Good evening everyone…

 Welcome to the opening of CPH:DOX 2025!

My name is Katrine Kiilgaard – I’m the managing director of CPH:DOX.
And my name is Niklas Engstrøm, I’m the artistic director of CPH:DOX. 

Tonight, we are not only welcoming you to the opening of the 22nd edition of CPH:DOX, but also to the world premiere of FACING WAR, the brand new film by Norwegian filmmaker Tommy Gulliksen.

The film follows Jens Stoltenberg during his last two years as Secretary General of NATO, and we are very happy that Jens Stoltenberg himself will join us on stage afterward for a conversation about the value of diplomacy in our rapidly changing world, alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen!

We are also very happy to have all of YOU with us tonight, no matter whether you are Danish, Norwegian, or any other kind of nationality! However, as we are not only speaking to all of you in this room, but also local Danish audiences in 25 cinemas all over Denmark, we will switch to Danish for the next few minutes. But fear not! The film will be screened with English subtitles, and the conversation afterwards will also be in English. And if you scan the QR code on the screen behind us, you can also access an English version of our speech, so you won’t feel lost in translation.

TRANSLATED FROM DANISH:

Exactly! Now, we’ll continue in our mother tongue: Welcome to all of you in Ringsted, Ringe, Rødding, Ribe, Gjern, Gilleleje, Glostrup, Haslev, Marstal, Ebeltoft, Frederiksværk, Frederikshavn, Aalborg, Agger, Odense, Aarhus, Struer, Skive, Skørping, and all the other places you are following us from!

The film you’ll experience tonight is about the value of diplomacy, the value of alliances, and the value of international institutions. When we selected FACING WAR as this year’s opening film back in early January, we knew the world was changing. But that NATO — the very organization the film focuses on — would already, just a few months later, be in need of emergency first aid, we certainly didn’t see that coming!

Changes have come faster than anyone expected, and it’s already become almost cliché to say that we now live in a new world order.

It’s a world order that begins to resemble something from before World War II. Whether it ends up looking like the 1930s, the 1800s, or if we need to go all the way back to before the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, it’s too early to say. But whatever happens, it’s a world order that resembles something from before 1948 – before the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Before the ideas that arose here in Europe about the inherent value of the individual and the right to live in peace and freedom.

Like the idea of God, of nations, and many other things, human rights are fundamentally just something we humans came up with. 

But it’s a really good idea. 

And the more people believe in it, the more individuals will have the opportunity to live as free people in peaceful conditions.

So, what happens to human rights and international law as the world order changes toward a multipolarity where the great powers – the really great powers – only care about their own national interests? That’s the central question we’re asking at this year’s CPH:DOX, together with our partners at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and the two foundations Frececo and Dreyers.

Let’s be honest. The old world order, which we all seem to be longing for these days, was rather flawed. Human rights violations occurred by the thousands every single day. And it wasn’t just the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, and North Koreans that we could blame. Blame must also go to the world’s self-proclaimed policeman – the only superpower of the unipolar moment in History – and its allies. In other words, us. Human Rights violations took place in Gaza, the West Bank, Iraq, and out in the Mediterranean. And yes, even here at home on our own continent. This hypocrisy was, of course, called out – not only by dictators and autocrats around the world who got a golden opportunity to practice excessive ‘whataboutism.’ No, it was also criticized by journalists, documentarians, and activists here in our part of the world, in what was once called ‘the West.’ This criticism was fully justified.

But does this mean that the world of yesterday was exactly as bad as the one waiting for us tomorrow? Does the cynical analysis that the so-called ‘realists’ within the study of international politics tell us – that it has always, and only, been national interests and raw power that have governed the relationships between states, and that international law has always meant absolutely nothing – does this mean that the so-called rule-based world order was just an illusion that leaders like Putin, Trump, and Vance have now ripped away from our eyes?

The answer is probably not a clear and resounding no, but it’s also not a clear and resounding yes. 

It’s mostly a murky ‘well…’ 

Because, of course, the world of yesterday was also governed by power.

Of course, the rule-based world order was also built on the fact that there was a dominant power, the US, with so much influence that this state could act as a kind of policeman, backing the rules with raw violence.

Of course, this superpower, our friend and great protector, often ignored the rules when they didn’t align with its own interests, and of course some of these rules were ideologically twisted in an unhealthy way, often driven more by imperial ambitions than by the common good across national borders.

All of this has been documented. And criticized.

