Toutes musclées (1/4)

Frauen im Muskelfieber (1/4)

Train Like a Girl (1/4)

Todas musculadas (1/4)

Siłaczki

Tutte palestrate! (1/4)

Female muscle is upsetting for some. And controlling the female body has been at the heart of organised sport since the nineteenth century. This is the story of how women have fought their way into the world of sport, an arena jealously guarded by men.

Obstacle Course

Female muscle is upsetting for some. And controlling the female body has been at the heart of organised sport since the nineteenth century.
This is the story of how women have fought their way into the world of sport, an arena jealously guarded by men.

Few industries have stayed as stagnant as sports when it comes to gender parity. Little girls are still pushed into dancing and horse riding, and little boys do judo and football. Boys are strong; girls are graceful. As adults, women's sports isn't about achieving feats of human endurance, it's about maintaining a 'feminine' shape. Why is sports still so sexist?

Strong Not Skinny

Train Like a Girl (2/4)

Sports audiences feel entitled to see female competitors in various states of undress, but would never dream asking the same of their male peers. Sports commentators also happily continue to belittle and sexualise the athletes, commenting on their behinds and how attractive they are. The federations themselves also have a lot to answer for. Bikinis for women are mandatory in volleyball competitions, and tennis players must wear micro-mini-skirts. But being half-naked has little to do with actual sports performance, and everything to do with the ongoing inequalities in a sector where most decision-makers remain men.

Show Some Skin!

Audiences feel entitled to see female competitors in various states of undress, but don't ask the same of men.

Train Like a Girl (3/4)

Sportswomen are paid ten times less than men, deal with sexist comments, and are even let go by sponsors when they fall pregnant. The entire sports ecosystem systematically devalues their achievements and undermines their potential.

It’s a Man’s World

The entire sports ecosystem systematically devalues women's achievements.

Train Like a Girl (4/4)

Train Like a Girl

Meet Olivier Latry, the organist of the famous Notre-Dame in Paris: one of the most prestigious organist gigs in the world. Join him on an exciting musical and historical journey to the heart of the organ.

Meet Olivier Latry, the organist of the famous Notre-Dame in Paris

The Organ of Notre Dame

In Ukraine, long-distance love is the new normal. Indie pop icon Ingret Kostenko had a meteoric rise to fame until the Russian invasion forced her to flee to Germany. The man she loved was a soldier at the front and she went home regularly to see him. This separation is the inspiration for Ingret’s music.

Love in Wartime

Ukrainian Indie pop icon Ingret Kostenko is in a long-distance relationship with a soldier, the inspiration for her music.

Tracks East

Ancient Greek statues are white, pure and classical, just like the marble they are carved from. False. These statues were painted in fabulous bright colours. Archaeologists and art academics have known this for centuries so why does the white myth endure?

Ancient Greek Statues Were Not White

Gymnastics

Exiled in Latvia since 2022, Russian journalist Masha Borzunova and her team are on a mission to teach Europe what Russian state media propaganda actually looks like: Sinister, full of contradiction and absurd.

Fake News: Russian Propaganda for Beginners

We tie knots every day without a second thought, but it's all about context. Tying your shoelaces is nothing special, but that very same movement becomes charged with meaning when it is practised as part of Shibari. This Japanese art of tying someone into a tightly woven mesh of intricate knots and bindings started off as a form of punishment. But it is now a sexual fetish, and a craft, full of precision.

Bondage: The Ties That Free

The tradition of Shibari started off as a form of punishment. But it is now a sexual fetish, and a craft, full of precision.

It will soon be a year since Russia invaded their country, but Ukrainians remain optimistic: 88% of them are convinced that within ten years their country will be a member of the European Union and will enjoy prosperity. And many Ukrainian artists, singers, inventors and entrepreneurs believe that their country should not be reduced to the role of victim. Musician Olga Osinnya meets people in Kyiv who are looking towards the future with hope.

The Day After Tomorrow

Tracks East meets people in Kyiv who are looking towards the future with hope.

A simple hut on the Côte d‘Azur shows all of Le Corbusier’s architectural genius.

Le Corbusier and his Cabin

Yetundey is originally from Leipzig and mixes styles and influences. Layla Boe wants to make the German language smoother in her music.

Germany

Girlhood - Women in Rap (1/4)

Should artists and musicians be active cultural warriors in the war in Ukraine? Or should art provide solace from the brutality of war? Tracks East focuses on artists from countries devastated by war and how they are received in the west.

Culture Warriors: Art in Wartime

Should artists and musicians be active cultural warriors in the war in Ukraine? Or should art provide solace from the brutality of conflict? 

Bonuses and Extracts

Discover more

At once seductive and dangerous, historical myth and male fantasy, the femme fatale represents both erotic promise and a death trap to the male observer. Conceived at the end of the 19th century in the works of Gustave Moreau, Franz von Stuck and Lovis Corinth, the femme fatale was completely reinvented in the 20th century by many female artists.

Seductive and dangerous, the figure of the femme fatale in art was completely reinvented in the 20th century.

The Femme Fatale in Art

The decisive moment in 1618 that triggered the Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants and changed the course of European history.

The decisive moment in 1618 that triggered the Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants. 

The Defenestration of Prague

Highly influential indie rockers from Boston, famous for such tracks as Debaser and Where is my mind perform in Paris as part of a European tour for their latest album Doggerel.

Legendary and highly influential indie rockers perform in Paris as part of their European tour.

Pixies - Live at the Paris Olympia

Tensions between Moldova and Russia are escalating over the breakaway region of Transnistria, an investigation on how prepared Europe is for another summer of wildfires, and a report from the Dissident Club in Paris.

