Spaak The Belgian who made history Read more First President of the UN, Secretary General of NATO, father of the Treaties of Rome, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, Paul-Henri Spaak helped create the major international organizations that govern our world.

Spaak was a builder of modern Europe, where we have lived in peace for 75 years.
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About Us

Les Films de la Mémoire

Création et Mémoire

Nowhere Land Productions

Founded in 1987 by Diane Perelsztejn and Willy Perelsztejn, Les Films de la Mémoire ASBL is a non-profit organization based in Brussels, in the heart of Europe. Its aim is to build memory by developing, producing and distributing films of a specifically historical nature on all audiovisual media. Création & Mémoire and Nowhere Land Productions are the group’s Belgian and Luxembourg companies in charge of film production.

Our main production lines can be summed up in three words:

Memory

Identities

History

Our films are fortunate to have very successful international careers.

Our team

Willy
Perelsztejn

Producer / Director / Author

Emmanuel
Leraille

Producer / Production Manager

Bernd
Seliger

Production Coordinator / Artistic Director

Diane
Perelsztejn

Producer / Director / Author

Our Cinematography

  1. Escape to the Rising Sun

    20,000 Jews fled Nazi persecution to find refuge in Shanghai, China. The film tells the story of the long exodus of 5,000 Jews who crossed the entire USSR and Japan before finally finding refuge in Shanghai.

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  2. Chronicles of Hope

    In July 1936, civil war broke out in Spain. It would last three years. 40,000 people from all over the world would fight in the International Brigades for the survival of the Spanish Republic.

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  3. Rhodes Forever

    It's a contemporary portrait, weaving imaginary family ties between the Jews of Rhodes and their descendants. The film recounts the survival of this community marked by the Shoah and its revival in the Belgian Congo.

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  4. The Comic Strip Hits 100

    Graphic novels are an art form in their own right. The heart of the film is built on the relationship between graphic novels and other arts: painting, literature, sculpture and cinema.

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  5. Chocolat Mon Amour

    Flavor, taste, sensuality, pleasure, voluptuousness, softness, smoothness, finesse, prestige, luxury, class, elegance, passion, art de vivre! Chocolat, mon amour tells the story of how chocolate went from being a luxury product to a sweet treat accessible to all.

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  6. From Auschwitz to Jerusalem

    This is the story of Jewish children hidden in Belgium to survive the genocide. After the war, they were orphaned and taken in by the Jewish Agency. They left clandestinely to emigrate to Palestine.

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  7. Victor Martin's Mission

    October 1942, Victor Martin is sent by the Belgian resistance to Germany to see with his own eyes where the trains deporting Belgium's Jews go. His mission takes him to the gates of Auschwitz.

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  8. Robert Fortune the Tea Thief

    In the mid-19th century, the British Empire launched an extraordinary espionage mission: to steal the secrets of the tea industry from Imperial China. The mission was entrusted to a brilliant young Scottish botanist: Robert Fortune.

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  9. Les Routes du Thé

    More than just a drink, tea represents an economic market in its own right, a product that arouses passions, an industry that dates back over 200 years.

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  10. The Picture Divided

    Within 15 years of Salazar's dictatorship, 800,000 Portuguese fled their country and settled in France. Most were undocumented immigrants. Using eyewitness accounts and archive footage, the film recounts their exile.

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  11. Just a Link

    A unique message of humanism and humanity from Resistance fighter Andrée Geulen. The story of 12 women from the Comité de Défense des Juifs, how they organized themselves in occupied Belgium to save thousands of children.

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  12. Heim ins Reich

    Heim ins Reich ("Back to the Reich"), recounts the failure of the annexation of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1944.

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  13. Siegi Hirsch - Weaving Human Relations

    Siegi Hirsch has had a major influence on European psychiatry and psychotherapy. Educator, trainer, therapist, he lives to help others live better. He's a thief of ideas, an "irreferent"!

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  14. Concert Yiddish Soul

    The Concert Yiddish Soul on March 16, 2005 in Brussels embodies the renaissance of Yiddish song. Hosted by Myriam Fuks, Karsten Troyke, Shura Lipovsky and the KlezRoym revive an almost forgotten art form. Concert Yiddish Soul goes hand in hand with Yiddish Soul.

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  15. Yiddish Soul

    Yiddish Soul is a journey to the heart of the renaissance of Yiddish song, through the passion of Karsten Troyke, Shura Lipovsky, and the KlezRoym, young European artists.

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  16. Luxemburg, USA

    A contemporary portrait of rural, conservative Midwestern America, through the prism of a specific community, the descendants of Luxembourg immigrants, their way of life today and their history.

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  17. The Lunch Box

    In Belgium, there's an object called a sandwich box. It's ordinary, functional, commonplace. It doesn't appear in any French-language dictionary, but every day, Belgians use it to carry their meals - sandwiches.

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  18. David Susskind - Story of a Mensch

    Story of a Mensch is the portrait of David Susskind, player and witness to all the great struggles of Judaism over the last 60 years for Israel, for secular Judaism, for a solution of Peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

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  19. Modus Operandi

    Between 1942 and 1944, 24,916 Jewish men, women and children were deported from Belgium to Auschwitz. Only 1,206 returned. Modus Operandi describes the operating mode of the genocide committed by the Nazis.

