Cph:Dox 2025

Facing War

“The political drama of Jens Stoltenberg’s final year as NATO Secretary General is surprisingly captivating, despite its slow pace and complexity. This restrained yet profoundly humane composition offers exclusive behind-the-scenes access to a war waged from the office.”
Frida Marie Damsgaard, Filmmagasinet Ekko

“NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg emerges as a beacon of hope and humility in a time of shifting global alliances. With a score by Röyksopp and nimble editing, Tommy Gulliksen’s documentary is that rare combination: relevant and entertaining.”
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire

“The filmmakers had a responsibility to challenge their protagonist. Even if Stoltenberg’s role has been objectively difficult, he was still at the helm of the world’s most powerful military alliance—one that has lacked a true adversary for decades and has used this period to expand its reach while causing destruction and suffering in its subservience to US interests.”
Vladan Petkovic, Documentary Magazine

“Why create a one-sided film that ignores NATO and the US’s long history of provocation, the Minsk agreement, the military-industrial complex, and the plight of ethnic Russians in Ukraine? Why conceal the brutal reality of killings in what has always been a proxy war—initially designed to weaken Russia—when even the US now acknowledges it as such? And how does this film’s portrayal of a “heroic” NATO hold up when today’s president, Trump, is likely to redefine the alliance altogether?”
Truls Lie, Modern Times Review

The Father, the Sons and the Holy Spirit

“A tragicomic family saga worthy of Bergman or Vinterberg, this film movingly explores decades of toxicity in a family – well-paced and unforgettable.”
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire

“Two broken brothers somewhere in Denmark have let life and a sense of familial victimhood drag them down. The film takes time to get under the skin of these unfocused protagonists, but ultimately, time reveals some bittersweet truths about blood ties.”
Nick Bradshaw, Sight & Sound

“A family betrayal leaves scars on two brothers in a film that would have benefited from including voices from the other side of the conflict.”
Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“This film may only truly engage those who watched – and loved – The Will (2011), to which it serves as a successor. This second chapter about two down-and-out brothers snubbed in a family will is not nearly as strong but remains a meaningful revisit.”
Frida Marie Damsgaard, Filmmagasinet Ekko

Balane 3

“Reminiscent of Claire Denis’ African-set films, this outsider’s perspective on a small coastal town in Mozambique comes alive through the filmmakers’ sensitive portrayal of a place in constant motion.”
Murtada Elfadl, Variety

“A film brimming with life: a raw and unfiltered tapestry of humanity, with no imposed themes or causes – just people, place, and presence. A gorgeous, vibrant portrait of a community in motion.”
Nick Bradshaw, Sight & Sound

“The people of Inhambane are charming and chatty, but when nearly every conversation revolves around sex – and the filmmaker is a white man from Portugal – the film’s beautifully observant camera can at times feel voyeuristic and reductive.”
Frida Marie Damsgaard, Filmmagasinet Ekko

“Shot on celluloid with meticulously framed static shots, the film is a visual feast that captivates from the start. Yet as we become immersed in this world, its greatest strength also becomes its limitation: this aesthetic approach creates a sense of distance from the characters, who remain more like fleeting figures within a loose narrative rather than fully developed protagonists.”
Vladan Petkovic, Documentary Magazine

We Live Here

“Kazakhstan: A stark portrayal of how four generations have been exposed to the nuclear test site imposed on them by the USSR. Cancer, illness, and ongoing contamination persist. When cattle graze on the land, radiation enters the food chain through their meat and milk. Will it ever end?”
Truls Lie, Modern Times Review

“A powerful contribution from Kazakhstan, blending investigation, intimacy, and poetry with moments of existential horror. As Zhanana Kurmasheva navigates the story, she skillfully interweaves disturbing images and sounds while also revealing moments of beauty and compassion, exposing the dangers of nuclear testing and its devastating consequences.”
Vladan Petkovic, Documentary Magazine

“As warnings about the future grow louder, this film urges us to confront a recent past whose legacy continues to destroy lives and bodies.”
Savina Petkova, Cineuropa

“A sorrowful, ground-level examination of the lasting catastrophic effects of Soviet nuclear testing in a remote corner of Kazakhstan, where the state still fails to protect its people from radiation poisoning passed down through generations.”
Nick Bradshaw, Sight & Sound

My Dear Théo

“The most personal doc I’ve seen yet from the frontlines of Ukraine, Alisa Kovalenko turns the ravaged landscape (and her soul) into something otherworldly.”
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire

“A mother’s sensitivity in the madness of war at the Ukrainian frontline – between those killed, parents who never returned. A memory to her child, poetically made with love.”
Truls Lie, Modern Times Review

“We have seen frontline combat documentaries before, but the director’s personal insights into the collision between duty as a mother and duty as a soldier brought a complexity and emotional weight.”
Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“An intriguing premise: a war diary of a soldier on the Ukraine front as letters to her son. However, the images do not live up to the strength of the words and the emotional narration.”
Murtada Elfadl, Variety

Agatha’s Almanac

“This handmade, analogue portrait of the filmmaker’s aunt sewing, reaping crops, and engaging in other handicrafts in her quiet country garden is a treasure trove of life experience and wisdom – sustainable, self-sufficient, satisfying, serene. It's a beautiful tribute and a vital testament.”
Nick Bradshaw, Sight & Sound

“90-year-old Agatha lives a secluded and self-sufficient life on her ancestral farm. Filmed with a vibrant and nostalgic lens by Agatha’s niece, the strict and stubborn Agatha seems refreshingly content with her beautiful little life.”
Frida Marie Damsgaard, Filmmagasinet Ekko

