Conflicted
We are concerned with the battles, conflicts, and wars unfolding around us right now, leaving us sorrowful, angry, frustrated, and, yes, in conflict. This is why this year we have also gathered a series of films under the theme ‘Conflicted’
CPH:DOX is a contemporary festival that showcases documentary films about and in a troubled world. We are very much concerned with the battles, conflicts, and wars unfolding around us right now, leaving us sorrowful, angry, frustrated, and, yes, in conflict. That’s why this year we have also gathered a series of films under the theme ‘Conflicted’
It’s important to have difficult conversations about what’s currently happening in Gaza. But it’s also crucial to engage in discussions about other territorial and cultural conflicts and wars such as those in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Kenya – not to mention the simmering crisis around Taiwan, the ongoing tensions in Northern Ireland, and the increasingly frozen war in Ukraine. Therefore, for the theme, we have chosen nine films that all put geopolitical crises into perspective in a way that a rapid news flow often cannot match. The intent is not to equate the conflicts – each of them is entirely different and has its own characteristics and issues. But across the board, they all deal with identity, culture, and territorial disputes – and none of them have easy solutions.
Here are the films in the theme
I Shall Not Hate
A Canadian-Palestinian doctor's mission of tolerance and forgiveness is put to the ultimate test when he loses his three daughters. Meet a Nobel-nominated bestselling author from Gaza whose greatest adversary is hate itself.
Tal Barda / Canada & France / 2024 / World Premiere
Israelism
Two young American Jews are raised to love Israel unconditionally, but their lives take a sharp left turn when they experience the plight of the Palestinians. A film about Jewish identity on both sides of the generation gap.
Erin Axelman & Sam Eilertsen / United States / 2023
Blueberry Dreams
A warm and understatedly humourous film about a Georgian family's project to start a blueberry farm in an area where old conflicts rumble underground. A young film from the old world, where the family's two sons dream of a different future.
Elene Mikaberidze / Georgia, France, Belgium & Qatar / 2024 / World Premiere
A Poem for Little People
The unlikely but close friendship of two elderly women brings to life a cinematic poem about courage and resistance during wartime, while a young man and his team of volunteers struggle to get people away from the frontline in Eastern Ukraine.
Ivan Sautkin / Ukraine, Lithuania & United Kingdom / 2023 / International Premiere
The Battle for Laikipia
Drought, politics and colonial history collide in a stormy and unpredictable conflict between Kenyan cattle herders and white ranchers in the vast African country. A complex and wise film about the consequences of climate change.
Daphne Matziaraki & Peter Murimi / United States & Kenya / 2024 / International Premiere
The Flats
A run-down Belfast housing estate becomes a haunted inner landscape in a dark, cinematic film where the echoes of the conflict in Northern Ireland still reverberate in the corridors. An aging man on his final, existential mission confronts the ghosts of the past.
Alessandra Celesia / France, United Kingdom, Ireland & Belgium / 2024 / World Premiere
Invisible Nation
With unrestricted access to Taiwan's current president, we follow the tenure of Tsai Ing-wen, the country's first female head of state, during a time of great political tension between East and West. A competent and charismatic defender of democracy.
Vanessa Hope / United States & Taiwan / 2023