Tensions in Moldova / WildFires in Europe

Tensions between Moldova and Russia are escalating with street protests and controversy over Russian secret documents.

ARTE Europe Weekly

Behind his polite exterior lies a formidable leader with a ruthless character, ready to do anything to make China the world's leading power by the People’s Republic’s centenary in 2049. This well-documented portrait of the Chinese president gives an unprecedented insight into his politics and shows how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

A portrait of the Chinese president giving an unprecedented insight into his politics and showing how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

The New World of Xi Jinping

Eclectic American singer-songwriter Ben Harper performs from his latest album, 2022’s Bloodline Maintenance. Filmed at Ground Control in Paris.

Ground Control

Eclectic American singer-songwriter Ben Harper performs from his latest album, 2022’s Bloodline Maintenance.

Ben Harper

An exclusive investigation into the Russian paramilitary organisation Wagner, headed by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. 2,500 documents were leaked from Prigozhin’s servers by anti-Putin hackers, shedding light on this secretive group of mercenaries, a key element in the war in Ukraine.

Data Sources

An exclusive investigation into the Russian paramilitary organisation Wagner, headed by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. 

The Prigozhin Papers

Music director of the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cristian Măcelaru takes his musicians on a tour of his homeland, Romania. A tour stopping in Timişoara, his hometown. On the programme: The Piano Concerto No. 2 by Johannes Brahms with soloist Simon Trpčeski.

Concert from the European Capital of Culture 2023

Conductor Cristian Măcelaru and the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne perform Brahms and Klaus Lang in Romania.

Cristian Mācelaru in Timişoara

Lyubov, which means love in Russian, is 80 years old and lives alone on the shores of Lake Baikal. She bears witness to this wonder of nature and possesses and unbreakable bond with the world’s deepest lake in Siberia. Her life here is hard, especially in winter, but she would not live anywhere else.

On the shores of Lake Baikal, an old woman lives alone in a beautiful place that is dear to her heart.

The Old Woman and the Lake

Working her way out of poverty as a sex worker all while supporting her family in Romania. That’s Andrada’s goal. She speaks confidently and openly about her work in a red-light district in Germany’s Ruhr region.  
This programme by German channel ARD is part of The European Collection, a joint initiative of European public media (ARD, ARTE, France Télévisions, SRG SSR and ZDF), coordinated by ARTE.

Portrait of a sex worker in the Ruhr region, Germany.  

Hard Life – I sell sex for money

Far from the metropolitan centre of Tel Aviv, Sderot show another side of Israel. One with high-levels of social deprivation and strong support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s controversial judicial reforms.

Sderot - The Other Israel

Far from the metropolitan centre of Tel Aviv, Sderot is a different Israel with strong support for Netanjahu and high levels of social deprivation.

ARTE Reportage

In El Salvador, gangs have terrorised the country for decades. But when Nayib Bukele was elected president in 2019, becoming the youngest head of state in Latin America, he vowed to take back control from the gangs by installing a state of emergency.

El Salvador: The coolest dictator in the world?

When Nayib Bukele was elected president in 2019, he vowed to take back control from the gangs by installing a state of emergency.

In Peru, every year, the people who live in remote mountain villages gather to build the Inca bridge of Q'eswachaka, a traditional structure of woven grass, and the last of its kind. This ancestral know-how inherited from the Incas, and the enduring spirit of community, enables the villagers to pull off a stunning feat of engineering, time and again.

In Peru, every year, villagers build the Inca bridge of Q'eswachaka from woven grass, and the last of its kind.

The Inca Grass Bridge of Q'eswachaka

One aspect of the war in Ukraine is being played out in the shadows. Our reporter met partisans in the Kherson region, which was occupied by Russian forces until last November. These Ukrainian civilians have set up resistance networks in Russian-occupied territories.

Ukraine: Resistance in Occupied Territories

Our reporters met partisans in the Kherson region, which was occupied by Russian forces until last November. Ukrainian civilians there have set up resistance networks in Russian-occupied territories.

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli gaols have fathered around one hundred children over the last ten years. Their sperm is smuggled out of prison to be used in IVF with their partners.

Israel-Palestine: Secret Babies of the Intifada

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli gaols have fathered around one hundred children over the last ten years.

With all the religious wars, the 17th century was a tense time in Europe. And in art one theme caught everyone’s imagination: the Virgin Mary.

Assumption of the Virgin - Nicolas Poussin

Look But Don't Touch

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

A look at how we are getting better at managing and conserving water supplies in drier parts of our planet like southern Spain, Israel and the desert city of Las Vegas.

Water

 A look at how we are getting better at managing and conserving water supplies in drier parts of our planet like southern Spain, Israel and the desert city of Las Vegas.

Good News From Our Planet

BirthStrike are a group of activists that are fighting climate change by not having children. A Fridays for Future for thirtysomethings founded by musician Blythe Pepino, they say that they cannot bring life into a world with impending ‘climate breakdown and civilisation collapse’.  

Birthstrike are a group of activists that are fighting climate change by not having children. A Fridays for Future for thirtysomethings founded by musician Blythe Pepino, they say that they cannot bring life into a world with impending ‘climate breakdown and civilisation collapse’.  

BirthStrike: Staying Childless to Save the Planet

The literary source for Richard Strauss’s opera immortalizing the degeneracy of Herodes Antipas, King of Judea, and his step-daughter Salome, was supplied by Oscar Wilde. It tells of Herodes, who is keeping the prophet Jochanaan captive inside a cistern. Salome tries to seduce him and on being rebuffed, forces her stepfather to serve her the prophet’s head on a silver platter.

Directed by Christof Loy in Helsinki

Rejected by the prophet Jochanaan, Salome forces her abusive stepfather to exact revenge.

Train Like a Girl