For its 40th anniversary edition, DOK.fest Munich (May 7 to 18) will present three competition and 16 thematic film sections, ranging from ‘African Encounters’ to ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ to ‘Filmmaking in Exile.’ 105 international documentary films from 58 countries “will provide insights into the most diverse worlds,” organisers write.
The festival will open with the world premiere of German feature doc Friendly Fire by Klaus Fried, about his father, tghevrenowned poet Erich Fried.
“Our aim is to maximise participation. We present the films on the big screen in Munich cinemas and accessible on home screens throughout Germany. DOK.fest München stays dual!” the festival adds of its online programme that runs 12-25 May.
Festival directors Daniel Sponsel and Adele Kohout write of the anniversary edition: “40 years of DOK.fest München – is there anything to celebrate? Since the beginning, our programme has been dedicated to all essential topics and stories, including the less beautiful sides of our world. And especially in light of current political and social developments, it is even more important than ever to take unexpected and new perspectives on the world. Documentary film can do just that: look and create empathy. Over the years, our festival has been able to attract an ever-growing audience and – thanks to the great commitment of many dedicated people – has developed into an internationally significant festival. And that is a reason to celebrate.”
The films from the three main competitions are follows, with notes on each supplied by the festival.
VIKTORIA Main Competition DOK.international (10,000 euros)
- FRIENDLY FIRE (World Premiere, opening film). Austria, Germany 2025 – Director: Klaus Fried, realisiert von Julia Albrecht – Original language: English, German – Subtitles: German – Length: 109 min. Erich Fried is among the most significant German-language poets. Having fled Vienna, he became an awkward writer after 1945, who condemned injustices in verse and believed in the power of love. What is it like to grow up as the son of such an icon? Klaus Fried examines his father’s life and discovers an empathetic troublemaker.
- IT HAPPENED ON OUR GROUND (German Premiere). Canada, Germany, Israel 2024 – Director: Avner Faingulernt – Original language: English, German, Hebrew – Subtitles: English – Length: 125 min. As a young girl, Wendi witnessed the construction of a concentration camp on her family’s land and how the prisoners were forced to live there. Her mother was able to save a few people. The traumas Wendi experienced continue to have an effect on the family across the generations. A powerful portrait of three women for whom the conflicts of the present are fuelled by the past.
- SOLIDARITY (World Premiere). Germany, Switzerland 2025 – Director: David Bernet – Original language: Arabic, English, French, German, Polish, Ukrainian – Subtitles: English – Length: 90 min. Following on from DEMOCRACY, David Bernet once again addresses a social value that seems non-negotiable. The film’s central theme is refugee policy, which is illuminated using Belarus, Ukraine and Gaza/Israel as examples and contextualised by experts as well as those personally affected.
- BLAME (German Premiere). Switzerland 2025 – Director: Christian Frei – Original language: English – Subtitles: English – Length: 123 min. ‘Mammals as misunderstood as bats’ is how Frei, the filmmaker, describes scientists. Frei follows three scientists who have been researching the SARS virus for decades. For almost as long, they have been warning of the danger of a pandemic. Why are people still prepared to believe in a conspiracy?
- THE HELSINKI EFFECT (German Premiere) Finland, Germany, Norway 2025 – Director: Arthur Franck – Original language: English, Finnish, German, Russian – Subtitles: English – Length: 90 min. The desire for peace and security, territorial integrity and inviolable borders in Europe was already at the top of the political agenda 50 years ago. SHOWTIME IN HELSINKI uses archive material and AI-supported dialogue to create a fascinating, multi-faceted tribute to the CSCE conference, a moment of triumph for diplomacy.
- FIUME O MORTE! (German Premiere). Croatia, Italy, Slovenia 2025 – Director: Igor Bezinović – Original language: Croatian, Italian – Subtitles: English – Length: 112 min. Rijeka or Fiume? When the city ended up on the border between Italy and Yugoslavia after the First World War, the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio took advantage of the political chaos to try to establish a city state. Through archive material and theatrical re-enactment, Rijeka’s inhabitants recreate the 16-month occupation of their city.
