CineRadical: A Monthly Brief on Documentary

April's essential documentary films and dialogues

Apr 30, 2024

April's roundup of Europe’s documentary film scene is here. After an eventful month, we move into the early summer season, where Modern Times Review will be at the Krakow Film Festival and more. With the festival season expanding, we’ll take one last look back at the films, books, and comments of April 2024.

Please consider to DONATE to Modern Times Review if your situation allows it. In doing so, you will receive our magazines. 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, X.

News

Essays/Reports

Bodies and freedom

Elina Psykou's Stray Bodies sheds thought-provoking light on bodily autonomy through abortion, in-vitro fertilization and euthanasia, while Tzeli Hadjidimitriou tells the story of the lesbian community on the island of Lesvos in Lesvia.

CPH:DOX INTER:ACTIVE: Intersections of flesh and code

When CPH:DOX opened its doors for its 21st instalment between 13 and 24 March 2024, it centred on issues ranging from fertility, ableism, discrimination and trauma, regarding the body as a site of socio-political conflict.

Films

09.05.2022

goEast FF

Director: Nicole Philmon

Victory Day in Russia in 2022 – barely six weeks after Putin's invasion of Ukraine – plays out the same tired old themes of the Red Army's victory over Nazism in 1945, with those celebrating eagerly taking up the new propaganda of victory.

Can’t Feel Nothing

CPH:DOX

Director: David Borenstein

A globe-trotting journey through the emotional wasteland of the digital age.

Eddy’s War

Movies That Matter

Director: Joost van der Valk

Cataloguing the horrors of the war in Ukraine becomes an obsessive search for the last perfect picture to crown an award-winning career for Dutch war photographer Eddy van Wessel.

Four Daughters

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

An intimate look at the challenges and decisions facing four sisters in Tunisia, shaped by their environment.

Havel Speaking, Can You Hear Me?

One World CZ

Director: Petr Jancarek

Havel's legacy as a dissident, playwright, and president, highlighted in a film that contrasts his ideals with today's political climate.

Marching in the Dark

CPH:DOX

Director: Kinshuk Surjan

Amidst India's farmer suicide crisis, a young woman navigates her grief as she joins a community of widows.

Phantoms of the Sierra Madre

CPH:DOX

Director: Håvard Bustnes

A captivating road movie adventure to find the lost Apache tribe blending humour and poignant revelations on the complex tapestry of indigenous identity and colonial impact.

Photophobia

Movies That Matter

Director: Ivan Ostrochovsky, Pavol Pekarcik

The courage and community of Kharkiv's metro dwellers amidst ongoing attacks.

Processes

goEast FF

Director: Andrei Kashperski

A satirical journey through Belarus' tumultuous history from 2020 protests to the Ukraine war, blending humour with stark realities.

Realm of Satan

CPH:DOX

Director: Scott Cummings

Step into the shadows where the arcane rituals of the Church of Satan come to life.

Smiling Georgia

goEast FF

Director: Luka Beradze

Tricked by cynical populists' fake commitments for their own obscure ends, the elderly residents of an entire village in Georgia are left toothless, figuratively and literally.