22nd ZagrebDox: Transgressive Topics and Audio Dox

The Controversial Dox Program remains a section where documentary cinema most directly collides with ethical dilemmas, ideological conflict, and subjects that spark debate. Robin Kvapil's Change My Mind — screened at Ji.hlava and at BIDF, where it won the Jury Award — begins with a provocative experiment: three participants convinced by Russian propaganda travel to war-torn Ukraine, confronting a reality they can no longer ignore. Instead than offering a plain change of opinion, the film observes processes of internal torment, confusion, and a resistance to what unfolds before their own eyes. The striking Lord, Take Me Soon by Guillermo F. Flórez — presented at Docs Barcelona and Thessaloniki — follows a woman who, after a life defined by social conflict and defiance, plans her own end. The film transforms the final months of her life into a complex blend of intimacy, irony, and existential reflection on freedom of choice and the limits of autonomy. Finally, Bedrock by Kinga Michalska, the winner of the Best Polish Film Award at the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival in Warsaw, enters contemporary Poland, where everyday life coexists with the legacy of the Holocaust. The film reveals a quiet yet persistent tension between the present moment and a historical trauma physically inscribed into space and collective memory.

This year, the Audio Dox Program - which the 21st ZagrebDox had established as a powerful platform for sonic storytelling - expands by entering the cinema, positioning sound as an equal cinematic tool alongside the visual image. Audiences can expect as many as five audio documentaries, including Clean Up Your Game: All In! by Dražen Krešić. Through the personal story of a young man, Lovro, the film explores gambling addiction while exploring broader questions of control, routine, and the search for stability. Breaking Darkness by Hana Veček gathers twenty-three female voices from diverse cultural and social backgrounds, united by their experiences of watching and interpreting Lars von Trier's films. The result is a layered dialogue about emotion, the boundaries of art, and its capacity to simultaneously provoke fascination and discomfort. Violette Gitton and Samuel Hirsch's Misfortune: Level 2 unfolds within a psychiatric setting, where patients transform their own struggles with mental health and obsession into an audio document that rejects distance in favor of complete immersion in the fragility of human experience.

The International Documentary Film Festival ZagrebDox will take place at the Kaptol Boutique Cinema from April 19 to 26, 2026. ZagrebDox is supported by the City of Zagreb, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the Croatian Film Directors’ Guild, and the Zagreb Tourist Board. All news and updates are available at http://zagrebdox.net/ and on the festival’s social media.