The relentless flow of news on wars, genocides and deepening social and economic precarization risks numbing us, cultivating a pervasive sense of helplessness. Many of us feel we are living at a breaking point: political systems, social cohesion, and democratic values are under strain, while the so-called “rules-based order” is increasingly giving way to the “rule of power”. At the same time, the rise of authoritarianism and the normalization of far-right discourses of hostility toward the “other” corrode the already fractured society, while the frame of acceptable public discourse is shrinking. Individualism and polarized bubbles further sever the civic bonds that make collective resistance possible.

We are asked to accept austerity – of thought, of economy, of action – as a virtue. Yet a society that amputates its education, culture, social protections, and public health systems cannot survive in any sustainable or ethically viable sense, for such measures inevitably target first the most vulnerable. And neither human needs nor rights can be measured into the mercantilist logic of the profit. When austerity and militarization are enforced as the only responses to crises, the minimum act of civic clarity is to question the rationality of that path.

In this spirit, our main film section, ON THE VERGE, brings together films from across the world, stories of ordinary people who choose to challenge the conditions imposed on them or others by wars, displacement, toxic family ties, precarious labour, systemic injustice, and (social) racism.

PAIKAR and A FOX UNDER A PINK MOON are two complementary films that explore belonging and the pursuit of a safer, better life from different Afghani perspectives. IN THIS TOGETHER and WELDED TOGETHER both depict different forms of solidarity and togetherness – Uber drivers confronting their corporate superiors with the harsh realities of their exploitative working conditions, or a sister trying to save her baby sibling from the family’s toxic environment.

The dehumanization of people during war are explored in AMERICAN DOCTOR and 2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA. In Gaza, medics risking their lives take on the added responsibility of testifying on behalf of the voiceless from a place where international rules are pulverised together with the bodies of innocents. While on the Ukrainian frontline, its “live-or-die absolutism” is contrasted through moments where soldiers’ candid confessions insist on reclaiming human values.

At the precipice of humanism lies SYNTHETIC SINCERITY, a tender and bittersweet look at the moral and ethical encroachment of AI industry into our lives – and the limits of its attempt to categorize and replicate our humanity.