Netherlands-based Aboozar Amini’s Kabul: Between Prayers won top prize in the Main Competition of the 25thWATCH DOCS Festival (Poland), which ran December 5-14. Weronika Mliczewska’s Child of Dust received the jury nod in Polish Competition while Dmytro Hreshko’s Divia picked up the Green Dog Award.
Each year, WATCH DOCS features over fifty new documentaries. Based in Warsaw, the festival travels to over thirty Polish cities and, together with its online iteration, attracts over 100,000 viewers. The first edition of the festival took place in 2001.
MAIN COMPETITION WINNER: KABUL: BETWEEN PRAYERS BY ABOOZAR AMINI
In Kabul: Between Prayers, 23-year-old Samim struggles between the alluring promises of martyrdom and the mundanity of his daily existence as a husband and farmer. Meanwhile, Samim’s 14-year-old younger brother, Rafi, idolises his elder sibling as he navigates the confusion of adolescence, leaving behind playfulness to enter a world shaped by decades of military intervention and the resulting radicalisation. Produced by Silk Road Film Salon and Clin d’oeil Films, sales are handled by Mediawan.
Citation: “The jury of the main competition was very impressed with the outstanding selection of films that took us to many different realities from a wide variety of perspectives and visual languages. So first we want to thank all the filmmakers and also the festival for bringing their work together and allowing us to watch and discuss them together.
“Now while we agreed that there is something inherently strange comparing and ranking documentaries, that are different expressions of a world in crisis on so many levels, we were unanimous in our decision which film to give the award for best film to.
“This film invites the viewer to a world rarely seen from within. A film that with precision, compassion and without judgment shows the human faces of an ideology and a regime not typically associated with vulnerability and ambiguity. A film that carefully composes each frame, that is as much about what is in front of us as what is left out. We were transported to an unknown and sinister world, in a subtle and moving way. The filmmaker is in full command of his material and shows his exceptional cinematic talent in every frame and scene.”
The Main Competition jury was comprised of Emi Buchwald, Niklas Engstrøm, Andrej Kuciła, Tue Steen Müller, and Laura van Halsema.
Films in WATCH DOCS 2025 Main Competition
- 9-Month Contract by Ketevan Vashagashvili. 2025. Georgia/Germany/Bulgaria
- Cover-Up by Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus. 2025. USA
- Do You Love Me by Lana Daher. 2025. France/Lebanon/Germany/Qatar
- If I Die Today by Camilla Arlien. 2025. Denmark
- Imago by Déni Oumar Pitsaev. 2025. France/Belgium
- In Hell with Ivo by Kristina Nikolova. 2025. Bulgaria/USA
- Kabul, Between Prayers by Aboozar Amini. 2025 Netherlands, Belgium.
- Silver by Natalia Koniarz. 2025. 2025. Poland/Finland/Norway
- Special Operation by Oleksiy Radynski. 2025. Ukraine/Lithuania
- Truth or Dare by Tonislav Hristov. 2025. Finland/Bulgaria/Sweden/Norway
- Welded Together by Anastasiya Miroshnichenko. 2025. France/The Netherlands/Belgium
- With Hasan in Gaza by Kamal Aljafari. 2025. Palestine/Germany/France/Qatar
POLISH COMPETITION WINNER: CHILD OF DUST BY WERONIKI MLICZEWSKA
Child of Dust follows Sang Thanh Ngô, an Amerasian man born during the Vietnam War, as he searches for his American father. Produced by Ya Man Studio (Poland), sales are handled by Rise and Shine.
Jury citation: “We award the Grand Prize to a film that we can responsibly call a perfect documentary. It is emotionally powerful, multi-layered, and intellectually ambitious; sharp in its social critique, yet intimate; addressing both public and private matters, political and personal alike. It speaks of a historical issue while remaining profoundly relevant today. It is a film about how far-reaching the consequences of war are — always affecting multiple generations. It tells a story of an aching absence of a father, of racial discrimination, and of a system that, while seemingly attempting to offer rescue, ultimately abandons the individual once again, separating them from their family anew. Visually striking, the film tenderly follows the protagonist’s long and painful journey toward reclaiming identity, dignity, and inner peace. The tears of sorrow and joy shed by Mr. Sang — the extraordinary protagonist of Child of Dust, directed by Weronika Mliczewska — will stay with us forever.”
The Polish Competition jury was comprised of Michał Merczyński, Paulina Reiter and Anna Wydra. Within this section, the Association of Arthouse Cinemas Award was given to Silver, directed by Natalia Koniarz. Silver also received a Special Mention by the Competition jury.
GREEN DOG AWARD WINNER: DIVIA BY DMYTRO HRESHKO
Divia documents Ukraine’s transformation from serene natural beauty to devastation under the Russian invasion. With spring, life tentatively re-emerges, but the vast destruction offers little hope for swift ecological recovery. The film is produced by Gogol Film and UP UA Studio, with Valk Productions as co-producer.
Jury citation: “Who will clean up after the war? Who will defuse hundreds of thousands of landmines and unexploded ordnance? Who will purify the water and process the tons of scrap metal that war machines turn into? Who will feed abandoned cats, and who will restore liveable spaces for traumatized animals? Divia provokes all these questions. War is an unimaginable tragedy for everyone: humans and other animals, plants, and the land itself.
“Dmytro Hreshko consciously abandons words, allowing images to speak instead: hectares of burned forests, the fear of animals stunned by explosions. War erases the distinction between human and animal death; the earth treats everybody the same. Yet we cannot hope that nature will always regenerate. Hreshko’s film refuses to let us look away from the ecocide that is an integral part of the war in Ukraine.”
The jury of this year’s Green Competition consisted of Michalina Czerwońska, Urszula Jabłońska, and Robert Jurszo, who gave a Special Mention to Close to the Ground, directed by Tomáš Elšík.
