From DW Documentary. In 1144, the Basilica of Saint-Denis, near Paris, was consecrated. The construction was met with amazement by locals. Its hallmarks were extensive light, glass, pointed arches and diagonal ribs, and it ushered in what is known as the Gothic period. "Let there be light!" – the biblical message emanates from the Basilica…

From DW Documentary. Thailand’s popular national sport, the martial art Muay Thai, remains male-dominated. Yet as more and more girls and women pursue careers in the ring, the traditions of the sport are being challenged. Muay Thai is known as the sport of warriors and kings. Said to be one of the oldest sports in…

From DW Documentary. The photographer Abbas Attar, known simply as Abbas, was one of the foremost documenters of crisis and revolution. Many of his images have become iconic. The Iranian-French photojournalist Abbas was a member of the Magnum photographic agency. Beginning in the 1960s, he was often on the scene for events that shook the…

From DW Documentary. Nearly 80,000 people have died of COVID-19 since the coronavirus pandemic hit Germany. Behind every statistic lies a sad personal story about the fates of individuals and their families. One terrible thing about COVID-19 is not just that people are dying of it, but the circumstances in which they die. A COVID-19…

From DW Documentary. Torture in Syria – a German court has been deliberating it for one year now. It is an extraordinary process: not only are the defendants being held responsible, but also the Assad regime itself. Survivors are hoping justice will be served. Wassim Mukdad has first-hand experience of what it means to be…

From DW Documentary. Why did Christians start building cathedrals reaching to the sky 1000 years ago? Was it to demonstrate earthly power, or an attempt to be close to God? Whatever the reason, the resulting architecture still fascinates us today. The Romanesque period still harbors many unsolved mysteries. For example, what led people at the…

From DW Documentary. What does it mean to be masculine? Does it involve being tough, rational, unemotional and never crying? Or is that a stereotype that harms boys, the men they become, and the women around them? Today, men are seeking to redefine their masculinity. More and more men – and women – want to…

From DW Documentary. For 500 years, Transylvania’s Gábor people have held onto their values and rituals. This film explores the insular world of the Gábor Roma, and asks whether they can maintain their traditional lives in a globalized world. The Romanian village of Karácsonyfalva is the center of the Gábor Roma community. More than 1,000…

From DW Documentary. Why are anxiety disorders on the rise? Is there a pill for fear? Fear can cause trembling, a racing heart, sweating, and stress. It’s essential for our survival, but it can also make us sick. How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting our sense of fear? Can a fear of heights be conquered…

From DW Documentary. Why is the world constantly on the brink of a new financial crisis? This film explores the reasons for our risky financial system, and looks at how the financial world could be reshaped to be better prepared for the future. Since 2008, trust between citizens and financial systems has been deeply shaken.…

From DW Documentary. Pastor Martens’ church offers refuge to Christians from Iran who have fled to Germany to escape religious persecution in their home country. They continue to face the threat of deportation, but the pastor hopes to protect them by providing sanctuary. Behrad Allehyari simply wanted to practice his beliefs. In Tehran, he was active in a home church that held secret church services and bible studies. Such activities may sound harmless but can attract critical attention from Iranian authorities, and there, renouncing one’s Islamic faith is punishable by death. Behrad Allehyari fled…

From DW Documentary. To outsiders, Turkmenistan is one of the world’s least known countries. For the first time in ten years, a film crew has been free to visit spectacular excavation sites and follow international researchers into areas that have long been off-limits. Once considered the poorest part of the Soviet Union, oil and natural…

From DW Documentary. Many millionaires live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the world’s poorest countries. This film depicts some of those who have made fortunes amid the chaos, including musicians, mining bosses, entrepreneurs and preachers. The DRC is rich in raw materials, but only a few profit from its natural resources. While…

From DW Documentary. The topic of sexuality has polarized polish society – conservative sex education in schools, a deeply rooted catholic sexual morality and a government that openly demonizes sexuality in minors. Required sex education doesn‘t exist in conservative Poland. Only the optional course, "Preparation for family life" is offered, molded by the over conservative…

From DW Documentary. Plastic surgeon Camilo Prieto has a comfortable life in Bogotá. But since the global pandemic struck, he’s been on a mission. He flies to villages in Colombia’s hinterlands to combat the coronavirus. Deep in the rainforest, everything is scarce: masks, disinfectants, COVID tests, oxygen tanks. And awareness. The governments’ mandates on social…

