Afghanistan after the US / 2021
#Afghanistan

A year ago, the last American troops left Afghanistan, ending Washington’s longest war. After the 9/11 tragedy, it declared ‘war on terrorism’ and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The US and NATO troops stayed even after the killing of bin Laden and the decline of al-Qaeda.

At the beginning, the Afghan people were elated to see the arrival of American troops as they had high hopes to finally be rid of terrorists. However, the situation soon began to change.

The collateral damage that came as a result of the American presence was immense. Bombs destroyed schools and hospitals, and anti-Taliban air raids killed civilians in the process. By the end of the mission, the casualties numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

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Jungle M.D. / 2017
#Brazil

Dr. Erik Jennings is like Marvel’s Doctor Strange. He’s rich and a successful neurosurgeon in Brazil who flies aircraft and sails yachts. Dr Erik is also one of the few allowed to visit the isolated Zo’e tribe. The Zo’e came in contact with outsiders only in the late 1980s. They soon started to fall ill from diseases they had never been exposed to.

Dr. Erik has been paying them visits deep in the Amazon rainforest to check their health for 20 years. Now it’s not just infectious viruses that threaten the Zo’e; pressure is mounting from mining companies, illegal logging and fires.

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Serbia: Signs of War / 2022
#Serbia

The Kosovo conflict has fueled up again. The recent turmoil in the contested region began after plans were announced to ban Serbian license plates and introduce permits for Serbs entering the Kosovo region. Recently, both Kosovo and Serbia came to an agreement to postpone this law on the mutual non-recognition of Serbian and Kosovo ID cards and license plates until September 1. It did help to smooth over the acute phase of the conflict, but it didn’t solve the core problems between Serbia and the contested region.

A growing number of people in Belgrade believe that the Serbian leadership has been slow to act. That it is time to solve the Kosovo issue in the same way that Russia returned Crimea; that the region must be brought back home.

What is life like for Serbians in Kosovo? What is the job of the People’s Patrol Movement? Is there a way to end the conflict peacefully?

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Living for the Angels / 2019
#Russia

On September 1, 2004, a horrific terrorist attack occurred in Beslan, Russia. Chechen-led terrorists took 1,127 people - most of them women and children - hostage at Beslan School #1. They were held for 52 hours without drinking water in suffocating heat in the school sports hall that was rigged with explosives. Several people were killed before security forces made the decision to storm the building. In the aftermath of the rescue efforts, 314 hostages, including 186 children, were killed.

The survivors of the terrorist attack are now grown up, their lives split between ‘before' and 'after' the event. The documentary shows some of the survivors fifteen years after the Beslan tragedy.

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Big Sister / 2019
#Russia

Kristina was only 19 when she became mom to her six siblings. Their parents tragically passed away within a year of each other.

Kristina was determined to keep her family together and immediately applied to become the children’s guardian. She dropped out of college and moved back to her home village.

Together with her siblings, she runs a household and takes care of their small farm - cows, pigs, chickens and rabbits.

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USSR Collapse: A Crash Course / 2021
#USSR

In 1991, tanks rumbled through the streets of Moscow, and state TV and radio announced the formation of new leadership under the auspices of the State Committee for the State of Emergency. Communist hardliners decided it was time to save the Soviet Union and overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev, the USSR’s first and last president.

Gobachev was revered in the West and widely unpopular at home. When Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he proclaimed the need to make changes within the country, which was afflicted by stagnation. Perestroika (restructuring) and Glasnost (openness), two popular words of the era, were aimed at transforming Soviet society.

The former Soviet leader passed away this week at the age of 91. The documentary shows the fast-unfolding events of 1991 and the legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev.

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Aurora Hunters / 2021
#Russia

Seeing the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights should be on anyone’s bucket list. The multicolor curtains of light have captivated people for thousands of years. Inuit, Norse, Finnish and Icelandic legends describe the most incredible origins of the dancing lights.

However, the most recent myth has driven tourism for an Aurora hunt in Russia’s Murmansk region. According to Chinese superstition, if you conceive under the Northern Lights, the child will be a boy. Others believe the Northern Lights baby is in for a happy life. Local businesses endorse the myth and offer rooms with North-facing windows and a transparent roof.

What do you know about the Northern Lights?

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🎲 Quiz 'Oh, I'm blinded by the lights! Check out these fascinating facts about one of the earth's most beautiful natural wonders ✨'
🖊 5 questions · ⏱ 45 sec

Tolerance du Voyage / 2019
#France

In France, Gypsies are known as the ‘gens du voyage’, or 'the people who travel'. The term was coined in an effort to fight anti-Gypsy prejudice. ‘I think our community is the most hated in the world,’ says Henoc Cortes Lopez, a French Gypsy rapper. French Gypsies also fear their traditional nomadic lifestyle is being threatened. In 2018, France passed a law that prohibits spontaneous encampments.

An influx of Romas from Eastern Europe has proved to be another headache for French ‘gens du voyage’. They say newcomers seeking refugee status and welfare rights are only feeding into the anti-Gypsy stereotype. Are their worries justified?

