

At the beginning of the 5th century, Imperial Rome is dying out but Greco-Roman civilization lives on. In the East, many cities will continue to experience flourishing prosperity for almost four centuries. One city tells the story of this moment of history known as "Late Antiquity". It's name is Sagalassos, in Turkey. And therein lies a great paradox of history: when Sagalassos disappears, so too will the Last Romans.

China's sky-rocketing growth and shortage of sufficient resources is forcing China to set its sights outside its borders in a frantic search for oil, but the major oil-producing countries are kept off-limits by the United States, forcing China to do business with the rogue states, African dictatorships, Iran and former Russian states - to get the oil they desperately need. Featuring field encounters, archival footage, news reports and maps to outline the latest threat in world geopolitics.

Mark Twain published his first stories in the same place where modern mining was invented: Virginia City in Nevada. For the first time historians and archaelolgists have joined forces to unravel the real wild west together. Will their efforts lead to the rewrite of American history books?

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, New York has become the center of an epidemic of fear and anxiety that has spread throughout the Western world. Just as these emotions can spread contagiously throughout a society, they likewise spread within and can gain control of our minds. film still THE HIDDEN FACE OF FEAR analyzes how our brains, on both a conscious and unconscious level, mentally process and physiologically respond to fear and anxiety, especially through a region of the brain called the amygdala, describes the social mechanisms of learning fear, coping strategies for dealing with fear, and explains how disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be treated.

Thema Arte

It is the world's most mysterious manuscript. A book, written by an unknown author, illustrated with pictures that are as bizarre as they are puzzling - and written in a language that even the best cryptographers have been unable to decode. No wonder then, that this script even has a part in Dan Brown's latest bestseller, "The Lost Symbol". The Voynich Manuscript has captivated academics and occultists in equal measure since its discovery 100 years ago. The decoders of the Japanese Purple Code, physicists with high-performance modern computers and polymath historians have all tried their luck. But to date nobody has been able to decipher the book's contents. "The Voynich Mystery" follows a completely new lead in the hunt for the author's identity and uncovers the secret of the mysterious manuscript using the methods of material science. To the present day many historians believe the manuscript to be a fake, allegedly by the New York antique book dealer, Wilfrid Voynich, in 1912 so that he could offer it to wealthy manuscript collectors. Voynich did not, however, succeed in selling the mysterious manuscript to a collector during his lifetime. After his death, it eventually found its way into the collection of the University of Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The manuscript's age, origin and contents remained unknown. For almost a century, the numerous illustrations in particular have given rise to the most adventurous speculation and astounding theories. The secret lettering itself is also still a source of great mystery. But now a new investigative approach has shed new light into the maze of conflicting theories and ideas. At the home of the Voynich Manuscript, the University of Yale, the mysterious text has been looked at again using the methods of material science. A pro omnia production for ORF UNIVERSUM in co-production with ARTE and bm:uk

From humble beginnings as durable clothing for workers in the mining towns of the Wild West, jeans have evolved into a cultural icon. The attire of a cowboy, a hero, a rock star and an ex-convict, jeans have played a part in antiestablishment movements and mainstream fashion alike. The journey of the jean, a road-movie which leads it from its beginnings to a life as a political symbol and, in our days, an icon ruling a global empire, the documentary looks at the blue-jean phenomenon from a wacky new angle, observing its impact on our lives and civilization. In 2000, a vintage 1880 Levi's jeans is discovered in an abandoned mine. Auctioned on eBay, the pants, which originally sold for 99 cents, reached a price of $46,532! This amazing story sums up the whole blue jeans phenomenon in a nutshell: a legendary garment, mass-produced, which witnessed the Industrial Revolution and clad cowboys on the western frontier, is now a fashion statement worldwide, for men and women, young and old: an icon of modernity which has lasted for 150 years. With flying colors, the jeans have sailed through early marketing, the Internet, the world of collectors, the end of the Cold War, and now globalization. Their eternal popularity begs a question: Why? From San Francisco, cradle of the Levi, to Osaka, where the world's most beautiful blue-jean fabrics are now made, with stops in Africa and Northern Europe, the documentary tells the saga of the blue jean: the appearance or disappearance of certain elements (rivets, threads, cloth), the fabric (the weight and quality of the cotton), changes in cut (vagaries of fashion or wartime shortages) and shape (the expanding girth of the population, the conversion to ladies' wear). Changes in rivet, stitch and pocket placement trace the history of jeans that collectors treasure and pay for handsomely. Traditional dyeing techniques and hand-made denim live on in a few workshops, primarily in Japan, dedicated to maintaining the highest quality of fabri

Over the recent years, a small but growing group of researchers from Austria, Germany, Italy, UK, Japan, South Africa and the USA, has developed a new scientific field of research: the neurobiology of plants. Their discoveries question the traditional boundaries set between the animal and the vegetable kingdom: plants are capable to develop the cognitive process claimed by humans and animals. If plants can move, and feel... Could they possibly think ? In a creative and captivating scientific investigation style, through spectacular specialist photography and CGI, and re-creating scientific experiments, this documentary is bound to change your own perception of plants.

