DocsBarcelona 2026 Opens With the Iranian film A Fox Under a Pink Moon
DocsBarcelona will open its 29th edition on May 7 with the Iranian film A Fox Under a Pink Moon, in which sixteen-year-old artist Soraya Akhlaghi documents her attempts to escape Iran, where she lives with her abusive husband, and reunite with her mother in Austria. Directed remotely by Iranian documentary filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei (Starless Dreams, Sunless Shadows), featuring footage Akhlaghi recorded over five years on her mobile phone, offers a first-person account of young women subjected to extreme social circumstances, providing an unusual perspective on both Iran and the migration crisis. The film will have its Spanish premiere at DocsBarcelona after winning the Best Film Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
Using everyday materials—like clay or wet egg cartons—Akhlaghi creates sculptures laden with meaning, transforming art into a way of processing her experience. Interweaving scenes from her daily life, political news, and videos of her singing, dancing, or displaying the marks of the violence she has endured, the film intertwines art and reality as a means of reconstruction and imagining the future.
The opening of DocsBarcelona will be held on Thursday, May 7th at the Aribau Cinemas in Barcelona and will feature the protagonist and co-director of the documentary, who will share with the public her life experience and the creative process behind the film.
For Maria Colomer, co-artistic director and head of programming at DocsBarcelona, “A Fox Under a Pink Moon portrays an urgent reality of our present with an original cinematic approach that is very conscious of its language. Amidst violence and uncertainty, the protagonist finds refuge and a form of resistance in art. As in the film, we hope that the festival will also be a space where art helps us to better understand the world and connect with it.”
Taboo-breaking perspectives, in the Official Competition
The Official Competition of DocsBarcelona 2026 will screen three stories that challenge conventions and taboos. Barbara Forever, by Brydie O’Connor, is an immersion into the life, work, and cultural impact of pioneering filmmaker Barbara Hammer.. Known for her courage, creative urgency, and ability to transform cinema, Hammer created films that were extensions of herself: sensual, experimental, and openly lesbian, rooted in a deep desire for connection and a need to tell her own story. Drawing on more than eighty films, previously unseen archival footage, and audio interviews, O’Connor turns the documentary into both a tribute to and an extension of Hammer’s legacy. Following its world premiere at Sundance 2026 and receiving the Teddy Award for Best Documentary at the Berlinale 2026, Barbara Forever will arrive in Barcelona.
The documentary The Woman Who Poked the Leopard, by Patience Nitumwesiga,also breaks taboos. It tells the story of Stella Nyanzione of Uganda’s most prominent activists. Imprisoned and tortured, Nyanzi defied Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni by defending queer rights in a country where homosexuality is punishable by death. The film offers a portrait not only of Nyanzi herself, but also of Uganda, and of how the figure of an activist mother, sometimes also marked by a strong ego, impacts her family.
Mailin, by María Silvia Esteve,reconstructs the director’s memories as she tells her daughter a bedtime story. The tale reveals a girl who suffered abuse for fifteen years at the hands of a priest and becomes an opportunity to offer her daughter the childhood she herself never had. The Argentine director, also known for Silvia and Criatura , has won awards at IDFA and the Guadalajara and Thessaloniki film festivals, and is currently developing Fauces as a Berlinale Talent.
Narratives of violence and resistance, in the Visions Competition
The Official Competition – Visions,which brings together films with innovative cinematic language that expand the boundaries of non-fiction, will explore the impact of violence and its narrative on communities with two featured documentaries. Director and desktop cinemapioneer Kevin B. Lee (Transformers: The Premake) reviews this topic in Afterlives. The film explores the extremist violence coded in ISIS videos and the efforts of those resisting their impact. Beyond their toxic effects, it delves into the power structures that extend from the colonial past to the digital age. Kevin B. Lee has produced more than 360 video essays on film and media, was the founder and senior editor of Fandor, and has written for The New York Times, Sight & Sound, and Indiewire.. He currently teaches at the University of Lugano and collaborates with the Locarno Film Festival.
The German documentary Das Deutsche Volk, by Marcin Wierzchowski,depicts the racist attack in the city of Hanau, where nine young people were murdered in a matter of minutes. The film explores, over five years, the aftermath for the survivors, their families, and the community, and their struggle to reclaim a sense of belonging to the country they consider home.
