Al Jazeera World

Volcanic eruptions, large-scale destruction, seismic movements and emergency evacuation - are all constant threats to the three million people who live near the world's most dangerous active volcano, Mount Vesuvius, near Naples, Italy.

The 800,000 who live in the "red zone" in the immediate vicinity of the volcano are at even greater risk.

Mount Vesuvius has not erupted since 1944, but many volcanologists say a new explosion is due.

In this documentary, we meet local people who, far from living in fear, embrace life in the red zone and would not live anywhere else. While some are understandably nervous, farmers and gardeners love the rich soil and the quality produce, while winemakers make a good living. Others are so attached to the volcano that they miss it when they go away, and a supportive community has formed in the high-risk area.

This film reveals the human side of volcanic seismology and captures the contradictions and complexities of living in the shadow of what some locals call "a monster".

Cafés and thickly brewed Arabic coffee have often been at the heart of literary, artistic and political change in the Arab world practically from the beginning.

Arab cafés are meeting places, watering holes, smoking dens, board game venues, hubs of conversation, political chatrooms - or simply somewhere to pass the time.

Some attract business people, others attract journalists, traders, actors or artists - but each has its own character and feel.

This programme visits iconic cafés in four major Arab cities - Marrakesh, Cairo, Algiers and Hebron - and listens to the stories of the wide array of customers that frequent them.

Ismael El Ouali is a barber and fan of Moroccan film star Rachid El Ouali, no relation. Ismael not only adopted his hero’s name but also made it his mission to go and meet him.

Palestinians Mahmoud Afana and Mohammed Qassim are childhood friends who performed in school plays and now run a sweets shop to subsidise their passion for filmmaking.

Youssef Benkaddour is a security guard so in love with Bollywood that he watches at least three films a day.

Azizz Oubiye was a clerk and actor in 2013 when his young son, Yazid, was diagnosed with leukaemia. The boy suggested his dad should make a film and so My Bird in Heaven is the touching story of the life and death of his young child.

These five characters would all like to make it in the filmmaking world - but equally important is their desire to repay the faith others have shown in them. They all share a hope that any modest rewards they gain might be just around the corner, inshallah.

When Spanish director Paula Palacios embarks on a road trip across Spain to uncover her roots, she discovers her own Muslim past and a very different version of history to the one she learned at school. Her journey pieces together a centuries-old jigsaw and the largely untold story of Christian Spaniards of Muslim origin.

In 1502, shortly after the fall of the last Muslim state in the Iberian Peninsula, Muslims in Spain faced a stark choice: convert to Christianity or be exiled to northwest Africa. Those who stayed formed a new social class, Christians of Muslim origin, known as the Moriscos. In 1609, however, a royal decree demanded that the Moriscos be expelled completely.

Palacios' trip takes her across Spain where she talks to archaeologists, historians, architects and anthropologists, as well as descendants of the Moriscos. She discovers solid clues that suggest that thousands of Moriscos had indeed remained in Spain, backed up by modern historians who contend that many had lived quietly under the radar. She also gathers compelling circumstantial evidence that her own family are direct descendants of the Moriscos.

Palacios' story is an informative modern-day odyssey with deep historical roots which casts a surprising light on ancient history.

In mid-2020, a mobile phone belonging to an Al Jazeera Arabic investigative team was hacked. Over the next few months, reporter Tamer Almisshal and the Canadian research group Citizen Lab investigated Pegasus, the sophisticated spyware used.

Pegasus is manufactured by an Israeli technology company called the NSO Group and is among the most advanced spyware in the world. It can access and infiltrate a smartphone without the owner clicking a link, opening an email or even answering their phone - meaning it can go undetected.

This investigation exposes how Pegasus works, how governments like Saudi Arabia and the UAE have bought the hugely expensive spyware and how it has been used beyond the stated intentions of the NSO Group of “developing technology to prevent and investigate terror and crime” - including to target journalists.

In European cities, young people of Arab descent often see themselves as socially, economically and culturally excluded from their immediate environment. In some cases, they are also vulnerable to radicalisation.

In Belgium, the densely populated Brussels suburb of Molenbeek is home to 100,000 residents, many of them first and second-generation immigrants. It gained notoriety in 2015 as the home of some of the Bataclan attackers in Paris. In Sweden, Muslims in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby say that authorities have abandoned them, leaving them vulnerable to far-right racist attacks, while police dismiss suggestions that they have failed to protect immigrants. And in Denmark, in the Copenhagen suburb of Norrebro, communities speak of a social hierarchy that places Danes at the top of the socioeconomic ladder and Arabs at the bottom.