From DW Documentary. The first five years of a child’s life are crucial. If early childhood education is neglected, problems can arise that may never be overcome, leading to consequences for the individual and society as a whole. In the United States, there’s little public investment in early childhood education. Yet research shows that the…

From DW Documentary. The Concorde was one of the most spectacular passenger aircraft ever built. But 113 people died when a French Concorde crashed in July 2000. Soon afterward, the era of the supersonic passenger plane came to an end. The legend of the Concorde lives on, not least because it was a technical marvel.…

From DW Documentary. Thilafushi, an island of floating rubbish island in the Maldives, grows by a square meter a day. But diving instructor Shaahina Ali is trying to slow that growth by recycling and using floating barriers to hold back the rising seas. For decades, the Maldives simply dumped the trash the tourists and the…

From DW Documentary. Structural injustice creates division and threatens peace. But how do we know whether our social order is just? Challenging such notions is the key to social mobility. The idea of social justice is central to our sense of morality. Experiments show that even two-year-olds display high levels of social cooperation, while five-year-olds…

From DW Documentary. Thousands of Romanians are moving to Germany or France to work on farms or in the meat-packing industry. The work is hard — and dangerous, because of the Covid pandemic. This mass emigration has created labor shortages back home. Many of them believe that the only way to earn a decent wage…

From DW Documentary. Birgit Scheffler’s work involves something that’s next to impossible during the coronavirus pandemic: comforting the bereaved while keeping her distance. And these days she deals with death on a daily basis. Scheffler is a funeral director. In the midst of the pandemic, Birgit Scheffler and a friend went into business for themselves. Scheffler gave up her job with a media outlet and opened a funeral home. Ever since her mother’s sudden death she’d been thinking about how to make the process of saying your final farewells…

From DW Documentary. Water is fundamental to life, yet it’s also a scarce commodity. In many cases, greed and mismanagement are causing this life-giving essential to run dry. What happens when water is monetized? From Australia to California, from New York to London and Brussels, this investigative documentary tells the story of the global struggle…

From DW Documentary. It’s a remote paradise between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Only a few thousand people live on the islands in the Torres Strait. They depend on a supply ship that sails to their isolated archipelago once a week. There are 274 islands in the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea,…

From DW Documentary. Around the world, pandemic-related lockdowns have hit our globalized economy hard. Supply chains have been disrupted, industries crippled. The coronavirus has laid bare the risks of global interconnectedness. Is the crisis the beginning of the end of globalization? In early 2020, when much Asian production and manufacturing was shut down, the effects…

From DW Documentary. Who owns the land of the reindeer? The indigenous Sami people? Or all Swedish people? The decision of the country’s top court to award exclusive hunting and fishing rights to Sami in one 19-mile strip of land has prompted an outcry. For the Sami people, the Supreme Court ruling was an historic…

From DW Documentary. Since 2015, the initiative "Lulu dans ma rue" has brought some village feel to Paris. True to the adage ’Metro, work, sleep’, many Parisians don’t know their neighbors. During the pandemic, many are isolated and lonely. The Lulus aim to change that. The French capital’s arrondissements, or districts, were once like little villages – each with its own distinctive neighborhood…

From DW Documentary. Mining on asteroids sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but it could soon become a reality. Nations and powerful corporations already have plans for such ventures and are hard at work staking their claim to resources from space. How can economic growth continue unfettered once all the earth’s resources have been…

From DW Documentary. Arbër Hajdari has helped thousands of Albanian families escape poverty. Five years ago he set up the humanitarian organization Fundjavë Ndryshe to fight hardship in Albania. Now, around 12,000 volunteers work for the group. "If I may, I’d like to give two tips to young people who want to set up a…

From DW Documentary. 35-year-old Nazli Yilmaz works as a façade-cleaner on high-rise office buildings in Turkey’s metropolis Istanbul. She’s broken through a glass ceiling to scale glass facades in what’s always been strictly a man‘s world. Nazli Yilmaz is raising her 11-year-old daughter alone. She’s separated from her husband. That in itself puts her in an…

