MODERN TIMES REVIEW

Cinepolitical: A Monthly Brief on Documentary Film

Steve Rickinson — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:01:47 GMT

March unfolded with the spring festival season in full swing, carrying Modern Times Review across a dense European circuit from Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival to CPH:DOX. Our editorial presence traced the contours of impact filmmaking. As we move into April, the momentum continues with key partnerships at the goEast Film Festival, Visions du Réel, and One World Romania.

Follow Editor-in-Chief Truls Lie on Telegram and Industry Editor Steve Rickinson on Twitter. Join our Facebook Group, Modern Times Review, for an uncensored conversation on all things «Modern Times». And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Bluesky.

News

Interview

«We need a different appreciation of culture in society»

Laurens Korteweg discusses Movies That Matter 2026, financial pressure, Dutch cultural cuts, and the challenge of sustaining a human rights festival.

«No audience is braver than people who come to documentaries»

CPH:DOX Head of Programme Niklas Engstrøm speaks to Modern Times Review about the 2026 festival, democratic dialogue, film curation, and documentary form.

CPH:DOX INTER:ACTIVE 2026: Hypervigilance politics

Mark Atkin discusses CPH:DOX INTER:ACTIVE 2026, the «hypervigilance» theme, embodied storytelling, and the distribution barrier facing immersive art.

Books

The Rest and the West: Capital and Power in a Multipolar World

Author: Sandro Mezzadra Brett Neilson

If the West is guilty, does that make its rivals emancipatory? Moving from Iran and Venezuela to Palestine, Ukraine, Cuba, and China, the real conflict is no longer West versus Rest, but between those who rule and those who are ruled.

Films

80 Angry Journalists

Director: András Földes, Anna Kis

As political and institutional pressure tightens around Hungary’s largest independent news outlet, the newsroom is pushed, exhausted, into a collective rupture.

A Song Without a Home

Director: Rati Tsiteladze

A trans woman’s life between Georgia and Vienna anchors this striking CPH:DOX documentary about repression, survival, and the limits of liberation.

Amazomania

Director: Nathan Grossman

The romance of discovery unravels when those once treated as objects of the gaze begin to look back.

American Doctor

Director: Poh Si Teng

Following three American physicians in and beyond Gaza, American Doctor confronts genocide, media legibility, and the ever-collapsing distance between war and domestic responsibility.

Arctic Link

Director: Ian Purnell

The arrival of broadband on remote Alaskan islands unfolds here as a meditation on civilisation itself, in which maritime craft, industrial process, and post-industrial connectivity are woven into a fragile yet far-reaching chain.

Around Paradise

Director: Yulia Lokshina

Conspiracy culture, settler ideology, and capitalist exploitation converge inside a gated Paraguayan enclave.

Birds of War

Director: Janay Boulos, Abdel Alkader Habak

The unequal power dynamics of global journalism through a love story forged across war, exile, and reporting.

Christiania

Director: Karl Friis Forchhammer

A lucid, affectionate portrait of Christiania that moves beyond nostalgia to ask how a utopian community endures after its founding ideals meet everyday reality.

Cutting Through Rocks

Director: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni

Set in rural Iran yet reaching far beyond it, this is a quietly incendiary portrait of female autonomy under pressure.

Death of Death

Director: Dāvis Sīmanis

A witty and unsettling journey through cryonics, anti-ageing science, and transhumanist fantasy, Death of Death explores the growing pursuit of immortality while exposing the inequality and power that may shape who gets to outlive death.

MARIINKA

Director: Pieter-Jan De Pue

A rare glimpse across the lines of Russia’s war in Ukraine, where brother has been set against brother, and families brutalised by conflict.

Open My Mind

Director: Marcel Wyss

Set against Switzerland’s unusually progressive therapeutic framework, a personal account of psychedelic treatment unfolds as both self-exposure and self-repair.

Replica

Director: Chouwa Liang

In Replica, women turn to AI partners for comfort, affirmation, and emotional refuge, exposing the social and psychological conditions that make such attachments possible.

Sentient

Director: Tony Jones

A troubling and emotionally exposed documentary, revisiting the long history of primate experimentation through the voices of those who carried it out.

Soap Fever

Director: Inka Achté

Memories of an economic crisis, an escapist TV obsession, and timely observations on how cheap entertainment and politics work together, intertwine in this witty, kaleidoscopic collage film of Finland in the 1990s

Something Familiar

Director: Rachel Taparjan

A search for a birth family becomes a nuanced meditation on trauma, shared fates, loss, and self-authorship.

Surviving the Death Committee

Director: Nima Sarvestani

A decades-long pursuit of accountability turns personal grief into political evidence, tracing how survivors, exiles, and chance encounters forced a hidden massacre into public view.

The Voices That Defy the Kremlin

Director: Manon Loizeau, Ekaterina Mamontova

In today’s Russia, even the smallest act of dissent can end in disappearance.

Whispers in May

Director: Dongnan Chen

Set in China's Liangshan Mountains, the hybrid documentary gently draws us into the world of a 14-year-old girl and her two best friends.

At Movies that Matter 2026

Steve Rickinson — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 17:03:03 GMT

Movies that Matter 2026 returns from 20 to 28 March in The Hague, Netherlands, with a strong new edition centred on documentary, human rights, and urgent international political cinema. The festival remains one of Europe’s most important spaces for films that engage with the forces shaping the present. Before we arrive on-site, we take a closer look at the programme, highlight a selection of key titles, and speak with director Laurens Korteweg about the making of an edition under financial pressures.

News

Movies that Matter sets a politically charged course for 2026 festival; unveils complete programme

Interview

«We need a different appreciation of culture in society»

Laurens Korteweg discusses Movies That Matter 2026, financial pressure, Dutch cultural cuts, and the challenge of sustaining a human rights festival.

Films

9-Month Contract

Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili

It's not just Georgia where are women trying to find a way out of social misery through surrogacy.

American Doctor

Director: Poh Si Teng

Following three American physicians in and beyond Gaza, American Doctor confronts genocide, media legibility, and the ever-collapsing distance between war and domestic responsibility.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Cutting Through Rocks

Director: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni

In a conservative Iranian village, one divorced woman’s political rise sparks fierce resistance, gendered repression, and bold feminist defiance.

