Trains -Watch the trailer for the new found-footage documentary

Trains is a found-footage documentary composed entirely of archive footage and sound design that creates a collective portrait of people in 20th century Europe, capturing their hopes, desires, dramas and tragedies.

A train compartment is a place where people are taken out of their everyday context for a while. Sometimes the journey is accompanied by the hope that something will change in our lives upon reaching the destination, or conversely, by a stark absence of hope. The film was Winner of Best Film and Best Editing at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2024.

And yet the history of the 20th century unfolds in railway carriages in a repetitive refrain. Every few years, hauntingly similar scenes play out in railway stations around the world: carriages full of men leaving for war, only to return wounded or as casualties. This cycle is followed by an exodus of civilians, evacuees mingling with prisoners of war returning from camps, and soldiers of victorious armies leading the defeated, until ordinary passengers reappear at stations.

Directed by Maciej J. Drygas, the film will have a special One-Night Screening at Maysles Documentary Center, Oct 2. Opens in New York at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema on Oct 3, before opening wide in the US.

IDFA (International’s Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) is an international documentary institute that guides, inspires and shapes opinions. This institute consists of a public festival, a fund, two markets, programs for new media, talent development and education, and an online platform. With the interests of the general public, professionals and educators in mind, the IDFA institute aims to base its selection of documentary films and projects not only on artistic quality, but also on urgency and accessibility, to be an institute where inclusivity and gender equality are driving forces and where all departments are committed to talent development, new media and diversity.