- ARCHEOLOGY OF LIGHT (International Premiere). Canada 2024 – Director: Sylvain L’Esperance – Original language: Silent – Subtitles: None – Length: 71 min. Water that snakes between the rocks, light that falls through a canopy of leaves, a moss-covered forest floor, the reflection of the sun on the ocean, the dance of the Northern Lights on a starry night, the movement of the air and the winds, clouds that presage a storm. Everything is light. Everything is perception. An immersive film experience that will really slow you down.
- THE INVISIBLE CONTRACT (German Premiere). Mexico 2024 – Director: Luciana Kaplan – Original language: Spanish – Subtitles: English – Length: 85 min. They scrub, they sweep, they pick up rubbish. Luciana Kaplan’s film is a portrait of women in Mexico who work in the cleaning industry. What they tell us, shows us how disregarded their mostly overlooked occupation is. What we see are people with personalities. The film approaches the reality of precarious employment with sensitivity and respect.
- AZZA (German Premiere). Germany 2025 – Director: Stefanie Brockhaus – Original language: Arabic, English – Subtitles: English – Length: 88 min. Since 2018, women have been allowed to drive cars in Saudi Arabia. As a driving instructor in Jeddah, Azza stands up to everyday sexism and defends herself against the control and violence that her ex-husband continues to use to harass her and her children. Again and again, she seeks out and finds little spaces of freedom. Empathetically and sensitively observed by a female film team.
- TRAINS (German Premiere). Lithuania, Poland 2024 – Director: Maciej Drygas – Original language: None – Subtitles: English – Length: 80 min. You cannot quite comprehend if the images are real: the hustle and bustle on the platform; harmony in the dining car; Hitler greeting people from a train window. And there are some journeys that not everyone will survive. Sound and editing is used to weave archive material into an associative patchwork that is as meditative as it is horrific.
- SILENT OBSERVERS (German Premiere). Bulgaria, Germany 2024 – Director: Eliza Petkova – Original language: Bulgarian – Subtitles: English – Length: 95 min. From the perspective of six animals, we observe the inhabitants of a remote Bulgarian mountain village. With charm, curiosity, self-confidence and dependability, they move through the everyday lives of the people around them. At the same time, this experimental and musically powerful film reflects on the question: what value do animals actually hold for us?
- ICE GRAVE (World Premiere). Finland, France, Sweden 2025 – Director: Robin Hunzinger – Original language: French, Swedish – Subtitles: English – Length: 78 min. 11th July 1897: three men set off from Svalbard in a hydrogen balloon in the direction of the North Pole. They never returned. 33 years later, the remains of the expedition, notebooks and film reels were found. A haunting tale of a failed adventure – and a reflection on the fragility of humans and nature.
- IN HELL WITH IVO (World Premiere) Bulgaria, United States 2025 – Director: Kristina Nikolova – Original language: Bulgarian – Subtitles: English – Length: 80 min. Sometimes Ivo wears dresses and wigs; sometimes camouflage and a skinhead. The constantly-evolving, queer singer, songwriter and painter provokes and captivates audiences in his home country of Bulgaria. We follow Ivo as he entertains people with his high-pitched voice during the pandemic and responds to hostility with an infectious optimism.
DOK.deutsch Competition (10,000 euros)
- CHANGING SIDES (World Premiere). Germany 2025 – Director: Loraine Blumenthal – Original language: Chechnyan, Dari, English, German, Ukrainian – Subtitles: English – Length: 82 min. What brings about a Damascene conversion? When he was younger, Thomas “Eichi” Eichstätt was an East German right-wing extremist thug. Today he volunteers as a football coach for stranded young people from around the world. He doesn’t have much left for himself. Unfortunately the cash-strapped local municipality of Torgelow has no way of paying him for his valuable work.
