Illuminating stories and burning up-to-the-minute issues of current affairs are thrust into the limelight during the 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, held from March 6th to March 16th, 2025. The unwavering policy of the state of Texas against abortions, a journalistic pilgrimage in northern Gaza amid Israeli bombings and violent clashes, the vast propaganda campaign of Russia's authoritarian political system and the struggle of five women against digital control, are all chronicled in a selection of great documentaries within the framework of the 27th TiDF.
The state of Texas in the USA is holding an unwavering stance against abortions, which often puts pregnant women at risk of losing their lives. Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault’s Zurawski v Texas (Open Horizons, european premiere) gives us an inside look of the legal dispute between Amanda Zurawski, supported by a group of women and defended at court by the litigator Molly Duane, against the state of Texas. In order to protect their inalienable reproductive rights, they set forth in a brave and just fight against Attorney General Ken Paxton and an immovable paradigm, which reveals the extent of their mental scars.
More journalists have been killed over the course of a year in the Israel-Gaza war than in any other conflict since the Committee to Protect Journalists started collecting data in 1992. The hellish documentary film Eyes of Gaza by Mahmoud Atassi (Open Horizons) follows three Palestinian journalists in northern Gaza as they are forced to put their lives at risk while trying to do their work. They feel the obligation to continue their work, even though they know they are risking their lives in a conflict that spares no one. But the mission always comes first, as a seriously injured fellow journalist reports from his hospital bed. The journalistic message must be conveyed, whatever the cost, in this utterly bleak account dominated by gray and dark blue: the gray of the endless debris and rubble of shattered Gaza and the dark blue of the bullet-proof vests worn by journalists.
In Mr. Nobody Against Putin by David Borenstein and co-director Pavel Talankin (Special Screenings) we watch the attempts of the co-director and teacher Pavel to showcase the vast propaganda campaign of Vladimir Putin after the 2022 full-scale Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During the first few weeks of the invasion, a new patriotic education policy is introduced and our protagonist, trying to cope with his guilt, decides to document how the war is transforming his school. Under the guise of his actual role as the school's videographer, he records hundreds of hours of footage inside classrooms and on school grounds, and finally he is forced to plan a daring escape from Russia.
Only on Earth by Robin Petré (Open Horizons) is an immersive and visually striking journey into Southern Galicia, one of Europe’s most vulnerable wildfire zones, showcasing the wild beauty and the delicate balance which govern nature. During the hottest summer on record, both humans and animals struggle to cope as inextinguishable fires draw closer. Wild horses have roamed the Galician mountains for centuries, playing a crucial role in fire prevention by curbing flammable undergrowth – but their numbers are dwindling as human development clashes with nature. Through the eyes of the horses, a young cowboy, a seasoned fire analyst, a devoted equine vet, and a farming family on the frontlines, the film reflects on the fragile balance of our natural world and human-animal relations.
Adolescents who are connected to their smartphones for more than 5 hours a day are 66% more likely to suffer suicidal symptoms than those who use it for 1 hour a day. 44 U.S. states are currently suing Meta, blaming it for the malaise of an entire generation. For the first time in history, state legislators and parents in the USA and Europe are joining forces to fight the digital giants. In The Social Trap: 5 Women vs the Big 5 by Élisa Jadot (Open Horizons) we watch five women who have chosen to turn their daily lives upside down to fight back against the Big 5: Meta, Tiktok, Snapchat, X and Discord. Through the struggles of these women, we will discover that digital control is a major public health and safety issue that goes beyond what we imagine.
