This year’s World Documentary Competition program features three films that trace its subjects over years. In two cases, the subjects are impacted by the Syrian revolution and subsequent war. The third follows a handful of women as they battle defamation lawsuits across the globe in the wake of #MeToo. All three films highlight the high cost of resilience.
Co-directed by London-based Lebanese journalist Janay Boulos and Syrian activist and cameraman Abd Alkader Habak, “Birds of War” utilizes thirteen years of personal archives, from text messages and on the ground footage to news broadcasts and family photographs, to tell the story of how the two met and fell in love during the start of the Syrian revolution. Boulos produced segments on the war for the BBC, while Habak lived through it. The two initially connect via text as Boulos works to find footage filmed by people on the ground. Over the course of the conflict, their work texts blossom into something deeper, pushing Habak to decide whether their love is worth a life lived in exile. The prospect of that life becomes less of a choice and more a life raft after a photograph of Habak saving a child from a massacre that took the lives of 120 people, including sixty-eight children, goes viral online and the activist becomes a target, forcing him to seek asylum abroad.
Their love story is told as an interwoven dialogue where we learn about Habak’s background in Syria before the war and Boulos’ life growing up in Lebanon as a Christian from a relatively well-to-do family. He stayed in his country as long as he could in order to document the revolution. “I take risks,” Habak says, “because I want the world to see what is happening to us.” She left hers after college in order to work in journalism abroad so that she would not be pressured by the political parties in Lebanon that control the media. This technique offers an interesting peek into the recent history of both of their countries and how they are also, often, interwoven. The only major missteps of the doc are the overwrought score and the cold open which uses footage shot by Habak as he flees Syria into the Turkish border during the night. Both artistic choices transform the doc from something intimate and raw into the world of sensationalism.
Isra’a Kassas appears in One In A Million by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jack MacInnesFilmed over the course of ten years, Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes’ “One in a Million” follows Syrian refugee Isra’a from the moment her father chooses to leave their country during the start of the revolution, through her adolescence in Germany, and back to Syria at the end of the conflict. By following the girl for a decade, we not only watch her grow into a young woman, but the film also offers a rare glimpse at both the joys and strains of a life lived between two worlds.
When we first meet Isra’a she is just ten years old and she’s close with her father Izmir. As they journey together, along with her younger siblings and her mom Nisreen, the family experiences many hardships and witnesses several atrocities. It’s hard to watch someone as young as Isra’a take in these horrors. Her father even says, “she shares a burden beyond what she can handle.” Yet, once the family makes it to Cologne, Germany, Isra’a assimilates quickly, making friends and adopting western habits. Over the years in Germany, not only does the doc show how the rise of the new alt-right affects the well-being of refugees in the country, it also shows how the weight of the trauma the family carried with them causes it to bend and eventually fracture. While Germany offers her and her mother newfound freedoms, her father’s inability to let go of his controlling ways leads towards violent ends. Isra’a also learns that assimilation is not always the best path forward.
Unfortunately, like “Birds of War,” this doc also begins at the end, with footage of grown-up Isra’a visiting Syria for the first time in ten years. This footage is then replayed at the end of the film with more context. However, the repetition of the footage does not add any depth to the film. This kind of cold open deflates the emotional journey we’re about to go on with Isra’a before it’s even started. I’m not sure when this trend in documentary filmmaking started, but it needs to stop.
Jennifer Robinson appears in Silenced by Selina Miles, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. | photo by Michael LathamUsing several high-profile cases across the globe, Selina Miles’ “Silenced” tracks how systemic bias in legal systems have resulted in litigious backlash to the #MeToo movement. Seen as reckoning across the globe as it unearthed the rampant sexual harassment and abuse that was commonplace in the entertainment industry and other workplaces, #MeToo saw women speaking out against abusers in record numbers. Unfortunately, as these women spoke truth to power, they were also retaliated against by many powerful men through the use of defamation laws.
The film uses new interviews and archival footage as it follows several high-profile cases of women whose lives were turned upside down not only by the initial abuse, but through legal means as well. This includes the landmark Stocker v Stocker case in the UK, where a woman was sued for defamation by her husband because in a police report she said he tried to strangle her during an attack. The semantics of the definition of “strangle” became a matter of the court. Along with the case, the film also follows human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson as she represents Amber Heard in ex-husband Johnny Depp’s lawsuit against the Sun in the UK, a defamation case that held ramifications for the state of journalism in the country. A similar case occurred in Colombia, where feminist journalist Catalina Ruiz-Navarro was sued three different ways for a piece she reported in the online Volcánicas regarding the alleged sexual abuse by “Embrace of the Serpent” co-director Ciro Guerra. In Australia, former legislative aid Brittany Higgins has faced several cases against herself and been a witness in cases where outlets were sued for defamation after going public about her rape that happened after hours in the Australian Parliament House.
The film is at its best when it focuses on the commonalities of these cases, and others in Africa, France, and all over the globe, where the legal system is used to silence both women who have come forward, but also those who will no longer report what happened to them for fear of similar retaliation. It’s an infuriating watch for anyone with a conscience but will also be triggering for anyone who has faced sexual harassment or abuse (it definitely was for me).
However, the film falters when it focuses too much on Robinson, who often feels like she’s shilling more for her book more than she is her cause. That is, except for the final scene with Robinson and her grandmother, a woman who divorced in an era where it was not common in Australia and not only forged a life for her family as a single mom, but also dedicated a good portion of it to helping other abused women escape their abusers and restart theirs. She shares that doing this work caused her to have two nervous breakdowns, but that “you get up because if you don’t get up some other woman won’t be able to.” It’s a chilling reminder that there is so much more work to do, and no matter what the cost is to you personally or professionally, it’s worth it if you can save a life.
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