What did you fight for? This question makes the 96-years old Austrian Gerhard Hoffmann, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and of the Second World War who had been fighting against Fascism, very thoughtful: You can t describe that in a few words. NO PASARAN is looking for answers: The film goes on a journey across Europe to meet the last contemporary witnesses of these wars.In the focus of this multinational documentary film are the life paths and fates of Joseph Almudever and his brother Vincent Almudever (France), Giovanni Pesce and his wife Onorina Pesce (Italy), Rosario Sanchez Mora (Spain), Herman Scheerboom (Netherlands), Kurt Goldstein (Germany) and Gerhard Hoffmann (Austria).When they were volunteering to join the fight, they all were teenagers. But nobody of them expected a 10 years odyssey over the battlefields of Europe and through the fascist concentration or extermination camps until the return back home.

Forced marriages, domestic violence, over 100000 wives killed by fire in so called household accidents every year – in India, violence against women is omnipresent and nearly all women, independent of class, caste and religion are affected. Because Police and Justice hardly give any protection or aid, women in India have organised to fight against this violence and injustice. They founded the Women for Justice and the Nari Adalat womens courts. Every week they gather on the roof terrace of the local government or on a dusty place under a tree and dispense justice themselves. With quick-wittedness and creativity they put beating husbands and quarrelsome mother-in-laws in their place. And – if necessary – they go in as a riot squad to help a poor widow, who was thrown out of the house with her little daughter after the death of her husband, to regain her belongings.

https://vimeo.com/132697027

70 years after the beginning of the Spanish ­Civil War the last still living international volunteers, who fought for freedom and democracy and against General Franco and Fascism, return to Spain. The Brigadistas, 36 men and women – the youngest 86, the eldest 99 years old – set out on a journey that leads them from Madrid to Barcelona and all over Spain. This is the last journey for many of them and the Brigadistas know it. They report their experiences and want to pass on their ideas and ideals. ­BRIGADISTAS is an intensive portrait of these people, the film paints a picture in which enthusiasm and pensiveness find their space.

Bereits kurz nach Ende des 2. Weltkrieges begann der Kalte Krieg. Vor diesem Hintergrund plante die Bundesregierung unter Kanzler Adenauer schon 1949 die Wiedereinführung einer Armee. Gegen dieses Vorhaben gab es in der Bevölkerung große Proteste. Die Adenauer-Regierung reagierte schnell. Innerhalb weniger Wochen wurde ein politisches Strafrecht eingeführt, das seine Wurzeln im Strafrecht der Nazizeit hatte. Alle Bürger, die gegen die Wiederbewaffnung oder für die Wiedervereinigung waren, galten nun als Staatsfeinde. Über 200.000 Menschen wurden politisch verfolgt - häufig von Polizisten, Staatsanwälten oder Richtern, die schon in der Nazizeit in Amt und Würden waren. Etwa 10.000 Menschen wurden zu Gefängnisstrafen verurteilt und vielen wurde die Existenz zerstört. Auf diese Weise wurde schon in den Anfangsjahren der Bundesrepublik Deutschland eine große außerparlamentarische Bewegung zerschlagen. Eine politische Weichenstellung, die die gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse bis heute belastet.

What did you fight for? This question makes the 96-years old Austrian Gerhard Hoffmann, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and of the Second World War who had been fighting against Fascism, very thoughtful: You can’t describe that in a few words. NO PASARAN is looking for answers: The film goes on a journey across Europe to meet the last contemporary witnesses of these wars.In the focus of this multinational documentary film are the life paths and fates of Joseph Almudever and his brother Vincent Almudever (France), Giovanni Pesce and his wife Onorina Pesce (Italy), Rosario Sanchez Mora (Spain), Herman Scheerboom (Netherlands), Kurt Goldstein (Germany) and Gerhard Hoffmann (Austria).When they were volunteering to join the fight, they all were teenagers. But nobody of them expected a 10 years´ odyssey over the battlefields of Europe and through the fascist concentration or extermination camps until the return back home.