From DW Documentary. The terrorist attacks by Hamas transformed life in Israel overnight. How are people coping? Amid war between Israel and Hamas and escalating tensions across the Middle East, we meet people whose everyday lives are now marked by fear and suffering. British-Israeli curator and artist Sofie Berzon MacKie was in the Be’eri kibbutz…

From DW Documentary. More than 30,000 migrants have reached the Canary Islands in the Atlantic this year. Many of them come from Senegal. Tailor Abdoulaye is also keen to make the dangerous crossing, but he’s still having some doubts. Friends are telling him not to go, that it’s too risky. The journey takes many days…

From DW Documentary. She’s probably the most powerful woman in North Korea: Kim Yo Jong, the dictator’s younger sister. She’s viewed as an emotionless and shrewd strategist for her brother, the North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un. But just who is the "Red Princess"? Kim Jong Un’s rise began in 2011 when their father, the…

From DW Documentary. Permitted for recreational use in New York and medical purposes in Morocco – things are gradually shifting for cannabis. Long demonized and banned, the plant has caused a rift between parents and children for generations. Mohamed comes from the northern region of Ketama, the cannabis farming stronghold of Morocco. Like most people…

From DW Documentary. Interest-based investment portals on the Internet are one of the biggest scams of our time. People sign up, hoping to invest. Instead, they are cheated out of billions. In Germany alone, thousands of victims have fallen victim to their own gullibility. Filmmakers Niklas Resch and Caroline Uhl meet with victims and investigators,…

From DW Documentary. Germany is flooded with cocaine. Since 2017, cocaine residue in Berlin’s sewage has doubled. Since the pandemic, sales of cocaine across Germany have rocketed. The addictive potential of the drug is often underestimated and legal prohibitions do little to deter dealers or users. This documentary sheds light on new international smuggling routes…

From DW Documentary. Computers, cars, mobile phones, toasters: countless everyday objects contain microchips. They’re tiny, unremarkable and cheap, but since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, they’ve been at the center of a political and industrial tug of war. Against the backdrop of the trade war between China and the US, "The Microchip War" spotlights…

From DW Documentary. Kiribati could soon become uninhabitable due to climate change. Residents are using all available means to protect themselves from rising sea levels. In Kiribati, residents are building walls to protect their homes from rising sea levels – which worked well for a long time. But the high tides are getting more extreme,…

From DW Documentary. Far right militias are especially active in the American Midwest. Take the "North Idaho Militia": In Idaho, they plan to establish an exclusively white, Christian colony separate from the rest of the US. In their vision, it will be ultraconservative and have no multicultural diversity. Idaho and its neighboring regions are now…

From DW Documentary. Getting married, starting a family, children – topics that often trigger heated discussions. While parents often vouch for traditional values and security, young people have their own ideas. Young people like Yoyo in Taiwan and Esraa in Egypt. Yoyo lives with her parents in Taipei. She’s 30 years old; her mother already…

From DW Documentary. Is the world facing a resurgence of the so-called Islamic State (IS)? In northern Syria, many former IS fighters are imprisoned in hard-to-secure prisons. Among their children, the next generation of jihadists is growing up. A severe earthquake in February 2023 brought northern Syria back into the international spotlight. It’s a region…

From DW Documentary. Water shortages in southern Europe are becoming an increasingly ominous problem. In Spain, the situation in 2023 is so acute that the worst-hit region of Catalonia had to introduce drastic water-saving measures back in April. The summer of 2023 was marked with record temperatures and aridity. Spain is now facing a huge…

From DW Documentary. We learn and hone our emotional, moral and social skills with siblings. Our personalities take shape within the family unit in the early stages of our lives with brothers and sisters. Which influences wield the greatest impact during this time? In his role as therapist, the Swiss psychologist and sibling researcher Jürg…

From DW Documentary. From drones supplying remote villages with medication to robots taking on dangerous jobs: smart technology is helping people to go higher, faster and further. When lives are at stake, high-tech can often outperform humans. Tom Plümmer’s "Wingcopter" is half helicopter, half airplane. The drone with a two-meter wingspan has started delivering parcels…

From DW Documentary. At the "Grand Beauty" salon in Leipzig, people with a refugee or migrant background work as hairdressers, make-up artists and manicurists on a donation basis, with the goal to uproot prejudices. Mara Hesse is a freelance make-up artist and anti-racist activist. As a Muslim woman born in Germany, she has experienced discrimination…

