Name: Tallinn, the Capital of Soviet Paranoia - City Country Culture
Uploaded: 2021-09-13T19:02:26.000+02:00
Duration: 826 s
Description: A medieval town with winding streets and colorful facades, Tallinn is one of the best-preserved cities in Estonia. But its heritage has a dark underbelly. Under Communist rule for over four decades, it was overrun with KGB agents during the Cold War.

Tallinn, capitale de la paranoïa soviétique

Tallinn: Hauptstadt des sowjetischen Verfolgungswahns

Tallinn, the Capital of Soviet Paranoia

Tallin, la capital de la paranoia soviética

Tallinn: stolica sowieckiej paranoi

Tallinn, capitale della paranoia sovietica

A medieval town with winding streets and colorful facades, Tallinn is one of the best-preserved cities in Estonia. But its heritage has a dark underbelly. Under Communist rule for over four decades, it was overrun with KGB agents during the Cold War.

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Cultural Heritage

City Country Culture

Tallinn is a pretty town with a dark past

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Kyoto has been at the epicentre of Japanese culture for over a thousand years. Along its traditional alleys lined with wooden houses and sliding doors, geisha can still be spotted in their kimono and obi. At once works of art and artists at work, they embody a uniquely Japanese way of life.

Geisha are at once works of art and artists at work, and embody a uniquely Japanese way of life

Geisha, the Ladies of Kyoto

Known as the Polish Manchester, Poland’s third city was an industrial powerhouse in the 19th century. Today the vast brick warehouses and factories are being renewed by artists and artisans.

Łódź - Poland's Other Capital

At a time when the Romans did not venture far from the Mediterranean coast, the Polynesians crossed vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean in dugout canoes. It is said that they reached America long before Christopher Columbus navigating by the stars.

Polynesia Navigating with the Stars

UNESCO recognised Belgian beer is the result of an ancestral know-how which today produces nearly 1500 varieties. 

Belgium: Beer Paradise

In the Vaucluse mountains, a long dry stone wall runs the length of the landscape. This is a wall erected against an invisible enemy: the plague. In the 18th century, a massive outbreak wiped out a third of the population of Marseille, and today, the wall still stands as a monument to the many victims of that epidemic. 

In 18th century France, a long wall was built to try to keep out the plague, and it still stands to this day

Provence and the Black Death

The counterculture movement reached Ibiza in the 1960s and 1970s as hippies came to the island looking to live and idealised life, close to nature.

Love and Peace in Ibiza

In northern Tanzania, between Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria, stretch vast plains yellowed by the sun. This is the Serengeti National Park: a haven to endangered species and a UNESCO world heritage centre.

In northern Tanzania, between Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria, stretch vast plains yellowed by the sun

Journey to the Serengeti

On the coasts of Gdansk in Poland, the waves of the Baltic Sea bring up a precious treasure: amber fragments that it deposits on the beach. For centuries, Polish craftsmen worked it into elabrate art pieces. 

On the coasts of Gdansk in Poland, the waves of the Baltic Sea bring up a precious treasure: amber

The Amber of Gdansk

In southern Poland, at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, Zakopane lies nestled amid rock and forest. It's a winter sports resort and the starting point for mountain walks. This small village has grown to attract tourists and artists fascinated by the region's unique all-wood architectural style. 

Escape to a place of stunning natural beauty in the moutains of Poland

Zakopane, Poland's Mountain Escape

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From an incredibly varied selection of 19th century postcards, the Paris of the Belle Epoque (1871 – 1914) comes to life. Street-photography captured Parisians from all walks of life and conveyed the optimism and elegance of the period.

From an incredibly varied selection of 19th century postcards, the Paris of the Belle Epoque (1871 – 1914) comes to life.

Paris in the Belle Epoque

Four women comic book artists from the Arab World, Tunisian Nadia Khiari, Lebanese Lena Merhej, Moroccan Zainab Fasiki and Egyptian Deena Mohamed open the doors of their studios and tell us about their experiences and their struggles. Ten years after the beginning of the Arab Spring how can they express themselves in the medium as Arab women?

Four women comic book artists from the Arab World open the doors of their studios and tell us about their experiences and their struggles. 

