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Sometimes other people’s stories help us understand ourselves better. We offer a selection of films about parents and children, where you can find answers to many questions.
Parents
The Florida Project by Sean Baker
Mooney lives with her mother in a motel in the suburbs near Disneyland. They are one of those who are called white trash in the USA: Mooney’s young mother is unemployed, without plans and permanent residence, hence the ironic title of the film – “projects” (from “housing project”) in America they call social housing for the poor. But the existence of Muni is beautiful and carefree. She has friends and her world – houses and motels of bright caramel colors, creating neat squares around the pool, mysterious thickets along the highway, always blue skies.
A neighbor, a waitress at a diner, provides free waffles, a motel manager treats them with sweets. Sometimes Muni helps her mother sell penny perfumes bought at wholesale prices or something stolen to tourists. But one day the state will invade this paradise – it wants a more correct life for Muni … At the same time, “Project …” is not a “film of social anxiety.”
Mooney’s life and world are seen as if through her eyes – the film was shot with a camera located at the level of the child’s eyes. And on film, which is now a rarity. But so the children’s world of the film turned out to be similar to multi-colored ice cream – as a little dreamer and optimist sees it. This movie is about children’s happiness, for which not much is needed. In fact, all you need is love. The love of a careless mother, the love of a kind manager.
“Dominica” by Oleg Ageychev
The authors of “Dominica” created a film-metaphor. An architect of average success and a lover of average emotionality finds a cradle with a foundling girl. She matures for several years each time the hero gains new experience. The authors hint: children are given to us so that we can grow up. And it is important to remember this when you want to “strangle” them.
“Moonlight” by Barry Jenkinson
At the beginning of the film Chiron, nicknamed Small, is 12, at the end he is 30. He is a black teenager from an incomplete family and grows up in a cruel world of the poor, where drugs, bullying and violence are commonplace. But for the viewer, his skin color and the fact that he may be gay are not an obstacle. Because this is a story of growing up of a person who is not like the majority. A story that is very useful for everyone who has their own little, unique person.
Parents with children
“Young Blood” by Emmanuel Bercot
He was unbearable even at the age of six, and even the 14-year-old Maloney was a criminal for five minutes: he steals cars, despises school, raises his hand against teachers. And if it weren’t for the juvenile judge and the new caregiver, prison would have been waiting for him. But adults kept Maloney on the very edge – so that he would learn about the rise of first love and the first crushing falls.
“Lady Bird” by Greta Gerwig
Christine 17. She demands to be called exclusively Lady Bird, and insists on the right to a different fate than her native, “provincial” Sacramento promises – to go to study in a “city with culture”, in New York … 34-year-old Gerwig, one of the brightest stars of the new generation of cinema, talks about her youth, about her mother, school and how she proved to the world that she is her and there are no more like her. And he talks with a light heart and humor.
“The Secret of Coco” by Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina
12-year-old Miguel, Miguelito, as he is affectionately called in a large Mexican family of shoemakers, dreams of becoming a musician. But relatives will never accept this choice – a century ago they suffered from the same choice of his great-great-grandfather. Miguel will have to defend his right to be what he wants, and for this, on the Day of the Dead, on the feast of the remembrance of the departed relatives, he should go to their country and there understand what it is all about – a fateful choice …
Our age, as you know, is the age of singles who are their own family. And if a challenge to a traditional family comes from somewhere, it is not from same-sex couples, but from them, who in our technically equipped time do not need a family to survive. Marketers were the first to talk about this, who noticed these singles, a new powerful consumer layer, and now already say philosophers and psychologists.
And so “The Secret of Coco” bravely decided to explain to all of us that the family is a value, and a big one. Yes, there are washing machines, and food delivery services, and professionals of all trades, but none of them can replace people who are close to you from nature itself. And it is interesting that dead relatives actively help Miguelito, the departed ancestors are also important for him, after all, they are the roots that allow the family tree not to bend, not to break … It will be nice if grandparents join the viewing.