MARIINKA

Director: Pieter-Jan De Pue

A rare glimpse across the lines of Russia’s war in Ukraine, where brother has been set against brother, and families brutalised by conflict.

Melt

Director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Geyrhalter’s latest observes global snowscapes and people amid tourism and research, documenting vanishing ice, extreme weather, and urgent climate-policy questions.

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, Kaouther Ben Hania’s film follows Hind Rajab’s calls, Red Crescent coordination, and an ambulance denied until it’s shot.

Traces

Director: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk

Winner of the Panorama Audience Award at this year's Berlinale, Traces, details the powerful story of women seeking to survive and thrive after being raped and tortured by Russian forces during the war in Ukraine.

Inside CPH:DOX 2026

Steve Rickinson — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:03:00 GMT

As CPH:DOX 2026 opens today and runs through 22 March, Modern Times Review heads back to Copenhagen for one of the key annual meeting points between nonfiction cinema and industry exchange. This year, our coverage will follow the festival across both the public programme and the professional ecosystem, with a particular focus on the DOX:AWARD world premieres, all of which we’ll be reviewing in the days ahead. We will also be on site during the CPH:INDUSTRY days, as the festival’s industry strand gathers filmmakers, producers, funders, and decision-makers from across the field between March 15 and 20.

Alongside our editorial presence, Modern Times Review is also part of Ekko’s international panel of critics for the CPH:DOX 2026 critics grid. Elsewhere, the festival’s wider industry context includes the return of EUROPE! Docs, the EFP and CPH:DOX showcase, highlighting six DOX:AWARD world premieres for the North American market.

News

Interview

CPH:DOX INTER:ACTIVE 2026: Hypervigilance politics

Mark Atkin discusses CPH:DOX INTER:ACTIVE 2026, the «hypervigilance» theme, embodied storytelling, and the distribution barrier facing immersive art.

«No audience is braver than people who come to documentaries»

CPH:DOX Head of Programme Niklas Engstrøm speaks to Modern Times Review about the 2026 festival, democratic dialogue, film curation, and documentary form.

Films

A Little Gray Wolf Will Come

Director: Zhanna Agalakova

Identity politics form the foundation of former high-flying Russian public television correspondent Zhanna Agalakova’s debut documentary.

Amílcar

Director: Miguel Eek

Built from original letters, poems, and political writings, Amílcar offers a subjective, meditative portrait of Amílcar Cabral and the fight for Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde’s independence.

Better Go Mad in the Wild

Director: Miro Remo

Rural twin brothers resisting modern life, where imagination, memory, and rebellion shape a fading yet vivid freedom.

Cinema Kawakeb

Director: Mahmoud Al Massad

Inside a crumbling theatre in Amman, refugees guard reels and memories while century-spanning archives map the road from declarations to today’s Palestine.

Climate in Therapy

Director: Nathan Grossman

A Gestalt-inspired session lets climate scientists grieve, rage, and exhale, revealing systemic neglect and surprising ‘Safe Spaces’ outcome.

Ghost Elephants

Director: Werner Herzog

With Ghost Elephants, Werner Herzog creates another work within his transgressive anthropology.

Nova ‘78

Director: Rodrigo Areias, Aaron Brookner

An electrified archive of 1978’s Nova Convention with Burroughs, Ginsberg, Cage, Smith colliding in a space where theory met punk poetry on 16mm.

The Encampments

Director: Michael T. Workman, Kei Pritsker

From Chicago 7 to Columbia, The Encampments shows how protest is reframed as threat, as language like terrorist and «anti Semite» is used to silence dissent.

Traces

Director: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk

Winner of the Panorama Audience Award at this year’s Berlinale, Traces, details the powerful story of women seeking to survive and thrive after being raped and tortured by Russian forces during the war in Ukraine.

Cinepolitical: a monthly brief on documentary film

Steve Rickinson — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 07:00:34 GMT

February is something of a hinge month for Modern Times Review, the annual point where winter slowness gives way to the documentary industry calendar’s accelerated public life. March, for us, is always busy. We will be around the continent at Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, FIFDH, One World Prague, and Movies that Matter, with extensive coverage of CPH:DOX running alongside it all.

News

Books

Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown

Author: Wim Carton Andreas Malm

A provocative look at who pays for warming, from migrants in extreme heat to communities in disaster zones, and why billionaire lifestyles matter.

Films

Far From Maine

Director: Roy Cohen

Haunted by the killing of Aseel Asleh in 2000, Arab-Jewish filmmaker and activist Roy Cohen addresses his Palestinian friend in a cinematic letter amid the devastating war in Gaza.

Orlando Pantera

Director: Catarina Alves Costa

Catarina Alves Costa’s portrait of Orlando Pantera avoids the mythology of his death, choosing instead a slow, humane chorus of voices, landscapes, and songs.

Palestine ‘36

Director: Annamarie Jacir

Palestine ’36 revisits the 1936 uprising as the template of the present, tracing Balfour, dispossession, raids, handcuffed kids, and a resistance born in plain sight.

Shards

Director: Sara Broos

From psychiatric waiting rooms to global journeys, Shards assembles fragments of life into a humane meditation on solitude, freedom of imagination, and collective healing.

Synthetic Sincerity

Director: Marc Issacs

Blending science and cinema, Synthetic Sincerity follows AI researchers and migrants to ask what remains authentic when images and machines blur.

The Other Side of the Sun

Director: Tawfik Sabouni

Survivors walk back into the cells that shattered their lives, recounting brutality inside one of Syria’s most feared prisons.

Threads of a Revolution

Director: Ross Domoney, Danny Mitchell

A short but satisfying documentary about the ideas of 1970s US radical Murray Bookchin as realised in Kurdish Syria.

Tristan Forever

Director: Tobias Nölle, Loran Bonnardot

A piano on a cargo ship opens Tristan Forever, a film about Tristan da Cunha and a doctor’s longing for distance, belonging, and a simpler life.

Cinepolitical: a monthly brief on documentary film

Steve Rickinson — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:01:17 GMT

A new year starts, but unfortunately, it seems like the same old world. For MTR, we spent a productive week at the Trieste Film Festival, while also curating film reviews, industry news, and a report on the annual FIFDH filmmaking for social change webinar. Stay tuned for a very busy Spring season with MTR all over the continent, and keep an eye out for our updated brand rollout.

