We all have to deal with loss. If you ever loved anybody, be it your parents, partner, children, or pets, at some point, you'll have to experience excruciating pain, trauma, and deprivation. And you'll be there to deal with the remaining holes of your days. If you're a child facing the disease of your mother, the pain might leave you with a sense of panic and anger incomparable to anything you've ever experienced. It turns out you're not alone. There might be a helping hand. All monsters just seem scary, but they're here to teach us a lesson. A boy learning how to let go of his mother and something all of us can relate to. A Monster Calls.
It's funny how as teenagers we dream about our ideal future and as young adults, we tend to plan our lives, marriages, children, careers, but these dreams and plans turn up to have little to do with reality. But can you really plan these things? When all your friends are dating guys their own age can you expect to fall in love with a much older man? Can you dream about being someone's stepmother? Do you picture yourself as a second or third wife? Do you take into account that fairy tales happen usually only in fairy tales and the prince is just a regular guy with a lot of kingdom-related problems and a wandering eye for ladies of the court? What if you (realistically assessing your personal life) decided on single motherhood, but life got in a way? And if you aren't happy with the result, can you really plan a way out? Maggie's Plan.
As a child, you want to have a best friend. Someone loyal to play with. Someone special. You often end up with imaginary friends who would suit your needs and don't require that much protection from your parents' side. But what if your house was visited by someone from a different planet and both of you formed a unique connection that surpassed death and universes? A cult movie from the eighties, which taught us that aliens can be actually befriended and kids are able to form a united front against one enemy. Inspiration for many contemporary film-makers and a great trip in time to the past when even Drew Barrymore was amazingly little. Enjoy.
When you're in your twenties, you have still time to make major decisions. You can make mistakes, you can change your mind. You can switch your career path, there's a chance for a new relationship, for that gap-year, for wasting your savings away. A total revolution is nothing strange and frowned-upon. Time flies by, however, and for some things, it might be already too late, which biological clock always tends to remind us, especially when we celebrate another birthday. What if you wanted to have a child and it was nearly impossible to have one? What kind of strain does it have on your relationship, what kind of compromises you have to make, what doubts can you have about each other? And in today's world is it more important what you want or what you already have? When one woman over thirty meets a man in his twenties. Only You.
Every mother-daughter relationship is hard. The former has devoted so much to raise the latter that the thought of that little one entering the adult world, getting married (to someone not good enough) and having children of her own is unbearable. However toxic it might seem, it's a bond that can never be replaced. Such closeness to any other woman in your life is almost impossible as it covers so many years and keeps so many memories. Even the best friend can turn into the most annoying friend but in times of hardship, she's there to support. A very moving story about one single mother and her daughter over the years of relationships, children, separation and never-ending phone calls. Still true, Terms of Endearment.
There's something wrong with the human race, as from time to time, it decides to hate one of its variety. Some think themselves better, others perceiving as monsters. But hatred between nations and religions is based on stereotypes and these stereotypes are easy to repeat. But what if during World War II a German, Hitler-obsessed boy was forced to accept a Jewish girl hiding in his house? What if another boy happened to be so close to the Concentration Camp and befriended one of its prisoners? How close can you be to the consequences of blind ideology and admit that you were wrong? A different perception of war, one funny in its bittersweetness, another heartbreakingly realistic and two moving pictures of how cruel was our history and our mistakes. Both based on books, Jojo Rabbit and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
There are couples who struggle to conceive a child, couples who are left with the "infertile" tag for the rest of their lives, and couples for whom having a child is nothing of a priority and they are childfree for a reason. Having said that, there are still children who desperately need parents. None of us had any influence on what kind of family we were born into. But does being born into families of pathology, alcoholism or even sexual abuse have to mean a whole life of struggle? Every child has a right for parents, even though biological ones might not have been equipped with the right qualities. But do you have the guts to lead through life living human beings, bear the whole responsibility, commit, and adopt those who weren't appreciated by others? Can you deal with the obstacles along the way? Can you build your own special family unit and save those who will otherwise fall into the predestined gaps of the system? Very moving and eye-opening, an appreciation of those who did dare to make a move, Instant Family.
