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Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival · 2026

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2026

Best Of Docs

Programme

14 films · 5 reviews

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American Doctor

Review preview for American Doctor

A fourth doctor, unsuccessful in his efforts to get to Gaza, helps in whatever ways he can. This enables the film to move between intense scenes within Gaza itself, and the US, where it’s easier to breathe.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
When three American doctors — Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian — enter Gaza to save lives, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to expose the truth.

(Country: US, Palestinian Territory, Malaysia, Qatar, Denmark, Japan; Year: 2026; Director: Poh Si Teng)

Full review

The Beauty Of Errors

Observational documentary about three generations of a family.

(Country: Finland, Sweden, Norway; Year: 2026; Director: Jukka Kärkkäinen; Writer: Jukka Kärkkäinen; Stars: Tero Pihkakoski, Henri Pihkakoski)

Burgundy

The story of Burgundy’s most extraordinary characters and a celebration of the pleasure that defines their lives.

(Country: France; Year: 90; Director: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw; Stars: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw)

Candidates Of Death

Review preview for Candidates Of Death

Candidates Of Death becomes a quiet celebration of all the positive things that can come from creative endeavour besides the end product itself.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A father goes on holiday with his son and two of his friends, during which time they make an amateur horror film together. As the years pass, they continue to shoot scenes for their “handcrafted,” carefree, imaginative horror project, with even more passion, dutiful consistency, and unwavering commitment: the documentary chronicles a decade of this adventure.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2026; Director: Maciej Cuske)

Full review

Closure

Review preview for Closure

The Polish director understands that the work of searching is also the work of deciding what not to show.

Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
After his teenage son goes missing, Daniel scours the depths of the Vistula River, torn between the dread of a fatal leap and the hope that his son may still be alive.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2026; Director: Michał Marczak)

Full review

Daughters Of The Forest

Deep in Mexico's forests, two Indigenous mycologists seek to reconcile the past and present while reimagining the future for themselves and the changing world they inhabit.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2026; Director: Otilia Portillo Padua; Writer: Sheerly Avni, Greg Boustead, Sara Dosa; Stars: Eliseete Ramirez Carbajal, Julia Dolores Raimundo, Julieta Serafina Amaya, Olivia Ayala Vázquez)

The History Of Concrete

After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, filmmaker John Wilson tries to use the same formula to sell a documentary about concrete.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: John Wilson)

Letters from the Silenced Country (Listy)

Review preview for Letters from the Silenced Country

Fear... runs through Letters like a dangerous and unpredictable electric current, emphasised by the stark black and white animation, the black crosshatching and sharp strokes of which feel like distilled violence in themselves.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A hybrid documentary portraying contemporary Belarus through the individuals who have endured imprisonment, repression, and exile — voices from a silenced country, suffocated by the regime.

(Country: Poland, Germany, Lithuania; Year: 2026; Director: Andrei Kutsila; Writer: Andrei Kutsila)

Full review

Nino - A Film About Nino Rota (Nino - Un Film Su Nino Rota)

Documentary about the life of Italian composer Nino Rota, whose scores included La Strada and La Dolce Vita.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2026; Director: Walter Fasano; Stars: Nino Rota, Park Chan-wook, Alexandre Desplat, Vince Mendoza)

The Siege of Paradise

In Cinque Terre on Italy’s northern Riviera, fewer than 3,000 locals endure over four million tourists each summer. Across one chaotic season, six very different lives play out in parallel.

(Country: Ireland, Switzerland; Year: 2026; Director: Gar O'Rourke; Writer: Gar O'Rourke; Stars: Gar O'Rourke)

Tin Castle (Irish Travellers)

Review preview for Tin Castle

Murphy lets the family’s lives shine out without romanticising the situation.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Along a long-forgotten road, the O’Reillys live in a rundown trailer stranded in the middle of the fields. Pa’, Lisa, and their ten children weather the seasons in their tin castle, heirs to a way of life on borrowed time. Under threat of eviction, their tenuous balance falters, yet – steadfast in their tradition – they resist.

(Country: Ireland, France; Year: 2026; Director: Alexander Murphy; Writer: Alexander Murphy, Jean-Baptiste Plard)

Full review

Traces

Documentary shines a light on Ukrainian women who, after surviving conflict-related sexual violence and torture during the Russian war of aggression, refuse to remain silent.

(Country: Ukraine, Poland; Year: 2026; Director: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk)

Whispers In May (Chun Ri Huan You)

In the remote Liangshan Mountains, 14-year-old Qihuo and her friends set out to find a skirt for her rite of passage. What begins as a small quest drifts into a suspended space of childhood, where time slows and the world is vast.

(Country: Hong Kong, Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden, China; Year: 2026; Director: Dongnan Chen; Stars: Mathxiemop Atnyop, Qi Huo, Lhithxamop Itgop, Lhithxamop Itsi)

Yo (Love Is A Rebellious Bird)

Through beautifully constructed miniature sets and puppets, directors Anna Fitch and Banker White craft an elegy to the life and times of Anna’s beloved friend, Yo.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Anna Fitch, Banker White; Stars: Yolanda Shea, Anna Fitch, Dylan White)