IDFA x De Balie

Terrifying account of the rise and enormous political influence of evangelical fundamentalism in Brazil. TV evangelists and ultraconservative politicians seem to be leading the country toward a theocracy, with sometimes fatal consequences. Oscar nominated documentarist Petra Costa delivers an in-depth character study of the Brazil’s kingmaker. Through unprecedented approach to the leader of the Evangelist

When journalist Shiori Ito is raped by a colleague, she decides to seek justice, in the face of a Japanese culture of silence. In a legal battle that lasts years, she takes on police and politicians, and the unequal relationship between men and women. Black Box Diaries is an excruciatingly detailed documentation of the year-long

What is life? This film is a nuanced and playful philosophical reflection on that question. The narrative thread concerns Marius, a young giraffe in a Danish zoo whose planned euthanasia sparked global outrage a decade ago. A Danish zoo decided to kill a perfectly healthy, young giraffe and feed it to the lions in front

Survey interviewer Amber Kumar Gurung travels through the heart of Bhutan with a questionnaire, assessing the well-being of his compatriots. This tender portrait shows how it’s possible to be happy in times of adversity. The Kingdom of Bhutan set happiness of its people as one of its goals and sent out agents to measure it

As the head of the Nazi film guild in the Netherlands during the Second World War, filmmaker Jan Teunissen became known as ‘the Dutch Leni Riefenstahl.’ This revealing portrait also questions the boundaries between documentary and propaganda. Luuk Bouwman previously directed Allen Tegen Allen, the ultimate analysis of the rise and fall of nazism in

Met Erik van Lieshout, Joke de Wolf en Geertjan Lassche

Nasreen wants to become a singer — a far from obvious choice for a woman in Iran. Her sister Leila films Nasreen’s transformation from a vulnerable stay-at-home mother to a woman who takes matters into her own hands. As Nasreen turns 40, she is deeply unhappy with her role purely as a wife and mother.

Twenty-five years after a renowned ethno-botanical study in the Ecuadorian Amazon region inhabited by the Waorani, the central figures involved reunite. Members of the community talk about the genocidal colonization that still threatens their people. At the turn of the century, a renowned ethno-botanical study took place in Quehueiri-Ono, a village in the Ecuadorian Amazon

A documentary filmmaker dives into the nightlife of the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv with a simple, yet thorny, political and deeply loaded question: would you have sex with an Arab? Would you have sex with an Arab? This is the question that documentary filmmaker Yolande Zauberman asks when she dives into the nightlife

As New York drag queen and human rights activist, Amichai has a complex relationship with his prominent Orthodox Jewish family, his religious faith and native country of Israel. In this portrait, filmed over 21 years, he chooses for love and inclusion. Free-spirited, queer drag queen Amichai Lau-Lavie has set up his own inclusive, art-driven Jewish

As a child, filmmaker Inadelso Cossa was shielded from the cruel reality of Mozambique’s civil war. Now he visits the village of his youth, in a penetrating, sensory search for the ghosts of the past. Thirty-two years after the end of Mozambique’s civil war, in which a million people died, the smell of terror still

This shocking but hopeful report from Ukraine follows the makeshift relief network that has emerged in the middle of wartime violence. The tireless volunteers evacuate residents, support refugees and retrieve bodies from the battlefield. The war in Ukraine doesn’t stop at the front line. In addition to the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers,

Artist couple Lynn Cruz and Miguel Coyula deploy a string of secret audio recordings to expose the various forms of control and intimidation that independent artists in Cuba have to suffer. In true Kafkaesque fashion, oppression looms everywhere. In Cuba, artists have to be recognized by one of the state-sponsored art institutions that ensure their

A behind-the-scenes account of the explosive 1968 televised debates between liberal Gore Vidal and conservative William F. Buckley Jr., and their rancorous disagreements about politics, God, and sex. In the run-up to the U.S. presidential election in 1968, which would seee Richard Nixon becoming president, ABC TV invited two leading thinkers to discuss the state

A warm and attentive film capturing the lives of fishermen on an island in the US facing the threat of rising sea levels. The close-knit community, rooted in faith, navigates an uncertain future with the church at the center of their lives. For generations, fishermen have made their home on Tangier Island, in the heart

The election of the current Brazilian president Lula da Silva led to the storming of Congress by supporters of his opponent Bolsonaro. In the turbulent months that preceded it, Sandra Kogut portrays a country divided to the core. The Brazilian presidential election on 30 October 2022 ended with a victory for former president Lula da

An unraveling of the murder of 49 Palestinian villagers by the Israeli Border Police in 1956. Featuring survivors, historians, a courageous journalist and a re-enactment of the trial of soldiers involved in the massacre. On 29 October 1956, 49 residents of the Palestinian village of Kafr Qasim were murdered in cold blood by soldiers of

Climate change and desertification force a Mongolian herder and his family to move from the Gobi desert to the big city. The loss of their animals severs their connection with nature. “Climate change and the onslaught of desertification have been ravaging the lands of Mongolia. In the last years, hundreds of thousands of nomads have