The second Torino Film Festival directed by Giulio Base confirmed the new direction already taken in 2024: the spotlight is firmly on the guest stars, while the films themselves tend to slip into the background. For many years, the documentary section (once known as TFFdoc) was one of the festival’s crown jewels; a documentary competition still exists, but with fewer titles and less room for independent and experimental cinema. Still, it is a pleasure to note the success of Bobò, the film by Pippo Delbono dedicated to his friend and collaborator Vincenzo Cannavacciuolo. Presented in Turin as its Italian premiere (after debuting in Locarno) and released in cinemas shortly thereafter, the film received a Special Mention in the Documentary Competition, a Mention in the Gandhi’s Glasses Award, and won the Interfaith Prize. Alongside Bobò, the festival also made room—across documentaries and fiction—for other powerful true stories. Here are three examples.
Dolph: Unbreakable by Andrew Holmes is a documentary about Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren, who became world-famous with his very first film role (Ivan Drago in Rocky IV) and went on to remain one of the most recognizable figures in action cinema. This, however, is not a straightforward success story. While half of the film charts Lundgren’s career, the other half focuses on his relationship with illness and the fear of death. Several years ago he was diagnosed with multiple tumors, and since then—moving in and out of hospitals while continuing to work—he has had to accept that the powerful body on which he built his career (even giving up a scholarship in engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) had turned against him, exposing his fragility. Accustomed to life in the spotlight, he also finds the courage to speak openly, showing what it means to live with a potentially fatal illness without giving up on loving the life that remains.
“Dolph: Unbreakable” by Andrew Holmes (2025)
H Is for Hawk by Philippa Lowthorpe is based on the autobiographical book in which Helen Macdonald recounts how she faced the grief of losing her father, the renowned British photojournalist Alisdair Macdonald. Played by Claire Foy, Helen chooses an unusual path through mourning: she decides to train a female goshawk, a fierce and decidedly un-cuddly bird of prey not to be confused with a falcon. The training becomes, in part, an obsession that isolates her from others, yet it is also a challenge—because a raptor must be won over through commitment and dedication. At first she devotes herself to Mabel (as she names the bird) to escape grief and the relational and professional struggles of her life; later, in teaching the bird to be both strong and loyal, she allows herself to be guided toward accepting the laws of nature, which also include death.
“H Is for Hawk” by Philippa Lowthorpe (2025)
The Teacher by Farah Nabulsi is inspired by real events, as stated in the opening credits: stories of ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank gathered by the director, with references also to the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit between 2006 and 2011 (though his name has been changed). Basem (Saleh Bakri), the teacher at the center of the story, witnesses the violence of the Israeli army and settlers, which shatters the lives of two brothers who are his pupils. He tries to embody a model of rational resistance to the occupation, yet at the same time cannot avoid being drawn into attempts to answer violence with violence. Meanwhile, the parents of a kidnapped Israeli-American soldier experience fear and suffering, inextricably intertwined with that of the Palestinians. Shot in the West Bank, the film portrays the harsh reality faced by Palestinians with a few simplifications too many, but it does not shy away from confronting the moral dilemmas—sometimes contradictory—of those who live there, examined from both an internal and an external perspective.
