Mark Adams

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.

The title might hint at a deeply racy documentary, but in fact Markku Heikkinen’s rather delicate and compassionate, yet remarkably frank, film tells an open, touching love story about how a couple aims to learn the rules of a new kind of relationship. The film receives its international premiere in NORDIC:DOX Competition.

Shot compassionately and astutely over a 10-year period, One In a Million charts the course of a young life as an 11-year girl escapes Syria to make the long journey to Germany with her family, frightened but also excited about her new future. Thoughtful and engaging, and made with a real sense of heart, it is a story of family and exile, and of hope and change.

A deep dive into the wild and woolly filmmaking world of The Critics - a group of young would-be filmmakers working in a rough neighbourhood in the Nigerian city of Kaduna, also known as Crocodile City - Crocodile is a remarkable examination and celebration of a collective whose super low-budget sci-fi romps act both as a celebration of the films they love and the world they look to escape from.

A gently complex, yet resolutely compassionate film, and one that is neither fully documentary nor fully fiction, Maite Alberdi’s A Child of My Own (Un hijo propio) shines the spotlight both on the maternal impulse, as well as the social and familial pressures and expectations that come to dominate a Mexican woman’s life.

A gently joyous and reflective journey through the life and work of pioneering experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer, Brydie O’Connor’s illuminating and impressively structured film utilises 16mm, 8mm, video and digital from the Barbara Hammer estate to celebrate the work of a forthright filmmaker and to dwell on her considerable legacy.

A determined Nairobi journalist’s investigation into the complex and dangerously tangled world of land battles in Kenya sees her caught between a faceless multinational corporation, unhelpful local tea growers and a worrying family secret. Co-director Bea Wangondu’s attempt to reveal the truth and unearth the implications of colonialism in Kenya makes for absorbing viewing, though it offers no easy answers. Nor does it hint at any form of justice.