Drawing on her own troubled family background, Irish visual artist and first-time feature director Myrid Carten paints a slightly muddled but emotionally powerful portrait of addiction and depression, shame and blame with ‘A Want in Her’.
The Ukrainian director of accidental one-shot war documentary ‘Real’ talks to The Film Verdict about war and peace, boycotting Russian propaganda, and Donald Trump’s prospects for ending the conflict.
Iranian director Ali Asgari delivers an elegant response to government censorship with ‘Higher Than Acidic Clouds’, an achingly beautiful essay-film about memory, imagination and Tehran’s toxic skies.
Lea Glob’s ‘Apolonia, Apolonia’, an exploration of what’s at stake in an artist’s life, wins the International Competition at IDFA 2022.
Alain Kassanda connects Congolese history to family history in this revealing debut documentary.
Lena Ndiaye’s documentary may be the most important contemporary document on Francophone Africa’s malignant economic relations with France.
Simon Chambers’ family-filming-family masterpiece is a tender and often funny chronicle of a dying man who secretes his brilliant charisma every moment the camera finds him awake.
A fascinating and troubling behind-the-scenes look into the work of female stuntwomen, who must frequently portray victims at the hands of violent men.
A multi-layered, intensely personal exploration of what’s at stake in an artistic life, through a sprawling portrait of French painter Apolonia Sokol.
A highly stylised, thought-provoking meditation on being stared at without being truly seen, as female immigrants to the Netherlands reflect on their experiences across generations.
A powerful, accessible blend of animation and archive that bears witness to the Armenian genocide through the eyes of survivor and Hollywood silent star Aurora Mardiganian.
Vera Krichevskaya’s lively documentary ‘F@ck This Job’ chronicles how a rebellious gang of champagne-loving Moscow socialites ended up running the last independent TV news channel in Putin’s increasingly repressive Russia.
A sobering look at African migrants waylaid between their homelands and the dangerous trek to Europe.
Family life in rural Myanmar is intimately explored in this earnest if somewhat obtuse chronicle.
The winner of Morelia’s best documentary award is a raw, honest chronicle of the violence afflicting Mexico, seen through the lives of the filmmaker’s own family.
The most fascinating aspect of Marco Bellocchio’s guilt-streaked revisitation of the suicide of his twin brother in 1968 is the insight it offers into the Italian master’s creative font–his own family.
A haunting low-fi meditation on memory, social class and political protest that won the Golden Eye documentary award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
One of the best-selling instrumentalists of all time is both unaware and charming in Penny Lane’s engaging documentary.
Abbas Kiarostami’s trailblazing ‘Homework’ (1989) gets a brilliant update in a documentary that is equal parts hilarious and saddening in its portrayal of Iranian schoolkids.
Tea Tupajic’s documentary will find its audience among those for whom Srebrenica and other European brutalities have never really ended.
The second film in Kamar Ahmad Simon’s ‘Water Trilogy’ is redeemed by its selection of characters.
A melancholic, intimate exploration of the personal cost of migration, told by the filmmaker’s father, who left the island of Réunion in his youth.