But the reason all of this could be criticized across the board was precisely because the international community had agreed upon the values and rights set forth in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. 

And although it’s really, really irritating for the powers that be to be criticized for hypocrisy and double standards, the amazing thing about liberal, democratic societies is that such criticism is actually allowed. 

Yes, we believe that this very criticism, so crucial for the viability of our societies, helped keep pure cynicism in check. And that’s exactly what will be difficult if the new world order is stripped of all rules and only rests on the exercise of power.

That’s why rearmament isn’t just about military hardware and rediscovering national and European communities. It’s also about knowing our democratic values and universal, liberal freedoms inside and out. As JD Vance kindly reminded us recently, it’s important that we know what we’re defending…

A recent study from the Danish Institute for Human Rights showed that a vast majority of Danes support human rights, but more than half of us can’t name a single specific right! Our Norwegian neighbors, who are well-represented here tonight, do a little better – 58% of Norwegians can actually name at least one human right.

So, there’s a need for education about citizens’ rights! And we will do our part to address that with this year’s program.
We will do it with films.
With debates.
With talks by artists and activists such as Inna Shevchenko, Ai Weiwei, Christo Grozev, and Eyal Weizman.
We will do it with the HUMAN:RIGHTS AWARD, which we launched last year together with the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
And we will do it by distributing the UN Declaration of Human Rights to the audience at all festival screenings of the films nominated for this award. Yes, we’ll even hand it out to all of you here in the audience when you leave the auditorium later tonight.

But more generally, there is a need for education about society itself! And therefore, there will likely be even more need for documentary films as a genre in the future.

Because with its commitment to reality, its insistence on a slow creation process, and its constant self-questioning of ethical issues, documentary film can make us smarter, add nuance, and enrich us with new perspectives on the world. At least, when it’s at its best.

When it’s at its worst, it can, just like journalism and so much other information, fall into oversimplification and manipulation – yes, history is full of documentaries disguised as propaganda.

That’s why we should be incredibly grateful for – and protect – the fantastic documentary film scene that has developed in this new century, especially in the Nordics, and not least here in Denmark, where practically everyone in the industry is working to create nuanced stories that don’t aim to create headlines but to bring us closer to people we didn’t know and deeper into the material reality of the world.

That’s why we, as a society, need to fight to ensure we have a strong support system in the future, with a film institute and two public service channels that continue to have the courage and determination to support all the incredibly talented documentarians out there.

And that’s why we are so thrilled that our fantastic festival team spends an exorbitant amount of their waking hours selecting the best, the wildest, the most beautiful, the funniest, and the most eye-opening works from over 3,000 films and film projects that sign up in hopes of becoming part of CPH:DOX each year.

For the next two weeks, we’ll be showing the world’s best documentaries all over Copenhagen – but not only here! Thanks to our successful initiative DOX:DANMARK, during the next 12 days, there will be documentary film festivals in no less than 54 municipalities across the country – a huge record we’ve just set! And the films aren’t just shown on the big screen; they’re also put into context and discussed with filmmaker talks, panel debates, visits by scientists, researchers and experts, and educational programs for the country’s high school students. And we’ll wrap it all up with a follow-up showcase on our digital platform PARA:DOX, which will feature a large selection of this year’s festival films in the first 14 days of April – and an incredible number of other great documentaries for the rest of the year. Even if it’s still only available to people based in Denmark, we’re bold enough to basically call it the world’s best streaming service, that’s how good the films on the platform are! 

Okay. Now, let’s move on to tonight’s film – Facing War directed by Tommy Gulliksen.

As already mentioned, this is nothing less than a world premiere, and it should not go unnoticed. Tommy is here with us tonight, along with producers Anne Marte Blindheim and Danielle Turkov Wilson, executive producers Tonje Hessen Schei and Geralyn Dreyfous, editors Øistein Bloch Haukeland, Margrete Vinnem, and Erik Treimann, dramaturg Aslaug Holm, sound designer Odin Eggen Brække, as well as Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland from the Norwegian music duo Röyksopp, who composed the music. Tommy, would you please rise so that we can give you a well-deserved round of applause!

After the film, please stay seated, because the main character, Jens Stoltenberg, will be joining us on stage, together with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. The conversation will be moderated by the brilliant journalist Adam Holm of DR. And after the panel, we will be back for a click round of thank you’s to the many partners who’ve made this year’s festival possible.

For now, we wish you an enjoyable experience with FACING WAR.