International Documentary Festival Amsterdam 2024: Pathway ‘Life in Europe’
25 Oct 2024
Since 2019 the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and the European Cultural Foundation present a selection of documentary films that encourages public debate on Europe, in the pathway Life in Europe. This year IDFA takes place from November 14 to 24.
The history of Europe is made up of many stories told by many people with varying perspectives. These stories are essential for developing sentiments, a sense of belonging, but also for challenging the status quo where it seems insufficient. We are happy to present the 2024 selection of films that delve into the many facets of life in Europe today. As the continent encounters and adjusts to a rapidly changing world, themes of identity, environment, and migration remain at the forefront of the conversation
Since the start of our collaboration with IDFA we jointly host DocTalks during the festival; longer conversations with directors and protagonists in their documentary, and invited guests. You can read more about this year’s documentaries, the DocTalks and our special guests below.
Dear Beautiful Beloved (Juri Rechinsky, 2024)

The war in Ukraine doesn’t stop at the front line. In addition to the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, the Russian invasion has also claimed the lives of thousands of Ukrainian civilians. And many more have been driven out of their familiar surroundings. The war has destroyed homes, torn families apart and displaced populations.
In the midst of this wartime violence, a complex but highly effective relief network has emerged. Support for refugees and displaced persons is ongoing, as is the evacuation of older people living near the front, and the retrieval of the bodies of civilian and military victims.
Dear Beautiful Beloved is a careful and sensitive account of several humanitarian operations dependent entirely on the boundless dedication of volunteers. They receive refugees and guide them to train stations, help distressed seniors feel at home in bare reception shelters and drive through the country to pick up bodies, keep records and safeguard their belongings. Tirelessly they continue their work. There are moments of light even in these dark times, but they never last long.
Screening, followed by Doc Talk on Sunday November 17, 17.30h at de Balie
This Doc Talk is a special collaboration between IDFA, ECF and the Antiwarcoalition. The Antiwarcoalition hosts Sense of Safety – an international art project that with a core exhibition of the same name in the YermilovCentre in Kharkiv, Ukraine surrounded by an open network of more than 20 cross-institutional events across 12 countries united under the banner Bridges of Solidarity. ‘Dear Beautiful Beloved’ and the Doc Talk between the director Juri Rechinsky and Antiwarcoalition’s curator Tatiana Kochubinska will be live-streamed in the YermilovCentre.
Tickets via IDFA.
Favoriten (Ruth Beckermann, 2024)

The pupils at the Viennese school where Ilkay Idiskut teaches come from a wide variety of countries. Each child brings their own cultural baggage into the classroom – as we hear, for example, a boy say that girls shouldn’t wear bikinis. Hints of the children’s underlying traumas are revealed through a disturbing drawing or a question about violent child abduction.
The children are each given an iPhone for making videos, offering a glimpse into their personal lives. No matter how different the 25 boys and girls are, they have one thing in common: they are doing their best to learn German. They are not the only ones: more than 60 percent of the children at Viennese primary schools don’t speak German as their first language.
At the same time, there’s a major shortage of teachers. Filmmaker Ruth Beckermann took this tension as her starting point during her three years of filming. And she movingly reveals its impact when Idiskut has to go on maternity leave and there is no replacement.
Screening, followed by Doc Talk on Thursday November 21, 14.30h at EYE Amsterdam
In this Doc Talk we will get to know more of Vienna and the dreams young inhabitants of the city have for themselves and our continent. Director Ruth Beckermann will be joined by curator Fariba Mosleh of Brunnenpassage. Brunnenpassage was one of The European Pavilion studios in 2021-2022. With their awarded project StoryTelling: Europe! they stimulated imaginaries beyond the national, involved people from marginalized groups, and invited them to tell hidden stories and to dream.
Tickets via IDFA.