News

Reports

From affect to effect, impact producing as practice at FIFDH Impact Days 2026 webinar

Geneva’s FIFDH 2026 Impact Days webinar explores impact producing for social justice, with insights on turning audience affect into measurable effect through strategy, community accountability, and the right team.

Films

Active Vocabulary
Director: Yulia Lokshina

A Russian teacher flees to Berlin after questioning the war. Her story exposes ritualised school propaganda, then throws an uncomfortable mirror at Western «neutrality» and the new glamour of military service.

An Open Field
Director: Teboho Edkins

Processions, prayer, and stillness frame a community preserving the dead’s memory after a tragedy linked to institutional negligence.

Cover-Up
Director: Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus

‘Cover-Up’ traces the shift from secret policy to reality-making, using Hersh’s career to show how propaganda, access, and fear reshape journalism.

Forget Me Not
Director: Anja Medved

Visual essays that probe memory and denial, arguing that oblivion may comfort the vulnerable but doesn’t avert violence.

Life After
Director: Reid Davenport

A wheelchair-mounted camera meets a chilling reality when Canada’s MAID eligibility rules come into view.

Orwell: 2+2=5
Director: Raoul Peck

The rat cage gone from metaphor to reality: Orwell’s systopia realised and then some.

Outliving Shakespeare
Director: Inna Sahakyan, Ruben Ghazaryan

In a remote Armenian retirement home, the clocks are no longer standing still.

A Window East in Trieste

Steve Rickinson — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:02:34 GMT

From 16 to 24 January 2026, the Trieste Film Festival returns as Italy’s most vital window onto Central and Eastern European cinema, a nine day survey of premieres, rediscoveries, and the region’s restless present. This year’s 37th edition pairs its celebrated Documentary Competition with broader strands and conversations, with When East Meets West running in parallel. In this newsletter, find our interview with documentary programmer Rada Šešić, alongside reviews across the festival’s nonfiction sections, and we will be on site in Trieste, filing dispatches as the programme unfolds.

News

«Wild Roses» brings Slovenian women’s cinema to the 37th Trieste Film Festival

Trieste announces opening/closing films for 2026 festival

Interview

«It’s not about building a slogan or a topic. It’s about building trust between the films»

The Trieste Film Festival is Italy’s key window onto Central and Eastern European cinema, and its 2026 documentary competition arrives as ten Italian premieres shaped by war, migration, labour, and the afterlives of institutions.

Films

9-Month Contract

Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili

It's not just Georgia where are women trying to find a way out of social misery through surrogacy.

Cent’anni

Director: Maja Doroteja Prelog

Love, illness, and resilience on a transformative cycling journey through Italy.

Forget Me Not

Director: Anja Medved

Visual essays that probe memory and denial, arguing that oblivion may comfort the vulnerable but doesn’t avert violence.

In the Penal Colony

Director: Gaetano Crivaro, Silvia Perra, Ferruccio Goia, Alberto Diana

Sardinia’s last penal colonies merge inmates, workers, animals, machines, and wind into a lyrical collective cry for freedom.

Landscapes of Resistance

Director: Marta Popivoda

An unorthodox documentary on the exceptional journey of one of Serbia's first female partisans, who helped lead the resistance in Auschwitz.

Militantropos

Director: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorleva, Simon Moskovyi

From mass graves to choral singing, images traverse Ukraine’s landscapes, questioning identity while war normalises behaviours unimaginable.

The Kartli Kingdom

Director: Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pebrel

Three generations endure postwar exile in a fractured building above Tbilisi.

The Sky Above Zenica

Director: Nanna Frank Møller, Zlatko Pranjic

A Bosnian town grapples with pollution, health crises, and conflicting interests, as citizens demand accountability from a massive steel plant.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Director: Anna Hints

Female solidarity through Estonian women continuing an age-old tradition.

Trains

Director: Maciej Drygas

IDFA best film award winner Polish director Maciej Drygas's entrancing Trains is a mesmerising journey through much of the 20th century by rail, accompanied by a subtly intense soundtrack.

We Live Here

Director: Zhanana Kurmasheva

A Kazakh family affected by a Soviet-era nuclear test site

Cinepolitical: a monthly brief on documentary

Steve Rickinson — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 15:02:38 GMT

A very happy New Year to all who have followed Modern Times Review in 2025. It’s been another long year with hundreds of film and book reviews, essays, interviews, and industry news from across the international documentary landscape. As we look forward to 2026, kicking off our festival partnerships with the 37th Trieste Film Festival, we gather one last month with a collection of our articles from December 2025. You will find our dispatches from Moldova’s Moldox, our interview with the new East Doc Platform Manager, and all the cinepolitical books and nonfiction films of note thismonth,

News

Interview

«Intensity alone doesn’t create value»

East Doc Platform returns to Prague 19–25 March 2026 as Central and Eastern Europe’s key documentary industry meeting point. New manager Hana Kulhánková outlines a sharper, more human approach to matchmaking, time, and creative integrity.

Commentary/Reports

Letters, tomatos, babushkas: Moldovan documentary in the transnational era

From migration to memory to bodily autonomy, six Moldox «Green Vine» films reveal how Moldova’s documentary culture is now defining itself.

Pitch@Moldox: building a documentary pipeline in Chișinău

MOLDOX’s Pitch@Moldox 2025 turns emerging Moldovan docs into European-ready projects, from healthcare breakdown to VHS memory, war-scarred identity and landfill soundscapes.

Films

A Little Gray Wolf Will Come

Director: Zhanna Agalakova

Identity politics form the foundation of former high-flying Russian public television correspondent Zhanna Agalakova's debut documentary.

A Propaganda Film by Betar USA

Director: The Grayzone

Inside Betar USA's campaign of intimidation.

Inside Gaza

Director: Hélène Lam Trong

Rare AFP videos anchor this documentary about Gaza’s vanishing visibility, accusations against reporters, and the breaking of a newsroom under siege.

Last Letters From My Grandma

Director: Olga Lucovnicova

From Moldova to the southern Urals to Spain, Last Letters from My Grandma links family loss to larger political fractures, asking what peace costs and who pays.

Love+War

Director: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

A first-person, morally unsettled reflection on what it means to document conflict when the storyteller is also part of the machine.

The Encampments

Director: Michael T. Workman, Kei Pritsker

From Chicago 7 to Columbia, The Encampments shows how protest is reframed as a threat, as language like terrorist and «anti-Semite» is used to silence dissent.

