SD CINEMATOGRAFICA was formed in 1961 as a production company. Since its founding, the company has produced Films, Variety Programmes, and Science and Cultural documentaries for the Italian public broadcaster RAI and other leading international television companies. In recent years the company has focused on wildlife, Science and History documentaries with such success that it now counts National Geographic Channels, Discovery Channels, TF1, ARTE, NHK, TSR, ARD/BR, PBS and ZDF, as well as RAI and Mediaset, among its clients. Many SD documentaries have won major international prizes at the world’s leading festivals, including Academy Award, Emmy and Banff nominations. Today SD Cinematografica has over 800 hours of programming to its name. [abs]
DIRECTOR
PRODUCER
DURATION
VERSIONS
FORMAT
Renzo Carbonera
SD Cinematografica
52'
HD
During the last century oil became increasingly determinant, it first influenced and then ruled the destiny of wars, diplomacy, politics and of course economy. By World War II it became a crucial issue as the Nazi tanks and planes, the U-boats and ships, especially Hitler’s Wunderwaffen like the V1 and V2 rockets or Messerschmitt jet planes, all needed huge amounts of oil to do their job. And Germany didn’t have these resources. Therefore, in 1942 the Wehrmacht started an operation in order to conquer the richest Soviet oil reserves: the fields of Grozny and Baku. The 49th Mountain Corps was engaged in a battle, which remained in the myth as one of the toughest and unknown challenges of the whole war: the operation Edelweiss.