It is not true that hard times bring out the worst in people. At least, this is certainly not the case when it comes to true auteur documentary filmmaking. Missiles are flying from Russia, entire cities are reduced to rubble, the number of victims is immeasurable, and the dictator-aggressor is emboldened, intensifying repressions against those in his own country who condemn the war… Ukraine and its people are heroically resisting aggression. Europe and the world increasingly speak of war fatigue. But then there is also Israel, Syria, the Caucasus… The shifting agendas of the global elites.

Yet the filmmakers of Artdocfest do not fall into despair or radicalism. It appears that tenderness is a quality that brings many people together. The possibility of love in these terrifying times. Love between two women-refugees from the country that has waged the war. Love between a father and son on an empire's cold and impoverished edge. Love for parents who have stayed in a summer house village, which until recently was a thriving place close to Kyiv. Love for a home left behind in Ukraine. Love for sons who have fallen in a war between foreign countries. A tenderness toward those abandoned by fate in seemingly well-off Slovakia.

These films also hold admiration. For the stoicism of Russian journalists who openly speak out against their country’s aggressive war, as Novaya Gazeta, led by Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel laureate and former jury member of our festival. For the selflessness of a man rescuing dogs and cats left behind in the chaos of war. For the perseverance of an Armenian teenage girl who tends to wounded animals forced into brutal dog fights, and for the resilience of her compatriots, who are saving ancient khachkars from Karabakh – material evidence of the nation's history.

The protagonists of the Artdocfest/Riga films also seek to understand the deeper reasons behind events. That is why an Azerbaijani filmmaker travels to a remote mountain village, resisting the zeitgeist. And a Czech director goes to Novosibirsk to place a magnifying glass over a nationalist, a devoted Putin supporter, to examine this astonishing phenomenon – a person fighting for the loss of his freedom.

However, it is interesting that tenderness and the need for understanding, which characterizes the festival’s films, has ultimately TURNED THIS FESTIVAL into a clear political statement – INTO A MANIFESTO in the name of humanity, at a time when inhumanity reigns in politics.