It seems strange, laughing at human rights, but the Dutch film festival Movies That Matter has no fewer than seven films on this theme.

Please Do Not Disturb is one example. This Iranian film is one of festival director Taco Ruighaver’s personal Top 5. He says a good human rights film must incense the viewer, offer insight and perspective… and stand up as a film. In the film, two elderly Iranians who don’t want to miss their favourite TV programme refuse to open the door to a repairman. And, of course, there are consequences...

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In the main programme, the focus is on brave men and women. Aung San Suu Kyi – Lady of No Fear, for instance, zooms in on the private life of the Burmese Nobel laureate.

Budrus spotlights the peaceful protest against the wall being constructed to separate the West Bank from Israel.

One of them is Neuköln Unlimited, another of his personal Top 5. It’s about a large Lebanese family in Berlin whose members have been trying to get residency permits for 16 years.

Even films about domestic violence or a mountain of corpses in a cornfield can raise a laugh. Four Lions  hits the heights of hilarity when British suicide terrorists attack using bombs tied to birds.

The closing film of Movies That Matter is one made by British comic Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator.In the 1940 classic, Chaplin managed to combine human rights and humour in his double role of fascist dictator and Jewish barber.

Iranian films
Iranian films are well represented in the festival programme. Filmmakers in Iran often have a hard time if their work is seen as critical of the regime. Director Jafar Panahi was arrested in March 2010. He was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and was banned from making films, giving interviews or leaving the country for 20 years. His prison term has not begun yet. The reason for this is unclear. The festival is honouring him by screening his last short film, The Accordion, in which two young musicians choose solidarity rather than conflict.

The Green Wave is opening the festival. Using blogs and tweets from Iran, Ali Samadi Ahadi, a German of Iranian origin, describes how Iranians still believed in the possibility of change in May 2009. The situation changes after president Ahmadinejad wins contested elections and oppression increases once more.

Three men from three Asian countries, Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, are killed by their respective countries’ secret police. No explanation is given and the killers are left at liberty. Unjust follows the three brave women who are left behind and catalogues their individual struggles for justice.

The subject of Nero's Guests is a journalist in India who champions the cause of poor farmers. Grinding poverty has pushed thousands of them to commit suicide over the last ten years.

The 10th edition of Movies That Matter  is being held in The Hague from 24 to 30 March. Out of the 1,100 films which were entered for the festival, 70 are being screened.