While the world knows of the KGB spies and agents who crossed over to the West, few know of this tale of secret dissention from within. There is one officer, Viktor Orekhov, who went from repression of dissidents to joining their cause. After months and months of searching, the filmmaker tracked down Orekhov and now brings his story to the world. Illustrated with the unique testimonies of Viktor Orekhov, now 65, archives and accurately re-enacted sequences, the documentary tells the story of a man who braved an impenetrable system and dared to challenge the KGB.

The archaeological ruins in Libya, mainly Roman, are truly exceptional because of their size and preservation. Beyond its archaeological dimensions, Leptis Magna symbolizes the myth of Rome more than any other site. Similar to the American myth, Septimus Severus the African showed that every citizen of Rome could become Emperor and develop the civilization even in the desert. In the 3rd Century AD, the Roman Emperor Septimus Severus, known as "the African" because he was born in Leptis Magna, turned the ancient Cathaginian trading center into a metropolis of 300,000 inhabitants. It was the third largest in the Empire, but soon was abandoned to the desert and lay covered in sand until its discovery in the 20th Century. The excellent condition and beauty of the excavated sites conjures a vision of what the city must have been like 1700 years ago.

The film documents the long and painstaking search for the lost city, and details how individual finds slowly create a complete picture, starting with a rough outline but eventually resulting in a very intricate map of the once busy port.

The restoration of Leonardo's final masterpiece, 'The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne' was completed and exhibited in the Louvre in March 2012. Viewers and critics were astounded by its new life and luminosity, allowing details to be seen again for the first time in 500 years. Nevertheless, the pain-staking restoration process caused ructions and controversy amongst the panel of international experts and the restorer chosen to undertake the work.

Berlin has a natural wild side – a fascinating parallel world of wildlife wonders great and small, right on the doorstep. For every human inhabitant of Berlin there are at least two birds, and nowhere else are so many sparrows and nightingales to be found as in Germany’s capital. Swarms of bees harvest the honey from the city’s almost half a million trees, while badgers can be found scurrying across courtyards and praying mantises await their prey in strips of railway land. The metropolis of Berlin is an urban jungle, providing a habitat for thousands of racoons, foxes, bats, squirrels, hedgehogs and beavers – Berlin is wild in more ways than one.

From 1889 to 1949, General Kanji Ishiwara's military, ideological and political career took in the key moments of Japanese History, in a most spectacular and novel-like way. It included the forced opening of Japan to the West, the Hiroshima disaster, as well as the attack on China or Pearl Harbour. Who is General Ishiwara, this unusual and romantic figure whose life marked the destiny of Japan by throwing his country into World War II?

The Freemasons are probably the secret brotherhood with the most members. Their fundamental ideals are, according to them, liberty, equality, fraternity, tolerance and humanity. However, others say that this secret society has very different goals, namely political power. This is mainly because of the self-imposed secrecy that was exploited in the past by criminal elements. Terra X investigates the history of the Freemasons back to its origins.

The secret brotherhood of the Illuminati was only active for ten years. They dreamed of having members of their brotherhood occupy crucial positions of power, thereby creating a new, fairer state. Banned as early as 1785, rumours that 'the enlightened ones' still exist in secret cannot be dispelled. Terra X investigates the legendary Illuminati brotherhood, also exploring other secret organizations that allegedly have their roots in Antiquity.

Did the Americans really land on the Moon? Who was really behind 9/11? Did Jesus start a family and what's behind theories of attempted world domination by the Jews? Terra X - 'The Masks of the Conspirators' investigates some of the most famous conspiracy theories of modern times, coming across half truths and blatant lies, but also some questions that are still unanswered.

Animal voices are amazingly diverse. Scientists worldwide are researching the sounds of various kinds. They ask themselves, among other things, whether the utterances of the animals are not also a kind of language and whether, in the end, it may even be possible to enter into dialogue with certain animals.

How did Angkor become the largest, 13th century city ever built? Using the most sophisticated technologies in conjunction with research focusing on statues, casts, and documents handed down by Louis Delaporte - one of the first explorers of Angkor in the 19th century - researchers have been able to uncover how Khmer temples operated, the meaning of their architecture, and how the capital of the Empire grew to become the largest city in the world at the end of the 13th century.

