A remarkable year for Belgian cinema at Visions du Réel 2025!
No fewer than six French-speaking Belgian documentaries are part of the 2025 lineup at Visions du Réel in Nyon!
Since 1969, Visions du Réel has been showcasing daring and unique works, imbued with past, present, or future realities. For ten days, the festival turns Nyon into a hub where several generations of filmmakers and artists from around the world meet a devoted and inquisitive audience. Recognized as one of the major festivals dedicated to documentary cinema worldwide, it presents a majority of films in their world or international premieres, serving as an essential creative platform for the thousands of cinema professionals who gather there each year.
New Beginnings by Vivianne Perelmuter and Isabelle Ingold has been selected for the Burning Lights competition (World Premiere). The film is produced by Clin d’Oeil Films and internationally distributed by CBA.
In his Yurok Californian reservation, Al struggles to cope with daily violences and ecological threats affecting his tribe. Inner demons and buried anxieties from his time in Vietnam resurface and urge him to embark on a cross-country journey to confront his past and the men from his battalion. Along the way, he moves closer to a long hidden truth.
Additionally, the festival has selected the documentary Everytime You Leave, You Are Born Again, directed by Mladen Bundalo and produced by La Tangente, for the Medium-Length and Short International Competition (World Premiere).
The hypnotic and purring sound of a bus engine echoes, accompanied by the rumble within the vehicle. The author’s voice, close and intimate, draws us into an inner monologue. We are on our way to Prijedor, his hometown in Bosnia and the place of his perpetual departures. Before arriving, we must first encounter departure as a space in which we can grow and be reborn.
The Last Shore by Jean-François Ravagnan is featured in the Highlights section (World Premiere) of the Swiss festival. The documentary is produced by Dérives and internationally distributed by WIP.
One evening in January 2017, a video spread across social networks of a young Gambian drowning in Venice's Grand Canal. Filmed with a cell phone, the body, petrified by the cold, appears to be sinking despite the few lifebuoys thrown in its direction. From the shore and from the boats, passers-by insulted him without coming to his assistance. He was 22 and his name was Pateh Sabally. 4000 kilometers away, the voices and faces of those who remained tell the story that preceded this tragedy, the story on the back of the images..
Also part of the Highlights section (World Premiere) is Petit Rempart, directed by Eve Duchemin and produced by Kwassa Films.
Mariem, 53 years old, a former luxury real estate agent, has been living at the Samu Social for several months. While she found the courage last June to leave her large house in Namur to escape from a violent man, she did not expect to lose everything. In her daily struggle to get by, surrounded by women much more precarious than herself, Mariem tries to experience this unprecedented social decline as an immersion into real life. When she finally manages to leave this emergency accommodation, her perspective on the world will have definitely changed, enriched by all the women she has encountered along the way.
In the Grand Angle section, we find Since I Was Born by Jawad Rhalib. The film is produced by R&R Productions and Scope Pictures, and sold internationally by WIP.
Izza Zahra refuses to submit to the diktats of the men in her village. She will fight to be the first girl in her douar to continue her studies beyond secondary school. With a valiant heart, she embarks on a veritable uphill battle. For her, school is a real opportunity for her to realise her dreams, leave poverty behind and have a better life than her parents did. Izza dreams of becoming a botanist, but it is not enough to dream to succeed.
Finally, Rashid, the boy from Sinjar by Jasna Krajinovic has also been selected for the Grand Angle section (World Premiere). The film is produced by Hélicotronc, co-produced by Dérives and Clin d’Oeil Films, and internationally distributed by CBA.
After surviving Isis prisons as a child, Rashid has been reunited with his family in Sinjar, in northwestern Iraq. Now a teenager, this young Yazidi dreams of a brighter future in a country that is struggling to rebuild. But peace is fragile in Sinjar, and hatred against the Yazidi minority is resurfacing. On the threshold of adulthood, Rashid is reinventing himself amid the changes disrupting his daily life and wondering whether to leave or stay.
Several French-speaking Belgian co-productions helped by the CCA are also present at the festival: The Attachment by Mamadou Khouma Gueye (Twenty Nine Studio & Production) is competing in the International Feature Film Competition, while Fierté Nationale: de Jéricho vers Gaza by Sven Augustijnen (Cobra Films) is part of Burning Lights Competition. Road 190 by Emilie Cornu and Charlotte Nastasi (Stenola Productions) has been selected for the Short and Medium-Length Competition, and Les Vies d’Andrès by Baptiste Janon & Rémi Pons (Hélicotronc) is featured in the National Competition.
The festival will take place in Nyon from April 4 to April 13, 2025!
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