Notturno

Notturno (2020) is Gianfranco Rosi's documentary, available to watch online on iFILM. He spent three years filming along the seams where Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and Lebanon meet — no narration, no news footage.

Rather than explain the wars, Rosi films the life pressed up against them. A mother grieves in an emptied prison. Young men steer a boat across black water. Children draw what they saw under ISIS rule. Patients in a psychiatric ward rehearse a play. Out of these scattered moments comes a portrait of a region quietly rebuilding ordinary days on top of ruin.

The camera behaves like a painter's eye — long takes, careful light, silence where a voiceover would normally sit. Rosi has already taken Berlin's Golden Bear and Venice's Golden Lion, and Italy put this one forward for the Academy Awards, where it reached the documentary shortlist. Slow, contemplative cinema for viewers willing to watch instead of being told. Stream Notturno (2020) online on iFILM.