Essay:ProleWiki film recommendations

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by Open source
Published: 2024-10-01 (last update: 2024-11-19)
1-5 minutes

Recommended socialist films from ProleWiki's editors

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Socialist films

Title	Year of release	Director	Plot	Link to watch
Salt of the Earth	1954	Herbert J. Biberman	Mexican workers at a zinc mine call a general strike. It is only through the solidarity of the workers, and importantly the indomitable resolve of their wives, mothers, and daughters, that they eventually triumph. This movie was banned in the US upon release and the director blacklisted	Youtube
Battle of Algiers	1966	Gillo Pontecorvo	Filmed in a semi-documentary format, this film deals with the battle of Algiers (1956-57) part of the broader fight for Algerian independence (1954-62) from French colonial rule. This film was banned in France for decades.	archive.org
Battleship Potemkin	1925	Sergei Eisenstein	Odessa, 1905. The crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin mutiny against their uncaring, sadistic officers and take over the ship. The mutiny starts an uprising against the tsarist government among the people of Odessa. Silent film.	Youtube
Black Girl	1966	Ousmane Sembène	A young Senegalese maid follows her French employers as they return to their home in Antibes, in the south of France. The pleasure of discovering this new world quickly turns into deep disappointment. Isolation, contempt from her employers, pervasive racism, and endless household chores become her daily life.	Youtube
Soy Cuba	1964	Mikhaïl Kalatozov	Four vignettes about the lives of the Cuban people set during the pre-revolutionary era.	Youtube
Calcutta '71	1972	Mrinal Sen	Four stories of people of four different generations in India, all struggling for survival in this gritty meditation on poverty, natural disaster and political strife.
Do Bigha Zamin	1953	Bimal Roy	A struggling farmer and his young son travel to Calcutta to look for work, in order to make money that’ll save their ancestral land from being seized by the landlord and sold to a corporation.	Youtube
Strike	1925	Sergei Eisenstein	Arranged in six parts, the film depicts a strike in 1903 by the workers of a factory in pre-revolutionary Russia and the subsequent suppression of their protests by the state.
Sorry to Bother you	2018	Boots Riley	Dark comedy that follows a young black telemarketer in Oakland who discovers a career breakthrough by adopting a convincing "white voice" on calls. The film satirizes capitalism, labor exploitation, systemic racism, and the dehumanizing effects of corporate greed, highlighting the moral compromises individuals make for personal gain.
Ernst Thälmann: sohn seiner klasse	1954	Kurt Maetzig	Biography of politician and revolution Ernst Thälmann	Youtube

Anti-imperialist films

Title	Year of release	Director	Plot	Link to watch

Films tackling social issues

Title	Year of release	Director	Plot	Link to watch
Bacurau	2019	Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles	Bacurau, a small village in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their village has literally vanished from online maps and a UFO-shaped drone is seen flying overhead. Soon after, a band of armed mercenaries arrive in town picking off the inhabitants one by one.
La Haine	1995	Mathieu Kassovitz	Vinz, Hubert and Said live in the poorer part of Paris and have to use all their street smarts to get by. After an incident in which the police assaulted a friend of theirs, tensions between police and young working-class men, such as themselves, escalate. Incensed at the potential death of his friend, Vinz is out for revenge. The film follows the next 24 hours of their lives.
The Circus	1936	Grigori Aleksandrov	In the mid-1930s, circus actress Marion Dixon flees the United States with her young black son. Arriving with an original attraction in the USSR, she finds friends here and decides to stay forever.	Youtube
Pratidwandi	1970	Satyajit Ray	Siddharta, an educated middle-class man is unable to find a job to earn a living. He is caught up in rampant corruption and unemployment of 1970s India are rampant. Unable to align himself with either his Naxalite brother or his career-oriented sister, he starts hallucinating.	Youtube

Documentaries

Title	Year of release	Director	Plot	Link to watch
Red Army/PFLP: Declaration Of World War	1971	Masao Adachi, Koji Wakamatsu	A newsreel film depicting the everyday activities of Arab guerrillas as a cinematic narrative on the world revolution
Jenin, Jenin	2003	Mohammed Bakri	A heart-rending depiction of the aftermath of Israel’s destruction of Jenin refugee camp in 2002.