The Shipwrecked

Director: Diego Gutierrez

Lives intersect through gardens, conservation, faith, and farming, as myth and landscape frame survival strategies in a country shaped by violence.

Books

If I Must Die

Author: Refaat Alareer

Refaat Alareer’s life under siege in Gaza, his viral poem If I Must Die, and a case for words as resistance when the world refuses to listen.

The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe

Author: Gideon Levy

A Haaretz columnist’s blistering case against permanent war.

Vulture

Author: Phoebe Greenwood

A savage novel punctures the war-correspondent-hero myths, exposing careerism, entitlement, and the fixer who does the real work.

Cinepolitical: a monthly brief on documentary

Steve Rickinson — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 18:01:56 GMT

November saw Modern Times Review criss-crossing Verzió, Porto/Post/Doc, Majordocs, and Moldox, chasing films and debates that never stay politely outside the cinema. At Verzió, we also ran the young critics workshop, working with emerging writers to sharpen their arguments and stay attentive to power, form, and context. This monthly newsletter rounds up what we’ve published across the month: book reviews, film reviews, industry news, and interviews, including a conversation with the founder of the Gaza International Festival for Women’s Cinema.

News

Books

Hostage
Author: Eli Sharabi

Eli Sharabi’s testimony traces war’s exhaustion and a hard truth that everyone is trapped.

Commentary

Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime

by Francesca Borri

On Francesca Albanese’ fifth report to the UN Human Rights Council.

Interviews

«Through cinema and films, she can talk more about her problems and about everything women face»

In Gaza, Dr Ezzalden Shlah stages cinema under a broken truce, where rubble replaces venues and women’s stories refuse to stay buried.

«We are ten years old, but we are still young»

At ten years old, MOLDOX meets Moldova’s EU horizon and the war’s shadow with «Chaos. Reinventing Reality,» testing whether documentary can fortify a fragile public sphere.

Films

Amílcar

Director: Miguel Eek

Built from original letters, poems, and political writings, Amílcar offers a subjective, meditative portrait of Amílcar Cabral and the fight for Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde’s independence.

Conbody vs Everybody

Director: Debra Granik

Street skills meet entrepreneurship as a fitness venture builds community, educates clients about life inside, and pushes back against cycles of stigma.

Death of Death

Director: Davis Simanis

An unsentimental tour through longevity gurus, robotic promises, and icy vaults, challenging who benefits when death becomes monetizable by technology.

In the Opinion of the Censor

Director: Andrew Gallimore, Lydia Monin

An eye-opening glimpse into Ireland’s history of cinema censorship, where a 1923 law allowing films to be cut, renamed, and banned according to «the opinion of the censor» remains, with amendments, on the Statute Book.

Melt

Director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Geyrhalter’s latest observes global snowscapes and people amid tourism and research, documenting vanishing ice, extreme weather, and urgent climate-policy questions.

Peacemaker

Director: Ivan Ramljak

Witness accounts, banned interviews and shocking street scenes reveal how hatred was engineered and a peace chief silenced as Yugoslavia fractured.

Real

Director: Adele Tulli

A global portrait of digital natives switching personas across Zoom, gaming, and influencer culture, where online connection can feel more lived than offline life.

The Kartli Kingdom

Director: Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pebrel

Three generations endure postwar exile in a fractured building above Tbilisi.

The Thing to be Done

Director: Srđan Kovačević

A frontline portrait of cross-border exploitation and quiet solidarity.

We Will Dance Again

Director: Yariv Mozer

A tense mosaic of 7 October at Nova told by those who filmed it.

Moldox Turns 10

Steve Rickinson — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 12:02:59 GMT

The 10th MOLDOX Festival runs in Chișinău from 26–30 November 2025 under the theme «Chaos. Reinventing Reality,» framing documentary film as both witness to crisis and a tool for imagining alternatives. The programme features 27 feature-length and six short documentaries, mostly premieres, tracing stories from Siberia to Khartoum, India’s red-light districts to Moldova’s depopulated villages, and confronting war, migration, trauma, utopian experiments, and collective healing. Standout titles include The Voice of Hind Rajab and the IDFA-winning Trains. A 2025 innovation is Green Vine, a national competition spotlighting Moldovan filmmakers, with an international jury awarding distribution and development support. Marking the 10th anniversary, MOLDOX adds a Queer Choir concert, public panels, and side events such as concerts, a photo and poster exhibition at Cărturești la Muzeu, parties, and a MOLDOX Bookshelf open through 30 November. MOLDOX Lab returns with workshops and masterclasses for emerging professionals, focused on documentary as social change.

News

MOLDOX unveils 2025 programme under «Chaos. Reinventing Reality» theme

Interview

«We are ten years old, but we are still young»

At ten years old, MOLDOX meets Moldova’s EU horizon and the war’s shadow with «Chaos. Reinventing Reality,» testing whether documentary can fortify a fragile public sphere.

Films

Bright Future

Director: Andra MacMasters

The sensory and ideological layers of a forgotten Cold War festival, exploring fleeting solidarity, ideological discord, and the fragility of socialist dreams.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Cuba & Alaska

Director: Yegor Troyanovsky

Laughing in the face of death, the two heroines of journalist-turned-filmmaker Yegor Troyanovsky’s debut documentary Cuba & Alaska pitch viewers into the agony and ecstasy of Ukraine’s frontlines.

Cutting Through Rocks

Director: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni

In a conservative Iranian village, one divorced woman’s political rise sparks fierce resistance, gendered repression, and bold feminist defiance.

Flowers of Ukraine

Director: Adelina Borets

On the outskirts of Kyiv, a woman in her 70s demonstrates her love of freedom.

Holding Liat

Director: Brandon Kramer

The horror of the conflict in Gaza for all innocents is underlined.

Khartoum

Director: Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M. Ahmed, Phil Cox

A mirror to pain, resistance, and hope.

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

Kaouther Ben Hania’s film follows Hind Rajab’s calls, Red Crescent coordination, and an ambulance denied until it’s shot.

Trains

Director: Maciej Drygas

Polish director Maciej Drygas’s entrancing Trains is a mesmerising journey through much of the 20th century by rail, accompanied by a subtly intense soundtrack.

