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Festival coverage

Docs Ireland

23 June – 29 June 2025

With spotlights on cinematography and on Poland this year, Docs Ireland has lots of treats in store. It opens with the world première of The Negotiator, which addresses the Norther Irish peace process and is introduced by former US senator George Mitchell. A special screening of Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man will be accompanied by life commentary from editor Joe Bini and there will be a night of live music, poetry readings, talks and DJing to raise money for displaced and starving people in Palestine.

The festival runs from 23 to 29 June.

Other years (3)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • Doppelgängers
    Review preview for Doppelgängers

    Doppelgängers demands a lot of its audience, but it has a lot to give in return.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    Three Doppelgängers meet in outer space to imagine diasporic and queer eco-feminist futures in this innovative documentary.
  • A Want In Her
    Review preview for A Want In Her

    It feels organic, spreading outwards from that centre which might swallow everything.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    When her mother goes missing somewhere in Ireland, an artist returns from London to find her. Her search takes her into a feuding family, a contested house, and a history that threatens to take everyone down, including herself.
  • 2000 Meters To Andriivka
    Review preview for 2000 Meters To Andriivka

    The smoke, the blasts, the spinning of ejecting shell casings, yells that become cries, the front-line as it becomes frantic.

    Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
    Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realise that this war may never end.
  • The Shadow Scholars
    Review preview for The Shadow Scholars

    At each point when one might think that the key to this fascinating subject has been found, another door is opened, leading to yet more unexplored angles.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    Oxford professor Patricia Kingori uncovers Kenya's hidden essay mills where highly educated yet underemployed writers produce academic papers for wealthy Western students.
  • Strange Journey: The Rocky Horror Story
    Review preview for Strange Journey: The Rocky Horror Story

    There are some great stories here, and whilst fans will already be familiar with many of them, they include a few surprises.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    The story of the cult musical phenomenon, its transfer from stage to screen and its enduring liberatory legacy.
  • 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.
  • Operation Bogeyman
    Review preview for Operation Bogeyman

    Aeppli’s work brings scams, superstition, abuses of power, real world horrors and the magic of storytelling together in one heady brew.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    An essay film that navigates the intersections of folklore, horror, and psychological warfare during the Troubles and encompasses a bizarre propaganda operation in which the British army staged fake black magic rituals to smear the IRA as ‘Satanists’.
  • From Ground Zero
    Review preview for From Ground Zero

    The stories are highly personal and individual. It is the background observations, as much as anything, that makes the experience of viewing them sequentially crushing, and leaves one in awe of the fortitude of people still surviving there.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    A collection of 22 short films made in Gaza, giving Gazan filmmakers the chance to tell the untold stories about the current war.
  • Bogancloch
    Review preview for Bogancloch

    If it wasn’t for the excellent, immersive sound design from Chu-Li Shewring, you could easily believe you were watching a piece of silent movie found footage.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Documentary sequel about a former sailor and his off-the-grid life.
  • Grizzly Man
    Review preview for Grizzly Man

    Anyone who has seen Herzog's Fitzcarraldo will know of the director's fascination with doomed quests and magnificent obsessions, and in Treadwell he has found his dream subject.

    The Exile · 5 out of 5
    Werner Herzog examines the psyche of Timothy Treadwell, a man who lived and died with bears.

A–Z of Docs Ireland 2025 reviews

Features