Wide Angle Season 3, Episode 7: Hell of a Nation

Suicide Bombers

In a series of unique, powerful, and revealing interviews from inside Israeli prisons, this film examines the minds of Palestinian suicide bombers. Three failed suicide bombers, one recruiter, and one bomb builder captured by Israeli security forces speak openly of their training, motivation, operational methodology, and profound belief in the idea of entering paradise by becoming a martyr killed in the cause of Islam.

The Russian Newspaper Murders

“The Russian Newspaper Murders” explores the tenuous state of freedom of speech in Russia as it investigates the murders of two editors of the same newspaper in 18 months in 2002 and '03. The paper, the Togliatti Observer, was known for investigating links between organized crime and public officials. “We have to balance on the edge all the time,” says deputy editor Rimma Mikharova, “otherwise we might not be around to write the next article.” In Moscow, the pressures facing the fiercely indpendent Novaya Gazeta (whose editor, Dimitri Muratov, is seen interviewing Mikhail Gorbachev) are more subtle---but not much. Here, a Gazeta reporter must investigate the beating of one of his colleagues. Following the film: an interview with Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Ladies First

“Ladies First” explores the role of Rwandan women in building bridges between Hutus and Tutsis 10 years after the genocide that killed 800,000 people in 100 days. Director Gini Reticker and producer Deborah Shaffer were co-producers of the Oscar-nominated 2003 documentary “Asylum,” about a woman who flees Ghana to avoid genital mutilation and runs into trouble with U.S. immigration.

Sahara Marathon

WIDE ANGLE presents the story of a unique marathon that is staged annually in the hope of drawing attention to the plight of the Sahrawi people.

Young, Muslim and French

WIDE ANGLE explores the ban on Muslim headscarves in French schools in the town of Dammarie-les-Lys, a racially diverse, working-class community on the outskirts of Paris, where young Muslim women face a choice to obey the ban - or flout it.

Time for School (Update)

As Afghanistan struggled to adopt a new constitution, WIDE ANGLE filmed behind the scenes at the December 2003 loya jirga. The documentary profiles two aspiring Afghan delegates who face political opposition and physical intimidation as they literally risk their lives to participate in the future of their country.

An Honest Citizen

Twenty-five years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the struggle for political reform is the big story. With rare access, WIDE ANGLE films behind the scenes with the young reporters of one of Iran's leading reformist newspapers.

Red Lines and Deadlines

Will the kingdom will find a path to democratic reform or succumb to a rising tide of Islamic extremism.

The Saudi Question