Majordocs 2025

Steve Rickinson — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 18:00:50 GMT

Building on its announced tribute to French filmmaker Claire Simon, Majordocs frames listening as both an aesthetic principle and an ethical stance. The feature competition presents eight documentaries from eight countries, touching on colonial legacies, identity, mental health, and the social effects of digital life. Industry and public programmes extend the theme through DocSessions and masterclasses, including sessions led by sound designer Philippe Ciompi and a masterclass by filmmaker Ben Rivers. MajorDocs Pitch showcases five new non-fiction projects, while MajorDocs Educa and the Communities initiatives broaden access through student screenings and supported tickets for audiences.

News

MajorDocs reveals full lineup for seventh edition, sets sound-focused programme

7th MajorDocs highlights sound, honours Claire Simon

Films

Action Item

Director: Paula Ďurinová

When mental health and political crisis collide, reflection transforms into resistance.

Fiume o Morte!

Director: Igor Bezinović

A crowd-sourced, carnivalesque reconstruction of Rijeka 1919–20, Fiume o Morte! dismantles D’Annunzio’s cult and exposes the roots and afterlives of fascism.

Songs of Slow Burning Earth

Director: Olha Zhurba

Olha Zhurba’s meditative take on the war avoids frontline images to show how the conflict affects ordinary people.

To the West, in Zapata

Director: David Bim

A hypnotic black and white portrait of family life on the margins, where propaganda blares from the radio and love becomes the last reliable safety net.

Inside Porto/Post/Doc 2025

Steve Rickinson — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 18:02:23 GMT

In 2025, Modern Times Review again joins Porto/Post/Doc. From 20–29 November, Porto hosts 135 films under the theme «The Time of a Journey», with a programme that treats mobility, memory, and class as shared political terrain. Here, we preview films from the International Competition, the new medium-length and short sections, Cinema Falado’s Lusophone dialogues, and spotlights, tracing how the festival’s screenings, talks, and industry strands turn the city into a ten-day school of critical seeing and debate.

News

Porto/Post/Doc 2025 announces full film programme

Porto/Post/Doc 2025 announces opening/closing titles; Cinema Falado foregrounds Lusophone voices

Porto/Post/Doc unveils 2025 theme and dual filmmaker spotlights

Films

Bye Bye Tiberias

Director: Lina Soualem

Four generations of Palestinian women take us on a journey through family, war, memory and identity.

Fiume o Morte!

Director: Igor Bezinović

A crowd-sourced, carnivalesque reconstruction of Rijeka 1919–20, Rijeka or Death! dismantles D’Annunzio’s cult and exposes the roots and afterlives of fascism.

Flophouse America

Director: Monica Strømdahl

Inside one motel room an intimate portrait of American poverty unfolds.

Foragers

Director: Jumana Manna

The petty politics of Palestinian persecution as seen through the lens of age-old traditions of foraging for medicinal herbs.

Little Syria

Director: Reem Karssli, Madalina Rosca

Filmed over 20 years across several countries, a group of Syrian refugees in Berlin fight for justice for Assad-regime victims.

Midnight Traveler

Director: Hassan Fazili

The Fazili family shoots their perilous journey from Afghanistan through the Balkan migration route to an uncertain future on three mobile phones.

Militantropos

Director: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorleva, Simon Moskovyi

From mass graves to choral singing, images traverse Ukraine’s landscapes, questioning identity while war normalises behaviours unimaginable.

Nova ‘78

Director: Rodrigo Areias, Aaron Brookner

An electrified archive of 1978’s Nova Convention with Burroughs, Ginsberg, Cage, Smith colliding in a space where theory met punk poetry on 16mm.

Only On Earth

Director: Robin Petré

Robin Petré’s cinematically sprawling Only on Earth journeys deep into southern Galicia as wildfires rage on.

Yanuni

Director: Richard Ladkani

The intimate cost of fighting for the Amazon.

Chile showcases broad slate of films, talent, and projects at IDFA

Steve Rickinson — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 08:01:19 GMT

Headlining the delegation is Blue Silence (Silencio Azul) by Matías Rojas Ruz, world-premiering in the International Short Film Competition. Set on the coast near Manquemapu, the short revisits the 1965 Janequeo sinking through textured analogue imagery and fragmented memory.

Two Chilean features appear in Signed, IDFA’s showcase for distinctive authorial voices: Ignacio Agüero’s Letters to My Dead Parents (Cartas a mis padres muertos) and Bettina Perut & Iván Osnovikoff’s Invisible Life (Vida Invisible). Agüero’s film threads five decades of family and national history, beginning with his father’s death days after Allende’s election, through archival and new footage in what he calls a «wandering cinema.» Perut and Osnovikoff follow microbiologist-parliamentarian Cristina Dorador into the Atacama, tracing research on drug-resistant «superbugs.»

In Best of Fests, José Jiménez’s Dead Tongue (Lengua Muerta)—co-produced with Sebastián Sánchez—portrays a solitary man on a southern beach, his halting speech circling an unspoken secret tied to the Pinochet era.

Letters to My Dead Parents, a film by Ignacio Agüero

Chilean participation extends to IDFA’s professional platforms. Two filmmakers—Sidka Saavedra Vera and José Jiménez—join IDFAcademy (13–16 November). Saavedra brings the post-production project The Boy Girl and the Gothic Orca (El niño niña y la orka gótika), weaving Buenos Aires’ underground gothic drag scene with a first-person transition narrative. Jiménez attends with EXTERRA (co-directed with Celeste Rojas Mugica), exploring sites and documents linked to Ingrid Olderock, a notorious DINA agent. Ignacio Agüero will also serve on the Envision Competition jury.

Around a dozen Chilean projects at various stages will circulate in IDFA’s market, including:

Ballover Films: Children: The Memory That Remains (Hijos: la memoria que queda) (Dir. Francisco López Balló; Prod. Francisco López, Lize Bouzidi, Jean Elios) and Territories (Territorios) (Dir. López Balló; Prod. Francia Aranda).
La Ventana Cine: The Capture (of Paul Schaefer) (La Captura) (Dir. Rafa Valdeavellano; Prod. Carola Fuentes) and I Don’t Want to Say Goodbye (No quiero decir adiós) (Dir. Carola Fuentes; Prod. Rafa Valdeavellano).
Galgo Storytelling: VR work Knowing Your Nature (Dir. Francisca Silva; Prod. María José Díaz) and feature Chuchu (Dir./Prod. María José Díaz).
Mimbre Films: No Money No Honey (Dir. Nicole Costa; Prod. Daniela Camino) and Of Water and Death (De agua y muerte) (Dir. Vicente Barros; Prod. Rocío Romero).
Cangrejo Films: Artifacts of War (Artefactos de Guerra) (Dir. Jorge Caballero; Prod. Ana Giralt, Diego Pino) and Object (Objeto) (Dir. Loreto Quijada; Prod. Fernando Bascuñan, Sebastián Züger, Loreto Quijada), a Chile–Germany co-production.