A look at the end of the last Czar and his family at the hand of the Bolsheviks, and the 4 centuries of grand, bloody and war-torn history that proceeded it - the might of the double-eagle throne fascinates us to this day. The killing lasted 20 minutes. Czar Nikolaus II. was the first to die – shot in the heart with a pistol at close range. Then the Bolsheviks shot his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna, his daughters Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia, the heir apparent Alexei, and four employees of the royal family. The death of the Romanovs marked the end of a dynasty reaching back to the crowning of Michail Romanov in July 1613. The Czars always ruled their huge empire with an iron fist – which in the end became their undoing. 400 years of Romanov rule – 4 centuries of grandiose and fateful European and Russian history.

The graphic art of ancient Egypt is very familiar to us, since it was so widely used. We find extraordinary graphic representations on sarcophagi, papyrus scrolls, the walls of tombs and other buildings. They are testimony to a lasting taste for "the art of the contour", and allow us to understand this ancient civilization like no other. The figure we know less about is the artist himself, the scribe. It was he who was the source of these representations; he who, with a simple stroke of a reed pen or paint brush, gave birth to the entire art of Egypt. Respecting precise codes, the scribe’s skills remained unchanged for more than three millennia. They sketched people, signs, plants, animals and geometric figures with a rare visual poetry, like a writer, a scientist, a sociologist or an artist. In this film, we will discover who these scribes really were, and their importance for the society of the Pharaohs. From Saqqara to the Valley of Kings and the abundant collections of European museums, the most beautiful works will be examined, along with the secrets behind their production.

How did Angkor become the largest, 13th century city ever built? Using the most sophisticated technologies in conjunction with research focusing on statues, casts, and documents handed down by Louis Delaporte - one of the first explorers of Angkor in the 19th century - researchers have been able to uncover how Khmer temples operated, the meaning of their architecture, and how the capital of the Empire grew to become the largest city in the world at the end of the 13th century.

This program features in detail the history of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and the development of his works

Hub of the economy of the West Indies, St. Pierre was in the early twentieth century, the capital of Martinique. Suddenly, May 8, 1902, the volcano of Mount Pelee, after three hundred years, explodes and destroys the city in minutes. Lit by a pageant, the history of this tragedy resurfaced through the testimony of descendants of survivors.

"Europe for Sale" follows the stories in seven European countries. Whether it's a forest in Ireland, the remnants of the Berlin Wall, the Coliseum in Rome or a palace right on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, our heritage has an economic value, but it has an even greater spiritual value.

Glyphosate and its effects

Architect and town planner, Le Corbusier (1887-1965) revolutionized housing and imposed a modern conception of collective life. Even more, he gave birth to an aesthetic and dreamed of another society. The film, through the interviews and texts of Corbusier, establishes a dialogue between man and his century, that of world wars, ideologies and totalitarianisms. Based on interviews and personal writings, this documentary gives an overview of life at the time: the century of world wars, ideologies and totalitarianism.

Here are parrots that totally break the stereotypes! The Keas in New Zealand just love the snow and the cold, harsh mountain climate. To survive here, these mountain parrots have developed exceptional intelligence and resourcefulness. Watch these incredibly unique birds in action!

Le chantier de restauration de la statue de Niké, une sculpture aussi célèbre que mystérieuse. La "Victoire de Samothrace" est nimbée de mystère. Considérée comme l'une des expressions les plus achevées de la sculpture hellénistique et datée du IIe siècle avant J.-C., elle représente Niké, la déesse de la victoire. Mais on ne sait qui l'a sculptée, ni quand et pour quelle occasion. La réalisatrice Juliette Garcias a suivi le chantier de sa restauration.

Jean-Michel Jarre is one of the pioneers of electronic music. He is a composer, performer, songwriter, and producer whose pioneering approach to electronic music and live performance has influenced a generation. After studying with Pierre Schaeffer, creator of musique concrete at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), Jarre recorded the seminal 1976 album Oxygene in his makeshift home studio – the album sold 18 million copies internationally. It set new standards, and is the best-selling French album. Jarre's 17 studio albums have totaled over 80 million sales, and he resides in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest concert attendance for a show in 1997. 2015 he fulfilled a dream: For the album "E-Project", he gathered other legends of electronic pop music into the studio. Artists from different generations participating were Vince Clarke, Gary Numan, Moby and AIR. The emergence of this album is the focus of the documentary "A Journey Into Sound" by Birgit Herdlitschke. But the film also airs the secret of success of Jean-Michel Jarre. With material from private and public archives, the film looks back on his youth, the first experiments with electronic music and his relationship with his famous father Maurice Jarre (composer of soundtrack for "Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago").

La Sagrada Familia – although still under construction in Barcelona – is a cathedral without any flaws. Almost 100 years after his death, experts are convinced that Gaudi was a mathematical genius and that each embellishing ornament of the Sagrada Familia actually serves an architectural purpose.

