CPH:DOX 2025
Review: Facing War

by Savina Petkova, Cineuropa
March 20, 2025

NATO chief Stoltenberg navigates his final year, balancing Ukraine support promises with rising European war fears. His diplomatic skills face tests in maintaining alliance unity, especially with leaders like Erdogan and Orban.

Tommy Gulliksen’s thrilling documentary follows NATO’s ex-Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as he mediates support for Ukraine in the last year of his term.

It’s easier to believe in a better world, politically speaking, when you can put a face to the word “democracy”, which remains an otherwise abstract notion that we hold in high regard. This is exactly what the opening film of this year’s CPH:DOX suggests.

Norwegian director Tommy Gulliksen presented the world premiere of his aptly named Facing War as part of the festival’s DOX:AWARD competition, and its subject is long-standing Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg – in other words, diplomacy personified.


Review: Facing War

Gulliksen follows the Secretary General throughout the final year of his role – a year that is almost borrowed time, it seems, when President Joe Biden personally insists Stoltenberg stay on as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine turns into a full-scale war.

Producer Anne Marte Blindheim, who is a former political commentator herself, facilitated the relationship between the director and Stoltenberg, as they all first met while working on a series profiling former Norwegian prime ministers. But Facing War paints a rather peculiar portrait, since it manages to keep a certain amount of distance, balancing out scenes that show “the diplomat” with those that present “the man behind” said diplomat. Interestingly enough, there is a parallel to be drawn between how such documentaries portray their subject and how the politicians themselves represent the supra-national organisations in the film. Two years ago, CPH:DOX’s F:ACT AWARD section premiered Blix Not Bombs, where Swedish director Greta Stocklassa quizzed her compatriot and renowned diplomat Hans Blix about his role in history. While Blix Not Bombs offered an opportunity for its subject to look back on a past that is relatively distant – meaning that the film itself became more about memory than about the present day – Facing War is so contemporary that sometimes it hurts.

In one scene, we see Biden up close, as he refers to the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as “President Putin”, and another time we see a congratulatory text message from “Donald” (Trump) directly on Stoltenberg's phone. Don’t expect any scandalous reveals, though – the film crew are low-key and maintain a respectful degree of proximity; the most intimate moments are when the Secretary General is speaking Norwegian (not English) to Gulliksen whenever they’re alone in the back seat of the car.

Facing War treads the line between a heroic narrative and a sound, intriguing film, a document of human interactions and snippets of global politics being mediated through gestures, fake smiles and, above all, Stoltenberg’s devoted attention to his fellow humans. It’s thanks to Gulliksen’s astounding access that this documentary feels spectacular to a viewer (who isn’t a politician or a high-level executive), but perhaps Facing War feeds its own echo chamber: it remains to be seen whether anyone who disagrees with NATO’s politics would feel inclined to watch it in the first place, let alone partake in dialogue after.

Facing War was staged by Dox Division (Norway), in co-production with NRK, Sweden’s SVT and Belgium’s Think-Film Impact Production. Cat&Docs handles its world sales.