The DocHouse team share their thoughts on the best docs of the year, all of which return to the big screen over the festive period.
Hollywoodgate / dir. Ibrahim Nash’at / 91 mins
A journey into the excessive absurdity and brutality of war. From the mighty fall of the US military apparatus in Afghanistan to the rise of Taliban rule and the future of not just one country but an entire region. This Best Of pick is an allegory for the contrasts of power that exist in the world today and the future that power will shape for us all. The best laid schemes of mice and men often go astray…
– Sean
Total Trust / dir. Jialing Zhang / 97 mins
Directed remotely by Chinese director Jialing Zhang (who cannot return to China after the release of her 2019 film One Child Nation), Total Trust lays bare the disturbing ways in which the Chinese government uses technology to monitor, control and censor its citizens. As we become increasingly reliant on technology, this story is not unique to China, but serves as a warning to the rest of the world of how advancing technologies, AI and data can be used to suppress human rights.
– Jasmine
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus / dir. Neo Sora / 103 mins
Filmed just months before his death in March 2023, Ryuichi Sakamoto, the great and much-loved composer, knew that this would be his last concert. It was a farewell and a gift, filmed by his son, Neo Sora. It’s hard to call this a concert film – just Sakamoto, at his piano, playing a selection of work spanning his long career, including music from The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence. But the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts, and Opus is transcendent. The music is captivating, and the emotion sweeps through Sakamoto and his piano, making this a profoundly moving film, and an exceptional tribute to a genius of contemporary music.
– Jenny
Wilding / dir. David Allen / 75 mins
Chronicling a couple’s radical decision to turn their failing farming estate into a rewilding project, Wilding combines expressive animation, dramatic recreations, and breathtaking shots of the rehabilitated landscape to deliver a galvanising ecological manifesto. Immersing viewers in idyllic footage of their bucolic paradise (a special mention for the piglets), their message is inspiring, soulful, and utterly irresistible.
– Max
Bye Bye Tiberias / dir. Lina Soualem / 82 mins
A beautiful, deeply personal meditation on exile and displacement, told through the lives of four generations of Palestinian women. With great vulnerability and emotion, filmmaker Lina Soualem reflects on each woman’s ties to their homeland. Her grandmother and great-grandmother were forcibly displaced during the 1948 Nakba, her mother, actress Hiam Abass, chose to leave Palestine to pursue opportunities in Europe, and Lina herself seeks a connection to a land she has never quite called home. An essential and powerful document of Palestinian history.
– Jasmine
Occupied City / dir. Steve McQueen / 266 mins
Steve McQueen’s four-hour, dual-narrative magnum opus asks us to do something simple but challenging: to absorb images of present day Amsterdam, whilst simultaneously listening to narration based in a different time – a forensically detailed account of the city’s inhabitants during the Nazi occupation of 1940-1945. As you move through these two cities your brain shifts between the city then and the city now, between what is visible and what is hidden. Soundtrack and image-track correspond and diverge, meeting and moving apart again, finding links across the decades and conjuring up the city as a palimpsest, layered through time. It’s a long and extraordinary watch, and an unforgettable durational experience.
– Jenny
I Heard it Through the Grapevine / dir. Dick Fontaine, Pat Hartley / 92 mins
Novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, critic – James Baldwin was one of the most prominent and vital American literary voices of the 20th Century. His early years as a child preacher made him a fascinatingly articulate and powerful presence on screen – which is at the heart of I Heard it Through the Grapevine. His reflections on the Civil Rights movement are as insightful now as they were at the time of filming in 1982. Playing in Baldwin’s centenary year, this is a rare chance to see one of the greatest writers of his time on the big screen.
– Tom
Agent of Happiness / dir. Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó / 94 mins
Since its hit world premiere at Sundance, this charmer of a doc has travelled the world’s film festivals picking up awards and connecting with audiences across the globe. While it focuses on the people of Bhutan, it also speaks to what all humans need in order to find happiness. Fittingly, then, the film is a journey, and it’s a journey of questions as much as answers. Sweet but never twee, light-hearted but deeply felt, Agent of Happiness offers a perspective shift on what constitutes happiness in life.
– Jenny
Four Daughters / dir. Kaouther Ben Hania / 110 mins
The story of Tunisian mother Olfa and her four daughters offers a complex portrait of womanhood in Tunisia, exploring misogyny, fundamentalism, intergenerational trauma and sisterhood. Thorny and multi-layered, Four Daughters doesn’t provide its audience with easy answers – our sympathies shift as the narrative unfolds. Using actors to tell part of the story, Kaouther Ben Hania’s hybrid approach breaks down the barriers of nonfiction storytelling, and allows Olfa and her daughters to address hard truths that might have never come to light otherwise.
– Jasmine
In the Rearview / dir. Maciek Hamela / 84 mins
Amongst the many excellent documentaries to come out of Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full scale invasion (including this year’s Oscar winner 20 Days in Mariupol), In the Rearview stands out by showing the real experiences of the Ukrainian people. Whilst director Maciek Hamela puts himself in great danger by transporting refugees out of the country in his mini-van, his camera is always focussed on his passengers, keeping their stories at the heart of his film. This quiet yet devastatingly impactful documentary shows the human cost of the war, whilst also highlighting the bravery and acts of everyday resilience from the people of Ukraine.
– Tom