Rester ou partir ? L'éventualité du Brexit fait trembler les milieux d'affaires britanniques et étrangers. Tour d'horizon, de la City au siège local de BMW. Wenn am 23. Juni 2016 um 22 Uhr Ortszeit die Wahllokale schließen, hat sich Großbritannien entschieden: Für oder gegen den Verbleib in der EU. Doch was käme eigentlich nach dem Brexit? Hanni Hüsch und Julie Kurz analysieren die Konsequenzen und begeben sich auf Spurensuche nach den Gründen derer, die so vehement für die Abspaltung werben.

Meet the Victorian James Bond, Robert Fortune, who risked his life traveling through China in the 1840's ... for a good cup of tea?! Perhaps the earliest known perpetrator of industrial espionage

Memory is not a photo album where your images of the past are faithfully recorded. The latest neuroscience discoveries show that memory can be affected in many ways and with surprising results: false memories, distortions, modifications and deja vu. To what extent can we rely on our memories?

The American cult writer, Philip K. Dick was responsible for some of the most iconic novels of the twentieth century. This documentary looks behind the famous author and examines his unique vision of the future with the assistance of philosophers, scientists, biographers, writers, friends and family. We draw upon Philip K. Dick’s work as well as various cinematographic adaptations of his novels (Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, and more) in order to illustrate the extent to which K. Dick’s oeuvre foretold the world that has become our own today. The film will take the viewer on a fascinating journey to discover this extraordinary writer and to observe our contemporary society with a critical eye by delving into three of K. Dick’s main obsessions: the human being and his double, a controlled society and what is reality?

A complex and complicated artist, Georges Remi created one of the most famous characters in the world, Tintin, for young readers. With exceptional access to the archives of Studios Herge and Moulinsart, this program looks at Remi's life and the way he changed the art of comic strips.

Host city of the Vieilles Charrues festival, Carhaix-Plouguer cultivates a particular kind of local democracy in order to survive. In this documentary, Frédéric Brunnquell meets the locals to discover how they have stood fast in the face adversity even as public authorities abandoned them.

This film will recount the full Odyssey of the Rosetta Mission including the landing of the Philae Probe in Oct 2015 and the ultimate Philae mission phase in Sept 2016. From the water found on the comet, to the organic molecules detected in the comet dust, this film brings the latest findings on Comet material. A space journey filled with drama, to save Rosetta before its final collapse and further our knowledge about the origins of life.

This is one of the most famous burials of the Bronze Age. The mummy of the "daughter of Egtved" - named after the village of Jutland, Denmark, where it was discovered in 1921 by a peasant - offers a fascinating glimpse of the daily life of our ancestors in northern Europe. It is estimated that she died around 1370 BC The remarkable state of preservation of her clothes? a woollen skirt and short tunic - as well as precious bronze jewellery - first caught the eye. Of his body itself, there were only teeth, nails, and especially 23 cm long hair - which just revealed their secrets.

In the middle of the forests of cork oaks, and then in the kitchen with an unparalleled cook, we discover the specialties of the Alentejo.

As the iconic castle undergoes extensive restoration work, over 10,000 historical maps of the Chateau have been digitalized, enabling historians to reveal and bring back to life in 3D imagery forgotten parts of the iconic Palace. This site mirrors the Sun King’s growing ambitions over his 70-year long reign. Shaped over 40 years with ceaseless construction additions (some of which have gone lost to history), Versailles hides some of Louis the XIV’s most fanciful ideas– including a vegetal maze, a cave full of special effects, a menagerie with exotic animals, marble baths and the private royal art gallery. In reconstructed 3D sets, lavish drama scenes depict the life of the Sun King and some of his closest advisors such as his Prime Minister Colbert or his confident the marquis de Dangeau.

In the heart of the Pacific, between the lagoon and the ocean, unrolls one of Nature's greatest spectacles. This is the story of a little surgeon fish who will have to go through the greatest ordeals from the moment he is born.

Bolero is played every 15 minutes in the world. This film tries to answer how this famous melody inspired and influenced the world pop-culture? It explores the complexity and the richness of a piece so simple in appearance: the emotions it triggers, vertigo it creates, the words it inspires.

Nuremberg is where Nazi congresses were held. In the city where Hitler gathered huge crowds of fanatics, the court hosted in 1945 the greatest trial in History. The Allied victors judged those responsible for the Third Reich. Among the defendants are the Führer's closest surviving accomplices. But not only them: defendant number 27 is not even a man. It is an entire organization: the SS were a state within the state – which ruled all the police – with its own army, within the Nazi regime.

There are less than 20 paintings attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. Finding or identifying a new one is a once in a lifetime event. The 16th century Madonna of the Yardwiner is believed by some renowned world experts, including from the Louvre, to have been painted by the great master. Several versions of the portrait exists, notably one exposed in Scotland, but which one is authentic and which one is a copy? This documentary is an investigation across Europe, led by leading art professionals, to determine which Madonna and the Yardwiner is the real deal. A rare dive into the art world to better understand the genius of Da Vinci.