_Into the Heart of Darkness
_Synopsis
June 1941. The Germans had racked up a series of easy victories. Exhilarated by their successes in Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, they prepare to leave for a secret operation in the east... Before Christmas, they're sure of it: they'll be back home. How could they have imagined that they were about to embark on a war of unprecedented violence, which would claim six million lives in just a few months?
The players in this story, soldiers and civilians alike, recorded their experiences, both on the German and Soviet sides: in the form of short amateur films - the Germans filmed a lot - but also in letters and diaries. Far from the official accounts and State propaganda, another side of Operation Barbarossa is revealed, at the level of men and women, plunging us into the heart of the inferno...
A powerful docu series capturing the human essence of a battle that still echoes today.
>> WATCH THE SERIES ON ARTE.TV (in French or German only)
_Technical Sheet
Format: Documentary
Running time: 2x52'
Status: Completed
Versions: French, English
Year: 2024
Author: Thomas SIPP
Director: Thomas SIPP
Producers: Valérianne BOUÉ, Marion GUTH, François LE GALL
Production companies: Les films d’ici (FR), a_BAHN (LU)
Broadcast: ARTE France (FR), RTL (LU), Česká televize (CZ) ORF III (AT), Planete+ Poland (PL), TV5 Québec Canada (CA), HOT8 (IL)
World sales: ZED
With the support of: Film Fund Luxembourg (LU), CNC (FR), MEDIA Creative Europe, PROCIREP-ANGOA (FR), Cinémage 17 (FR), Ministère des Armées (FR), Région Ile-de-France (FR), Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah (FR)
Thomas SIPP
Author & Film Director
Thomas Sipp is a French director, working on video and sound documentaries.
Both his films and videos have been broadcast both by French national television channels (France 3, ARTE, Canal +, Planète) and by international ones (RTBF, TSR, TVE) and been exhibited in many festivals and galleries, in France and beyond. He has directed two webseries on typography, for instance with Safari Typo! (2016) or Sacrés Charactères (2014), the latter has been selected at the MIFA and the Berlin Short Film Festival. He has an interest in history, directing two episodes (-52, Alésia and La Bataille de Borodino, La Moskova) for the ARTE series Quand l’histoire fait date in 2020.
He is a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse.
Thomas Sipp is a French director, working on video and sound documentaries.
Both his films and videos have been broadcast both by French national television channels (France 3, ARTE, Canal +, Planète) and by international ones (RTBF, TSR, TVE) and been exhibited in many festivals and galleries, in France and beyond. He has directed two webseries on typography, for instance with Safari Typo! (2016) or Sacrés Charactères (2014), the latter has been selected at the MIFA and the Berlin Short Film Festival. He has an interest in history, directing two episodes (-52, Alésia and La Bataille de Borodino, La Moskova) for the ARTE series Quand l’histoire fait date in 2020.
He is a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse.
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