A timely, profoundly humane portrait of medicine at the frontlines and the journalistic responsibility to force the public to acknowledge the realities of war, Poh Si Teng’s intense documentary arrives at Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX, just weeks after its celebrated premiere at Sundance. American Doctor follows Dr. Mark Perlmutter, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, and Dr. Feroze Sidwa, a medical collective with different roots - one Jewish, one Palestinian, one Zoroastrian - whose works stretches far beyond hospital walls. Together, they fight to save live in Gaza and campaign for an end of the Genocide against the Palestinians in spaces where care, conflict, and conscience collide. On site in Copenhagen, both the Malaysian-American director and journalist and Dr. Ahmad spoke in an interview with Lidanoir about the making of the documentary, the ethical weight of portraying human suffering, and the personal stakes behind the story.

With his integral interest in the LGBTQ+ community and its struggles Sébastien Lifshitz has become an equally essential and empathetic chronist of a history often ignored by conventional accounts. A Very Good Boy shines both as an intimate portrait of one of its overlooked personalities and the era reflected in his life. The tender documentary allows former gay porn icon Claude Loir to tell his life story, shaped by a fundamental need for freedom and a desire to live and love authentically. For the premiere at CPH:DOX, the French filmmaker speaks with Lidanoir about meeting his charismatic main character, the 70s as an era of new creative freedom, and the importance of preserving LGBTQ+ history.

Ihrem zwischenmenschlichen Fokus und wachen Blick bleibt Eva Trobisch in ihrem Ensemble-Stück ebenso treu wie dem Gespür für emotionale Nuancen. Bereits ihr erster Spielfilm Alles ist gut wurde in Locarno als bester Debütfilm ausgezeichnet. Nachdem sie vor zwei Jahren Ivo in der kurzlebigen Berlinale Sektion Encounters präsentiere, kehrt die Regisseurin nun zurück zum Festival - diesmal in den Wettbewerb. Dort folgt Etwas ganz besonderes den Mitgliedern einer provinziellen Familie auf der Suche nach ihren individuellen Zielen und sich selbst. Im Gespräch mit Lidanoir erzählt Eva Trobisch von der Initialzündung der Story, deutsch-deutschen Kino-Geschichte und ihrer Hatung zu der diffizilen Frage danach, was die eigene Persönlichkeit ausmacht.

Over the past decade, Emin Alper has established himself as one of contemporary Turkish cinema’s most incisive observers of politics, power, and the dangerous dynamics of populism. With Salvation, he returns to the Berlinale with an atmospheric competition entry examining a society on edge, crafting a story that is equally intimate and allegorical. A remote community in the Anatolian mountains becomes the enigmatic setting of an escalating conflict fueled by pathological paranoia and religious delusion. In conversation at the 76th Berlinale, the Turkish director reflects on the story’s universal meaning, the perilous charisma of unstable leaders, and the anxieties that drive people to succumb to inhumane cruelties.

Few tragedies have left as deep a scar on European football as the events at Brussels’ Heysel Stadium on 29 May 1985. In Heysel 85, filmmaker Teodora Ana Mihai revisits that night, reframing the catastrophe of the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool F.C. and Juventus F.C. through an intimate, human lens, that focus on the dynamics that lead to questionable moral decisions and on the ordinary people caught in its wake. At the 76th Berlinale where her third feature premiered in the Special section, the Belgian-Romanian director spoke about the responsibility of dramatizing real events, confronting painful archives, and the challenge of balancing personal stories with broader historical context.

Few artists have interrogated time, memory, and authorship as rigorously as Douglas Gordon. For more than three decades, the Turner Prize–winning artist has redefined the language of contemporary art through works that fracture and reframe cultural memory. Filmmaker Finlay Pretsell turns his camera toward the artist at a moment of personal and creative transition, crafting an intimate portrait that blurs the boundaries between observer and subject. Shot over several years, the film defies the conventions of biographical documentary.In conversation with Lidanoir at Berlinale, where Douglas Gordon by Douglas Gordon premieres, Gordon and Pretsell reflect on their collaboration, art, and the tension between documentation and performance.

Almost two decades after his last feature Ballast, Lance Hammer returns to screen in the spotlight of the Berlinale Competition. There the US-American director turns his contemplative gaze at dementia and the devastating toll it takes, both on the elderly character suffering from the illness and her deeply conflicted relatives. Set against the fragile social and familiar worlds of its characters, Queen at Sea turns its realist lens on mental collapse, systemic neglect, and corroding relationships. On site at the Berlinale, speaks about the long development of the story, the extensive research that went into portraying dementia with authenticity rather than sentimentality, and the primal fears his film aims to address.

With her first cinematic feature, renowned Brazilian theater actor, director, and writer Grace Passô announces herself as a compelling new voice, attuned to the delicate emotional undertones beneath everyday life. Premiering at the 76th Berlinale’s Perspectives section, Our Secret explores the weight of what goes unsaid in a family after a devastating loss and listens for the ghosts that linger in a house shared by generations. In conversation with Lidanoir, Passô talks about the personal and creative origins of the project, the challenges of moving her play from stage to the screen, and the special role of the location for her story.

Following the neuropsychological dread of Relic and the occult paranoia of Apartment 7A, Natalie Erika James’ latest feature continues her exploration of the emotional fallout of social pressure and painful family histories. Brutal beauty standards and toxic diet culture literally threaten to consume the young protagonist of Saccharine which premiered in Sundance’s Midnight section before running at Berlinale’s Special section. On site in the busy Berlinale Palace, the Japanese-Australian filmmaker talks about the personal origins of the story, the devastating social impact of rigid physical standards, and the elaborate special effects langue shaping the symbolic scares.

Seine Dokumentarfilme laufen regelmäßig auf internationalen Film Festivals und brachten Tobias Nölle zahlreiche Preise, darunter in Locarno einen Goldenen Leoparden für seinen Kurzfilm René. Nun kehrt der Schweizer Regisseur zurück zur Berlinale, wo sein jüngstes Werk im Panorama Weltpremiere feiert. Tristan Forever balanciert auf der Grenze zwischen Dokumentation, Fiktion, Erinnerung und Traum in seiner Erkundung der jahrzehntelangen Beziehung des Pariser Arztes Loran Bonnardot zur abgelegensten, dauerhaft bewohnten Insel der Welt. Dreißig Jahre lang zieht es Bonnardot immer wieder auf Tristan da Cunha im Südatlantik. Sein Entschluss, dort überzusiedeln, eröffnet Fragen nach Zugehörigkeit, Gemeinschaft, Ideal und Illusion. Im Gespräch mit Lidanoir auf der Berlinale berichtet Nölle von der Faszination von Menschen und Orten außerhalb der assimilierten Gesellschaft, den Dreharbeiten auf Tristan und der Grenze zwischen Realität und Fiktion.