Reviews

Kaouther Ben Hania’s Palm-worthy Competition title Four Daughters masterfully uses the intricate complexities of self-conscious re-enactment to intimately explore the lives of a mother and her four daughters – two of whom have disappeared and are therefore portrayed by actors. In so doing, Ben Hania’s film joins the ranks of masterpieces, such as Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing and Kitty Green’s Casting JonBenet.

As in many of his films, Chinese director Wang Bing ignores the three-act, two-hour running time format and instead builds up his world slowly and deliberately, following the beats and rhythms of his subjects’ lives. The effect is at times mesmerising, achieving an exceptional and lasting sense of ‘presence.’

How to keep mind and body intact when surrounded by intense emotional and psychological pressures is at the compassionate heart of On The Edge which follows liaison psychiatrist Dr Jamal Abdel Kader and his colleagues as they offer care and support to patients from the emergency room to the intensive care unit.

In his second 3D documentary (and fourth 3D feature), German director Wim Wenders once again proves himself a master of the third dimension, with his in-depth exploration of the über-sized and immersive work of compatriot artist Anselm Kiefer. Like his Pina (2011), this new documentary does not feel experimental at all, but fully accomplished. As if 3D documentaries weren’t the exception, but a well-established part of the arthouse mainstream.

With their documentary Occupied City, director Steve McQueen and screenwriter Bianca Stigter have made their own contribution to the sacred tradition of Holocaust remembrance. Strikingly, in a film that tells of the city’s occupation by the Nazis 80 years ago, yet one which eschews 2WW archive, relying instead on contemporary images and measured voiceover, it is the hometown of Amsterdam itself that ‘never forgets.’

An astute and insightful delve into the relationships and rivalries within The Rolling Stones in those formative years, Nick Broomfield’s archive-heavy film, which premiered May 15 on the BBC, elegantly explores the freedom and exuberance of the 1960s - a time of intergenerational conflict and sexual turmoil – and how the story of Stones co-founder Brian Jones reflected those glorious but also troubled times.

Offering intriguing anthropological insight into the background and current circumstances of one of Europe’s remaining nomadic ethnic groups, Ruäch – A Journey into Yenish Europe (Ruäch – Eine Reise ins Jenische Europa) also provides an appropriately oblique and complex look into a community whose members often seem reluctant to discuss the secrets and complexities of their culture.

The mild-mannered demeanour of acclaimed German photographer Michael Reutz might make him seem almost inconspicuous, but his skill, creativity and knack for being there with his camera at the right time, make him a modest but also marvellous, sometimes radical, chronicler of post-2WW German history.

The deep-rooted relationship between psychiatrist Ivan and Marvin, a graphic designer by day and writer of queer fiction by night, is the beating heart of Sona G. Lutherová’s compassionate and gently watchable doc A Happy Man. Marvin, formerly R, came out as a transgender man in 2018 and officially applied for a gender change the following year. How this couple and their children deal with that journey is a story both compassionate and uplifting.

Stylistically bold and as timeless as it is topical, All You See explores the alienation that migrants experience coming to the Netherlands. It was a strong opening film for IDFA, where it world-premiered in November 2022, as its main question concerned every documentary in the programme: we look at people, but do we see them?