We all are aware of it now. More relationships break up than last until the time when our wrinkled bodies and grey hair announce the arrival of old age. But once you have been in a relationship for some time it's not that easy to separate, even though you definitely grew apart. And if there are children that connect both of you it seems to be a never-ending battle with coordination, logistics, compromises, and lawyers. How does it look like to get a divorce? Why is it one of the most traumatizing experiences of modern life? How humiliated can you be and how unscrupulous you can get to achieve your goals? And finally, weren't divorces created to get us out of the hell of marriage and is there a chance for a happy ending? Marriage Story.
Do you believe in coincidences? Do we meet each other for a reason? Is there anything like fate, predestined and prewritten for each and everyone, which makes it impossible to change it and act on your own? Or can we be masters of our own destiny? Do tragedies happen for a reason? Can heartbreaking losses be the ground for happiness in the future? How connected are we to each other in the smallness of the world and how easily worlds are broken apart and miraculously started anew? A few people connected by one tragedy. Life Itself. Enjoy.
Is it possible to create a machine that will perform everything that a living human being is able to? Can it replace us, be everything we are, with the amazement of our skills, character traits, fears, and flaws? Can it become a part of our everyday lives, our reality, our family? What if we equip it with the ability to love, desire, and dream? What moral dilemmas will be connected with such creatures? Can you make someone love you and then abandon it as many dogs are abandoned by their owners? Can you destroy it once it's aged or broken?
In the infinity of technology limits and time, is there a chance for a happy ending for people and their creations? Or will humanity's flaws: intolerance, prejudice, and fear of the unknown make idealism impossible? A story about a robot who wanted to become a boy, a modern-age Pinocchio; still amazes, A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
You can laugh at the unfairness of the world, but it's no laughing matter. The gap between the rich and the poor widens at the galloping pace of increasing world population. Some have everything: expensive education possibilities, private tutors, career prospects, luxury houses, fashion items, and servants to carry out the most mundane chores. Others have literally nothing with no food to put on the table and nothing to make them survive until the next day. But luck shifts and when one door closes another door opens, so when you get your foot in the door, you can make others enjoy your chance for the privilege. What if one impoverished family managed to deceive the rich and naive one and reap some of their harvests? Bittersweet, funny, and unbelievably good on the most humane level. Parasite.
Every day thousands of women receive an unwanted diagnosis. From the problems of weight gain, the lack of money, relationship break-down or job loss, they are hit with something which requires all their strength and resistance. They begin the fight for lives, surrounded by medical equipment, constant tests, and doctor's visits. Statistics chase them unscrupulously reminding that not all are going to make it and some will leave their partners, children, and friends behind. A portrait of a woman suffering from a disease, whispering to us that none is immune to the threats of our seemingly developed civilization. Penelope Cruz in Ma Ma.
It's impossible to resist the temptation of love. Everybody wants to be loved and admired, and everybody craves physical fulfillment. The question of the latter comes down to consent. What if your profession is to defend victims of domestic and sexual abuse and your personal life is filled with tragic experiences you want to overcome and choices which make you a villain? What if you use your expertise and education to avoid punishment for your own crime? Why there's rarely something like altruistic heroism and those admired often commit the same crimes as common criminals? Can you escape a vicious circle of dependence and what can be the consequences of one brief love affair? Dronningen.
The order of things is simple, we are born, occasionally to give birth to others. This order, however, doesn't respect individual cases, the gaps of maturity, the relationships we are in or out and giggles of fate. It might happen that your own mother is as immature as a spoilt teenager and requires your constant attention. It could be that this reckless parent gets pregnant just as soon as you start to grow your own family. In times when the age of the pregnancy is not really certain, exposing us to teenage mums and late mothers, it's fun to see two generations striving for the same: parenthood. For mothers and daughters, to appreciate the fleeting moments when we can still be together and share experiences. Enjoy.
Open the photo album with old pictures from your childhood. Look at your chocolate-smeared face, your awkward glance or beaming smile. Look through your teenage years. Pass kindergarten and primary school. Then cover your teenage years. See how your parents have changed, how time didn't wait for anyone to catch up or save the last glimpses of youth and beauty. See how from the bubbling infant you shifted into a grown person and how much effort it took, how much time, space.
