NETFLIX Recommendations (1)
Atlantics (2019) by Mati Diop
With this debut feature film the French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop won the Grand Prix of the Jury in Cannes 2019. This film seamlessly melds different genres like mystery, social realism, drama and romance together into an absorbing story of loss, love, change and tragedy. It brings us a different story from within about economic hardship and migration. Its aestetics are breathtaking. It is an experience of world cinema that made me long for more.
My Happy Family (2017) by Nina Ekvtimishvili & Simon Gross
This Georgian film should not be missed! It is about three generations sharing a cramped apartment in Tbilisi. Above all, it is about signals of emotional pain and deficit that are missed by those that are supposed to be closest. This film reveals essential human truths and pulls you into its drama of emotional need, affections and guilt in ways that feel true all the way.
The Rider (2017) by Chloé Zhao
The second film of multiple award-winning independent director Chloé Zhao, who was born and raised in Beijing, China, but studied film in New York. With this background, it is amazing how a person not born in the US can shoot a contemporary western that feels deep and rich seeking beyond the masculine ideal for purpose and true dignity. It is the story of a young cowboy who needs to rethink his successful rodeo life after a severe head injury.
When you’ve watched a film please leave a comment below; just a simple response to “what struck you?”
Rinus, March 2020
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If after a day of considering the deep struggle we are in against the coronavirus and its tragic consequences I would like to second the watching the film Okja by Bong-Joon Ho (from Parasite!) made for Netflix in 2017. In both films the director defies typical categories and is able to combine lighthearted whimsy with a a profound social critique. A delightful story of a girl and her pet pig is interwoven with the social ills of corporate greed and manipulation and of the inhumane nature of the meat industry. Okja invites subtle feelings of joy and anger, sadness and hope, making it a good antiviral choice.
Last night we watched Atlantics and found the film intriguing. We loved the protagonist, Ada, and her struggle to love in the midst of modern Dakar where traditional religious and modern values crash around her. We were also taken by the depiction of the economic struggles of working class Dakar, their realities and painful options. Many films depict the plight of immigrants in their new environment; Atlantics studies the effects on those who remain in memorable ways. Ultimately, Ada finds a way to move on from her loss, yet it is in a way we viewers would never have imagined at the beginning of the film. We also deeply appreciated the cinematography, especially the breathtaking shots of the Atlantic which unfolds as one of the main characters of the story. Finally, the musical score brilliantly adds to the loss and magic of the film. I identify with the ‘s’ in the title as the ocean from my hometown reflects so many changing faces of its endless strength and beauty. This film invited me to also consider the endless invitation of the ocean offering possibility, hope, risk and pain.
Atlantic offers an intriguing weaving of plot involving injustice, justice, desperation, love, and tragedy with some truly unexpected twists! The cinematography captures the landscape of city life in Dakar along with the might and power of the bordering Atlantic shoreline with its relentlessly-pounding waves. This little film highlights that things are not always as they seem.
Yesterday I had the opportunity of viewing «My Happy Familiy», by Nina Ekvtimishvli and Simon Gross (2017). It is a film like a swell (in Spanish «mar de fondo»), relatively calm on the surface, but rough in the depth, and there were several issues that prompt me: friendship, care of the family, the life lived as a routine, but I think that the most outstanding is that of needing an «inner place», an space/time for… being.
The great seekers, as Teresa de Jesus or Thomas Merton talk about it: the spot, the moment, the attitude to get in contact with the Being. But that need for retreat is not less pressing for the human beings immersed in the day-to-day. And judging by my readings that inner place has to be built starting form an outside place, as in the film.
Thanks Rinus for the recommendation.
Thanks for very insightful comments, Alberto. You seem to say that it is so easy in the day-to-day business to lose oneself, one’s soul, one’s being. That we have to care and nurture our inner place. It is also a message to every established relational unit where things are taken for granted and that wants to keep things as they are, that neglecting each one’s personal space can become very destructive.
Yesterday I saw a 2018 film from Paraguay with a similar, likewise powerful theme: Las Herideras (The Heiresses) from Marcelo Martinessi.
A group of us were able to watch The Rider last night (sadly not on UK Netflix but we weren’t to be deterred!) As a white, middle class Englishman, the setting of the film – on paper – is totally alien to me. But this film was directed and acted with such atmosphere and intimacy that I found myself totally absorbed in its story. It touched on themes of masculinity and empathy; but in the end I will remember it as a film about the difficult step of reconciling ourselves with ‘endings’ as the first step into whatever transition brings. I add my warm recommendation!