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.