Chiledoc is a public–private initiative supported by ProChile (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and the Chilean Documentary Corporation (CCDoc), promoting Chilean documentary worldwide through strategic promotion, network-building and sector development

Verzió turns 22

Steve Rickinson — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 19:02:13 GMT

Verzió IHRDFF opens today, 11 November, under the theme “We Exist Together” (11–19 Nov across Hungary; online 20–30 Nov), premiering Coexistence, My Ass! and unveiling a 49-film, 11-section programme spanning Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Iraq, and beyond. Our editor-in-chief is serving on the festival jury, and our industry editor is tutoring the Young Critics Workshop. DocPro runs 12–16 Nov with a new MADOKE collaboration—five days of masterclasses, workshops, and public showcases that connect makers, students, and audiences—turning Budapest into an open forum.

News

Verzió DocPro returns with workshops, industry talks and project showcases

Verzió IHRDFF announces full 2025 film programme

Verzió 2025 Sets November dates and unveils «We Exist Together» theme

Films

9-Month Contract

Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili

It’s not just Georgia where are women trying to find a way out of social misery through surrogacy.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Cuba & Alaska

Director: Yegor Troyanovsky

Cutting Through Rocks

Director: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni

In a conservative Iranian village, one divorced woman’s political rise sparks fierce resistance, gendered repression, and bold feminist defiance.

Flophouse America

Director: Monica Strømdahl

Inside one motel room an intimate portrait of American poverty unfolds.

Immortals

Director: Maja Tschumi

Three voices seek identity and connection as Baghdad emerges as a living character shaped by politics and patriarchy.

Militantropos

Director: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorleva, Simon Moskovyi

From mass graves to choral singing, images traverse Ukraine’s landscapes, questioning identity while war normalises behaviours unimaginable.

Only on Earth

Director: Robin Petré

Robin Petré’s cinematically sprawling Only on Earth journeys deep into southern Galicia as wildfires rage on.

The Helsinki Effect

Director: Arthur Franck

With a gently satirical outer wrapping and a deadly serious inner core, Arthur Franck’s account of the seminal Helsinki Agreement of 1975—The Helsinki Effect—demonstrates just how historic a diplomatic process that was at the time seen as tedious and irrelevant really was.

The Long Road to the Director’s Chair

Director: Vibeke Løkkeberg

Restored 1973 footage from Berlin’s Women’s Film Seminar amplifies women’s voices on authorship abortion rights and power still urgent in today’s media.

The Propagandist

Director: Luuk Bouwman

The rise and fall of a filmmaker who reshaped Dutch cinema by serving Nazi propaganda during World War II.

With Hasan in Gaza

Director: Jamal Aljafari

A 2001 MiniDV journey across the Gaza Strip captures quiet daily life under occupation while hinting at looming catastrophe and the resilience of its people.

Cinepolitical: a monthly brief on documentary

Steve Rickinson — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 06:01:46 GMT

October has been full-tilt at Modern Times Review, with a busy slate of new film reviews and industry activities spanning festivals, politically charged nonfiction, and focused conversations. Looking ahead to November, you can meet us at Verzio, where our Industry Editor will tutor the Young Critics Workshop; we’ll also be on the ground at Porto/Post/Doc and MajorDocs, and—marking a first for us—at Moldox in Chișinău. Stay tuned to the site and our socials for rolling coverage, Q&As, and festival notes.

NEWS

INTERVIEW

Festival notes on the future and past

We sat down with the old and new festival directors of the Krakow Film Festival to discuss a generational shift, reality and truth, the challenges of online platforms, and why shorts matter.

«Memory resists erasure and disappearance»

Kamal Aljafari on his first and latest film, With Hasan in Gaza.

MIA Market 2025 puts documentary, PSB strategy and policy in the same room

With 100+ projects and new policy rooms, MIA 2025 frames market design as cultural infrastructure for documentary, drama and animation.

The art of information

In his master class at Makedox, Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper exposed how to «write-in-movement», which literally means «cinemato-graphy». He also talked about political cinema and mental ecology. We met him for our in-depth film interview, especially about his last three films.

FILMS

Ain’t No Back to a Merry Go Round

Director: Ilana Trachtman

With a title taken from Langston Hughes’ famous anti-segregation poem of 1942, Emmy-award-winning filmmaker Ilana Trachtman tells the fascinating, little-known story of one of America’s first-ever mixed-race protests against the Jim Crow laws of the US South.

Carrousel

Director: Pascal Messaoudi

In Fos-sur-Mer, food-truck chats, surfers, and a stark tally of asthma and cancer reveal the human cost of industrial comfort.

Cinema Kawakeb

Director: Mahmoud Al Massad

Inside a crumbling theatre in Amman, refugees guard reels and memories while century-spanning archives map the road from declarations to today’s Palestine.

Habibi Hussein

Director: Alex Bakri

From Jenin to future Gaza rebuilds, one cinema’s reopening becomes parable of aid spectacle, cultural erasure, and sidelined local knowledge.

Memory

Director: Vladlena Sandu

A child’s-eye chronicle of Grozny, migration, and abuse, refracted into lyrical images that soften brutality without forgetting.

Nova ‘78

Director: Rodrigo Areias, Aaron Brookner

An electrified archive of 1978’s Nova Convention with Burroughs, Ginsberg, Cage, Smith colliding in a space where theory met punk poetry on 16mm.

RFK: Legacy

Director: Sean Stone

Politics, memory, and media collide as Eisenhower’s warning, Garrison’s theory, and RFK’s appeal meet RFK Jr.’s claims of institutional failure.

The Day Iceland Stood Still

Director: Pamela Hogan

How 90% of Iceland’s women halted a nation in 1975

The Spies Among Us

Director: Jamie Coughlin Silverman, Gabriel Silverman

From training teens as agents to weaponizing psychology, this story exposes the machinery of East German social control and its wounds that still linger.

