This year’s edition of Belgrade International Documentary Film Festival BELDOCS has brought us a variety of thought-provoking, educational and fun movies. For all the film lovers who are seeking for their next documentary thrill – here is a short list of some of the finest movies screened this year.

Chasing a Dream by Mladen Mitrović (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2015)

Let’s start with a Balkan movie – and a touchy one. A film crew from Sarajevo gets separated because of the war. Two decades later, they live in twelve different cities on four continents. Their director, chasing his dream, tries to reunite them. This movie is a blend of personal emotions and universal feelings for others, for your hometown, for the core values of the humanity.

Sonita by Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami (Iran/Germany/Switzerland, 2015)

The winner of Sundance festival in the World Cinema – Documentary competition brings us a sobering story about freedom. Sonita is only 15, but she maturely dreams of raising people’s awareness about the life of women from Afghanistan through music. She faces two huge obstacles – women from her culture must not sing and her family wants to marry her to a stranger. Read ‘marry’ as ‘sell’.

Controindicazione by Tamara von Steiner (Serbia, 2016)

Filmed in an Italian institution for mentally challenged criminals, this movie introduces us to the very bottom of the society. In this world, nobody cares about the patients. Well, aren’t drugs enough to take care of them? ‘Controindicazione’ questions the rigid rules, loose interest in patients and the ethics behind such systems.

Bolshoi Babylon by Nick Reed and Mark Franchetti (United Kingdom, 2015)

‘When there is something wrong with our theater, you know that there is something wrong with the whole country”, said one of the people featuring this movie. And this movie pushes us into the jungle of vanity, rivalry and other perks of being in the best ballet theater in the world. The story begins with an acid-attack scandal…

The Most Important Boy in the World by Tea Lukač (Serbia, 2016)

Although it deals with something seemingly superficial, such as fandom, this movie actually gives us a deeper insight in this pop cultural phenomenon, presenting the core causes of the obsessions with certain stars, including sociological and psychological aspects. The protagonist is a boy Belieber (a huge fan of Justin Bieber) who finds inspiration in JB’s songs to chase his own dreams.