23/10/2025 - The 66th edition of the international documentary film festival will unspool in Florence from 1-9 November, with a 90-film line-up, and a raft of international and national guests

The 66th edition of the Festival dei Popoli, taking place from 1-9 November in Florence, will open with the Italian premiere of With Hasan in Gaza [+see also:
film review
interview: Kamal Aljafari
film profile], with the auteur behind it, Palestinian director Kamal Aljafari, in attendance. In competition at Locarno in August, where it received the Europa Cinemas Label, the film is a meditation on memory and loss born of three MiniDV tapes found by the director that document life in Gaza in 2001.

Nine features will lock horns in the International Feature Competition, judged by programmer Cecilia Barrionuevo (Argentina), and filmmakers Elena Lopez (Spain) and Mala Reinhardt (Germany). In addition to the aforementioned With Hasan in Gaza, the selection includes A Scary Movie [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Spain/Portugal) by Brazilian-Spanish director Sergio Oksman, which opened the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section of the latest San Sebastián International Film Festival, and follows a filmmaker and his 12-year-old son staying in an abandoned hotel in Lisbon. World-premiering, Last Letters From My Grandma (Belgium/Romania/Netherlands/Moldova) is a documentary by Olga Lucovnicova about the letters written by her grandmother, who took her own life in 1989 upon the collapse of the Soviet Union. In D for Distance (Finland), co-directors Christopher Petit and Emma Matthews tell the story of their son Louis, affected by a rare form of epilepsy. Spring in Kangiqsualujjuag (Canada/Germany), an international premiere by Marie Zrenner, focuses on a remote Inuit settlement in the Canadian Arctic. Also enjoying its international premiere, Better Go Mad in the Wild [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Miro Remo
film profile] (Czech Republic/Slovakia) by Miro Remo – winner of the Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary – adapts the eponymous book by Aleš Palán about twin brothers who embrace the wilderness. The residents of a Reykjavik care home are the protagonists of The Ground Beneath Our Feet [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Iceland/Poland) by Yrsa Roca Fannberg, presented at CPH:DOX 2025. Awarded a Special Mention for Best Documentary in the Forum at the most recent Berlinale, The Memory of Butterflies [+see also:
film review
interview: Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski
film profile] (Peru/Portugal) by Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski intertwines the director’s personal story with Amazonian archives from the early 20th century. Finally, in To the West, in Zapata [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Spain/Cuba), which won a Special Jury Prize at Visions du Réel, David Bim explores the Zapata wetlands in Cuba, where a father hunts crocodiles with his bare hands to feed his family during the pandemic.

Highlights of the Italian Competition include Cumpartia by Daniele Gaglianone, about a small winery in Sulcis, Sardinia; She (Italy/France/Vietnam) by Parsifal Reparato, selected for the Locarno Critics’ Week, about women working 12-hour shifts in one of the world’s largest electronics plants in Vietnam; Waithood by Paola Piscitelli, centring on a boy from Naples and one from Cape Verde; and White Lies (Italy/Belgium/France), which tells the story of the director, Alba Zari, born into the controversial Children of God sect.

The festival will also present the International Discoveries Competition, dedicated to shorts and mid-lengths, and Doc Highlights, featuring internationally resonant titles such as Sanatorium [+see also:
trailer
interview: Gar O’Rourke
film profile] by Gar O'Rourke, Checkpoint Zoo by Joshua Zeman, Post Truth by Alkan Avcıoğlu, Il Settimo Presidente by Daniele Ceccarini and Mario Molinari, and Familiar Places by Mala Reinhardt. In addition, there will be a retrospective devoted to Sarah Maldoror, a revolutionary voice and the first woman filmmaker of African cinema; the Habitat section, focused on sustainability and human-rights issues; Let the Music Play, for music documentaries, with a retrospective of Marie Losier’s work; Popoli for Kids and Teens, for younger audiences; and Future Camps – European Doc Academy, showcasing works from the best film schools across Europe.

(Translated from Italian)