Cinepolitical: A Monthly Brief on Documentary
July 2025's Essential Docs & Dialogues
August is a busy month for Modern Times Review, with our team attending DokuFest, MakeDox, and the Sarajevo Film Festival to follow some of the most relevant new documentaries from the region and beyond. In July, we were present at MDOC, where films explored themes of history, identity, and resilience. This month’s newsletter brings together a selection of recent film reviews, industry news, and coverage from the documentary field. Among the highlights are in-depth reports on the treatment of journalists and medical workers in Gaza, alongside reflections on powerful new titles that speak to ongoing global struggles.
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News
AJB DOC Film Festival to be closed amidst broader network shakeup
DokuFest unveils global documentary lineup for ‘View From the World’ strand
MDOC Melgaço brings record premieres and new critics’ prize to Portugal
PhEST Photography Festival marks 10th anniversary with expanded programme and cosmic theme
Films
Action Item
Director: Paula Ďurinová
When mental health and political crisis collide, reflection transforms into resistance.
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.
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.
Didy
Director: Gaël Kamilindi, François-Xavier Destors
A son’s journey to rediscover his mother unearths buried memories and reveals the silenced strength of Rwandan women.
Gaza: Doctors Under Attack
Director: Karim Shah
Forensically detailed, utterly balanced and absolutely damning, a British documentary banned by the BBC should be required viewing for every craven Western leader that supports Israel's war on Palestinians.
Gaza: Journalists Under Fire
Director: Robert Greenwald
History is being erased in real time, and those who try to record it are dying with their archives.
Mothers of Chibok
Director: Joel Kachi Benson
Nigerian mothers confront rape, loss, and systemic silence with dignity and defiance in an elegy for a wounded nation.
My Memory is Full of Ghosts
Director: Anas Zawahri
Life in post-siege Homs is marked by rubble, silence, and voices determined to remember, mourn, and somehow endure.
Special Operation
Director: Oleksiy Radynski
Unfiltered surveillance of wartime routine builds toward an unseen horror.
The Czech Film Project
Director: Marek Novák, Mikulas Novotny
Karlovy Vary Asks: «What is Czech in Czech Cinema?»
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