From DW Documentary. From Armageddon to Extinction Rebellion: The end of the world is one of humanity’s greatest fears. The apocalypse has been predicted almost 200 times in the past 2,000 years. We’re still here. But has the danger passed? What if the prophets just got it wrong? What if their intuition was right, even…

From DW Documentary. When it comes to careers and dream jobs, the ideals of parents and their children are often very different. Whether in the case of a young crypto investor in India or a boxer in the US – when choosing a profession, family stress is pretty much guaranteed. A generational conflict? Alyssa, a…

From DW Documentary. Algorithms are increasingly determining our lives and influencing our momentous decisions. At first glance, they seem logical and unbiased. But in fact, algorithms are shaped by the prejudices of both their programmers and users of the Internet. Algorithms contribute to creating an unequal world. What happens when we give these algorithmic systems…

From DW Documentary. European conquistadors once came to Latin America to rob the indigenous population of its gold. Today, people from the global North are coming again. This time, they claim to be bringing gold with them. Digital gold, that is. Namely, Bitcoin. While here in Europe, cryptocurrency is perceived by many as a speculative…

From DW Documentary. The rising global temperature must be restricted to well below a two-degree increase. It’s crucial to make electricity production carbon neutral as quickly as possible. Is nuclear power the new game changer for achieving this ambitious goal? Kathryn Huff of the U.S. Department of Energy estimates nuclear power would need to be…

From DW Documentary. Migrants who want to settle in Germany have to deal with its bureaucracy. The process can be a frustrating one, especially given backlogs at government offices. Every year, Cuban Yairan Montejo has to renew his German residence permit in order to keep living in the country. What may sound like a simple…

From DW Documentary. They are young, they love music and they are living in a time of war. Russia’s attack on Ukraine has radically changed the lives of people like Dasha, Vika and Sasha. These three left their normal jobs to rebuild their homeland as part of the "Repair Together" initiative. Repair Together was founded…

From DW Documentary. 15 August 2021 marked a turning point for Afghanistan. That was the day of the final withdrawal of western troops. It’s also when the Taliban entered Kabul. Protest movements were crushed. Twenty years of hope and effort – gone, in one fell swoop. After the 9/11 attacks on the United States and…

From DW Documentary. In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, opposition to the regime is more dangerous than ever. The same goes for public criticism of those in charge. The right to demonstrate has been successively restricted in recent years, media freedoms curtailed, and NGOs denigrated or banned. The film shows how difficult it is in Russia to…

From DW Documentary. Following its independence in 2011, South Sudan suffered from a bloody civil war. After a peace accord five years ago calmed the situation, Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior decided to return home from exile along with her two daughters. She’s the widow of the former rebel leader John Garang de Mabior, a man…

From DW Documentary. The Iraqi city of Mosul bears the scars of war and ISIS occupation. Many neighborhoods still have piles of rubble where houses once stood. Amid the ruins, children scavenge for plastic and scrap metal in the hope of finding a buyer. This film accompanies Razzan, Hameed, and Maher – three boys from…

From DW Documentary. Five years ago, the #MeToo movement reached Bollywood. News of sexual harassment and assault allegations followed. Has anything changed since then? India’s film industry produces more than a thousand movies annually. The films are watched by 3 billion people worldwide — and are loved for their song and dance sequences, emotional story…

From DW Documentary. The Turkish republic is turning 100 – but for Turkish journalist Can Dündar, this is no cause for celebration. His view is also shared by the writer Aslı Erdoğan, who was imprisoned in Turkey for publishing material critical of the regime. Aslı Erdoğan was arrested in Istanbul in 2016 in a wave…

From DW Documentary. Science, reason and democracy. The Age of Enlightenment began three hundred years ago. It brought greater freedom and progress and paved the way for modern thought. Today, in the 21st century, does the Enlightenment still matter? A journey around the world that takes us to the past, present and future. How is…

From DW Documentary. Recent years have seen some young North Korean defectors become social media stars in South Korea, only to reappear back home again as mouthpieces for the regime in Pyongyang. Were they abducted? It sounds like the plot of a thriller: Young Gen Zers defect from North Korea and become celebrated social media…

From DW Documentary. Getting pregnant out of wedlock was long seen as a disgrace in Catholic Ireland. By 1998, more than 50,000 women had had their babies taken away and given up for adoption. Many of these children are now trying to trace their birth mothers. They are also fighting for their plight to be…

From DW Documentary. They take to the streets with German flags, drums, and whistles: In Mozambique’s capital city of Maputo, the “Madgermanes” are demanding justice. Julio Faizal Lakha is one of them. He went to the former East Germany four decades ago on the promise of a good education and well-paid work. But the reality…