From DW Documentary. The USS Ronald Reagan cruised into a radioactive cloud from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011. Sailors on the aircraft carrier were exposed to radiation. This documentary looks at the event and what came before it. The discovery of the atom and radioactivity are among the most important advances in…

From DW Documentary. People around the globe are witnessing the disintegration of an oil-rich country. Venezuela had the world’s fourth-highest per-capita income in 1950. Now it’s being ripped apart by record levels of poverty. More than 90% of Venezuelans struggle to subsist. How did Hugo Chávez drive this once affluent, democratic country to ruin? This…

From DW Documentary. All they want to do is escape poverty, but they end up in the hands of sex traffickers. Women from Romania in particular, sometimes fall prey to criminal networks while seeking a better life in Germany. And for the most part, the criminals go undetected – because sex work is a perfectly…

From DW Documentary. A matriarchy rules on one of the Bijagos Islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau. The tribe of the same name lives on Orango, one of the most populated islands in the archipelago. Women dominate public and private life there. This documentary focuses on the women of the Bijagos tribe of Guinea-Bissau. Unlike…

From DW Documentary. This hard-hitting documentary reveals the abuse suffered by the gay community all over the world. France, despite having legalized gay marriage in 2013, has seen a rise in homophobic violence in recent years. In Tunisia, gay people can be sentenced to three years in prison, simply for their sexual orientation. When arrested…

From DW Documentary. Nothing works in Somalia. It lacks authorities, public amenities, a banking system, a functioning army and proper law enforcement. Instead, Islamic militias carry out attacks and anarchy dominates life. Every year, the international community spends billions on aid, and yet the country is weaker than ever. Rather than benefiting citizens, the majority…

From DW Documentary. One fate unites these four Hong Kong citizens: they are all living in exile in London and fighting for democracy in their homeland and for a new life abroad. They all needed to get out of Hong Kong fast. Hong Kong was a place of freedom in Asia. Today, the Chinese Special…

From DW Documentary. Residents of Nairobi’s slums who can’t pay their rent get evicted and end up on the street. Over 90 percent of these tenants live in rented corrugated-metal shacks owned by slumlords with terrible reputations. The slumlords of Nairobi mercilessly exploit the poorest of poor. One young man was shot and killed over…

From DW Documentary. An American dream comes true for a Congolese family and their friend. After more than 20 years in an African refugee camp they start a new life in the United States. With courage and humor, they navigate the challenges of their new life. The first time in an airplane, the first time…

From DW Documentary. Even when we sleep, part of us is alert. Our sense of hearing is on duty 24 hours a day, detecting danger, helping us communicate, and orienting us. But hearing often suffers from sensory overload and stress. The ear is an extremely powerful tool, but it’s also a fragile one. According to…

From DW Documentary. The bridge crosses over a busy freeway in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. If you’re looking for vegetables, a bowl of hot soup, a haircut, or even a new bed, you can find it here. But now, the bridge is to be torn down. The bridge provides a vital link between the slum district…

From DW Documentary. Once a center of the timber industry, Soyga is now mostly home to the elderly. For many of the village residents, train driver Petrovich with his ramshackle narrow-gauge railway is a link to the outside world, and a kind of guardian angel. Petrovich and his train take the spry, old residents of…

From DW Documentary. "We’re not aliens!" say young German Jews. They want to be seen as normal young people. But even in 2021, fitting into German society doesn’t come easily. What does it mean to be the only Jew in the whole school? This is a film about dealing with clichés and stereotypes in everyday…

From DW Documentary. Sand is overrunning Oltenia, a historical region in southern Romania. It’s getting hotter and drier, with sandstorms now reaching all the way to Bucharest. As they try to prevent the worst, environmentalists are turning to reforestation. The effects of climate change can be clearly seen and felt in the Romanian region of…

From DW Documentary. The "New Silk Road" is an enormous Chinese international development project. It’s a trade network that involves Asia, Africa, and Europe — and more than 70 countries are already involved. It may turn the old world order upside down. China is investing in bridges, port facilities, railroads, and roads around the world.…

From DW Documentary. Istanbul famously straddles two continents and lies in a risk zone of extreme tectonic tensions. Geologists fear the city will be hit by a particularly severe earthquake in the next few years – with devastating consequences. Marco Bohnhoff is a seismologist with the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam. He and…

