The film programme of the 39th DOK.fest München: In the cinema. At home.

1 to 12 May 2024 at the Munich venues
6 to 20 May 2024 @home

Like every year, DOK.fest München 2024 opens up a view of the world: with 109 of the best and most current international documentaries from 51 countries. Our aim is to ensure the greatest possible participation in our films, which is why we bring them to the big screen in Munich cinemas and cultural venues as well as to home screens throughout Germany as barrier-free as possible: DOK.fest München stays dual!

The advance ticket sales start on Monday, 22 April. The accreditation has opened.

You can filter our film programme by section, country, keyword or film title on this page. We look forward to your visit!

DOK.horizonte Competition – Cinema of Urgency

20TH CIRCUIT SUSPECTS – MOTAHAMIN DAYERE BISTOM (Iran 2017, Hesam Eslami). Adolescence in Teheran – not so easy when you are a small-time criminal, the police are hot on your tail and your gang is falling apart. For six years the director follows his protagonist Eshan by day and night – out stealing and in court – until he finds a “new gang”: his own family.
#coming of age, #Middle East
AL GAMI'YA (Greece 2018, Reem Saleh). Rod El Farg is a poor quarter of Cairo. The neighbourhood organises it’s own credit union. Marriages, illnesses and big purchases are financed in this way. We see the light and dark sides of a closely-knit community faced with a lack of public resources.
#Middle East, #Critics and Visionaries
AMAL (Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Lebanon, Norway, Qatar 2017, Mohamed Siam). Coming of age in Egypt. Amal is 14 years old when the revolution is at its peak. Determinedly, she fights and is dragged brutally across Tahrir Square. This long-term observation shows what it means to stand one’s ground in a world dominated by men.
#Nominees DOK.fest Award of SOS-Kinderdörfer weltweit, #Middle East, #DOK.4teens, #coming of age, #Africa

Student Award

SAND UND BLUT – SAND AND BLOOD (Austria 2017, Matthias Krepp Angelika Spangel). In the torrent of images on the internet, the inconceivable atrocities from the wars in Syria and Iraq are also reflected. SAND UND BLUT puts together a collage of these videos and searches for the witnesses and the stories behind them – an essential film.
#Human Stains, #Middle East
SCHILDKRÖTEN PANZER (Deutschland 2017, Kaptan Tuna). In a Munich reptile shelter the paths of those who have returned from war cross with those who are about to go. A tortoise came here in the pocket of a Syrian. A solider is practicing the handling of venomous Malian snakes.
#Critics and Visionaries, #Middle East, #for Cinephiles
TRACING ADDAI (Deutschland 2018, Esther Niemeier). Friends from your childhood – there are some you still know and some you can hardly remember. And then there are some whose stories you work out piece by piece. A documentary puzzle that takes us from the war in Syria to the German penal system and the life that pulsates outside.
#Human Stains, #Who am I?, #Middle East

DOK.panorama

ELISH'S NOTEBOOKS – HAMACHBAROT SHEL ELISH (Israel 2017, Golan Rise). After the death of their mother, the children find her diaries. One for each child, seven in all. They begin to read and travel back to their childhood in a Kibbutz in the Israel of the 50s and 60s. A mood of optimism versus maternal instincts? A film that stirs the emotions.
#Middle East, #Looking Back, #Who am I?, #The Places you call Home
THE OSLO DIARIES (Israel, Kanada 2018, Daniel Sivan, Mor Loushy). In the 1990s the Oslo peace process offered hope that a solution to the decades-old conflict between Israel and Palestine would be found. Archive material, interviews and re-enactments tell the inside story of what happened– a tale of great sadness but of even greater humanity.
#Looking Back, #Middle East

Retrospective DOK.network Africa

MEIN HERZ SIEHT DIE WELT SCHWARZ – EINE LIEBE IN KABUL (Deutschland 2009, Helga Reidemeister). MEIN HERZ SIEHT DIE WELT SCHWARZ – EINE LIEBE IN KABUL tells the story of an impossible love: even as children Hossein and Shaima were inseparable and yet their relationship seems to be doomed to failure. Poverty, war and family honour stand in the way of a happy life for the couple.
#Love will find us, #Middle East

DOK.special

FLOOD (Israel 2018, Ohad Milstein). A settler in the desert and a Palestinian farmer. A geologist at the Dead Sea and scientists examining sunspots in the wilderness of the Golan Heights in the north of Israel. Without the eternally precious resource of water they could not survive – no one can. Politics, the environment and visions of the future converge in an intelligent essay.
#Middle East
INK OF YAM (Deutschland 2017, Tom Fröhlich). In a tattoo studio in the middle of Jerusalem people of different origins and religions meet as they get their stories inked onto their skin. During the painful sessions they talk about what they associate with Jerusalem and paint a picture of a city full of contradictions.
#Middle East
KISHON (Israel 2017, Eliav Lilti). Ephraim Kishon is among the 20th century’s most important satirists. With animations, audio recordings and private video material the film brings the Israeli writer back to life and delves into his eventful biography.
#The Artist is Present – Films on Art, #Middle East

Best of Fests

ALL THAT PASSES BY THROUGH A WINDOW THAT DOESN'T OPEN – ALL THAT PASSES BY THROUGH A WINDOW THAT DOESN'T OPEN (Qatar, United States 2017, Martin DiCicco). Nowadays the trains just run to nowhere but soon in the Eurasian border region between Azerbaijan and Armenia prosperity will reign for all. Martin DiCicco’s fabulous railway voyage through harsh working environments and enchanted backdrops is instantly exhilarating.
#for Cinephiles, #Middle East

DOK.female

WHAT WALAA WANTS – WHAT WALAA WANTS (Canada, Denmark 2018, Christy Garland). 15-year-old Walaa wants to be a police officer but she is a rebellious teenager. Her family offer her hardly any support. WHAT WALAA WANTS follows the girl from the West Bank on her path to adulthood and the police academy.
#Hero's Journey, #DOK.4teens, #coming of age, #Middle East, #Nominees DOK.fest Award of SOS-Kinderdörfer weltweit

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