The 56th edition of Nyon-based Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel (April 4-13) is to open with the world premiere of Blame.Billed as “part investigation, part thriller,”Swiss director Christian Frei’s film is about three scientists battling the Covid pandemic and misinformation around it.

This will be preceded by a “pre-opening” screening the night before of Irish director Gar O’Rourke’s Sanatorium, a documentary set in a largely deserted health spa near Odesa in Ukraine where people come for health and fertility treatment as war rages nearby.

A record 57 countries are represented in this year’s selection across 154 films,...