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Sundance Film Festival · 2018

Sundance Film Festival 2018

World Cinema Documentary Competition

Programme

12 films · 5 reviews

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Anote's Ark

Review preview for Anote's Ark

This quiet, documentary takes the viewer on an interesting, intriguing journey, ending on a question mark.

Jane Fae · 4 out of 5
A documentary looking at the impact of climate change on the island nation of Kiribati.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2018; Director: Matthieu Rytz)

Full review

World premiere. The New Climate

The Cleaners

When you post something on the web, can you be sure it stays there? Enter a hidden shadow industry of digital cleaning, where the Internet rids itself of what it doesn't like: violence, pornography and political content. Who is controlling what we see...and what we think?

(Country: Germany, Brazil; Year: 2018; Director: Moritz Riesewieck, Hans Block; Stars: Moritz Riesewieck, Hans Block, Georg Tschurtschenthaler)

World premiere

Genesis 2.0

On the remote New Siberian Islands in the Arctic Ocean, hunters search for tusks of extinct mammoths. When they discover a surprisingly well-preserved mammoth carcass, its resurrection will be the first manifestation of the next great technological revolution: genetics. It may well turn our world upside down.

(Country: US, Russia, South Korea, China, Switzerland; Year: 2018; Director: Christian Frei, Maxim Arbugaev; Writer: Christian Frei)

World premiere

Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.

Review preview for Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.

Whatever else she may be, Maya clearly has no tolerance for bullshit - she seems constitutionally incapable of playing the game.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Drawn from a never before seen cache of personal footage spanning decades, this is an intimate portrait of the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to shatter conventions.

(Country: US, UK; Year: 2018; Director: Stephen Loveridge; Stars: M.I.A.)

Full review

World premiere

Of Fathers And Sons

Review preview for Of Fathers And Sons

What makes the film all the more poignant is the fact that the children are, of course, despite all this, like kids anywhere else.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
The director embeds himself with a radical Islamic family in Syria to ask what the future holds for their kids.

(Country: Germany, Syria, Lebanon; Year: 2017; Director: Talal Derki)

Full review See: Talal Derki on the dangers of documenting Syrian Islamic fundamentalists and the importance of doing so

North American premiere

The Oslo Diaries

In 1992, Israeli-Palestinian relations reached an all-time low. In an attempt to stop the bloodshed, a group of Israelis and Palestinians met illegally in Oslo. These meetings were never officially sanctioned and held in complete secrecy. They changed the Middle East forever.

(Country: Israel, Canada; Year: 2018; Director: Mor Loushy, Daniel Sivan; Writer: Mor Loushy, Daniel Sivan)

World premiere

Our New President

Review preview for Our New President

Pozdorovkin isn't trying to present new information here and there is very little context provided, but it is not so much what is being shown as the sheer weight of material.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Collage film showing Russian propaganda surrounding the US presidential election of Donald Trump.

(Country: US, Russia; Year: 2017; Director: Maxim Pozdorovkin; Writer: Maxim Pozdorovkin)

Full review

World premiere. Day One

A Polar Year

Anders leaves his native Denmark for a teaching position in rural Greenland. As soon as he arrives, he finds himself at odds with tightly-knit locals. Only through a clumsy and playful trial of errors can Anders shake his Euro-centric assumptions and embrace their snow-covered way of life.

(Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Samuel Collardey; Writer: Samuel Collardey, Catherine Paillé; Stars: Anders Hvidegaard, Asser Boassen, Julius B. Nielsen, Tobias Ignatiussen, Thomasine Jonathansen, Gert Jonathansen)

World premiere

Shirkers

In 1992, teenager Sandi Tan shot Singapore's first indie road movie with her enigmatic American mentor Georges – who then vanished with all the footage. Twenty years later, the 16mm film is recovered, sending Tan, now a novelist in Los Angeles, on a personal odyssey in search of Georges' vanishing footprints.

(Country: US, Singapore; Year: 2018; Director: Sandi Tan)

World premiere

This is Home (This Is Home: A Refugee Story)

Review preview for This is Home

It is Shiva's lightness of touch that sells the film.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Documentary following Syrian refugees as they try to start new lives in the US.

(Country: Syria, Jordan; Year: 2018; Director: Alexandra Shiva)

Full review

World premiere

Westwood

Dame Vivienne Westwood: punk, icon, provocateur and one of the most influential originators in recent history. This is the first film to encompass the remarkable story of one of the true icons of our time, as she fights to maintain her brand’s integrity, her principles – and her legacy.

(Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Lorna Tucker; Stars: Vivienne Westwood)

World premiere

A Woman Captured

A European woman has been kept by a family as a domestic slave for 10 years – one of over 45 million victims of modern-day slavery. Drawing courage from the filmmaker's presence, she decides to escape the unbearable oppression and become a free person.

(Country: Hungary; Year: 2017; Director: Bernadett Tuza-Ritter; Writer: Bernadett Tuza-Ritter)

North American premiere