This year’s edition of the Inspiration Forum, part of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, will once again offer seven days of open discussions, keynote lectures, and collective reflection. Four thematic days filled with debates, interviews, and talks will be complemented by three days of participatory “Inspirational Meetings,” where we will talk, listen, and think together.

This year, we focus on Europe, love, money, and radicalisation—four topics that go beyond politics, society, or economics. They also touch on how we feel today—as individuals and as a community.

“We won’t be offering simple answers. What we want to create is a space where we can learn together, ask questions, reflect, listen, share experiences—and simply be with one another. A space where we can find our bearings, be surprised, and discover something new,” says Tereza Swadoschová, head of the Inspiration Forum.

The Forum will open with a day dedicated to Europe—not the bureaucratic Europe, but the shared one. We’ll ask what holds Europe together today—and what might hold it together tomorrow. What values, what language, what vision? And how do people relate to a European identity they may never have been invited into?

Sunday will turn to the topic of love. Love isn’t sentimentality—it’s the capacity to build relationships, to create closeness, to hold together a world that is falling apart. We’ll explore love between people, love for the self, and love for the world. Why is it so hard to care for relationships today? And what might love mean as an everyday practice—and as a political act?

The second festival weekend will focus on money. It’s a topic that touches everyone—even those who may be indifferent to love. Money is power. But who holds it—and who doesn’t? We’ll open up the issue of money as a matter of justice, redistribution, public budgets, and hidden inequalities. Where does money actually come from? And what if we stopped treating economics as something too complicated to understand—or too rigid to change?

The final thematic day will explore radicalisation. How do disagreements become a breakdown of understanding? What are disinformation, information warfare, and algorithms doing to our public life? And can we still listen to one another, understand each other—or even change our minds?

Alongside the on-stage programme, we’ll also offer something without a stage, without speakers, and without an audience: the Inspirational Meetings. Three times during the festival, small groups will meet without a set topic or invited guests. The themes will be created together. Strangers will meet who might never have crossed paths—and they will truly listen. It’s a safe space where things can be said that are often left unsaid. A space where listening becomes a radical act.

The Inspiration Forum will take place as part of the Ji.hlava IDFF from 24 October to 2 November 2025. Admission to the Forum is included in the festival accreditation. More information is available at www.ji-hlava.com.

Come with questions. Come be with us. That still matters.