NOW AVAILABLE

Chile Sets Focused Slate for DOK Leipzig 2025

Steve Rickinson — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 17:00:59 GMT

Chile will arrive at the 68th DOK Leipzig (27 October–2 November 2025) with two official selections and one project at the DOK Co-Pro Market, alongside a 14-strong industry delegation coordinated by Chiledoc. Five producers travel with backing from the Ministry of Culture’s programme for participation in international markets, which has reinstated Leipzig after several years away.

Green Desert, a film by Meliza Luna

In the International Feature Film Competition, Green Desert by Meliza Luna will have its world premiere. The film traces a decade of environmental damage in south-central Chile, linking pine monocultures, drought and wildfires, while weaving archival materials and family testimony. Araucaria Cine and Vestigio Cine produce it.

Chilean animation is represented in competition by Petra and the Sun from Malu Furche and Stefania Malacchini, receiving its German premiere after winning a Special Jury Prize at Tribeca. The short follows Petra, 71, who discovers the preserved body of a mountaineer amid an extreme thaw in Chile’s southern Andes.

Fossil Matter, a film by Tiziana Panizza

At the DOK Co-Pro Market, Tiziana Panizza’s Fossil Matter documents the extraction of a 130-million-year-old ichthyosaur from the southern ice fields, drawing connections to museum objects from a region once described as «the end of the world.» The market is a financing and networking platform that connects producers and filmmakers with international partners.

Ji.hlava 2025

Steve Rickinson — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:01:02 GMT

Ji.hlava IDFF returns 24 Oct–Nov 2 for its 29th edition, ten days and 300+ films spanning premieres, radical experiments, and sharp retrospectives. Alongside the Inspiration Forum and Industry Days (28–31 Oct), this year’s Conference on Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking zeroes in on AI: creative control, authorship, and responsibility, with academic and industry panels on Thursday, 30 Oct.

News

Ji.hlava ethics conference takes on creative control and authorship in AI age

Ji.hlava IDFF unveils full 2025 programme

Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2025 unveils 14 European projects

Ji.hlava IDFF unveils first 2025 titles

Films

Better Go Mad in the Wild

Director: Miro Remo

Rural twin brothers resisting modern life, where imagination, memory, and rebellion shape a fading yet vivid freedom.

Child of Dust

Director: Weronika Mliczewska

Born of war and raised in hardship, a man’s search for his father becomes a reflection on identity, healing, and generational trauma.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Fiume o Morte!

Director: Igor Bezinović

A crowd-sourced, carnivalesque reconstruction of Rijeka 1919–20, Rijeka or Death! dismantles D’Annunzio’s cult and exposes the roots and afterlives of fascism.

Flophouse America

Director: Monica Strømdahl

Inside one motel room an intimate portrait of American poverty unfolds.

I Shall Not Hate

Director: Tal Barda

A Palestinian doctor’s heartbreaking loss fuels his mission for peace, emphasizing the need for compassion and unity in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Director: David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin

How a small-town teaching assistant became an unlikely whistleblower on the grim reality of wartime propaganda.

Orwell: 2+2=5

Director: Raoul Peck

Our current reality, as summarised by George Orwell.

Resilience

Director: Tomas Elsik

The rhythms of nature meet the harshness of human industry, painting an urgent, visually poetic portrait of Central Europe’s endangered ecosystems.

Riefenstahl

Director: Andres Veiel

Leni Riefenstahl shaped a controversial legacy, prompting reflection on whether her work’s fascist ideals still resonate in contemporary culture.

The Tree of Authenticity

Director: Sammy Baloji

Through evocative imagery and sound, The Tree of Authenticity challenges colonial legacies in the Congo Basin, giving the forest agency beyond human-dominated histories.

Time to the Target

Director: Vitaly Mansky

Lviv, a city caught between everyday life and an unending funeral procession during war.

Now Available

Doclisboa 2025

Steve Rickinson — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:01:40 GMT

The 2025 Doclisboa unfolds in Lisbon from 16–26 October, bringing 200+ films, debates and warm-ups across Culturgest, Cinema São Jorge, Cinemateca Portuguesa and more. Modern Times Review will be on the ground with Industry Editor Steve Rickinson reporting, and we also publish an in-depth interview with the festival’s new director, Hélder Beja, on curatorial direction, premieres and politics.

News

Doclisboa 2025 announces opening/closing films and first program highlights

Interview

«We do not believe in neutrality»

Inside Doclisboa 2025, Hélder Beja outlines political choices, funding hurdles, and urgent premieres across Portugal and Benelux this October in Lisbon.

Films

Ghost Elephants

Director: Werner Herzog

With Ghost Elephants, Werner Herzog creates another work within his transgressive anthropology.

Nova ‘78

Director: Rodrigo Areias, Aaron Brookner

An electrified archive of 1978’s Nova Convention with Burroughs, Ginsberg, Cage, Smith colliding in a space where theory met punk poetry on 16mm.

The Long Road to the Director’s Chair

Director: Vibeke Løkkeberg

Restored 1973 footage from Berlin’s Women’s Film Seminar amplifies women’s voices on authorship abortion rights and power still urgent in today’s media.

The Tree of Authenticity

Director: Sammy Baloji

Through evocative imagery and sound, The Tree of Authenticity challenges colonial legacies in the Congo Basin, giving the forest agency beyond human-dominated histories.

Toni, My Father

Director: Anna Negri

From prison rituals to 1970s utopias, Anna Negri’s film reframes Toni Negri beyond labels, tracing conatus, family conflict, and the power of happy passions.

Now Available

Cinepolitical: a monthly brief on documentary

Steve Rickinson — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 17:01:44 GMT

September closes with a full slate of releases, and October opens as one of the year’s busiest months: DOK Leipzig, Doclisboa, Ji.hlava IDFF, and other forums will shape the immediate conversation. This newsletter offers an overview of the month’s new film reviews, nonfiction books, commentaries and reports, and a round-up of industry news. We also publish an interview with Ex Oriente Film, outlining current priorities in development, financing, and regional collaboration.

News

Interview

East of convention: Ex Oriente Film’s human-centred method

Ex Oriente Film challenges industry habits with early-stage support, rigorous feedback, and space for author-driven experimentation.

