Festival Programme

Films by Genre

Human Rights

Agent of Happiness

Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó

“Agent of happiness” Amber sets out on a cross-country road trip surveying the satisfaction of the Bhutanese public, as this crowd-pleasing doco questions whether the Himalayan country really is the happiest place on Earth.

Green Border

Zielona granica

Agnieszka Holland

Brutal, enraging and heartrending, Polish writer-director Agnieszka Holland’s controversial take on the Polish-Belarusian border crisis serves as a startling call to arms in the face of a little-seen humanitarian crisis.

The Haka Party Incident

Katie Wolfe

In 1979, group of young Māori and Pasifika activists sought to stop Pākehā students at the University of Auckland performing a parody of haka each capping week. Unfortunately, the consequences for those activists were severe – many were convicted of crimes. Director Katie Wolfe uncovers this largely forgotten event in our history with interviews from both in this resonant and thought-provoking documentary.

Marimari

Paul Wolffram

Paul Wolffram’s urgent documentary takes us into the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea and one indigenous woman’s fight against the insidious influence of sanguma – sorcery violence.

Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line

Paul Clarke

Defying the traditional rock ’n’ roll narrative, this is the story of how a young Australian hard rock band developed a political conscience and brought their audience along with them.

No Other Land

Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor

Filmed in Palestine between 2019 and 2023, No Other Land is a documentary film performing its calling. An urgent and irresistible reminder as to why we choose to understand the world, and others, through cinema.

Oceans Are the Real Continents

Los oceanos son los verdaderos continentes

Tommaso Santambrogio

Beautifully shot in stunning black and white, this exquisitely realised first feature from Italian filmmaker Tommaso Santambrogio paints a stark and poetic portrait of a Cuban society crippled by mass exodus.

The Story of Souleymane

L’histoire de Souleymane

Boris Lojkine

A young African immigrant seeking asylum in Paris tries to survive day-to-day in this tense, heartrending piece of social realism anchored by an astonishing performance from first-time actor Abou Sangare.

To a Land Unknown

Mahdi Fleifel

This urgent, vibrant and incredibly topical debut feature from Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel follows two refugee cousins stranded in Athens as they strive to hustle and scam their way to a new life in Germany.

The Village Next to Paradise

Mo Harawe

A makeshift family struggles with the challenges of daily life in the hope of finding a better future in this poignant debut from Somali filmmaker Mo Harawe, taking us beyond the usual sensationalist portrayal of his homeland.