De Cinema offers a carefully curated selection of compelling recent, restored, and often overlooked documentaries: films that remind us of what’s happening in the world around us. With a preference for music documentaries and politically and socially charged storytelling, each week we dive into the wonderful world of essayistic and documentary cinema.

HIGHLIGHTS

How do images shape Cuba, and how do these images then decide how we look at the country? In the light of Bert Danckaert’s exhibition El Jardín de los Cerezos (5 sept – 11 okt) in Plus-One Antwerp, De Cinema brings together two films, each looking from a different angle and historical context to Cuba: Agnès Varda’s SALUT LES CUBAINS and Mikhail Kalatozov’s SOY CUBA.

In NUESTRA TIERRA (OUR LAND), celebrated director Lucrecia Martel (LA CIÉNAGA, ZAMA) makes her non-fiction debut. Her documentary goes far beyond standard true crime. By weaving chilling phone footage of the crime together with the arduous legal battle and surreal landscapes, she exposes the lingering, deeply rooted scars of colonial violence and privilege.

For NAZA, recently awarded a special Jury Prize in Venice, Yuval Abraham and Racel Szor filmed from the roofs of Tel Aviv for three years. The documentary researches the systems behind the Israeli bombings on Gaza and the genocide against Palestine civilians. The filmmakers build on investigative reporting, published between 2023 and 2025 by The Guardian, the Israeli-Palestine +972 Magazine and the Hebrew Local Call, among others.