Kees Driessen

An observational documentary about a nomadic mother of five, belonging to the Nenets people living in the Russian Arctic, that beautifully follows the adage that the best way to learn about people in general is to look at one person in particular, and with great care.

Who can fathom the numbers involved when we’re talking about nuclear energy and waste? Especially when comparing their pros and cons with those of fossil fuels. In Nuclear Forever, director Carsten Rau does an admirable job of letting the unfathomable sink in.

Can we make it rain in the desert? And if we could, should we? Or is controlling the weather dangerous hubris? Finnish Filmmaker Halttunen seeks to weigh up these moral concerns in assessing the work of meteorologist Hannele Korhonen, for whom the opportunity to widen scientific research in the field is too appealing to turn down.

Did the Nazis change the tuning of music to manipulate the masses? Is this the same pitch we are still using today? This urban legend kicks off a wonderful exploration of the meaning of sounds in human life. A celebration of listening, from the sizzling of champagne to the wailing of ghosts.

There is a rhythm to the film’s sounds and images, a balance between the wild and the thoughtful. It’s as if we’ve entered Hobert’s mind and are dancing with her thoughts, associations and emotions…and what a privilege.

A dazzling dive into the deep underbelly of drug-fuelled red light tourism in Thailand and Cambodia, looking for two missing Finnish junkies through the eyes of their former travel companion. A morally ambiguous trip into the heart of darkness.

This encounter between a solitary French settler and three First Nation hunters on a remote Canadian island has been stylised as a horror film, including unsettling music, bloody animal carcasses, failing mobile reception and even a chainsaw. The question is: why?

In Tomasz Wolski’s confronting and impressive 1970, realistic puppets of Polish communist officials discuss the violent suppression of an eight-day workers’ strike via actual audio telephone conversations recorded in 1970, thereby placing us, the audience, not in the shoes of the victims, but in those of the ruling executive.

This elegant and measured portrait of Zinder’s marginalized and dangerous Kara-Kara district takes all the time necessary in getting to know the area, its people and their social life. Acknowledging the poverty and history of violence, director Aicha Macky finds hope in those striving for a better tomorrow.

Though rooted in a very specific time and place (Belarus, 2020), director Paluyan has managed to make his documentary seem timeless, almost absolute.