The award-winning strand that showcases the very best in international documentaries on BBC Four and iPlayer today announced five news films, which will air in early 2024.

Emma Hindley, Lead Commissioning Editor, Storyville, says: “BBC Storyville’s first season of 2024 offers something for everyone who loves international feature documentaries. The season starts with a film marking International Holocaust Memorial Day, following three Australian brothers on their quest to discover whether their father, a survivor, killed former Nazis after the war. There is a film about extreme social surveillance and punishment in China; an AI porn revenge tale, where a young woman tracks down the perpetrator; two Oscar hopefuls – Maite Alberdi’s moving portrait of a Chilean couple dealing with Alzheimer’s and a dramatic, immersive documentary following North Koreans attempting to flee one of the most oppressive places on Earth, a land they were taught was paradise.”

The following films will be shown on BBC Four and iPlayer from January 2024:

Revenge: Our Dad the Nazi Killer - Storyville

In this real-life murder mystery, three Australian brothers investigate whether their father and uncle, both Holocaust survivors, may have been involved in the deaths of former Nazis after the war.

Hundreds of Nazi war criminals fled to Australia in the wake of World War Two, hoping to start again and avoid prosecution. Not all of them found the refuge they had sought, quite a few died prematurely in freak accidents or by taking their own lives, or at least that was how their deaths were reported.

Delving into Australia’s post war history, an age of Cold War anxiety and persistent antisemitism, this BBC Four Storyville documentary uncovers a web of Nazi networks and covert Jewish vigilante groups, who, in the glaring absence of justice, seem to have taken the law into their own hands.

Production Credits

Written and Directed by Danny Ben-Moshe, Produced by Lizzette Atkins, Executive Producers Lucie Kon and Stephen Oliver / Identity Films / BBC Storyville.

Beyond Utopia: Escape from North Korea

A suspenseful, immersive look at the lengths people will go to gain freedom, Beyond Utopia: Escape from North Korea follows various individuals as they attempt to flee North Korea, one of the most oppressive places on Earth, a land they grew up believing was paradise.

At the film’s core are a mother desperate to reunite with the child she was forced to leave behind; a family of five including small children and an elderly grandmother who embark on a treacherous journey across the Yalu River and into the hostile mountains of China; and a South Korean Christian Pastor on a mission to help them. Leaving their homeland is fraught with danger - severe punishment if caught and possibly even execution - as well as potential exploitation by unscrupulous brokers. Family members who remain behind also may face retribution yet these individuals are driven to take the risk.

Gripping, visceral, and urgent, Madeleine Gavin’s film embeds the viewer with these family members as they attempt their perilous escape, palpably conveying life-or-death stakes.

Production Credits

Directed and Edited by Madeleine Gavin and Produced by Jana Edelbaum, Rachel Cohen and Sue Mi Terry / An Ideal Partners Production in Association With 19340 Productions, XRM Media, Random Good Foundation and Human Rights Foundation.

Another Body

Aged 22, American engineering student Taylor receives a Facebook message from a friend with a link. She clicks. What she sees is her face looking back at her, in hardcore pornography. Taylor has been deepfaked; her face has been pulled from her social media and digitally altered to appear in six porn videos without her consent. The creator has put these videos on a porn hub profile impersonating her, listing her real name, college and hometown, and soliciting men to ‘hit her up’. Taylor doesn't know who to trust or what to do and calls the police. They respond with victim-blaming and incompetence and tell Taylor that what this person did isn’t a crime. Taylor soon learns about a fellow student, Julia, who has also been targeted. They realise the culprit must be someone they know and believe it be one of the disturbing, volatile characters on their male-dominated campus, where they have dealt with misogyny and serious harassment.

Determined to uncover who did this and why, the women take the investigation into their own hands. They dive into the underground world of deepfake technology, discovering a society of men terrorizing women, celebrities, colleagues and friends. They make an astonishing discovery, that eight more women that they know, have also been targeted by the same person. One person links all of these women; their former best friend Mike, whose obsessive demands of their attention turned sinister. Mike, who goes by ‘Krelish’ online, is one or the internet's biggest deepfakers, whose deepfake accounts gain millions of views. The film makers ingeniously turns the tables using deepfake technology to protect the women and avoid their own victimhood.

Production Credits

Produced, Written and Directed by Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn / Murmuration Productions, Remarkably Calm and Willa.

Eternal Memory

Directed by Oscar nominated documentary director, Maite Alberdi, Eternal Memory is an extraordinary portrait of unconditional love and devotion.

Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia have been a couple for 23 years. Augusto is one of Chile's most prominent cultural journalists and television presenters, whose work was dedicated to publicising and ensuring that the atrocities of the Pinochet dictatorship were never forgotten. His wife, Pauli, is an actress who also served as the Minister of Culture and Arts. Eight years ago, Augusto was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and since then, Pauli has been caring for him. As Augusto’s memory slowly deteriorates, Pauli’s unwavering support is tested as they both try to maintain his identity despite the challenges of his illness. Each day, the couple faces the difficulties caused by Alzheimer's disease, but they also maintain a tenderness and sense of humour that binds them together.

Produced and Directed by Maite Alberdi, Produced by Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadu/ Micromundo Producciones and Fabula.

Total Trust

State surveillance and digital social control in China are explored in intimate detail following two families and a journalist. Zijuan Chen is fighting for the release of her imprisoned husband, human rights lawyer Weiping Chang, whilst trying to keep his memory alive for their son. Wenzu Li and her newly freed husband Quanzhang Wang are struggling against surveillance that is not only stopping him from him being able to work but even ordinary tasks like taking their son to school. Journalist Sophie Xueqin Huang, a pivotal figure in bringing the Me too movement to China is at constant risk of arrest.

Beijing’s futuristic skyline, complete with constant neon and Blade Runner-esque video billboards contrast with the claustrophobic interiors and physical and emotional entrapment of the main characters.

Facial recognition, Big Data and digital technologies are being used as weapons to curtail freedom in China; through self-censorship or spying on neighbours, surveillance covers not only those perceived as a threat by the government, but increasingly ordinary citizens. The Sharp Eyes neighbourhood watch programme and smart-networked citizen loyalty and reward database give social credits to citizens who look after their neighbourhood, whilst petitioning to the government reduces them.

Chinese filmmaker Jialing Zhang, who lives in the USA, worked remotely with local anonymous crews to give an exclusive and previously impossible intimate insight into the interior of China. The film tells a deeply disturbing story of how the state uses technology to control its citizens as well as propaganda to convince its people to trust it.

Production Credits

Directed by: Jialing Zhang, Produced by Knut Jäger, Michael Grotenhoff, Saskia Kress, Jialing Zhang / Film Tank, Interactive Medica Foundation and Wit Film.