Visions du Réel

Latest reviews

• 
  Niñxs

  Review preview for Niñxs

  Mexican director Kani Lapuerta invites both viewers and star to change their frames of reference in a documentary as bold as it is charming.

  A documentary following a teenager's transition.
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  Cutting Through Rocks

  Review preview for Cutting Through Rocks

  The idea of her as a lone voice is emphasised by striking cinematography, often of her riding her bike across the landscape, which has the wide-open quality of a western.

  As the first elected councilwoman of her Iranian village, Sara Shahverdi aims to break long-held patriarchal traditions by training teenage girls to ride motorcycles and stopping child marriages. When accusations arise questioning Sara’s intentions to empower the girls, her identity is put in turmoil.
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  New Beginnings

  Review preview for New Beginnings

  What feels special about New Beginnings is its emotional immediacy and unpredictability.

  A Native American Vietnam war veteran considers his life and philosophy as he heads across the US to a reunion.
• 
  Paleontology Lesson

  Review preview for Paleontology Lesson

  Feels like a bite-sized companion piece to The Invasion

  Short documentary following a children's visit to a natural history museum.
• 
  Anamocot

  Review preview for Anamocot

  The observational approach works against the director, slowing down proceedings and making it hard to see the wood for the trees

  After a 20-year long fruitless search in the Cameroonian forest, Frenchman Michel Ballot is on the verge of giving up his lifelong quest to find the mysterious creature known as the Mokélé-Mbembé. Turning to local initiates for help, and torn between ancestral wisdom and scientific evidence, he embarks on a final journey into powers, knowledge and the unseen.
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  The Mountain Won't Move

  Review preview for The Mountain Won't Move

  The filmmaker and her crew deserve a lot of credit for even managing to capture this lifestyle – not to mention following it for five years.

  Documentary following a family of shepherds in a mountainous area of North Macedonia.
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  Coexistence, My Ass!

  Review preview for Coexistence, My Ass!

  Successfully finds insight and social commentary

  Comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi creates a personal and political one-woman show about the struggle for equality in Israel/Palestine. When the elusive coexistence she’s spent her life working toward starts sounding like a bad joke, she challenges her audiences with hard truths that are no laughing matter.
• 
  The Other World

  Review preview for The Other World

  History comes alive in the voices of those who remember it.

  Documentary about the sanatorium of Les Fontilles, which used to be a sanctuary for people suffering from leprosy.
• 
  Unstable Rocks

  Review preview for Unstable Rocks

  The colour elements prove all the more striking when in contrast to black and white.

  Bolex camera contemplation of rural Portugal.
• 
  Paul

  Review preview for Paul

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

  Subject to depression and social anxiety, Paul has found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes. By sharing his gently eccentric routines on social media, he combats loneliness and takes it one day at a time.

A–Z of Visions du Réel 2025 reviews →

Features

• 'We were banned from leaving the country for one year'
  Mohammadreza Eyni and Sara Khaki on the challenges of shooting and distributing Iranian doc Cutting Through Rocks
• Picturing a killer
  Charlie Shackleton on the language of true crime and Zodiac Killer Project
• 'Movies give you the energy to give time to time'
  Vivianne Perelmuter and Isabelle Ingold on their open approach to New Beginnings
• Clean content
  Director Denis Côté on entering the world of a 'simp' and his dominatrices for Paul
• Teen odyssey
  We talk to Never Rarely Sometimes Always director Eliza Hittman and star Sidney Flanigan about their quietly devastating drama
• 'You cannot reach the weirdness of reality'
  Screenwriter Efthymis Filippou on his career, collaborations and approach to film
• Gentleman of letters
  Gay Talese on the importance of James Baldwin and films in I Am Not Your Negro.
• Recollections of James Baldwin
  Gay Talese on the man behind the legend and I Am Not Your Negro.