Film release: mistress hunt, theater rebellion and jazzy colonial history
HUMAN can finally reveal the first films coming to the festival in 2025.
It may be hard to believe now, but after the hustle and bustle of Christmas and dark and long winter months, a new spring will arrive. And with it the perhaps most important and noteworthy event of the year: HUMAN International Documentary Film Festival, which takes place between 10-16 March.
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We in HUMAN are currently nailing down the films for the next festival programme. We can now finally reveal three of them – three real treats in their own way.
These three documentaries provide insight into a wide range of current social issues, set in the framework of captivating narratives and beautiful photography.
The rest of the program will be released continuously, so stay tuned to the website and Facebook/Instagram for all the info. Remember to sign up for the newsletter to get all the news first!
In a remote village in Egypt, a group of teenage girls rebel against society’s strict norms through theatre performances in the streets. The girls, who dream of becoming actors, dancers and singers, face life-changing choices, both as individuals and as a group, in the years we follow them on their way into adulthood. “Brink of Dreams” of the “L’Oeil d’Or” award for best documentary film at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.
You might not think this is a documentary: a film about a woman who hires someone to end her husband’s affair. But yes – in China, “mistress dispeller” are part of a profession in growth, and they use cunning means to try to preserve marriages. Director Elizabeth Lo has gained astonishingly intimate access to a drama that is usually hidden behind closed doors in a film that surprises, moves and creates sympathy with all parties in the triangle drama.
It’s no wonder this gem of a film was shortlisted for the Oscars this year. In “Soundtrack to a Coup d’État”, Johan Grimonprez weaves the decolonization of the Congo to the beat of jazz. He outlines historical context before zooming in on the assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, in 1961, and the intervention of Belgian and American authorities in the country, fearing to lose control of Congolese uranium. The pressure cooker of colonialism, capitalism and racism is told in a fascinating interplay with the music, which makes “Soundtrack to a Coup d’État” a film out of the ordinary.
