Visions du Réel 25

Anne-Frédérique Widmann’s Shewit, produced by Luc Peter and Katia Monla, tells a very 21st century tale of migration, exile and perseverance. “We wanted to discover the changes in Shewit, who arrived in 2015 very weakened by her 3-year journey from Eritrea to Switzerland,” Peter tells BDE. “And who, little by little, gains self-confidence and becomes a fighter in the face of the administrative difficulties linked to her refugee status, and finally emancipates herself to become a free woman.”

Vladlena Sandu’s dramatic and poetic hybrid film tells a deeply personal story of life during the Chechen war as neighbours are murdered, her family is targeted, and the capital Groznyis  turned into a battlefield. The film also seeks an answer to a fundamental question. How can the cycle of violence - that shapes the lives of children and is inevitably passed to the next generation - be broken?

Varejão will give a masterclass in Nyon and will present a retrospective of her films. A filmmaker “deeply attuned to the sensitive world,” Cláudia Varejão has directed 4 feature-length films and 7 shorts, all of which share a strong feminist perspective, tackling themes such as emancipation, personal relationships, intimacy and everyday life. “Her strikingly coherent filmography is filled with moments of great sensitivity, combined with the precision of a photographer's eye,” says Émilie Bujès, VdR Artistic Director.

Welcome to Boca Chica, Texas. This is where Elon Musk has built his SpaceX launchpad. It’s also where Julien Elie went to make his new feature doc, Shifting Baselines. Alongside the footage of the space rockets, the documentary also includes imagery of nature. “Seeing those beautiful birds just flying by those rockets is really sad,” director Julien Elie tells BDE. “It is painful to see this. You wonder what we are doing now…it was a unique place, Boca Chica, but it is not anymore.”

VdR Industry, the professional arm of Swiss docfest Visions du Réel (April 4-13), announced Feb 28 that it will welcome six country delegations in 2025, and unveiled the juries within its VdR–Industry, Eurimages Co-Production Development and visions sud est sections. Four new awards will be handed out this year, bringing the total prize pot to CHF 80,000 (EUR 85,500). VdR Industry runs April 6-9.

On an epic trek across the Mongolian steppes, young herders of the Tsakhir Valley try to keep their herd of hundreds of horses safe. “You could romanticise this group and focus on the poetry and the initiation aspect of the story of these boys and their pathway to manhood,” says Australian director Kasimir Burgess. “But perhaps just as relevant and even universal is that they’re a family business, like farmers in a way, who are just trying to get by in an increasingly hostile environment which is becoming so hard to predict because of climate change.”

“I just tried mentally and physically to make myself small and invisible,” Norwegian director and photographer Monica Strømdahl tells BDE how she blended into the background when making her debut feature documentary, Flophouse America (in International Competition in CPH:DOX and also screening in Movies That Matter and Visions Du Reel). The film is set almost entirely within the tiny, cramped hotel room Mikal shares with his alcoholic parents and where he has lived almost all his life.

David Bim’s impressive observational documentary debut offers an astonishingly visceral and powerful portrayal of a couple struggling to survive on the margins of Cuban society, all set against the backdrop of a country reeling from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic. The film won both the Special Jury Award and International Critics’ (FIPRESCI) Award at Visions du Réel 2025.

Director/producer Dea Gjinovci discusses her work-in-progress project, set for a Spring/Summer 2025 release. In the film, the director and her exiled father return to his childhood village to recreate his memories with the help of local villagers. “My film explores universal themes at the heart of many of today’s crises: exile, cultural erasure, intergenerational trauma caused by oppression, the loss of material heritage, impunity, and the search for truth,” Gjinovci tells BDE.

Visions du Réel announced January 23 that Brit filmmaker Asif Kapadia will be the opening speaker of the 23rd edition of VdR–Industry, the Festival’s four-day programme of activities designed for film professionals. The director, screenwriter and producer has won an Oscar (for Amy), a Grammy, a European Film Award and several BAFTAs. Kapadia will give a masterclass in Nyon on Sunday 6 April.