“It’s a small-scale story, but the harmony between the subject and the analogue filmmaking creates something that is strikingly lovely and quietly profound."
Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“A beautiful, delicate film that perfectly matches content with form. Like a time capsule from a different era, it tells us a lot about our current society through its unique protagonist’s story and way of life. I just wish it were a little shorter.”
Vladan Petkovic, Documentary Magazine

Sanatorium

“Elegantly structured, handsomely shot, and punctuated with wry humor, this is a terrific debut feature that captures the resilience of the Ukrainian people as they holiday in a decaying Soviet-era health resort.”
Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“Life during wartime takes on a charmingly absurd quality at a wellness center on Ukraine’s southern coast, where scenic mud baths unfold against the backdrop of missile smoke drifting on the horizon. A quirky portrait of human resilience and the stubborn need for normality.”
Frida Marie Damsgaard, Filmmagasinet Ekko

“Respite, refuge, recovery, and dreams of a better tomorrow over a summer season at a faded Odesa sanatorium hosting a motley group of widows, veterans, would-be mothers, and even a would-be mother-in-law. A delicate, bittersweet glimpse into a country caught between pain and limbo.”
Nick Bradshaw, Sight & Sound

“This charming documentary boasts a tragicomic cast of characters that could easily belong in a fiction feature, with director Gar O’Rourke’s approach making you forget it’s a documentary at all.”
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire

The Helsinki Effect

“Everything that today’s NATO (Facing War) is not. Great diplomacy, respect for borders, and real exchange of people and information – masterfully portraying the 1975 conference with 35 nations, which is said to have led to the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Empire.”
Truls Lie, Modern Times Review

“A lively, playful, and irreverent spin on what could have been a dry subject of diplomacy and the Cold War.”
Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“A playful take on a big, serious topic in the best tradition of self-deprecating Finnish humor. The straightforward use of archive footage, combined with witty interventions, reminds us of the golden age of diplomacy.”
Vladan Petkovic, Documentary Magazine

“An irreverent look at a 1970s conference that the filmmakers claim changed history. The witty narration, however, fails to elevate it beyond the level of an informative TV newsreel.”
Murtada Elfadl, Variety

Always

“Softly hard-hitting poetry about loneliness and belonging is written in few but immensely well-chosen words by an eight-year-old boy from a poor farming family in the Chinese countryside. A film I would like to revisit throughout my life – perhaps a perfect one.”
Frida Marie Damsgaard, Filmmagasinet Ekko

“Gorgeously rendered in black-and-white cinematography, this is a meditative and patient look into the life of an adolescent poet in rural China. There is poetry in his words and in the images. A confident, striking debut.”
Murtada Elfadl, Variety

“A complex exploration of growing up after losing a parent, the director employs cinematic tools in a simple yet remarkably effective way. A beautiful and deeply relatable film – devastating, yet sobering, and in this paradox, ultimately hopeful.”
Vladan Petkovic, Documentary Magazine

“An exquisite tone poem on rural youth, wonder, and sensitivity, joining its lonely young protagonist in inscribing his hillside life – hardscrabble yet rich in nature’s spirit – into poetic images and sounds. The attention, imagination and craft are stunning to behold.”
Nick Bradshaw, Sight & Sound

“Poetry will save us.”
Savina Petkova, Cineuropa

Flophouse America

“The parents cannot afford an apartment, and the child cannot stand his alcoholic mother. The film’s presence is powerful.”
Truls Lie, Modern Times Review

“A raw, committed, intimate, and unflinching testament to American poverty and hopelessness, set within the close confines of a dysfunctional, alcoholic couple and their growing son living in hotel squalor. Featuring incredible access and self-revelation, it becomes an even stronger tragic plea through its refusal of pity or miserablism.”
Nick Bradshaw, Sight & Sound

“A wrenchingly sad glimpse into the life of a child growing up in poverty on the fringes of American society.”
Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“What could have been just another piece of American ‘white-trash poverty porn’ is, with some difficulty, elevated by the love within this family, the bright ending against the odds, and a sense of humor shaped through the editing.”
Vladan Petkovic, Documentary Magazine

À demain sur la lune

“At an end-of-life facility in France, the staff includes a horse with the ability to sense approaching death, which also serves as a strangely calming companion for patients grappling with acceptance and gratitude. This is much like the film itself, which offers a surprisingly charming, humorous and unsentimental meditation on death.”
Frida Marie Damsgaard, Filmmagasinet Ekko

“It’s surely daunting to attempt to chronicle the meaning of life. Patiently, generously, poignantly, and with great sensitivity, this film answers that monumental philosophical question.”
Murtada Elfadl, Variety

“A structurally and visually creative, emotionally powerful film that explores the question of accepting death and how we humans – at least in the Western world – are equipped to deal with it. The artistic approach carries a degree of sentimentality, particularly in the music score, which at times may feel overbearing. However, it is difficult to contemplate death without such an emotional impact.”
Vlada Petkovic, Documentary Magazine

The Castle

“Before watching this film, I never thought I would come to understand documentary as an art form best through child’s play.”
Savina Petkova, Cineuropa

“An abandoned building in a rough neighborhood of Palermo, Sicily, becomes the imaginary home of three children. Their long, slow afternoons of play and childlike conversations resonate poetically with one’s own memories of childhood, making one almost forget the existence of adults.”
Frida Marie Damsgaard, Filmmagasinet Ekko

“I admire the way the camera seems to disappear in this account of young people claiming their own space.”
Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“A moving story of three children who transform a crumbling Palermo sanctuary into a place of enchantment, though the filmmaking itself could have used a more imaginative touch.”
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire