We have at our doors a handful of titles that will keep spiritual cinema alive on billboards
- Drive My Car (2021) by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi
Long-awaited premiere of an essential film that received the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), an acclaimed actor and theater director, experiences a painful mourning for the death of his wife and with whom he left accounts slopes. Two years later he is to direct Anton Chekhov’s famous play “Uncle Vanya” at the Hiroshima theater festival. The play is special as it will be performed by an international multilingual cast, including sign language. Yusuke’s car, which is his prized possession, is his trusted sanctuary and confessional where the truth is often communicated. The theater management assigns a reserved young woman as host, and thus a strange encounter ensues.
2. A Hero (2021) Asghar Farhadi
The previous year’s Cannes Grand Jury Prize opens in February. In the best inspiration of the Farhadi that we saw in “About Elly”, “Nader and Simin, a separation” or The Salesman. A divorced father is in jail because he has not repaid a loan to his very greedy ex-in-law on time, but in order to get out he needs the forgiveness of his creditor. On a prison leave he finds a bag with jewelry, after returning it he becomes a popular hero. That is an advantage for his situation, but it is also a trap. Do not trust the public image.
3. Tammy Faye’s Eyes (2021) by Michael Showalter
We saw it at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Jessica Chastain is well worth a movie as recognized by the aforementioned festival or the Golden Globe nomination. Tammy Faye was an evangelical televangelist who set up a theme park megachurch together with her husband. Her glamorous success hid a victim of her husband’s abuse and dealings. The evangelical churches and relationship with economic and political power together with a woman who tries to recompose her fragments from her faith, so many times announced.
4. The Last Planet (2022) by Terrence Malick
It is on our list for the second year in a row, it is waiting. The projects of Malick, the theological filmmaker, always have a halo of intrigue. But that he dares with a representation of Jesus is a challenge that deserves to be seen. It will not be easy to overcome cinematographic temptations and the difficulty of putting an image of the mystery of the man God with us does not leave anyone indifferent.
5. Belfast (2021) by Kenneth Branagh
Nine-year-old Buddy grows up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the midst of the conflict between Ireland and the United Kingdom, in its Catholic and Protestant religious aspects. Beautiful memory in black and white where religious and ethical questions arise for the little protagonist and he faces two paths between good and evil. Choose the path of violence as a defense or flee the conflict and the land itself to find peace. Sometimes the best path is the hardest.
6. CODA: The Sounds of Silence (2021) Sian Heder
Big win at Sundance Film Festival 2021 for this remake of “La Famille Bélier.” The Rossis are deaf from birth as well as struggling fishermen. Along with their parents, Frank and Jackie, and older brother Leo, 17-year-old Ruby is the only listener in the family whom she accompanies in their work at sea, so most days she wakes up at 3 in the morning to do her work on the ship, then she goes to secondary school where she increasingly Interested in music and singing, viewers will recognize here universal elements of family life from deep love to sibling rivalry, from the parents’ desire to hold back to the young woman’s need to break free. disability that manifests itself in the deaf actors who perform, and an attention to singing as a spiritual dimension.
7. They speak (Women Talking, 2022) Sarah Polley
three aces. Canadian novelist Miriam Toews, filmmaker Sarah Polley and the great actress Frances McDormand. A group of Mennonite women of different ages secretly meet for sorority after being repeatedly raped by some men from their religious community. The leaders of the congregation ask them to forgive their rapists, some agree under pressure, but the group of the resisters faces three options: give in, stay and fight, or change their lives. Again love and faith in structures of power and violence.
8. Man of God (2021) Yelena Popovic
Greek film with the presence of Mickey Rourke and a magnificent soundtrack by the great Zbigniew Preisner. The life of Saint Nektarios of Aegina, teacher, monk, theologian, expelled Bishop of Cairo, persecuted, preacher, monastic founder, spiritual guide and saint of the Orthodox Church. Great success in Greece and audience award at the Moscow Festival. Mysticism and orthodox asceticism have a great testimony in this film marked by its spiritual delicacy.
His Only Son (2022) by David Helling
One of the most complex episodes in the Bible: Genesis 22. The story of Abraham called to sacrifice his son Isaac. Mounted under the inspiration of the biblical genre, it follows the steps of the journey of Abraham and his son, accompanied by two servants, from Sarah’s doubts to the top of Moriah Mountain, a three-day itinerary full of encounters and dangers.
10. The Most Reluctant Convert (2021) Norman Stone
After “Twilight Lands” CS Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, returns to the cinema. Focusing on the inner transformation from atheism to Christianity he called himself “the most reluctant convert in all of England.” Through the profound performance of Max McLean, Lewis tells his story of pain, loss and redemption through the tragic death of his mother, the trenches of World War I and life in Oxford with his friend. Tolkien. The film offers provocative insights, both intellectual and spiritual, which connect with the spirit of the Anglican apologist.
11. The incontro (2021) Salvatore Romano
A road movie that tells the story of Paolo, who left prison to finish serving his sentence in a rehabilitation community run by a priest. Closed up on himself, torn by remorse, Pablo does not want to integrate into the community: silent and timid he limits himself to carrying out the tasks entrusted to him. One of them will be carrying a heavy wooden crucifix to an abandoned church. Paul, a declared atheist, thus embarks on a journey that will take him, in a kind of very personal via crucis, to reconcile with his past, trying desperately, but in vain, to obtain forgiveness from the people he has hurt. . in spirit and in body.
12. Full of Grace (2022) Roberto Bueso
Carmen Machi becomes a nun. Fun family comedy, based on real events in the life of Valdo, a boy from Cape Verde who came to play for Real Madrid. A nun saves an orphanage aimlessly playing soccer. Sister Marina, bold and witty, resists the pranks of Valdo and the other children, helped by two sisters from her community, one innocent and the other quite rustic. Together they assemble a team that will be a replacement family.