Movies that Matter Festival 2026: 6 recommendations by Just Peace
On March 20th, cinemas, theaters, and other cultural venues around the city will open their doors for the twentieth anniversary of Movies that Matter. This annual film festival screens films and documentaries—often followed by in-depth discussions or workshops—that encourage visitors to reflect on human rights and other social issues. To celebrate its 20th anniversary, this year's program features more than 90 documentaries, features, and short films that expose social injustices around the world. To help you avoid the hassle of choosing, we've highlighted six films you absolutely shouldn't miss below.
- A Free Daughter of Free Kyrgyzstan – Leigh lacobucci
Documentary
With her courageous, independent voice, young Kyrgyz singer Zere Asylbek sparks solidarity among women. But as freedom of speech and expression are suppressed and Zere faces more and more extreme accusations, the threats grow more menacing. Zere and her family increasingly worry: will she be able to face the mental pressures?
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- Black Water – Natxo Leuza
Documentary
In southern Bangladesh, Lokhi and her family prepare to escape an extreme climate and flee from their rural home. They are headed to Dhaka – the fastest growing city in the world as storms, cyclones and erosion force thousands of people every day to find refuge in the capital.
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- As I Lay Dying - Pegah Ahangarani en Mohammadreza Farzad
Short film
“There were so many of us, but when it all ended, each of us went our own way.” We see footage of the Green Movement, a wave of protests in Iran that began in the summer of 2009, in response to the presidential election fraud in favor of the incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. We see the chaos, the solidarity among the people, and the amazement too: that this is possible, that this is actually happening. Shaky handheld images capture both the energy of the crowd and the panic when shots suddenly ring out. Meanwhile, a voice-over calmly recounts what happened to the people we see.
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- American Doctor – Poh Si Teng
Documentary
When three American doctors – Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian – enter Gaza to save lives, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to make a difference. As the world watches a besieged and heavily bombed Gaza grapple with a humanitarian catastrophe, a collapsing healthcare system, and an unprecedented civilian death toll, American Doctor tells a deeply humanitarian story from which we must not look away.
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- Lost Land – Akio Fujimoto
Fiction
In the hope of reuniting with their scattered family, four-year-old Shafi and his nine-year-old sister Somira leave a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on a perilous journey to reach Malaysia. The long journey of refugees portrayed through the eyes of children, blending harsh reality with elements of fantasy.
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- Alles moet beter – Dikla Zeidler
Documentary
Alles moet beter (Do Better) portrays what it is like to grow up in a world shaped by systemic crises. The film follows several young people who are each affected by this failure in different ways, and traces their search for how things can—or must—be done better.
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Check out the full Movies that Matter program here