In The Other Face Of Europe, we visit these three cities to get an insight into the issues and to hear directly from those living with it every day: radicalised young people, criminal gang members, fighters returning from Syria and their families, as well as politicians, experts, psychologists, social workers and security officers. What is at the root of youth radicalisation in these communities? And how do significant influences at play - such as right-wing anti-immigrant politics, negative media coverage and social deprivation in the poor suburbs of relatively prosperous cities - deepen these tensions?

Samir Kassir, a Lebanese journalist, academic and political activist, paid the ultimate price for his work when he was killed by a car bomb outside his Beirut home in 2005.

While accusations, speculation and denials followed his death, it was clear that Kassir's critical voice had drawn the ire of big power players in Lebanon. This documentary tells the story of the infamous murder while also exposing some of the politics that define Lebanon, both then and now.

Lebanon saw a particularly bloody year in 2005. On February 14, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, an opponent of Syria’s 30-year presence in Lebanon, was assassinated in a car bomb in Beirut. His death triggered huge public protest, which led to Syria withdrawing all its troops in April 2005. Among the many who were outraged at the assassination was Kassir.

Just months later, after a regular phone call with a French reporter, Kassir got into his car to go about his work. Seconds after he started the engine of his silver Alfa Romeo, explosives detonated. He was killed instantly.

Nobody has ever been charged or convicted for Kassir’s murder. Rumours and speculation are plentiful but hard facts are in short supply.

We are what we eat.

In this film, we embark on a culinary journey and dig into the hidden history of four favourite foods - from Andalusia to the Levant. Travelling through Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, we seek out their true origins and discover what they tell us about the cultures that created them.

Paella dates back to the Umayyad Caliphate in Spain - from 661 to 750 CE - and derives its name from the Arabic word "ba-iya" meaning "leftovers". While the rulers enjoyed the finest seafood banquets, the servants took whatever remained, mixed it with rice in a large metal pan and shared it around the town.

Zgougou assidat is a 19th-century Tunisian dessert created during a time of famine.

Jordan’s national dish Mansaf, meaning "large platter", has its roots in Bedouin culture.

Fattoush is a well-known salad made with toasted Arabic flatbread, tomatoes and radishes, claimed by the Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians. But its likely origins can be traced to a single family in one place: Zahle in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

In October 1973, Israel and Egypt were on the brink of war. Egypt wanted to regain territory in Sinai lost in 1967 and thought that surprise might give them the edge. But somehow, Israel knew an attack was imminent. Egyptian businessman Ashraf Marwan was already feeding Israel valuable intelligence. He told the Israelis when Egypt would attack: at sunset on October 6, the Jewish Day of Atonement. As it happened, he was off by a few hours. Egypt did take Israel by surprise in what became a 19-day war that saw Sinai regained, along with a large amount of national pride. What part did Ashraf Marwan really play in this Arab-Israeli drama? Was he a spy, a double agent - or just an untrustworthy opportunist? And why did he die in mysterious circumstances in London 34 years later?

Ashraf Marwan was well connected and married to the daughter of former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was reported to have amassed his fortune brokering arms deals and is described as a diplomat, businessman, government minister, adviser and spy. He was thought to have originally offered his services to the Israeli embassy in London in 1970. Then, after a series of secret meetings and phone calls involving pre-arranged code words, came his alleged tip-off to the Israelis before the October War.

Double agent or not, Marwan’s complicated life came to an end on a summer afternoon in June 2007 when his body was found in the rose garden of the London apartment block where he lived. His death remains a mystery and his wife and two sons are still seeking answers. This documentary shares his story.

The political sands are shifting in the Middle East. New alliances are being formed that until recently would have been unimaginable. But as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and, potentially, Sudan forge closer relationships with Israel, where does this leave the Palestinians, particularly those in Gaza? How is Hamas - the elected government of Gaza - and its paramilitary wing, the Qassam Brigades, adjusting to the new regional political climate? In this film, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Tamer Almisshal meets Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniya and discovers dramatic and surprising military preparations that may seriously concern Israel and its allies.

Today, the Gaza Strip is blockaded by the two countries bordering Gaza, Israel and Egypt, but it somehow continues to obtain rocket technology, some of it homemade, some smuggled in. Tamer Almisshal has obtained video of rockets being manufactured in Gaza. Iran is cited as a likely supplier but the source of some of this weaponry is unexpected. While clearing damage from the 2014 Gaza War, the Qassam Brigades came across unexploded Israeli missiles and say they have repurposed them into a source of arms. Hamas explains how another arms supply was sourced by a specialist unit of Palestinian divers, who were tasked with searching the seabed for weaponry and who claim to have recovered projectiles from the hold of century-old sunken ships.