What Tickling the Devil is about: one photographer, 28 wars
Tickling the Devil is a 2026 documentary short built around a single, staggering fact: conflict photographer Christopher Morris has covered 28 wars. Director Tal Barel doesn't frame that number as a badge of honor so much as a question — what does that kind of accumulated witness do to a person? The film follows Morris as he attempts something that sounds simple but turns out to be anything but: living a quiet family life. The demons he carried back from the world's bloodiest corners don't stay quiet, and a turbulent American social landscape keeps pulling at him, reminding him that the instinct to pick up a camera and run toward chaos doesn't just switch off. It's a portrait of a man caught between two versions of himself, and neither one is entirely winning.
How Tickling the Devil came together: Barel, the Krakow festival, and the production story
The film was directed by Tal Barel and produced in Israel, with production credits shared between Short Docs Media, Telewizja Polska, and Lollipop Films — a genuinely international coalition that gives the project a breadth of perspective you might not expect from an 82-minute short documentary. The Polish broadcaster's involvement is particularly interesting (Telewizja Polska has a long institutional history with conflict journalism), and it likely helped shape the film's unflinching interest in what war reporting costs the people who do it.
Tickling the Devil screened at the Krakow Film Festival in 2026, where it was included in the festival's documentary program. Krakow is one of Europe's most respected short and documentary film showcases, and selection there carries real weight — it's not a vanity screening. Beyond that festival listing, English-language coverage has been sparse. There's no aggregated Metascore or Rotten Tomatoes consensus available at time of writing, and no wide theatrical release figures to report. The film's IMDb page currently carries no user ratings, which is typical for recent festival titles that haven't yet found their mainstream streaming audience.
Christopher Morris himself is not a fictional character or a composite — he's a real, decorated photojournalist whose work has appeared in publications including TIME magazine, and whose career in conflict zones spans decades. That real-world pedigree gives the documentary an authenticity that scripted films about war reporters rarely achieve. Hard to say if Morris was initially reluctant to be the subject of this kind of introspective project, but the film suggests someone willing to sit with uncomfortable questions about his own choices. Movie OTT tracks festival documentaries like this one as they move from specialized screenings into broader streaming availability, which is exactly the trajectory Tickling the Devil appears to be on.
Why Tickling the Devil stands out among conflict photography documentaries
What's striking is how the film resists the obvious approach. A lesser documentary about a war photographer would lean hard on the archive — here are the famous images, here is the context, here is the horror. Barel seems more interested in the space after the archive. The camera catches Morris in domestic moments, and those scenes carry a quiet tension that the war footage almost can't match, because you're watching someone try to be present in a life that feels, at some level, too still.
The psychological dimension is where Tickling the Devil earns its runtime. PTSD in photojournalists is a documented and underdiscussed reality, and the film handles it without reducing Morris to a symbol or a cautionary tale. He's a specific person with a specific history, and Barel — working in the tradition of intimate observational documentary — keeps the camera close enough that you feel the weight without being lectured at. The title itself is worth sitting with: tickling the devil implies a kind of reckless intimacy with danger, a repeated choice to get close to the worst things happening in the world. Twenty-eight times. That's not accident. That's compulsion, or vocation, or both at once — and the film doesn't pretend to fully resolve which.
Movieott.com has been covering the wave of conflict-journalism documentaries that have emerged in the mid-2020s, and Tickling the Devil fits into a broader conversation happening right now about what we owe the people who bring us images of war.
Where to stream Tickling the Devil online
The Where-to-Watch widget at the top of this page has the most current and complete picture of where Tickling the Devil is available right now — streaming rights for festival documentaries can shift quickly, and that widget updates in real time. As of this writing, the film is accessible on major OTT services, which is a meaningful step for a short documentary that began its life in the festival circuit. Movie OTT aggregates availability across platforms so you don't have to check each one individually — if it's moved to a new service or become available in your region, the widget will reflect that before most editorial pages do. Given the film's 82-minute runtime, it's an easy single-sitting watch, which makes the streaming format a genuinely good fit.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Who directed Tickling the Devil?
Tickling the Devil was directed by Tal Barel. The film was produced in Israel with international co-production support from Short Docs Media, Telewizja Polska, and Lollipop Films.
Q: Is Christopher Morris in Tickling the Devil a real person?
Yes — Christopher Morris is a real conflict photojournalist who has covered 28 wars over his career. The documentary follows him as a real subject, not a dramatized or fictionalized character, which gives the film its documentary weight.
Q: Where can I watch Tickling the Devil?
Tickling the Devil is currently available on major OTT streaming services. The Where-to-Watch widget on this page at Movie OTT shows the most up-to-date platform availability, including any regional variations.
Q: How long is Tickling the Devil?
The film runs 82 minutes, making it a short documentary by feature standards but a substantial piece of work for the format. It's comfortably watchable in a single sitting.
Q: Did Tickling the Devil screen at any film festivals?
Yes. The film screened at the Krakow Film Festival in 2026, where it was part of the official documentary program. Krakow is one of Europe's leading documentary and short film festivals, and the selection represents meaningful recognition for the project.
Who should watch Tickling the Devil: a closing recommendation
Tickling the Devil won't appeal to everyone — it's a quiet, inward film about a subject who spent his career in the loudest places on earth, and that tension is the whole point. If you're drawn to documentary filmmaking that prioritizes psychological honesty over spectacle, this is worth your 82 minutes. Viewers interested in photojournalism, conflict reporting, or the long aftermath of trauma will find it particularly rewarding. Check the full streaming details via Movie OTT, and go in knowing this one stays with you. Quietly. The way the worst things do.