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The 69th DOK Leipzig will take place from 26 October to 1 November 2026, bringing together 217 documentary films, animated works and extended reality (XR) projects. Founded in 1955 in East Germany, DOK Leipzig is one of the world’s longest-running documentary film festivals. During the Cold War, it became a meeting place for filmmakers from East and West, while navigating the political restrictions of the German Democratic Republic. Today, its programme brings documentary cinema, animation and immersive works together.
This year’s programme includes 76 films competing for the Golden and Silver Doves, with 30 world premieres. It is also the first edition under festival director Ola Staszel, who has introduced Positions, a new section bringing screenings together with extended discussions on political, historical and social questions.
Films connected to the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus appear across several sections of the programme. They address displacement, migration, political conflict, identity and cultural memory, through documentary, animation and immersive forms.
Speaking to Souzian Dispatch, festival director Ola Staszel commented on the presence of these films in this year’s programme:
“DOK Leipzig 2026 presents a diverse selection of films from the Middle East, the Caucasus and North Africa, bringing cinematic perspectives from Jordan, Turkey, Israel, Georgia, Palestine, Armenia and Sudan to this year’s program.”
Ola Staszel also pointed to the different forms of filmmaking represented in the selection:
“Spanning across documentary and animated film as well as VR experiences, these works are featured in several festival sections, reflecting the breadth of artistic approaches and storytelling practices. With the selection, we want to contribute to making the complexity of social and political realities in these parts of the world visible.”
For its opening report, Souzian Dispatch has identified 22 films and works within its editorial coverage scope, including titles connected to Iran and Afghanistan through their subjects, filmmakers or diaspora communities. The following sections introduce these works, their filmmakers and their place in the festival’s programme.
Palestine and Jordan
Concrete Land
Director: Asmahan Bkerat
Production: Jordan, Palestine
Section: International Competition Documentary Film | Premiere: German Premiere
Story: Three generations of the Najar family, an Afro-Palestinian Bedouin family, live in tents on the outskirts of Amman. Their daily routines come under pressure as new villas appear around them, threatening their home. Through the family’s experiences, the documentary touches on displacement, racism and the struggle to remain on the land.
in memory of
Director: Florinda Ciucio
Production: Belgium
Section: International Competition Documentary Film | Premiere: World Premiere
Story: Mohammed Imrani draws streets, buildings and familiar places in Gaza that now exist only in his memory. As he sketches, he recalls the city he knew, from everyday encounters to personal relationships. The short documentary records memories of a place transformed by war.
For Life
Director: Ahmet Seven
Production: Turkey
Section: Audience Competition | Premiere: German Premiere
Story: Hind Mashahra, a Palestinian woman, hopes to become a mother while her husband is serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison. She attempts to obtain his sperm for fertility treatment, navigating checkpoints and restrictions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The documentary follows her efforts and the personal consequences of imprisonment and separation.
We Shall Return
Directors: Keren Manor, Faiz Abu Rmeleh
Production: Germany, Palestine
Section: DOK Neuland | Premiere: German Premiere
Story: Using 360-degree footage and recordings made by local residents and activists, this immersive work documents Palestinian communities facing displacement in the West Bank. The project draws on first-hand accounts of families living under pressure from Israeli settlers and security forces, bringing their experiences into an immersive exhibition setting.
Armenia
A Fire There
Director: Marlene Edoyan
Production: Canada
Section: Doc Alliance | Premiere: German Premiere
Story: In Gandzani, a predominantly Armenian village in southern Georgia, three childhood friends begin to take different paths. One considers studying in the capital, another plans to leave for work in Moscow, while the third faces changes in his personal relationships. The documentary follows their decisions against the backdrop of political uncertainty and village life.
Stones
Director: Arman Ayvazyan
Production: Armenia
Section: 5x5 Shorts from the East
Story: Before the 2020 handover of the Lachin area to Azerbaijan, volunteers attempt to remove medieval Armenian khachkar stones to protect them from possible destruction. The documentary records an effort to preserve cultural heritage as control of the territory changes.
Black Hole
Director: Gor Arushanyan
Production: Poland, Armenia
Section: 5x5 Shorts from the East
Story: Adam, a graffiti artist, moves through Yerevan, leaving his marks on the city. His work and surroundings bring memories of war into view, connecting personal expression with the recent history of Armenia.
Edge
Director: Sona Khachatryan
Production: Armenia
Section: 5x5 Shorts from the East
Story: Three young men living on the outskirts of Yerevan reflect on their experiences of imprisonment as teenagers. Through their conversations, the film observes how those experiences continue to influence their relationships and everyday lives.
Snake Soup
Director: Zack Demirtshyan
Production: Armenia
Section: 5x5 Shorts from the East
Story: An Armenian soldier travels towards a battlefield. After an explosion, memories, imagined encounters and fragments of experience begin to overlap. The animated film approaches war through a surreal journey between reality and imagination.
The Song of Flying Leaves
Director: Armine Anda
Production: Armenia, Iran
Section: 5x5 Shorts from the East
Story: Twelve-year-old Suna meets an older man whose knowledge opens the way to an unexpected journey. The Armenian-Iranian animated short follows their encounter through imagination, friendship and images connected to Armenian writing and cultural memory.