- SOLDIERS OF LIGHT (German Premiere). Germany 2024 – Director: Julian Vogel – Co-Director: Johannes Büttner – Original language: German – Subtitles: English – Length: 108 min. “Mister Raw” has found the “formula for world health.” With “god’s food,” he can rejuvenate the body and lead to enlightenment. Through his mastery of social media, he has attracted a dedicated circle of followers who are hooked on his nutrition advice. A gripping Direct Cinema film about a scene that will make you shudder…
- ABOUT THE DREAM TO BE UNSINKABLE (German Premiere). Germany 2024 – Director: Tom Fröhlich – Original language: Danish, English, German, Russian, Spanish – Subtitles: English – Length: 87 min. As part of the GDR fleet, they once travelled the seas, carrying with them the dream of progress. Today, four ships and the people who work on them recount their lives since German reunification. We get to know the soul of these lumbering giants that inhabited the seven seas. A film about memories preserved in steel.
- (DON’T) BREATHE A WORD (German Premiere). Italy 2024 – Director: Georg Lembergh – Original language: German – Subtitles: English – Length: 93 min. Sexual abuse happens everywhere: in skiing, in the church, in our immediate environment. Four women from South and North Tirol recount their experiences. They speak about shame, a lack of understanding and tough rehabilitation – but also about courage, persistence and survival. A gentle, respectful film that will get deep under your skin.
- FISSION (German Premiere). Germany 2025 – Director: João Pedro Prado – Co-Director: Anton Yaremchuk – Original language: English, German, Polish – Subtitles: English – Length: 74 min. For almost two years, there has been no nuclear power produced in Germany. The fate of this high-risk technology seems sealed? Far from it! The debate is gaining traction again. The documentary film SPALTUNG examines people’s relationship to nuclear power and provides a sophisticated insight into a complex reality.
- A LIFE IN COLOUR (International Premiere). Austria 2025 – Director: Axel Stasny – Original language: English, German – Subtitles: English – Length: 71 min. Eleanor is a free spirit. She doesn’t like routines; she likes things to be new and exciting. And even though her “bones creak,” she enjoys life to the full. Death gets on her nerves. She acts according to her own whims and adores the young waiter Peter at her favourite diner. A gentle film about an extraordinary heroine that is lots of fun.
- PING PONG PARADISE (World premiere). Germany 2025 – Director: Jonas Egert – Original language: English, German, Russian – Subtitles: English – Length: 111 min. The former table tennis pro Dmitrij Mazunov is the coach at the newly founded TTC Neu-Ulm, home to a world class international team centred around the ping pong superstar Dimitrij Ovtcharov. In 2022, the club gets off to a flying start in the Bundesliga and Champions League but, later, match bans are imposed. Can the club be saved?
- CLEANING & CLEANSING (German Premiere). Austria 2024 – Director: Thomas Fürhapter – Original language: English, German, Slovak – Subtitles: English – Length: 91 min. Clean: a short-lived state. To achieve it, you need time. The cleaning process depends on monotonous repetition, often carried out by human hands, often unnoticed. Detailed, patiently observed shots provide insights into worlds that trigger a wealth of associations. A philosophical space for reflection about cleaning takes shape.
- A NEARLY NORMAL LIFE (World Premiere). Germany 2025 – Director: Stefan Sick – Original language: German – Subtitles: English – Length: 135 min. Leni, Eleyna, Lena and Lisann live in residential care. They are loud and unpredictable and often drive the staff who look after them to despair. With a warm and gentle narrative style, this documentary observes the everyday life of the four young women over two years and reveals to us the importance of support and security.
- WIR ERBEN (German Premiere). Switzerland 2024 – Director: Simon Baumann – Original language: Swiss German – Subtitles: English, German – Length: 96 min. The parents are Swiss organic farming pioneers who emigrated to an isolated farm in France. Now they are getting old and want to leave their estate to their son. He finds inheritance morally questionable and films the process of deciding the farm’s future. Masterfully told, witty and profound at the same time – with controversial characters.
DOK.horizonte Competition – Cinema of Urgency (5,000 euros)
- HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY (German Premiere). Kenya, United States 2025 – Director: Maia Lekow – Co-Director: Christopher King – Original language: English, Swahili – Subtitles: English – Length: 100 min. Two young women, Shiro Koinange and Angela Wachuka, are working to transform a colonial era library. The institution, established for Europeans in 1931, is to become a space for art and culture, education and exchange. The pair has to navigate between exhausting local politics, fundraising dinners and discussions about decolonisation.
