Documentary films – War Watch

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Hold on to Her review – horrific death of a two-year-old puts immigration crackdown in spotlight
ByPhil Hoad February 2, 2026

Robin Vanbiesen’s documentary uses the killing of Mawda Shawri in Belgium as the starting point to explore the dehumanising machinery of border policyHere is an insightful but perhaps over oblique Belgian documentary that sets itself an ambitious goal:…

Read More Hold on to Her review – horrific death of a two-year-old puts immigration crackdown in spotlight
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Do You Love Me review – exhilarating documentary is ode to the collective courage of Lebanese people
ByPhuong Le February 2, 2026

In this freewheeling film Lana Daher draws from more than 20,000 hours of archival footage to channel the resilient spirit of BeirutAs freewheeling as a travelogue, Lana Daher’s mercurial documentary eschews talking heads and voiceover, drawing instead…

Read More Do You Love Me review – exhilarating documentary is ode to the collective courage of Lebanese people
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Cover-Up review – atrocity exposer Seymour Hersh, journalist legend, gets a moment in the spotlight
ByPeter Bradshaw December 3, 2025

Hersh’s record on uncovering the big stories, from My Lai to Abu Ghraib, speaks for itself. This documentary watches him at work: dogged, nonconformist and combativeRenowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh was never played in a film by Robert Re…

Read More Cover-Up review – atrocity exposer Seymour Hersh, journalist legend, gets a moment in the spotlight
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Culture | Documentary films | Donald Trump | Film | Gaza | Investigative journalism | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Iraq | Israel | Israel–Iran War | Laura Poitras | Media | Middle East and north Africa | New York Times | Newspapers | Newspapers & magazines | Nuclear weapons | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | US news | US press and publishing | Watergate | World news

Cover-Up review – atrocity exposer Seymour Hersh, journalist legend, gets a moment in the spotlight
ByPeter Bradshaw December 3, 2025

Hersh’s record on uncovering the big stories, from My Lai to Abu Ghraib, speaks for itself. This documentary watches him at work: dogged, nonconformist and combativeRenowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh was never played in a film by Robert Re…

Read More Cover-Up review – atrocity exposer Seymour Hersh, journalist legend, gets a moment in the spotlight
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Cutting Through Rocks review – the female firebrand fighting the patriarchy in rural Iran
ByPhuong Le October 13, 2025

Sara Shahverdi refuses to accept the norms of her deeply conservative village as she becomes its first female councillor. But for every step forward, as this dynamic documentary shows, a further obstacle is thrown in her pathBeing the first anything is…

Read More Cutting Through Rocks review – the female firebrand fighting the patriarchy in rural Iran
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Culture | Documentary films | Donald Trump | Film | Gaza | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel-Gaza war | Israel–Iran War | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | World news

Holding Liat review – powerful study of a family torn apart by Hamas’ 7 October attacks
ByPeter Bradshaw September 10, 2025

Brandon Kramer’s documentary complicates any simple view of the Israel-Gaza war in its portrait of one family’s agonising divisionsAt the present moment, for pro-Palestinian campaigners, mention of the hostages and victims of Hamas’s 7 October attacks …

Read More Holding Liat review – powerful study of a family torn apart by Hamas’ 7 October attacks
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‘It’s so different from the media narrative’: telling a different story of 7 October
ByJulian Borger September 9, 2025

Brandon Kramer’s documentary Holding Liat follows an Israeli family torn apart by the Hamas attacks, but clinging to hopes of reconciliationWhen Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities on 7 October 2023, unleashing a devastating retaliation against…

Read More ‘It’s so different from the media narrative’: telling a different story of 7 October
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Culture | Documentary films | Donald Trump | Film | Gaza | Hamas | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel-Gaza war | Israel–Iran War | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | World news

‘It’s so different from the media narrative’: telling a different story of 7 October
ByJulian Borger September 9, 2025

Brandon Kramer’s documentary Holding Liat follows an Israeli family torn apart by the Hamas attacks, but clinging to hopes of reconciliationWhen Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities on 7 October 2023, unleashing a devastating retaliation against…

Read More ‘It’s so different from the media narrative’: telling a different story of 7 October
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Where God Is Not review – victims of torture by the Iranian secret police re-enact their abuse
ByPhuong Le September 8, 2025

Empowering for some, deeply traumatic for others, the former detainees in Mehran Tamadon’s documentary paint a harrowing picture of systematic maltreatmentMehran Tamadon’s probing film operates a kind of dialogue with his related documentary My Worst E…

Read More Where God Is Not review – victims of torture by the Iranian secret police re-enact their abuse
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Where God Is Not review – victims of torture by the Iranian secret police re-enact their abuse
ByPhuong Le September 8, 2025

Empowering for some, deeply traumatic for others, the former detainees in Mehran Tamadon’s documentary paint a harrowing picture of systematic maltreatmentMehran Tamadon’s probing film operates a kind of dialogue with his related documentary My Worst E…

Read More Where God Is Not review – victims of torture by the Iranian secret police re-enact their abuse