Encounters 2026 Opens Across South Africa
Modern Times Review returns to the festival with Durban FilmMart’s Talent Press programme to cover African documentary voices across the lineup.
Opening today, the 28th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival returns to Cape Town and Johannesburg. Running from 4 to 14 June, this year’s edition brings together more than 58 African and international documentaries, alongside screenings, Q&As, panels, masterclasses and industry events. The festival opens with Zipporah Nyaruri’s Truck Mama, an intimate portrait of Evaline, one of Kenya’s few female long-haul truck drivers, whose life on the road becomes a story of motherhood, labour, danger and self-determination. Modern Times Review is also once again working with Durban FilmMart’s young critics initiative, Talent Press, to support coverage of the African film selections in the programme.
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News
Encounters 2026 sets early Oscar contenders alongside major African premieres
Films
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.
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.
Elon Musk Unveiled: The Tesla Experiment
Director: Andreas Pichler
Elon Musk Unveiled: The Tesla Experiment may not reveal unknown scandals, but its force lies in connecting Tesla’s safety failures, whistleblower accounts and Musk’s political turn
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.