«We look for documentaries which make a difference»

Nordic/Docs Festival Director Paul René Roestad speaks with Modern Times Review on the 2025 edition of the Fredrikstad, Norway documentary festival.

Commentary

Baltic Sea Docs 2025: Cats on the Rooftops, Docs in the Villa

From war testimonies to playful experiments, BSD 2025 showed why Riga’s compact forum punches above its weight in Europe’s doc market landscape.

What does it mean to watch?

At Dokufest, a panel discussion posed this epic question: What does it mean to watch?

Books

Foundations of Black Epistemology: Knowledge Discourse in Africana Philosophy

by: Adebayo Oluwayomi

Adebayo Oluwayomi’s Foundations of Black Epistemology reframes Fanon, Biko, and others, arguing for truth-seeking Black knowledge beyond Western foundations.

Films

Ghost Elephants

Director: Werner Herzog

With Ghost Elephants, Werner Herzog creates another work within his transgressive anthropology.

Fighter

Director: Sunniva Sundby, Mari Bakke Riise

After a dockside dive leaves MMA fighter Geir Kåre Cemsoylu Nyland facing paralysis, Fighter tracks his two-year recovery and a candid reckoning with toxic masculinity.

Henden – Requiem for a Photographer

Director: Rune Denstad Langlo

Norwegian war photographer Harald Henden spent his life documenting the stories of others – usually at their hardest moments. Now, he is the story…

Rijeka or Death! Fiume o Morte!

Director: Igor Bezinović

A crowd-sourced, carnivalesque reconstruction of Rijeka 1919–20, Rijeka or Death! dismantles D’Annunzio’s cult and exposes the roots and afterlives of fascism.

The Dialogue Police

Director: Susanna Edwards

An experiment in protecting democracy and free speech, while maintaining public order, Sweden's Dialogue Police mediate between protestors and regular police to reduce tension in public gatherings.

The Gardener, the Buddhist & the Spy

Director: Håvard Bustnes

A corporate spy embeds with environmental activists, flips (sort of), and drags an asbestos empire into view. What follows isn’t a clean exposé but a knot of moral grey zones.

The Long Road to the Director’s Chair

Director: Vibeke Løkkeberg

Restored 1973 footage from Berlin’s Women’s Film Seminar amplifies women’s voices on authorship abortion rights and power still urgent in today’s media.

The Tale of Silyan

Director: Tamara Kotevska

The Oscar-nominated Macedonian filmmaker Tamara Kotevska returns with a luminous documentary fable that extends her ongoing meditation on a pressing homeland concern: the ecological and economic troubles that drive migration.

Toni, My Father

Director: Anna Negri

From prison rituals to 1970s utopias, Anna Negri’s film reframes Toni Negri beyond labels, tracing conatus, family conflict, and the power of happy passions.

Now Available

Nordic/Docs 2025 — Lines of Flight

Steve Rickinson — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 17:00:36 GMT

Norway’s Nordic/Docs runs 9–14 September at Fredrikstad Kino, presenting 70+ films alongside talks, debates, seminars, a masterclass, and awards. The festival opens with a portrait of post-injury resilience in Fighter and brings back the Oscar-winning No Other Land with producers attending. Beyond the opener, the lineup spans archival work, social issues, and intimate diaries—covering health care, family, nature, migration, and community. The masterclass pairs two acclaimed Nordic directors, while a veteran filmmaker screens a new archival project on the 1970s feminist movement. Education and regional outreach remain central, with school screenings and local spotlights. The 2025 profile centres Sámi rights, climate, animal welfare, poverty, war, and hard-won hope.

News

Nordic/Docs announces full 2025 programme

Interview

«We look for documentaries which make a difference»

Festival Director Paul René Roestad speaks with Modern Times Review on the 2025 edition of the Fredrikstad, Norway documentary festival.

Films

Fighter

Director: Sunniva Sundby, Mari Bakke Riise

After a dockside dive leaves MMA fighter Geir Kåre Cemsoylu Nyland facing paralysis, Fighter tracks his two-year recovery and a candid reckoning with toxic masculinity.

Flophouse America

Director: Monica Strømdahl

Inside one motel room an intimate portrait of American poverty unfolds.

No Other Land

Director: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor

Receiving both awards and death threats, No Other Land is a poignant exploration of resistance, solidarity, and the quest for justice in a land marked by conflict.

The Gardener, the Buddhist & the Spy

Director: Håvard Bustnes

A corporate spy embeds with environmental activists, flips (sort of), and drags an asbestos empire into view. What follows isn’t a clean exposé but a knot of moral grey zones.

Now Available

Baltic Sea Docs 2025

Steve Rickinson — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 17:02:43 GMT

From 31 Aug–5 Sept, Riga hosts the 29th Baltic Sea Docs (BSD), presenting 26 creative documentary projects with public screenings in the capital and regional towns. Founded in Denmark and run since 2006 by Latvia’s National Film Centre, BSD spotlights feature-length docs from the Baltic Sea region, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus: 22 new projects in development/production and four returning in post, across 14 countries. Industry highlights include the “Coming Soon” strand for festival and sales partners, plus intensive training and access to financiers. The film programme opens 2 Sept with Dmytro Hreshko’s Divia (2025), alongside BSD-connected titles 9-Month Contract, Letters from Wolf Street, and On Sacred and Profane. Modrn Times Review will also be on site.

News

Baltic Sea Docs opens this week with 26 projects and expanded industry events

Films

9-Month Contract

Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili

It's not just Georgia where women are trying to find a way out of social misery through surrogacy.

Coexistence, My Ass!

Director: Amber Fares

Noam Shuster Eliassi’s path from UN hopeful to fearless comedian, testing taboos and hope between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.

Divia

Director: Dmytro Hreshko

Nature is rarely discussed in the current war effort, but Divia is not silent.

Letters From Wolf Street

Director: Arjun Talwar

When immigrants are the scapegoats for all of Europe's ills, and the far right is resurgent, Arjun Talwar's poetic glimpse into the experience of life as a foreigner in Poland is a potent antidote to hatred.

The Helsinki Effect

Director: Arthur Franck

With a gently satirical outer wrapping and a deadly serious inner core, Arthur Franck's account of the seminal Helsinki Agreement of 1975—The Helsinki Effect—demonstrates just how historic a diplomatic process that was at the time seen as tedious and irrelevant really was.