Mark Adams

Simple on one level, but in fact deeply complex, Kristof Bilsen’s The Apologist, world-premiering at Sheffield DocFest, examines the ritual of saying “sorry,” and uses that well-known and much utilised phrase as a starting point on a journey to explore how apologies redefine history and what happens to us as witnesses to the act of atonement.

Rich Felgate's Sheffield DocFest opener We, The Hated is a provocative and intriguing behind-the-scenes look at the work of - and some of the personalities involved in - the British protest group Just Stop Oil, who took part in a series of high-profile protests between 2022 and 2025. Evocatively, perhaps a little clumsily, titled, the film nevertheless wears its heart on its sleeve, especially given that it is directed by the partner of one of the founders of the organisation.

There’s a lot going on in Céline Carridroit and Aline Suter’s hybrid Summer Drift (Virages) which, on a basic level, charts protagonist Johanna Schopfer’s summer in Geneva as she works, enjoys the summer sunshine and considers getting rid of her old VW Beetle. The doc, which premiered in Cannes ACID, also provides a nuanced appraisal of LGBTQ+ and trans themes within a visually alluring 16mm aesthetic, all of which help to deliver a gentle charmer of a film.

A hybrid documentary that astutely blends archival video, pictures and audio with re-enactments, Regina Schilling’s absorbing DOK.fest Munich opener Ingeborg Bachmann – Someone Who Was Once Me (Ingeborg Bachmann – Jemand, der einmal Ich war) is made all the more accessible and intriguing with acclaimed German actress Sandra Hüller on board to portray the eponymous heroine on an imaginary day in Rome.

Ross McClean’s intimate and insightful film offers up a frank and unsentimental look at a young man (Ryan) who is a regular within the prison system, accepting of how institutionalised he has become, but who also sees the possibility of another alternative life, and one that does not entail crime and subsequent incarceration. Of all things, this new life would involve sheep.

A quietly compelling and measured portrait of a life marked by migration, displacement, and crime, From Dawn to Dawn (La noche de la infancia)—the debut feature of Xisi Sofia Ye Chen—offers an unsentimental look at an older brother who, after operating for years as a gangster, resolves to confront his past and consider a profound change of direction.

n absorbing and provocative documentary, sometimes featuring moments of graphic violence, the evocatively titled Hell’s Army follows the brutal rise of Russian mercenary group The Wagner Group and its bloody work from Donbas through to Syria, Libya and the Central African Republic, before its brutal return to full-scale war in Ukraine.

A wonderfully well-observed and deeply compassionate film, Jeanie Finlay’s All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea is set against the backdrop of the deprived North-East coast of England, and shines the light on an unusual group of environmental activists, a deep-rooted fishing community fighting for survival and pleading for support from a Government that seems to lack any interest in their plight.

The haunting, terrifying and chillingly visceral stories told by a series of young women in Paula Cury Melo’s moving and deeply provocative Scarlet Girls (Niñas escarlata) paints a harrowing picture of what it means to be a woman in the Dominican Republic, still one of the few countries where abortion remains criminalised without exception. It is a perfectly formed, elegantly artistic and gently angry film that demands attention.

Managing to be both gently beautiful and desperately moving, Suki Chan’s Conscious explores what happens when consciousness and memory begin to disintegrate, with the haunting presence of dementia and mental decline intertwined within a series of distinctive yet similar stories. While the subject matter is familiar, the presentation here is never traditional.