Georgia
When the Sea Was Calm
Director: Mamuka Tkeshelashvili
Production: Georgia
Section: International Competition Animated Film | Premiere: German Premiere
Story: In Sukhumi, a thirteen-year-old boy spends his summer playing football and experiencing his first feelings of love, before the violence of 1993 changes his world. Through stop-motion animation, the film returns to childhood memories of the city before war and displacement.
A Song Without Home
Director: Rati Tsiteladze
Production: Georgia, United States, Austria
Section: Doc Alliance | Premiere: No Premiere
Story: Adelina, a trans woman from Georgia, leaves her family village for Vienna after years of living under restrictions at home. The documentary follows her search for independence and safety, as the freedom of a new city brings financial difficulties, loneliness and other challenges.
Afghanistan and Syria
Moving Sisters
Director: Christos Stefanou
Production: Greece
Section: Young Eyes | Premiere: World Premiere
Story: Three Afghan sisters grow up in a refugee camp in Athens while waiting to reunite with their mother in Germany. Filmed over seven years, the documentary follows their childhood and adolescence as changing immigration rules keep the family apart.
Garden of Hope
Director: Dieter Schumann
Production: Germany
Section: Fokus Ost | Premiere: No Premiere
Story: Residents of a housing estate in Schwerin, including Omar from Syria and Abdul from Afghanistan, come together to cultivate a shared garden. The documentary observes how gardening brings together people with different experiences of migration, loneliness and hardship.
North African Diaspora
Auber 89
Director: Giuseppe Schillaci
Production: France, Italy
Section: International Competition Documentary Film | Premiere: International Premiere
Story: French-Algerian actor Fatsah Bouyahmed revisits Aubervilliers, the working-class Paris suburb where he grew up in the 1980s. After an accident affects his memory, previously unseen archival footage helps him reconstruct his childhood and the relationships within the neighbourhood’s immigrant communities.
Iran
Free Zone
Director: Jasmine Alakari
Production: Germany
Section: German Competition Documentary Film | Premiere: World Premiere
Story: Abtin, an Iranian political activist living in Athens, supports refugee communities in Exarcheia, where police operations and redevelopment threaten alternative forms of housing. The documentary follows his activism and daily life in exile, where his political commitments also place his residence status and personal freedom at risk.
waking up in silence
Directors: Mila Zhluktenko, Daniel Asadi Faezi
Production: Germany, Ukraine
Section: 5x5 Shorts from the East
Story: Ukrainian children displaced by war live in a former German military barracks that has become temporary refugee accommodation. Through their games and conversations, the documentary observes how childhood continues alongside memories of war. The film is included in this coverage through co-director Daniel Asadi Faezi’s Iranian family background.
Sudan
Nothing Happens After Your Absence
Director: Ibrahim Omar
Production: Sudan
Section: International Competition Documentary Film | Premiere: German Premiere
Story: Ibrahim returns to his village in Sudan hoping to organise a film screening. Four football teams, named after filmmakers including Abbas Kiarostami and Elia Suleiman, compete to decide which film will be shown. The plans encounter local resistance and bureaucracy before the outbreak of war changes everything.
Israel and Palestine
The Snake Charmer
Director: Jonathan Om
Production: Germany
Section: German Competition Documentary Film | Premiere: World Premiere
Story: Thai agricultural workers tend fields in Israel close to the Gaza border, where long working hours and military surveillance shape their daily lives. A robotic snake designed to search for underground tunnels moves through the fields, while the workers face the dangers of living and working near a war zone.
Fracture
Director: Keren Kreizer
Production: Belgium, Israel
Section: Positions | Premiere: German Premiere
Story: An Israeli dancer living in Belgium returns to Israel and begins recording her experiences during protests against the government. Her video diary moves between personal relationships, political activism and the events surrounding the war, as she questions her connection to the country she left.
UAE & Kuwait
Heat
Director: Jacqueline Zünd
Production: Switzerland
Section: Audience Competition | Premiere: German Premiere
Story: In the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, extreme temperatures shape the lives of workers and residents. The documentary observes people coping with the heat under very different economic conditions, from outdoor labourers to those able to escape into air-conditioned spaces.
Images of the Middle East
Afterlives
Director: Kevin B. Lee
Production: Germany, Belgium, France
Section: Doc Alliance | Premiere: No Premiere
Story: Kevin B. Lee examines Flames of War, a propaganda film released by the Islamic State group in 2014, looking at how images of violence are produced and used to communicate extremist ideology. Through conversations with artists, researchers and experts on extremism, the documentary moves beyond the original footage to examine the destruction of cultural heritage, efforts to counter radicalisation and the ways the Middle East has been represented through Western colonial perspectives.
Souzian Dispatch will follow selected films from the International Competition, German Competition, Audience Competition, Doc Alliance, Positions, DOK Neuland and other sections as part of its DOK Leipzig 2026 coverage.
Our photographer, Mojtaba Mortazavi, will also be in Leipzig to document moments from the festival. You can see his photography on Instagram at @mojmrtzvi.
If you are attending DOK Leipzig, I would be happy to hear about films, filmmakers or events that deserve attention. You are welcome to share screening tips, suggestions or story ideas.
You can follow Souzian Dispatch (@SouzianDispatch) and Abbas Souzian (@AbbasMHosseini) on Instagram for updates throughout the festival.
For more updates on cinema and arts from the Middle East, follow me here.