From DW Documentary. For years, Germany has been sourcing much of its coal from Colombia. But at what price? Colombians have been suffering from spiraling violence, while mining companies and European consumers profit. Time and again, coal-mining in Colombia has proven to result in severe human rights abuses and environmental degradation. People are forced from…

From DW Documentary. Increasing numbers of Jews have been leaving ultra-orthodox communities in recent years. Surprisingly, Germany has become a popular refuge for them. Rabbi Akiva Weingarten has been helping them. More than 1.3 million Jews live in ultra-orthodox communities worldwide. It’s a kind of parallel universe — in which only God’s laws count. Every…

From DW Documentary. Beijing has been subjecting the ethnic Uighur minority in the region of Xinjiang to repressions for years. Now, it has grown into a form of cultural warfare that even affects Uighurs in exile. Human rights activists say China is committing genocide. Uighurs speak their own language, which is similar to Turkish, and…

From DW Documentary. According to the US Constitution, anyone can found a religion and spread its message. Many Americans are doing just that The range of religious communities is diverse and stretches from sea to shining sea. For some years now, the US has been in the midst of a second "New Age" wave. Shamans,…

From DW Documentary. What prospects do children have if they’ve grown up in a criminal environment? Pickpocketing is part of everyday life in the Paris Metro. Police say it’s often committed by Romanian children, working mostly for their own parents. Pickpocketing is part of everyday life in the Paris Metro. Repeat offenders are investigated by…

From DW Documentary. Sleep disorders are one of the most common reasons for visiting a doctor in Europe. Instead of sleeping pills, alternative methods are increasingly gaining attention. This sleep documentary looks at new therapeutic approaches such as sophrology and light therapy. We spend around a third of our lives asleep. But more and more…

From DW Documentary. Tabun, sarin, phosgene and mustard gas are chemical warfare agents invented to kill. They were carelessly disposed of after Germany lost two world wars. Still buried or underwater in many places, they have become a public-health time bomb. According to weapons disposal experts, there are at least 200 places in Germany where…

From DW Documentary. A vaccine against COVID-19 is considered the only realistic hope of overcoming the virus. Several vaccines have now been approved. But does that mean an end to the pandemic and a return to "normal life" are in sight? A heated debate has broken out over whether we have enough vaccine and who…

From DW Documentary. In northwestern Cameroon, English-speaking separatists are fighting soldiers of the French-speaking government and schools are especially hard-hit. Pastor Roland Arrey wants to counter this with a recreation center that also teaches classes. The conflict in Cameroon is rooted in the country’s colonial past. Cameroon was a German colony from 1884 until during…

From DW Documentary. The pearl of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka, is a popular tourist destination. Nevertheless, but behind its natural treasures and pristine beaches, the country is still recovering from more than 25 years of civil war. Between 1983 and 2009, the island was torn apart by a bloody conflict between two communities: the…

From DW Documentary. Botticelli’s paintings still fascinate people more than 500 years after his death. But the artist also had a dark side. He painted and drew hell as described by the poet Dante. The work was considered lost for centuries. Even during his lifetime, the works of Renaissance painter Botticelli were highly regarded –…

From DW Documentary. Libyan refugee camps are hell on earth for many. That’s why people often accept deadly risks and attempt to cross the approximately 500 kilometers of Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Sicily – on overcrowded boats with little to protect them. The refugee route across the Mediterranean has become a mass grave, as…

From DW Documentary. ‘Lest We Forget’ is the title of a project by German photographer Luigi Toscano. Over several years he has been taking pictures of Holocaust survivors. It’s a race against time that has pushed Toscano to his emotional limits over and over. Luigi Toscano has photographed over 400 survivors of the Shoah the…

From DW Documentary. The Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos has become a symbol of the failure of EU Policy. Dramatic images of a fire at the camp in September 2020 have put pressure on the EU Commission to draft a new refugee agreement. The flaws of EU refugee policy have been…

From DW Documentary. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest medical challenges of our time. Among the causes are industrial livestock farming, poor hygiene in hospitals, and the misuse of antibiotics. This documentary looks at approaches to fighting multiresistant strains of bacteria. Each year 33,000 people in Europe die after becoming infected with bacteria that…