Cinema: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, a sensitive winter

To kick off the new year, the Cinémathèque du documentaire par la Bpi continues its rich program at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, the Forum des images, and the mk2 Bibliothèque x Centre Pompidou, once again teaming up with the Centre Pompidou’s program as part of its constellation.

This winter, our program will mainly take place at the Forum des images, which will host Poétiques baltes, the largest retrospective ever dedicated to cinema from the three Baltic countries in France.

Following a retrospective dedicated to Latvian filmmaker Laila Pakalniņa in 2019, then to Lithuanian filmmaker Audrius Stonysen in 2024, Poétiques baltes – Estonie, Lettonie, Lituanie embraces the cinema of three countries with painful histories and a present marked by strong geopolitical tensions. Since the 1960s, the former Soviet socialist republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have produced works of stunning originality. Working within a rigid system and under the threat of censorship, the artists we invite you to discover found their own path through cinema. Their ideal of freedom takes the path of poetry to imagine a new formal language, in resistance to established forms.

There is already a fierce determination to break with dogma and a trajectory of emancipation that is both individual and collective. Nearly 35 years after regaining their independence, it is important to celebrate this vital momentum in order to better highlight our European solidarity. Since the massive invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the three Baltic countries once again feel directly threatened by their immediate neighbor.

This solidarity is also expressed in all its relevance and acuity in the second episode of Generation Ukraine. The documentary series, developed by ARTE with its European partners, returns exclusively to the Forum des images on February 7 and 8. As part of Voyage en Ukraine – une saison ukrainienne en France, organized by the French Institute, four new feature films directed and co-produced by Ukrainians will be screened in the presence of the filmmakers.

Our free screenings at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles continue throughout the day with Les yeux doc à midi on Fridays. The Sacrée famille ! program consists of eight screenings, concluding with the three finalists for the Les yeux doc 2026 Audience Award.

Another regular event organized jointly with the Ateliers Médicis and the Centre Pompidou, at the mk2 Bibliothèque, the Cinémathèque idéale des banlieues du monde takes us to new working-class neighborhoods in Madagascar and Italy.

We hope that you will continue to join us in large numbers to share the cinematic moments we have prepared for you, which this season are resolutely focused on discovery and the resilience of peoples.

To discover the full program, check out our calendar or the winter 2026 brochure (in French only)!