Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival — A–Z of films

Successfully finds insight and social commentary

Endless Cookie is not like anything else and yet it is very much like life.

Despite the anger at the unfairness of what has gone before, this is ultimately a warm-hearted, life-affirming film.

The Flats gives voice to people who have lived most of their lives feeling silenced, but it’s all the little details it captures in passing that speak loudest.

iHuman is worthy, and good, but not worthwhile, nor very good.

I’m Not A Robot displays sharp comic timing and is highly effective in balancing the horror and the humour inherent in Lara’s situation.

Throughout you can see the ways in which the filmmakers are going the extra mile to empower their subjects.

Greenfield keeps tight control, allowing Marcos to say what she wants, while busily illustrating the opposing perspective.

If you don’t have a clear sense of who she is when you go in, you may come out feeling none the wiser.

Gund’s poetic approach enables this documentary to go where others could not, to capture the existential effects on people of colour of day to day life in a white supremacist culture.

A film that is built upon patience and which takes a philosophical rather than judgmental stance.

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.

In what is probably Côté's most straightforwardly observational film to date, the fictions come baked in.

Shot over 17 years, it mingles intimate personal moments with visceral concert footage, its musical sequences knitted together with some of the best editing you’re likely to see this year.

While in some ways the collapsing of the Siegels' wealth may seem like commeuppance for their excessiveness, Greenfield has painted such a human portrait that Jackie, in particular, remains sympathetic, even when she is adding to her own tragedy.

Selective memory was something Riefenstahl excelled at and, as a director, she was also adept at staying on message in the face of counter evidence, something which Veiel scrutinises throughout.

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.

While Verseau talks about how crucial the surgery was to her mental health, the complexity of the emotions experienced afterwards is also made clear.

A thoughtful consideration of not just physical prowess but the emotional agility and resilience demonstrated by those growing up in Gaza.

A surprisingly droll deconstruction of crime reconstruction.