While some dream of breaking free into the world, others flee its anxieties as far as they can, searching for their own place or stubbornly holding fast to the small homelands they refuse to leave. The final outstanding titles in the International Documentary Competition take us to depopulating villages of Macedonia, the remote island of Tristan, and Paraguayan enclaves built by wealthy Europeans – uncovering the social and economic inequalities and fault lines of our contemporary world. This is cinema at once penetrating and formally bold, one that confronts dreams with reality and poses questions about solitude, exclusion, and the price of life at the most far-flung corners of the globe.
Neocolonial Dreams of Freedom
In Around Paradise, Yulia Lokshina looks closely at a group of affluent Europeans fleeing their own anxieties – vaccines, taxation, Islam, the spectre of a third world war, and climate catastrophe. They seek respite in the impoverished southern reaches of Paraguay, where in El Paraíso Verde they are constructing a self-sufficient enclave intended to serve as their artificial paradise.
The director, however, reveals the darker dimensions of this project, exposing the settlers’ spiritual aspirations as part of a neocolonial fantasy of freedom. The counterpoint to this tale is the story of two young Paraguayans, whose struggles, dreams, and local traditions remain all but invisible to the newcomers.
As Far Away as Possible
The melancholic Tristan Forever, directed by Tobias Nölle’s and co-directed by Loran Bonnardot, transports us to Tristan – a British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic, widely regarded as one of the most isolated but still inhabited places on Earth. It is here that a Parisian doctor returns after 30 years, this time with the intention of staying for good.
This fictionalised documentary clashes the romantic notion of life at the edge of the world against the harsh climate, forbidding environment, and an insular community, asking what you might be fleeing from to travel so far – and what you truly seek in a place that constitutes the entire world for its inhabitants.
Between Fairy Tale and Reality
The deeply moving The Tale of Silyan by Tamara Kotevska – the latest work from the director of Honeyland – takes us to the depopulating villages of Macedonia, where storks remain the most faithful companions of the last remaining residents.
Drawing upon magical realism, this documentary tells the story of Nikola, who, following his family’s emigration to the West, does his best to survive in a world increasingly hostile to traditional farming. It is a film about exclusion, a crumbling landscape, and a vanishing way of life, yet equally about the shared fate of humans and animals, and about a beauty that still demands to be preserved.
The final titles selected for the International Documentary Competition:
- Around Paradise, dir. Yulia Lokshina, 120’ Germany, 2026
- Tristan Forever, dir. Tobias Nölle, co-dir. Loran Bonnardot, 90’, Switzerland, 2026
- The Tale of Silyan, dir. Tamara Kotevska, 80’, North Macedonia, USA, 2025
Insider passes for the 66th Krakow Film Festival are now on sale!
The Krakow Film Festival is on the exclusive list of film events qualifying for the Academy Awards® in short film categories (fiction, animation, documentary) and feature-length documentary, the European Film Awards in the same categories, and serves as a qualifying event for the BAFTA Awards.
The Krakow Film Festival is organised with financial support from the City of Krakow, the Polish Film Institute, the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme, and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state purpose fund. The Polish Filmmakers Association serves as co-organiser.
The 66th Krakow Film Festival will be held in cinemas from 31 May to 7 June 2027 and online on KFF VOD from 5 June to 19 June 2026.