Opening night, sneak previews, French premieres of films acclaimed at A-list festivals, and other privileged encounters with both young and experienced filmmakers close to Cinéma du réel’s identity: every day, these special events bring audiences and filmmakers together and offer an exclusive chance to explore the most talked-about films of the moment.
A special screening will be shown each night during the festival.
Opening film
Ancestral Visions of the Future by Lemohang Mosese
Prod. Agat Films (Marie Balducchi), Mokoari Street
2025 | France, Germany, Lesotho | 90′
From the dusty gravel roads where he played with toy wire cars as a seven-year-old to the dispassionate streets of exile where he dissolved into anonymity, the director confronts the moments that shattered and shaped him. The film is also an elegy for a city and a people caught between the weight of memory and the inevitability of loss.
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Friday 21 March | 8.p.m. | L’Arlequin
Rachid Djaïdani, filmmaker and diarist, in collaboration with the Cinémathèque idéale des banlieues du monde
Supported by the Ateliers Médicis and the Centre Pompidou, and based on an original idea by Alice Diop, the Cinémathèque idéale des banlieues du monde, as part of its new ‘rushes de cinéastes’ residency, is welcoming Rachid Djaïdani to safeguard his film diary and travel through almost three decades of a life with a camera in hand.
As he begins this residency, Rachid Djaïdani has agreed to share the first steps of this long journey with us. Using extracts from his diary, he will tell the story of a family, the history of a territory, but also the discovery of the power of cinema and the value of personal archives in understanding the memory of the world.
This meeting will be followed up by a round table discussion on the Futures of vernacular images, part of the Classic documentary film rendez-vous.
Saturday 22 March | 6.30 p.m. | Reflet Médicis
Le cinquième plan de La Jetée by Dominique Cabrera
Prod. Ad Libitum (Edmée Doroszlai) | 2024 | France | 97′
During the Marker exhibition at the Cinémathèque, my cousin Jean-Henri recognised himself in La Jetée. He appears in the fifth shot, filmed from behind with his parents on the terrace at Orly. Orly, where we arrived in 1962, pieds-noirs repatriated from Algeria. 1962, the year Marker shot the film…
Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Saturday 22 March | 9 p.m. | L’Arlequin
Moment of Impact by Julia Loktev
Prod. Melanie Judd | 1998 | United States | 117′
First film by our guest Julia Loktev and Grand Prix Cinéma du réel in 1998
Sunday 23 & Tuesday 25 March | 8 p.m. | L’Arlequin
Bogancloch by Ben Rivers
Prod. Urth Productions (Sarah Neely, Ben Rivers), Hopscotch Films (John Archer), Flaneur Films (Zsuzsanna Kiràly), Akkeri Films (Hanna Björk Valsdóttir)
2024 | United Kingdom, Germany, Iceland | 86′
Bogancloch is Jake Williams’ home, nestled in a vast highlandforest of Scotland. The film, a sequel to Two Years at Sea (2011), portrays his solitary life throughout the seasons, with other people occasionally crossing.
Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Sunday 23 March | 9 p.m. | L’Arlequin
Loin de vous j’ai grandi by Marie Dumora
Prod.Les Films du Bélier, Akka Films, Digital District, Studio Orlando, Quark Productions, Gloria Films
2020 | France | 102′
Screening with subtitles, suitable for the Deaf and hard of hearing (SDH)
Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker translated in French Sign Language
Monday 24 March | 5 p.m. | Saint-André des Arts
Green Line by Sylvie Ballyot
Prod.TS Productions, Films de Force Majeure, Xbox Films, Orjouane Productions, L’impossible est en cours
2024 | France, Lebanon, Qatar | 151′
Fida grew up in war-torn Beirut in the 80s, immersed in the “red hell” her grandmother used to tell her about. The trivialization of death made her doubt the value of life, and the meaning of this interminable war. She meets the militiamen and compares her childhood vision with theirs.
Followed by a discussion with Sylvie Ballyot and Fida Bizri
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Monday 24 March | 8 p.m. | Saint-André des Arts
Jimmy by Yashaddai Owens
Prod. Yashaddai Owens, Ava Woo Kaufman | 2024 | United States, France, Turkey | 67′
In November 1948, James Baldwin left New York and, thanks to a fellowship grant, relocated to Paris. The 24-year-old writer would spend most of the next decade there. Jimmy is a portrait of the artist reconnecting with the world.
Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Tuesday 25 March | 9 p.m. | Saint-André des Arts
Partition by Diana Allan
Prod. Diana Allan | 2025 | Lebanon, Canada, Palestine | 61′
Partition fuses archival footage from the British occupation of Palestine with audio recorded of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Silent films hold histories that have barely been told, and ways of colonial seeing that seep into the present.
Followed by a discussion with Diana Allan and Ghassan Salhab
Diana Allan will also be participating in Festival conversations on Wednesday 26 March at the Théâtre de l’Alliance Française.
