Reviews

For two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, director Sergei Loznitsa filmed life across Ukraine. A companion piece to his remarkable 2014 documentary Maidan, about Ukraine’s civil uprising against political alignment with Russia, The Invasion shows the Ukrainian people to be just as stoic and resilient in times of war.

Catalan Meri Collazos Solà’s passionate, thoughtful and deeply heartfelt documentary tackles medical and societal attitudes toward poor urban air quality, and more specifically how it impacted on her when she discovered her newborn daughter's genetic vulnerability to respiratory illness. The film world-premiered May 9 at DocsBarcelona.

A gently absorbing delve into a family history, Laia Manresa Casals’ Casa Reynal will strike a chord with any viewer who has been drawn into looking into generational history with all of the subtle dramas and intrigues that impact on any family. It is not a film packed with revelations or great incidents, but it is an intimate and warm journey through time.

My Sextortion Diary may only be just over an hour in length, but it is a powerful and provocative real-life story, prescient in reflecting the unhappy reality facing those people who are forced to deal with the awful behaviour of unscrupulous hackers, and handled in moving matter-of-fact style by Spanish filmmaker Patricia Franquesa as she recounts the terrible ordeal she had to suffer.

Nishtha Jain’s absorbing film Farming the Revolution documents the 2020 march of thousands of farmers on Delhi, protesting against new farm laws imposed by the Indian government. The film takes time to detail the experiences of the farmers and protesters, whose sense of camaraderie is what gives the doc a real sense of heart and purpose, as well as outlining the politics and reaction to the protest.

Incest remains very much a taboo subject - this much can be deduced from the impressive documentary Such a Resounding Silence, in which victims are given the chance to talk about the abuse they suffered. The film is empowering in conveying the incredible resilience and mental strength of the protagonists, and also enables co-director Emmanuelle Béart - herself a victim of childhood incest who at one point wants to quit the project - to keep going.

It may not be a hugely original premise - to invite (very) old people to talk about their lives and former partners - but Echo of Life is nevertheless a wondrous experience that touches your soul. It is a poetic reflection on life and love which indicates that, by the end, we remember what really matters, and shows how important (shared) memories are in a person's life.

For lonely and troubled Canadian teenager Billy Poulin the video camera became the friend he never had when Lawrence Côté-Collins put him in the frame, inadvertently recording his worries, outbursts of anger and deep-rooted confusion and sadness. Years later, after he has been jailed for murder, the footage she [Lawrence] shot offers a striking insight into the inner turmoils of a young man whose life had taken the darkest of turns.

An immersive experience of life on the dark side of Kinshasa - where, after the recent floods, electricity is non-existent and daily life is challenging, yet sense of community and faith remain strong. Although the stories told in this powerful documentary are down-to-earth, filmmaker Nelson Makengo manages to elevate them to an almost ethereal experience through editing, gorgeous cinematography and an intuitive, haunting score.

Unapologetically therapeutic, this ethereal documentary retraces a hiking trip that a Taiwanese couple took into the Himalayan mountains, before they went missing. After the Snowmelt is a beautiful, poetic reflection on loss and death bringing solace not only to its maker but to anyone who is mourning the unexpected loss of a loved one.