4 Arab Women Comic Book Artists

Nobody captured the atmosphere of 1990s Berlin better than him. German photographer Daniel Josefsohn, who died in 2016 at the age of 54, made his mark in advertising with his irreverent aesthetic and punk sensibility. It was his spontaneous, imperfect images shot for an MTV campaign in 1994 that first made him famous.

Nobody captured the atmosphere of 1990s Berlin better than than German photographer Daniel Josefsohn.

DJ Punk - The Photographer Daniel Josefsohn

After eight years of restauration, one of the greatest works of art ever made looks once again as its creators intended. The monumental tableau that is the Ghent Altarpiece, also known as the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, captures the viewer with its intense realism and complicated symbolism. A full immersion into this revolutionary work that looked forward to the modern world.

The monumental tableau that is the Ghent Altarpiece captures the viewer with its intense realism and complicated symbolism.

Secrets of the Ghent Altarpiece

In France, the bungalow evokes holidays in the sun. In the UK, they are humble everyday dwellings for grandparents. But in Germany or the United States, they take on a very different form: they are a bourgeois luxury, a single-storey villa with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking nature. Inspired by the "bangalo", a traditional one-storey Bengal house open to the outside, this style was also a staple of colonial architecture. 

In the US and Germany, bungalows are a bourgeois luxury: a single-storey villa with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking nature

The Beauty of Bungalows

Death and the devil, nudity and eroticism, horror in blazing colours, Gothic art cast a spell over people 500 years ago. In these image-poor times, art deliberately and skilfully played with the emotions of the viewer, triggering fear, devotion, but also rapture. Art documentary on German gothic art of the late-middle ages.

The Genius of Gothic Art

Love is political, says journalist and author Şeyda Kurt. In her book Radical Tenderness she does away with the myth of romantic love. Ultimately, the widespread ideal of romantic, two-person love only serves to preserve existing patriarchal power relations, she says. Maria Schrader's new movie Ich bin Dein Mensch revolves around a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence that is programmed to serve as the 'perfect partner'.  Plus: Philosopher Peter Trawny, who says that freedom and love are incompatible, and LBGTQI+ groups fight for the freedom to love in Islam. 

Twist

Love is political, says journalist and author Şeyda Kurt. In her book Radical Tenderness she does away with the myth of romantic love

Why is Love so Hard?

An author once described this work as a portrait of a woman done by a painter who had forgotten to paint the feet, legs, thighs, stomach, hips, chest, hands, arms, shoulders, neck and head. 

Look but Don't Touch

The Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet

Is Saint Thomas' touching of Jesus' wounds homoerotic? It's certainly in stark contrast to Mary Magdalene, who is told not to touch him and spends the rest of her life living in a cave.

Is Saint Thomas' touching of Jesus' wounds homoerotic?

The incredulity of Saint Thomas - Caravaggio

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284 Russian soldiers are still missing in Afghanistan from the Soviet-Afghan War, a conflict that ended in 1989. ARTE Reportage goes in search of these lost red army soldiers

ARTE Reportage

Afghanistan: Lost Soldiers of the Red Army

A century ago the Treaty of Trianon formally ended World War I between the Kingdom of Hungary and the allied powers. Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory at Trianon which is still a contentious subject in Hungarian politics and society.

Hungary's Trauma

There are an estimated 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth and in the 20th century, 437 of them erupted in places like the United States, Russia, Indonesia and Japan. Both a blessing and a curse, they have shaped our world on land and at the sea.

Mapping the World

A World of Volcanoes

Welcome to Afghanistan, the land of the magnificent mountains of the Hindu Kush and a country of great ethnic diversity. Its complex history is characterised by an almost permanent state of war.

Afghanistan - A Troubled Country

The historian Herodotus in the fifth century BC said that Egypt was "a gift from the Nile", and from the pharaohs to Nasser, the Nile has played a vital role in Egypt's fortunes. But Ethiopia now intends to remind leaders in Cairo that the Nile is not just an Egyptian river.

