The 23rd Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival runs from November 16 to 25, bringing more than 80 films to Budapest and eight other Hungarian cities. The Hungarian documentary Papa opens the festival at Trafó on the evening of 16 November.
This year’s slogan, «Seeing is believing?», responds to a media landscape where AI and deepfakes make it harder than ever to trust what appears on screen. The question also carries a historical note, since the term «documentary value» was first used in 1926, exactly a century ago. Festival Director Enikő Gyureskó says, «It is becoming increasingly important to consider how we look at and interpret the world around us.»
Papa is set in Budapest’s District VIII and won Best Documentary at this year’s Hungarian Film Week. It also highlights one of the festival’s focuses: the diversity of Roma communities and works by Roma filmmakers. Alongside the Hungarian and international competitions, the programme addresses subjects that shape public discourse worldwide, from colonial legacies to the war in Ukraine, and includes films that test the formal limits of documentary.
Nathan Grossman’s Amazomania follows a reunion between a community in the Brazilian rainforest and the Western photographer who once documented them, and asks who has the right to tell a community’s story. Jonas Spriestersbach, director of Meanwhile in Namibia, will attend the festival, where his film traces how German colonial rule still shapes everyday life. Soldiers of Light, by Johannes Büttner and Julian Vogel, enters a far-right community in Germany to examine how wellness influencers and online groups can draw in young people searching for belonging. In Maasja Ooms’ My Word Against Mine, five people who hear voices take part in a therapeutic process in which a psychiatrist speaks directly to the voices themselves. The psychiatrist, Dirk Corstens, is heard but never seen on screen, and audiences can meet him in person.
Budapest screenings take place at the Toldi and Művész cinemas and at further venues, including the Centrális Gallery and Central European University Budapest. Szolnok joins the festival’s regional locations this year. Screenings come with Q&As and discussions involving filmmakers, participants and experts, and the student programme is larger than before.
For the first time since the festival launched in 2004, Verzió receives support from the National Film Institute (NFI), in the form of a HUF 50 million grant. «We consider this support an important professional recognition,» says Gyureskó.
The full programme will be available from mid-October.