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Wednesday 26 March | 8 p.m. | L’Arlequin
Gen_ by Gianluca Matarrese
Prod. Bellota Films, Stemal Entertainment, Elefant Films | 2025 | France, Italy, Switzerland | 103′
At the heart of a public hospital in Milan, Dr Bini embraces human diversity, between gender affirmation and dreams of parenthood. On the borderline between medicine and the law, he listens, advises and acts, because what is right for the patient does not always coincide with the law.
Follwed by a discussion with Gianluca Matarrese and Dr Bini
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Wednesday 26 March | 8 p.m. | Reflet Médicis
Cuba, cinema rediscovered
Images of Cuba through a selection of films either produced by the ICAIC, made by the network of amateur film clubs in Havana or filmed in exile, respectively restored and digitised by students at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola in San Sebastian, the Archivistas Salvajes collective and the Filmoteca de Catalunya.
In partnership with the Punto de Vista festival
Thursday 27 March | 2 p.m. & 4.30 p.m. | Christine Cinéma Club
Short films by Maryam Tafakory
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Razeh-Del
Prod. Leonardo Bigazzi | 2024 | Iran, United Kingdom, Italy | 28′
Mast-del
Prod. Maryam Tafakory | 2023 | Iran, United Kingdom | 17′
Nazarbazi
Prod. Maryam Tafakory | 2022 | Iran, United Kingdom | 19′
Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker
Diana Allan will also be participating in Festival conversations on Wednesdsay 26 March at the Théâtre de l’Alliance Française.
Thursday 27 March | 8 p.m. | L’Arlequin
Les Mille et un jours du Hajj Edmond by Simone Bitton
Prod. Haut les mains Productions (Karim Aitouna), Iris production (Mérième Addou)
2024 | Morocco, France | 93′
This cinematic letter is addressed to the former Communist Party leader and pro-Moroccan independence activist, Edmond Amran Elmaleh who left behind him a substantial literary work, inhabited by tragedies such as the Jews’ departure from Morocco and the exodus of Palestinians driven from their land.
Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Thursday 27 March | 8.30 p.m. | L’Arlequin
Hommage à la Catalogne by Frédéric Goldbronn
Prod. Les Films d’Ici, Histoire TV | 2025 | France | 69′
In Homage to Catalonia George Orwell recounts his involvement in the Spanish Revolution and
Civil War. This book is haunted by images, which we find in the reports filmed by the anarchist
operators of the CNT. The film aims to share Orwell’s experience in Spain through a new cinema experience.
Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Friday 28 March | 9 p.m. | Reflet Médicis
Notre Dame de la Croisette de Daniel Schmid
Prod. Augusta Riva, Caterina Genni (Pic Film), RSI | 1981 | Switzerland | 53′
Closing film of the Classic documentary film rendez-vous
Friday 28 March | 9.15 p.m. | Saint-André des Arts
Tribute to Richard Dindo
Dani, Michi, Renato et Max by Richard Dindo
Prod. Richard Dindo | 1987 | Switzerland | 138′
Dani, Michi, Renato et Max is undoubtedly one of the most incisive films by Richard Dindo, who liked to present himself as an impure documentary filmmaker. When we heard the news of his death, it was this film that we longed to see again. A film that comes into being through the friction between the mechanism of fiction and the force of documentary, between memory, the present of the filming and the here and now of the spectator.
Screening in collaboration with Documentaire sur Grand Écran, presented by Yamina Zoutat
Saturday 29 March | 2 p.m. | Saint-André des Arts
Israël Palestine on Swedish TV (1958-1989)
Göran Hugo Olsson
Prod. Story (Tobias Janson), SVT (Asta Dalman, Ingemar Persson), Film i Väst (Kristina Börjeson), Tekele Productions (Miia Haavisto, Marja Pihlaja) Ström Pictures (Monica Hellström)
2024 | Sweden, Finland, Denmark | 206′
During the years 1958 to 1989, the Swedish public broadcaster SVT’s reporting from Israel and Palestine was unique. Their reporters were constantly present in the war-affected region, documenting everything from everyday life to international crises.
Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Saturday 29 March | 2 p.m. | Christine Cinéma Club
Sleep #2
Radu Jude
Prod. Radu Jude | 2024 | Romania | 62′
A fallen flower
Returning to the branch?
It was a butterfly.
(Moritake)
Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker
AVANT-PREMIÈRE
Saturday 29 March | 5.30 p.m. | L’Arlequin
Tribute to Lionel Soukaz
‘On 4 February this year, Lionel Soukaz, a leading director of homosexual and avant-garde cinema, a free, joyful and dazzling spirit, passed away.’
Stéphane Gérard, a friend and work companion, begins his tribute in Libération and concludes with this invitation: ‘It is up to us today to keep these memories alive, to nourish them continuously, with the same generosity, so that in the darkness of the night Lionel’s luminous, loving, eternally youthful presence continues to shine.
This screening will be an opportunity to let that presence shine through, with screenings of films or extracts from films by Lionel Soukaz, chosen by Stéphane, who will talk about the filmmaker in the company of other friends.
Saturday 29 March | 7.30 p.m. | Saint-André des Arts