High heels on snow. Across a white horizon, a frail figure, all corset and ruff, moves forward. The ice crunches beneath her feet. In a single shot, Agniia Galdanova captures the heart of her film: Jenna Marvin's poetry of contrasts and the Russian queer artist’s struggle to live in a hostile environment.

What happens to a people’s spirit when they are displaced and uprooted from their land over and over again? Their children grow up to become activists. This is the premise of No Other Land, a documentary about the resistance and resilience of the inhabitants of Masafer Yatta, a group of Palestinian hamlets in the occupied West Bank. The official reason for demolishing the region was to make...

The 2024 Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival showcased three debut films by young Armenian filmmakers, each offering a poignant exploration of the human toll of the violence, ethnic cleansing, and mass displacement caused by the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Set against the backdrop of the 2020 Second Karabakh War and the brutal 2023 attacks by Azerbaijan, these films...

Land for as far as the eyes can see. From the window of the car carrying Vrej and his family, it’s hard to identify borders. And yet, for the breakaway republic of Artsakh, repeatedly under attack from Azerbaijan, it’s what matters most. With My Sweet Land, Sareen Hairabedian documents war and exile through the keen eyes of a child.

There are many adjectives that often accompany the word "land": fertile, mountainous, green, insular. Many adjectives that can describe its form and uniqueness. However, when the land itself is our home, and that home is threatened, those adjectives suddenly feel insufficient. Then, we need to call upon words that  express our emotions and declare the importance of this place for our...

What happens to the psyche of an 11-year-old boy when war is no longer a child's game but an everyday reality? This is a salient question that comes to the fore when looking at graphic images of children in the heat of war and genocide. Documentarian Sareen Hairabedian takes a different approach. Instead of violent evidence of lost innocence, in her debut feature-length documentary, My Sweet Land...

In 2019, Taika Waititi gave us Jojo Rabbit, a bittersweet portrayal of what it’s like to grow up during times of war. Even though the premise of Waititi’s movie is grim and bleak, the execution is surprisingly colorful, the conclusion is optimistic, good defeats evil, liberty arrives, the children are freed from war and propaganda. Sareen Hairabedian’s 2024 documentary titled My Sweet Land might...

Perhaps one of the words we hear most in life is to behave. As children, we hear it from our parents, then from our teachers, as we eventually integrate into a broader society with written and  unwritten rules we must obey if we want to be part of it. Most of us adapt, alter our personalities, and try to fit into the standards we need to follow to be accepted. But not Sanyi.

If you are walking in the streets of Budapest, be careful. You never know when the mischievous Sanyi might throw his middle finger, ball or speed-drunk brother at you. The boy won't apologize or regret what he's done, but will instead laugh in your face — and chances are you’ll laugh too. In KIX, Dávid Mikulán and Bálint Révész roamed the streets of the capital with this infernal duo for more...

Being a kid, playing in the streets of Budapest, one day you meet a guy with his camera. He films your games with your brother and friends. Scratching pants, playing  ball at the church gate, even drawing in the streets: the images appear blurred, passing from  one child to another, dynamic and shaky. Such a funny way of receiving attention, but also to attract attention.