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Sheffield DocFest · 2025

Sheffield DocFest 2025

Rebellions

Programme

10 films · 2 reviews

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Dreamers - People Of Light (Xəyalpərəstlər - İşıq İnsanlar)

The surreal and the everyday intersect when two visitors from space land in rural Azerbaijan and observe a coach trying to form the country’s first all-female football team.

(Country: Azerbaijan; Year: 2025; Director: Imamaddin Hasanov)

I Died (Li cham)

Three Mexican women turn to the land to rebuild their lives, following the loss of babies and family members to patriarchal violence.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2024; Director: Ana Ts'uyeb; Writer: Ana Ts'uyeb)

Life At 50C: The Battle Of Doongmabulla Springs

From BBC’s Life At 50°C strand, which looks at lives on the frontline of climate change, the film is set in Australia’s coal country.

(Country: Australia, UK; Year: 2025; Director: Chris Phillips)

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Review preview for Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Despite the depressing nature of what’s happening at the school, Talankin’s affection for his students and his resilient sense of humour ensure that the film is always engaging.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
As Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, primary schools across Russia’s hinterlands are transformed into recruitment stages for the war. Facing the ethical dilemma of working in a system defined by propaganda and violence, a brave teacher goes undercover to film what’s really happening in his own school.

(Country: Czechia, Denmark; Year: 2025; Director: David Borenstein, Pavel Ilyich Talankin; Writer: David Borenstein)

Full review

My Dear Theo

A mother, filmmaker and volunteer Ukrainian soldier offers up a testament to the power of love in a time of war, conveyed through letters to her young son.

(Country: Poland, Ukraine, Czechia; Year: 2025; Director: Alisa Kovalenko; Stars: Alisa Kovalenko)

Power Station

Two artists in Walthamstow set out to take their street off the grid, kickstarting a solar-powered energy revolution.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Hilary Powell, Dan Edelstyn)

Runa Simi

Follows an indigenous Peruvian man and his young son in their ambitious quest to fully dub Disney’s animated The Lion King in their native Quechua.

(Country: Peru; Year: 2025; Director: Augusto Zegarra; Writer: Augusto Zegarra; Stars: Dylan Valencia, Fernando Valencia)

The Stand

Archive-footage film follows Haida Nation members staging a peaceful but resolute blockade against a logging company, sparking a national debate around indigenous land rights in Canada.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Christopher Auchter)

A State Of Passion

Review preview for A State Of Passion

Whilst the film sets out to explore the psychology that drives people to do this sort of work, what emerges is more complicated.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
An account of a British-Palestinian surgeon who has become a vital witness to the devastation wreaked by Israel’s bombing of Gaza.

(Country: Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Jordan; Year: 2024; Director: Carol Mansour, Muna Khalidi)

Full review

Writing Hawa

An Afghan filmmaker documents repression by the Taliban and resistance to it across three generations of females in her family.

(Country: France, Netherlands, Qatar, Afghanistan; Year: 2024; Director: Najiba Noori; Writer: Ali Rasul Noori, Najiba Noori, Afsaneh Salari)