Here’s a list of 5 movies that will make you ponder about gratitude.
Cicada
I hope everything works out making my own decisions. A watchable, fluent indie film with some lovely ambient cityscape shots of New York, though perhaps a little emotionally and dramatically unfocused. There are sympathetic, heartfelt performances from Fifer and Brown, and some funny material about the role played in their relationship by the children’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Ten Winters
How much time does it take to realise that a stranger we meet by chance is “the right person”, the love of our life? For Silvestro and Camilla, it probably only takes a glance, the look they steal at each other on the vaporetto, in Venice, in the winter of 1999. She, a shy student of Russian culture seeks solitude and concentration on a secluded island on the Lagoon. Lively and self-assured, Silvestro makes the first move. But, a little out of fear and pride, they lose touch with each other. Fate brings them together again after ten winters, amid impromptu reunions and unexpected about-turns, excitement and depression, chance meetings and missed encounters.
Holler
In a forgotten pocket of Southern Ohio where American manufacturing and opportunity are dying up, a determined young woman finds a ticket out when she is accepted to college. Alongside her older brother, Ruth Avery joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay her way. Together, they spend one brutal winter working the scrap yards during the day and stealing valuable metal from the once thriving factories at night. With her goal in sight, Ruth finds that the ultimate cost for an education for a girl like her may be more than she bargained for, and she soon finds herself torn between a promising future and the family she would leave behind.
In The Same Breath
“In the same breath” recounts the experiences of people on the ground in the earliest days of the COVID-19 and the way some countries dealt with its initial spread, from the first days of the outbreak in Wuhan to its rampage across the United States. The movie explores the early confusion and parallel campaigns by authorities to try to contain the virus as well as shape the public narrative through misinformation, resulting in a devastating impact on citizens of both countries.
Persepolis
The movie is based on Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about her life in pre and post-revolutionary Iran and then in Europe. The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained and then executed, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war. A masterpiece you really can’t miss.