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  20. Kathleen Ferrier

    A musical film dedicated to one of the greatest contraltos of the 20th century: the Englishwoman Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953). An international career that lasted 8 years. And yet a voice and charisma unequalled to this day.

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  21. Paul & Sophie

    Sophie Rechtman and Paul Sobol are two survivors of the Holocaust, she a hidden child and he a deportee to Auschwitz. Both tell their stories.

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  22. Mille Chemins du Temps

    Inventor Jean-Pierre Beauviala has left his mark on the history of cinema in recent decades, inspiring directors with new ways of approaching reality: the "cat on the shoulder" camera, sound/image synchronisation, the Aaton 30...

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  23. Waterloo - The Last Battle

    This is the thriller of one of history's most famous battles. Hour by hour, minute by minute, the film retraces the events of June 1815, Napoleon's defeat.

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  24. Retrouvées

    70 years after the Holocaust, three survivors, three separated friends reunite. They take us to the core of their memories as hidden children.

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  25. The Paper Brigade

    Saving the books! During the Nazi occupation of Vilnius, Lithuania, 40 Jewish poets, writers and intellectuals risked their lives to fight the Shoah of culture. They succeeded in saving tens of thousands of books.

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  26. Ashcan - The Secret Prison

    This is the story of a unique prison. From May 8, 1945 to August 10, 1945, the main Nazi leaders were held in the greatest secrecy at Ashcan, a prison administered by the American army in Luxembourg: Goering, Doenitz, Keitel, Rosenberg, Ley, Frank, Streicher, Seyss-Inquart, Lutz von Krosigk, von Papen...

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  27. Codename: Ashcan

    From May 8, 1945 to August 10, 1945, the main Nazi leaders were held at Ashcan, a secret prison in Luxembourg. This is the story of the metamorphosis of Nazi leaders from mere prisoners of war to those accused of the worst crimes in human history.

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  28. Royals at War

    Confronted with Hitler and Mussolini, how will Europe's monarchs react? To save their throne, they had to make a choice: resist or collaborate.

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  29. Spaak - The Belgian who made History

    First President of the UN, Secretary General of NATO, father of the Treaties of Rome, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium: Paul-Henri Spaak was a founder of modern Europe, where we have been living in peace for 75 years.

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Press Comments

Australian Jewish News

In Escape to the Rising Sun, Belgian filmmaker Diane Perelsztejn has added an authoritative visual essay to the small body of work on the mid-century Shanghai Jews...

Peter Kohn
1990

Journal Regards

Includes wonderful archival footage of the bustling Jewish quarter, a traditional Rhodes wedding and intimate interviews with the survivors of Rhodes who still speak and sing in Ladino.

Anonyme
1995

MAD Le Soir

Enfant de l’étoile jaune, David Susskind n’a pas oublié d’où il vient. Cet émouvant documentaire en forme de portrait est là pour le rappeler.

Nicolas Crousse
2007

d'Lëtzebuerger Land

Ashcan de Willy Perelsztejn est un film aussi important qu'intelligent sur la prison secrète pour dignitaires nazis à Mondorf-les-Bains en 1945. Un documentaire essentiel pour le devoir de mémoire.

Josée Hansen
Septembre 2018

documentaire.io

Diane Perelsztejn retrace la lutte clandestine de cette armée des ombres pour préserver de précieux documents. Nourri d’émouvantes archives, d’éclairages d’historiens et de proches, un captivant récit.

Anonyme
Janvier 2020

Le Mad

Surprise, et elle est bonne : voici un documentaire extrêmement bien fichu, alliant l'intelligence pédagogique à l'art du suspense, incarné par le duel Wellington-Napoléon.

Nicolas Crousse
2014

Le Soir

Truffé de documents rares, d'entretiens avec des musiciens ou d'enregistrements inédits de Ferrier, le film de Diane Perelsztejn file la chaire de poule et fait tout à la fois du bien. ... C'est tout à la fois de la nourriture spirituelle, du vin chaud pour les ventres affamés, et du baume pour les âmes mortes.

Nicolas Crousse
Mars 2012

La Libre

"Modus operandi" est autant un film d'actualité qu'un documentaire historique, tant il montre qu'une fois le doigt pris dans l'engrenage de la stigmatisation, de la diabolisation, c'est tout le corps qui peut finalement y passer.

Fernand Denis
Mars 2008

La Libre Belgique

Truffé de documents inédits, accompagné de témoignages et de quelques reconstitutions en guise de lien, ce film, édifiant sur le fond, sobre sur la forme, rappelle que, proportionnellement, l’épreuve endurée par le Grand-Duché du Luxembourg pour préserver son identité nationale fut aussi importante que celle de ses voisins.

A. Lo.
Janvier 2005

La Libre Belgique

"Robert Fortune, le voleur de thé" ajoute, au puzzle des récits qui retracent l'histoire et les trajets du thé, une pièce estimable, abondamment documenté, neuve et riche d'enseignements, notamment quant aux ambitions et enjeux économiques, voire politiques, de ce commerce si lié à la culture et au quotidien de l'humanité.

M. Ba.
2000
Patrimoine

35 Years of Memory Work

In over 30 years of audiovisual production, we have created a HERITAGE of films dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust, the Resistance and the survivors. It's an essential part of our remembrance work. Our ambition is to provide the entire teaching and continuing education community with this high-quality tool for a comprehensive, pedagogical and relatively exhaustive approach to the Shoah and its context from Belgium and Luxembourg.