We discovered camera to catch moments and preserve memories in time, we created movies to make our legends and stories infinite, to spread the adaptation of the written word, to close happiness and pain in the jar of indestructible. Some pushed this possibility to another level. Imagine a film which leads you through the whole process of upbringing, allows you to see children grow, people age and change, circumstances shift, political systems and pop-culture obsessions turn around and take over. Imagine that it can be seen just like an old photo album, picture by picture, years after years. Boyhood. Maybe it's also your life preserved within the frames of a film. Enjoy.
We live in times when the discussion of whether or not to have children, (if yes how to raise them, what to buy them, how to protect their privacy, and how to lose the postpartum weight) seems to be on the mouth of everybody. A generation of perfect Instagram parents has been built. Parenthood is hard enough, revolutionizing the lives of everybody to the extent of 3rd world war. But for some, being at the corner of their career, relationship or life situation, it proves to be the greatest gift. What if the life of a party-goer, ladies man, and irresponsible Peter Pan was enriched by the presence of a child? Is it easy to lose something which at first frightened you, but then won your heart? Why one parent cannot play the role of both? Why mother and father relations are often stereotypical and so many courts tend to take the mother's side in the divorce trials? Heart-warming and surprisingly real in its improbability, Two Is a Family.
There's something true in the fact that men come, disturb the peace and leave, and women are the ones to clean the mess. From every side of the spectrum, despite the origin, financial status, and race. If you are a woman, at any time you can be abandoned to keep the world on your shoulders and swipe the dust after the disorder of pain. Two women during a difficult political time, one a servant, the other an employer and mother of four. Two personal dramas, old as time, for all of us, understood and empathically cried over. Why women are the stronger sex? Why for some truths you don't need explanation, color or words? Universal, true, and a tribute to a woman. ROMA.
We love the stories of rich and successful people who created something for all of us to enjoy. People who came up with something outside of the box, from a company of inhibition and established rules spread the wings of independence, excite us. They had the guts to do something many only dream about or are forced to when all else fails, often with mixed results. For some security is more important than following the dream of being one's own boss. For others, family and children, become a bigger priority than their own dreams of success. Others yet, have to fight for their lives and establish the closest relations to be able to start the career of their dreams. Why losing someone means appreciating them twice as much? Where do you get an inspiration and why talent is seen from the youngest years? And why one hundred years ago the life of Astrid Lindgren, the famous children author, an unmarried woman with a child was a tough nut to bite? Becoming Astrid. The greatest stories are often created from the greatest pain.
Sooner or later in life, we take into account the fact that our future might be shaped by a completely different conflict. We consider many doomsday scenarios, we realize that there have been wars of various kinds and at times they were caused by one unfortunate (or stupid) event which led to the perishing of millions. Future is yet unknown but, having witnessed the epidemics of flu, black death, Ebola, and Zika virus, we might not be entirely sure that there will be another kind of virus. And another war will be waged by us against an infected mutation of the humankind that enjoys eating human flesh.
Post-apocalyptic versions of life on the planet populated by blindly unscrupulous killing and eating machine and the lucky few who want and wish to end it all and bring back peace. Is there a place for human feelings in a world which becomes more and more indifferent towards any suffering? How probable are the actions of the military and government against organized evil on a global scale? Can you trust those you should be most cautious of? And are children the ultimate answer? Two films with an epic vision of one potential war against Zombies, The Girl with All the Gifts and World War Z. Are you afraid? Enjoy.
Never underestimate the power of love. You might rationally weigh the pros and cons of forming a relationship, entering into a marriage, conceiving a child and building a house together. But weak feelings fade in time leaving the bittersweetness from Adele songs: gone, insignificant, mundane, awkward. But true love never dies, it's not destroyed by distance or time. It lasts despite obstacles, family conflicts, religious differences, age gap, and war. A romance which fed generations of romantics and lovers of mystery. A young love which conquered death, but broke many innocent lives due to its protagonists' passionate tempers. A pair of characters who enchanted masses and still do between the reality TV shows and fast food meals. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and one memorable adaptation. Enjoy.