Ethiopia wants to remind Egypt that the Nile is not just Egyptian

Geopolitics of the Nile

Amsterdam’s famous red-light district attracts hordes of noisy tourists making the neighbourhood unliveable for many of its residents. With the city authorities considering measures to push sex workers out of the area, does this spell the end for the historic trade in the city centre?

Amsterdam’s famous red-light district attracts hordes of noisy tourists making the neighbourhood unliveable for many of its residents.

Re: Mass Tourism in Amsterdam's Red Light District

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major is performed in the city of the composer’s birth by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the British conductor Daniel Harding. Completed in 1800, when Beethoven was 30 years old, the composition shows much innovation, despite its classical construction.

Daniel Harding - Bonn

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1

1974: ABBA’s victory at the Eurovision Song Contest was a taste of things to come. But a year later, when it was up to Sweden to host the Eurovision, the counterculture mobilised big time. On Channel 1 was the Eurovision and on Channel 2, a rival, parody version of the competition designed to mock ABBA and mainstream music as hopelessly capitalist and try hard.

ABBA

When it was up to Sweden to host the Eurovision, the counterculture mobilised big time in a bid to take down ABBA

In Greece, the coastguard has taken to pushing back potential asylum seekers towards Turkish waters. That's despite the fact that once in Europe, these people have a right to apply for asylum and to have that application processed. But while this tactic is against EU human rights law, the Greek government have a promise to keep to its electorate: reducing the flow of migrants.

In Greece, the coastguard has taken to pushing back asylum seekers into Turkish waters, in violation of EU law

Greece: Illegal Pushbacks of Asylum Seekers

The Orkiestra Historyczna of Poland, conducted by Martyna Pastuszka, offers us the opportunity to rediscover princely music in the beautiful setting of the Margravial Opera House.

Bayreuth Baroque 2021

Martyna Pastuszka and Orkiestra Historyczna

Infamous drug baron Pablo Escobar had four hippos flown over from Africa to populate his very own zoo on his private estate in Columbia. After his death in 1993, the hippos escaped and have been colonising local waterways ever since. Conservationists are now waging a war against this invasive species which is harmful to the local ecosystem and highly dangerous to humans.

Geo Reportage

Infamous drug baron Pablo Escobar had four hippos flown over from Africa to populate his very own zoo on his private estate in Columbia. But then they escaped.

Pablo Escobar's Hippos

Humans are social animals and we need physical contact. We cultivate the language of touch from birth and it is essential for the development of our body and minds. How do different types of touch, and the absence of touch, affect us?

Humans are social animals and we need physical contact. How do different types of touch, and the absence of touch, affect us?

The Power of Touch

A look at the city as you've never seen it before: welcome to a  splendid aerial discovery of Buenos Aires. On the rooftops of one of the most dynamic cities in the world, discover daytime tango classes, urban art, cinema, the development of renewable energy and maté  tasting. 

A  splendid aerial discovery of Buenos Aires

City Rooftops: Buenos Aires

Report from a dogs’ home that specialises in unmanageable and dangerous hounds. Dog trainer Vanessa Bokr knows better than most how aggressive some breeds of dog can be. She works tirelessly to retrain unwanted dangerous dogs in the hope that they can find new homes rather than be put down.

Abused Dogs Learn to Love

Report from a dogs’ home that specialises in unmanageable and dangerous hounds.

Re: Hellhounds

The highlight of the Holland Festival 2021 is a rediscovery from composer Rudi Stephan (1887–1915). The opera Die ersten Menschen (The First Humans) is about Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and humanity’s ur-conflicts. Spanish director Calixto Bieito brings it to the stage and François-Xavier Roth makes his debut as conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

An erotic mystery at the Dutch National Opera

Adam and Eve after the Fall: François-Xavier Roth conducts Rudi Stephan’s opera at the Holland Festival 2021.

Rudi Stephan: The First Humans

The Bronx, 1973: A new subculture is emerging and spreading all over New York: Graffiti. In these first episodes meet the early pioneers such as LEE, FUTURA 2000 and SKEME and how they were influenced by the film ‘Wild Style’.

THE ORIGINS | 1973 - 1982

The Bronx, 1973: A new subculture is emerging and spreading all over New York: Graffiti.

Cultural Heritage

Geisha, the Ladies of Kyoto