Cph:Dox 2024

Life and Other Problems

”While intermittently fascinating, the film tends to over-extend itself. It’s cluttered, philosophical grab-bag approach proves exhausting and falls short of the illumination it aims for.”
Wendy Ide, Screen International

”What is the meaning of life? What is its purpose? What does a giraffe from Copenhagen Zoo have to do with these existential and biological questions? And last but not least: How many coffees do you need to understand everything in this overly complicated essay?”
Ola Salwa, Cineuropa

”Kestner ponders the question of animal rights, consciousness, and the moral responsibilities of humans. However, he does this in a quirky, zany, and quite shallow way, and there is never a sense that he is really serious about these things.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Immortals

”A moving and inspiring recount of personal bravery and the fight for freedom of choice in a country, torn apart by constant conflict.”
Ola Salwa, Cineuropa

”Two characters, two instances of the plight of Iraq’s youth: burgeoning, oppressed, and alienated. The film beautifully captures this, striking a scintillating balance of tension and reflection, beauty and sorrow. ”
Nick Bradshaw, Sight & Sound

Balomania

”Is it a bird? No! Is it a plane? No! It's a giant hot air balloon with a Superman logo attached. And a fearless dive into the world of baloeiros, who risk their freedom by making their flying works of art.”
Ola Salwa, Cineuropa

”An intriguing exploration of cultural working-class resistance in Brazil, where baloeiros illegally release huge decorated balloons in cities akin to graffiti, portraying a kind of situationist event and a subversive gesture of joie de vivre. The film exudes a vivid youthful energy.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other

”This is a tender, intimate, complex and often painful study of a couple at the very end of their lives together.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

”Such power is evident in every corner of the frame, bringing together two people who already seem as though they're as close as they can be.”
Savina Petkova, Little White Lies

The Flats

”The Flats is part séance, part news story – a documentary about the rundown New Lodge estate in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the families who still live with the unresolved agony of The Troubles a quarter of a century on. It’s a powerful, urgent, and deeply sad film.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

”Unflinching as it strides through memories, trauma, and the possibilities of ever articulating them.”
Savina Petkova, Little White Lies

Once Upon a Time in a Forest

”There is something very polite and non-confrontational about the Finnish eco-activism shown in this movie — it is, as they used to say in the 90s, ’fluffy’ rather than ’spiky’.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

”A rewarding and detailed examination of our relationship with nature that looks at the subject in macro close-up and as part of a global story.”
Wendy Ide, Screen International

”Perhaps too verbose to do its subject matter the justice it deserves...”
Savina Petkova, Little White Lies

Phantoms of the Sierra Madre

”A complex, thoughtful, and self-aware piece of filmmaking, presented by Danish writer Lars K. Andersen. The encounters are painful and bruising, and Andersen’s soul-searching seems authentic.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

”Misguided and clumsy, this is a tone-deaf addition to the conversation about decolonization.”
Wendy Ide, Screen International

”A film that interrogates its own limits and is honest enough to show how imperfect such a process can be, learning better ways of caring.”
Savina Petkova, Little White Lies
 

”In this thrilling and adventurous documentary, screenwriter Lars K. Andersen set out to explore stories about Apaches he had read as a kid. What he got was more than he bargained for – an in-depth investigation of story ownership and cultural appropriation.”
Ola Salwa, Cineuropa

Motherboard

”A tender and touching self-portrait of a single mom and her son spanning almost 20 years, this documentary serves as a great response to Richard Linklater’s Boyhood.”
Ola Salwa, Cineuropa
 

”One cannot help but feel with and for this two-person family; I'll think of them often, even if rapid editing prevented me from doing so.”
Savina Petkova, Little White Lies

Wilfred Buck

”A thoughtful, calm documentary about Wilfred Buck, who, with the aid of dramatized reconstructions, shows us his childhood and young manhood grappling with depression and substance abuse, which was at least partly a function of the racism and cultural erasure his people suffered.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

”All our lives are honest fictionalizations, at best!”
Savina Petkova, Little White Lies

 ”A story of a Canadian First Nation and its tragedy, told through the biography of the titular Wilfred Buck, is one of those films that is more important than engaging.”
Ola Salwa, Cineuropa

The Black Garden

 ”The warmth behind the war and the life behind the devastation.”
Savina Petkova, Little White Lies

E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea

”While the slightly mannered dramatic devices may detract from this hybrid film, the story itself remains fascinating. ”
Wendy Ide, Screen International.”

 ”Inhabits someone else’s past, poetically so.”
Savina Petkova, Little White Lies

Night of Nights

”An intense portrayal of the Chinese megacity – and the experience of Wuhan – much like Ben Mullinkosson’s The Last Day Of Darkness, shown at Cph:Dox last year, is an urgent work that engages with China’s alienated urban existence and its traumatized experience of Covid.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

 ”The pandemic times are akin to an extended social eclipse, perpetually filmed at night. The focus is as broad as desired, ranging from an on-the-ground glimpse of individual struggles to a panoramic portrayal of humanity amid one of its darkest epochs.”
Nick Bradshaw, Sight & Sound

 ”Bravery heralds this singular document, but wondering ’how ’ too often gets in the way.”
Savina Petkova, Little White Lies