'Families Like Ours'

Source: Per Arnesen

‘Families Like Ours’

The lagoon setting, starry red carpets and summer dates of the Venice film festival don’t lend it a reputation as the most political of festivals. But Venice Film Festuval’s 81’s line-up collectively mirrors many of the challenges of the times – from Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas wars, through to migration, climate catastrophe and the rise of far-right movements. 

Many of these themes are explored in documentaries playing out of competition. Asif Kapadia’s 2073 asks what the world will be like in 50 years and shows, according to Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera, “how the world is rapidly plunging into a vortex of lies, authoritarianism, violence and climate catastrophe – it’s not a happy movie.” 

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris returns with Separated, the story of children of illegal immigrants being separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border. 

There are two documentaries about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine: Russians At War by exiled Russian director Anastasia Trofimova and Songs Of Slow Burning Earth by Ukrainian filmmaker Olha Zhurba. Petra Costa’s Apocalypse In The Tropics centres on former Brazilian far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. 

Far-right themes are also explored in two competition features. Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s The Quiet Son is the story of the relationship between a father and his eldest son, seduced by far-right ideas. Justin Kurzel’s The Order centres on a US white supremacist group from the 1980s.

Playing out of competition, meanwhile, is Joe Wright’s M – Son Of The Century which traces the rise of Mussolini in post-First World War Italy.

Elsewhere, Thomas Vinterberg’s out-of-competition series Families Like Ours takes place against a backdrop of climate catastrophe, when rising water levels force Denmark to be evacuated.

Wang Bing’s Competition film Youth (Homecoming) is the final film in his political documentary trilogy about the gruelling working conditions of Chinese textile workers.

Israeli director Dani Roseberg’s Of Dogs And Men has been selected for Horizons. The film was shot shortly after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, and follows a 16-year-old girl who returns to her kibbutz in search of her missing dog and kidnapped mother.

Israel-born Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti is also playing in Horizons with Happy Holidays, which sees a minor accident sets off a chain of events, unravelling lies and unspoken truths that sow division.

Topics