- THE PROMISE (German Premiere). Netherlands 2024 – Director: Daan Veldhuizen – Original language: Dutch, English, Malay – Subtitles: English – Length: 115 min. The brief period when West Papua was colonised by the Dutch was characterised by “western exports” and new constraints on the Melanesian population. When the colony was due to gain the independence it had been promised, Indonesia laid claim to the land. Geopolitics and economic interests crush the hope of self-determination.
- WE LIVE HERE (German Premiere). Kazakhstan 2024 – Director: Zhanana Kurmasheva – Original language: Kazakh, Russian – Subtitles: English – Length: 80 min. Seen from above, the landscape is scarred with furrows and craters. Nuclear weapons tests were carried out in large parts of the Kazakh Steppe until 1991. Families that lived only a few kilometres away from the test sites at the time are still struggling with the consequences three generations later. A historical and human tale.
- RASHID, L’ENFANT DE SINJAR (German Premiere). Belgium, France 2025 – Director: Jasna Krajinovic – Original language: Kurdish – Subtitles: English – Length: 80 min. As a child, Rashid survived imprisonment by IS; as a teenager, he now faces a dilemma: to stay and fight for a future in Sinjar or to leave his home and friends behind? Amid insecurity and new threats, he is trying to find his path. A film about family, friendship and the longing for a better life.
- LI CHAM (German Premiere). Mexico 2024 – Director: Ana Ts’uyeb – Original language: Other – Subtitles: English – Length: 74 min. They were denied the opportunity to graduate from school, their domestic and care work went unnoticed and some of their children did not survive: LI CHAM is about three Tzotzil women in Chiapas, Mexico who have all been damaged in some way. But the Zapatista movement gave them hope and allowed them to break down stereotypes and finally follow their own paths.
- WIDOW CHAMPION (German Premiere). Kenya 2024 – Director: Zippy Kimundu – Original language: Other, English, Swahili – Subtitles: English – Length: 90 min. To carry on alone after the death of a partner is not something that many widows find easy. In western Kenya, it also means fighting for the essential right to your own land. This film is a moving portrait of a woman who advocates for herself with resilience and humour and whose struggle inspires a wide-ranging feminist movement.
- WRITING HAWA (German Premiere). Afghanistan, France, Netherlands, Qatar 2024 – Director: Najiba Noori – Co-Director: Rasul Noori – Original language: Farsi – Subtitles: English – Length: 84 min. When the Taliban regains power in Afghanistan, Najiba picks up the pieces of her film portrait of her mother in exile. Through Hawa’s story, we follow the wave of emancipation that had swept across the land. Though this now lies in tatters, women like Hawa will not relinquish what they have taught themselves: “To act changes everything.”
- 9-MONTH CONTRACT (German Premiere). Bulgaria, Georgia, Germany 2025 – Director: Ketevan Vashagashvili – Original language: Georgian – Subtitles: English – Length: 80 min. For her daughter Elene’s education, Zhana goes to the extreme: while also working arduous low-wage jobs in Tbilisi, she resolves to take on several (clandestine) surrogate pregnancies. When the strains on her health force her secret out into the open, Elene confronts her. A special mother daughter relationship captured on film in a tender and powerful way.
- MARRIAGE COPS (German Premiere). India, Taiwan, United States 2025 – Director: Shashwati Talukdar – Co-Director: Cheryl Hess – Original language: Hindi – Subtitles: English – Length: 79 min. A police station in northern India operates an emergency phone line run by women for women. They can call if their partner becomes violent or their relationship is in crisis for other reasons. A counselling service aims to mediate between the married couples. Here, gender roles and caste conflicts are officially negotiated.
- THE TREE OF AUTHENTICITY (German Premiere). Belgium, Congo (Democratic Republic) 2025 – Director: Sammy Baloji – Original language: Dutch, French – Subtitles: English – Length: 89 min. A colonial research station in the Congo basin: meteorological data from the 1930s provides important insights into climate change. The Congo’s rainforests play a central role in the fight against global warming. In his critical film essay, Sammy Baloji draws an arc between the colonial era and today’s climate economy.
