Immortals
IRAQ: Three voices seek identity and connection as Baghdad emerges as a living character shaped by politics and patriarchy.
Iraq
Verzió 2025 Sets November dates and unveils «We Exist Together» theme
The 22nd Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival will run 11–19 November 2025 across Hungary, followed by an online
Turkey’s military-industrial complex
MILITARISM: Techno-nationalism has strengthened Turkey’s proactive foreign policy, promoted national pride and reinforced the image of a powerful state. The ‘zero problems with neighbours’ paradigm that characterised Turkish foreign policy in the 2000s has been abandoned in favour of a more interventionist approach under the doctrine of ‘security at all costs’. In 2002, the total volume of defence industry projects was a modest USD 5.5 billion – by 2023, it will rise to over USD 96 billion.
Cinematic ethics – and dilemmas
ETHICS: What can a festival’s Inspiration Forum inspire us to do? We live in a world of representations, of pictures, war manipulating us as humans, and what about our relation to nature? Can an old philosopher show us a way?
The devil in the details
CONFLICT: Uncover the truth behind Conflict, an engaging but flawed analysis of warfare from 1945 to Ukraine.
The unflinching eye
Death, everywhere
IRAQ: The hopes and broken dreams of a generation who has known nothing but war since the country’s U.S.-led occupation.
Why are the youth in Iraq protesting?
IRAQ: In Iraq, the youth don’t trust the politicians or the parties. We met the director and producer of Baghdad on Fire, which addresses the bad governance of their country’s leaders and the mobilisation of the youth who really fight for change.
The perilous path of exposing corruption
IRAN: Examining Iran’s lack of free media and the risks faced by those, like Roohallah Zam, who dare to challenge the clerical elite’s authority.
«You may end up with the only peace – being the peace of the graveyard.»
INTERVIEW: We are talking with the previous Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, the man who could have been prime minister in Britain, about current issues – like military build-up, Ukraine, Israel, climate justice and labour, security, democracy, citizen assemblies, and not least of all, hope for the future.
«I relish being a stranger in a strange land»
MDOC: Modern Times Review spoke with photographer and filmmaker Maythem Ridha on his experiences as an Iraqi in the UK, journey to film and photography, favourite Middle Eastern films, and more.
To be a stranger in one’s own town
IRAQ: The Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has written an excellent book that dispels the typical view of a sectarian and divided society as the main cause of Iraq’s long and continuing tragedy.