Screening Date: 27 February 2026, Friday, 8:00 pm / 4 April 2026, Sunday, 2:00 pm

Director: Peter Watkins

Screenplay:  Peter Watkins, Nicholas Gosling

Cast: Arthur Pentelow, Pik-Sen Lim, Hans Bendrik

Sweden / 1968 / 92 min. / Color / English, Mandarin, French, German, Swedish, Russian, Hindi / Turkish Subtitles

The Gladiators is an early example of survival competition-themed films such as The Hunger Games and Battle Royale.

In order to prevent World War III, soldiers from Eastern and Western countries are divided into two teams by a United Nations-like entity and engage in a game of death with the help of an advanced computer controlled by the neutral country of Sweden. In the live-broadcast competition called the Peace Games, accompanied by commercials and sponsors on TV, the soldiers fight for their lives against each other and the disasters unleashed by the computer, while the commanders representing the participating countries issue orders from a secure location.

Watkins’s first film shot in Sweden, The Gladiators, which marks the beginning of his semi-exile period, offers a glimmer of hope about how the “war game” can be destroyed, despite the power of the propaganda machine and the world system reminiscent of 1984.

*The copy of the film is obtained from Peter Watkins’ personal archive.