Films by Oliver Szyza

Canada, Germany 2021, 87 min
by Julian Sher

Just before the Taliban sweep back to power and the United States withdraw in defeat, former Globe and Mail war correspondent Graeme Smith returns to Afghanistan. In the timely TVO Original documentary GHOSTS OF AFGHANISTAN, Smith offers a first-hand account of NATO’s failed attempt to bring democracy and women’s rights and freedoms to the country. He reveals the true face of the "forever war" taking an unflinching look at what went wrong in the world’s deadliest conflict that ended in chaos and tragedy. For Canada, it was the biggest deployment since World War II and one of its bloodiest — 158 soldiers dead and at least 2000 injured. For Afghanistan, 20 years of war, hundreds of thousands of lives lost, billions of dollars wasted in corruption, all sorts of abuses... As Afghans share their hopes and fears, Smith sees the deep divisions in the country that hint an explanation for the Taliban’s return to power. In his quest to hear all sides of the conflict, he travels deep inside Taliban territory to catch a glimpse of their growing control over the country and speaks to top Taliban leaders confident of victory at the failed peace talks in Doha. The Afghan inferno grows more dangerous each day.  The documentary GHOSTS OF AFGHANISTAN helps us understand how it all went so wrong. (GALAFILM)

Germany 2010, 208 min
by André Rehse

Humanity is facing huge challenges today: Climate change, ocean pollution and non-renewable energy sources are all pressing environmental problems. But nature provides some sustainable answers. The four-part series ‘Inspired by Nature’ deals with the selected biomimicry topics locomotion, construc- tion, apperception and processing. It shows how scientists analyse complex biological processes, how these results are applied to solutions of technical problems and finally evolve to everyday objects for the consumer. Our host – Janine Benyus, the so-called ‘mother of biomimicry’ – guides us through the series and explains e.g. how the railway system of the UK can be inspired by a slime mould or how lobsters could help finding leaks in underwater pipelines.