The Norwegian documentary about Jens Stoltenberg’s final year as NATO Secretary General is also competing at CPH:DOX 2025, along with 27 other Nordic titles.

Norwegian director Tommy Gulliksen’s new documentary Facing War will open this year’s edition of CPH:DOX – Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, which takes place in the Danish capital March 19-30.

The film is also selected for the festival’s main competition, and will have its world premiere at the CPH:DOX 2025 opening gala in the concert hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music on March 19.

About to step down as NATO’s Secretary General at the end of his term, Jens Stoltenberg is persuaded by U.S. President Joe Biden to remain in the position for one final year as Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on. The Norwegian top diplomat promises President Zelensky that the Alliance will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes, and must navigate the increased tensions and rally all the member nations behind him.

Described as an epic drama about the war between Russia and Ukraine and the role the Alliance will play in the future, Facing War is filmed with unique access to NATO’s inner sanctum and one of the greatest political leaders of our time at a time of upheaval.

“We are delighted to kick off this year’s festival with the world premiere of such a highly relevant film, which takes us deep behind the diplomatic negotiations and twists that followed – and continue to follow – in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At a time when the rule-based world order, established after 1945, is under serious pressure, the importance of diplomacy and stable international alliances that have upheld it is as clear as ever. Facing War offers a rare insight into how these alliances, especially when under threat, require leadership and finesse to maintain the necessary stability in an increasingly unpredictable world,” says Niklas Engstrøm, Artistic Director of CPH:DOX.

Directed by Tommy Gulliksen, Facing War is produced by Norwegian company Dox Division in co-production with Norway’s NRK, Sweden’s SVT and Belgium’s Think-Film Impact Production. The feature documentary is produced by Anne Marte Blindheim and Danielle Turkov Wilson with Tonje Hessen Schei, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn Dreyfous, Jim Swartz, and Susan Swartz as executive producers, and has received funding from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

“Norwegian films are doing increasingly well on the international festival circuit. Facing War at CPH DOX is the latest case in point. The golden age of Norwegian documentary continues,” says the Norwegian Film Institute’s CEO Kjersti Mo.

The newly published competition programme features a total of 28 Nordic productions/co-productions, including Yrsa Roca Fannberg’s The Ground Beneath Our Feet, which is the only Icelandic documentary in the competitions.

To the programme: CLICK HERE.

CPH:DOX will launch its programme on February 26.

Already confirmed for the festival is the Danish documentary Mr. Nobody against Putin (Mr. Nobody mod Putin), directed by David Borenstein and co-directed by Pasha Talankin. The feature doc depicts a Russian teacher who goes undercover to film what’s really happening at his school as primary schools across the country’s hinterlands are transformed into recruitment stages for the war in Ukraine. It is produced by Denmark’s Helle Faber for Made in Copenhagen in co-production with the Czech Republic’s Pink, also with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Mr. Nobody against Putin premiered in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance, where it won the Special Jury Award. On March 10, the film is set to open the HUMAN International Documentary Festival, taking place in Oslo, Norway, until March 16.

Also in Norway, another film supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, writer/director Brwa Vahabpour’s feature debut My Uncle Jens (Onkel Jens), will open the 21st edition of the Kosmorama International Film Festival in Trondheim on March 17. The dramedy will world premiere earlier the same month in the Narrative Feature Competition at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. The film is produced by Renée Mlodyszewski for True Content Production Norway, in co-production with Anda Ionescu from Romania’s Tangaj Production.