40 Years of DOK.fest München
The largest documentary festival in Germany returns today!
Celebrating its 40th anniversary, DOK.fest München. returns from 7 to 18 May 2025 with an expansive program of 105 documentaries from 58 countries. The festival, rooted in a politically motivated inception, has evolved into Germany’s largest documentary film festival, now encompassing 26 venues and a hybrid format including in-person and online screenings.
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News
DOK.fest München celebrates 40th edition with ambitious 2025 programme
DOK.forum 2025 to spotlight innovation and co-production in documentary film
«Let’s Talk Climate!» – African Encounters 2025 at DOK.fest München
Interview
«We decided to make our curatorial line speak for itself»
Deputy Managing Director Adele Kohout and Project Manager for DOK.network Africa Barbara Off discuss the festival's evolution, role within the European documentary landscape, and the significance of its thematic programming.
Films
At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking
Director: Maja Novaković
A hauntingly beautiful portrait of old age and loneliness in a timelessly rural setting.
Facing War
Director: Tommy Gulliksen
If this film was screened 30 years ago, we would have bought this narrative. But now, we have alternative media, independent authors, investigative journalists, Wikileaks and solidarity communities outside the military media research community.
How to Build a Library
Director: Maia Lekow, Christopher King
Efforts to renovate Kenya’s historic libraries reveal how fragile democracies manipulate cultural spaces for control, suppression, and neocolonial interests.
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.
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 Mountain Won’t Move
Director: Petra Seliškar
The poetic rhythms of shepherding life in North Macedonia amidst breathtaking mountain landscapes and modern encroachments.
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.
We Live Here
Director: Zhanana Kurmasheva
Zeroing in on a family affected by a Soviet-era nuclear test site.
Yalla Parkour
Director: Areeb Zouaiter
Creating an identity among the ruins of Gaza.
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