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Afghanistan’s Loud, Mute Voices / 2022
#Afghanistan

‘I want to visit a family that's selling a little girl and produce a report about it,’ says Mohammad Amin. This young man is deaf, but he’s found his own way to talk to the world — with the help of a camera. His goal is to use photography to show that Afghanistan is more than poppy fields, war and explosions. It has a rich history that has to be seen. But it also has problems, and for Mohammad Amin, it is essential to speak out about them to the world community. And his work speaks louder than words.

He has learnt that his neighbour, a former state employee called Abdurrahim, intends to sell his daughter, which is becoming more and more common in Afghanistan today. Mohammad wants to tell the story with his camera. Learn more about Mohammad Amin and meet other outstanding young people from Afghanistan who can’t speak or hear but find ways to be heard — through their art and social initiatives.

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Waziristan. Hard Homecoming / 2018
#Pakistan

Waziristan is a remote, mountainous region of Pakistan populated by independent tribes. The Taliban and al-Qaeda operated in this area for years. In 2014, the Pakistani army launched an offensive to drive out the Islamic militants.
However, the operation displaced nearly 1 million people. The documentary shows what awaits those returning to Waziristan.

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O-High-O: The Road to Addiction, and Back / 2020
#USA

Drug abuse is rampant in the small city of Akron, Ohio. ‘We have small towns here in Ohio that have been prescribed millions of pills, enough to sedate a small country,’ says Raynard Packard, director of an Akron rehab centre. Drug abuse is ravaging his city, as more and more people lose their lives to opioids, meth and prenoscription drugs. Meet recovering addicts and people who help them.

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Black in the USSR / 2020
#USSR

In the 1930s, some black Americans traded Jim Crow for Soviet internationalism. Scores of African Americans moved to the Soviet Union in search of antiracism and career opportunities that contrasted with the oppression and economic hardship in the US. Some of their descendants still live in Russia and share stories of their families in the documentary.

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Are you a Chinese speaker or just learning Chinese and looking for interesting content in Chinese? 🇨🇳

Check out this Telegram channel and watch new documentary films every week! Follow RT纪录 and share with your Chinese-speaking friends! Here’s a documentary on Mikhail Gorbachev and his legacy as the last Soviet leader.

https://news.1rj.ru/str/rtjilu/72

The Happiest People on Earth / 2017
#NorthKorea

On this day in 1948, Kim Il-sung declared the formation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). Throughout its history, it’s remained the world’s most isolated country and has been ruled by three generations of the Kim family. Get a glimpse inside Pyongyang, as it celebrates the birthdays of late Kim Jong-un and Kim Il-sung. The documentary delves into the personality cult and shows the every-day life of North Koreans - only those who were authorised to speak to foreign media.

North Korea has declared itself a nuclear weapons state. It passed a law that allows it to carry out a preventive nuclear strike ‘immediately to destroy the hostile forces’.

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🇰🇵 Inside North Korea: Separating Fact from Fiction
🎲 See how much you really know about the country

🖊 5 questions · ⏱ 1 min

Children of Donbass / 2022
#Ukraine #Donbass

‘Children find shells. You can’t stop a child from doing it. And this leads to many fatalities. So, just the week before last, four children died in the Volnovakha area. Children are dying — this is horrible,’ says Dmitry Kalashnikov, head of the Bureau of Forensics at the DPR Health Ministry.

The Ukrainian military don’t just leave tripwires behind, but also booby-trapped toys. For children, specifically. Aleksandr Torba, an eminent surgeon in the Lugansk People’s Republic, has operated several times on children who picked up deadly toys.

‘Naturally, their first impulse was to pick up a teddy bear or a toy puppy. And the moment they picked it up, a booby-trap detonated, most often damaging wrists, face and neck,’ says Aleksandr.

This is just one of the atrocities performed by the Ukrainian military on the Donbass territory. They have been targeting peaceful civilians and specifically children for eight years. Find more details in the new documentary.

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Self-Harm - the Pandemic of Youth / 2020
#Russia

Around 17% of people will self-harm during their lifetime, according to one analysis across more than 40 countries. Many start hurting themselves at the age of 12. Teenagers can deliberately cut or burn themselves without aiming to commit suicide. Although self-harm is not a specific mental health disorder, it is a common symptom of various conditions, and some of them can lead to suicidal behaviours. Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, hear stories of self-injuring children and their families who live with mental anguish.

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Sleepy Hollow, Kazakhstan / 2014
#Kazakhstan

In a small Kazakh village, people suddenly fall asleep and don’t wake up for days. Since 2013, residents have been complaining of sleepiness, hallucinations and memory loss. The inexplicable sleeping sickness epidemic has gripped the village, forcing locals to flee and scientists to scratch their heads.

If you try to wake up an affected person, it seems they can’t open their eyes. Researchers are trying to work out what’s causing the sleeping sickness. From mass psychosis to food poisoning, they’ve put forward various theories. More recently, they were looking into groundwater contamination by the uranium mines.

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