Waltz with Bashir

Waltz with Bashir is one of Dominique's favorite movies because it is so multi-faceted, it is a film rich for analysis. Waltz With Bashir is an animated documentary; the animation resembles a graphic novel. The documentary follows the director, Ari Folman, as he journeys to discover what really happened in the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Folman was a part of the Israeli army in the Lebanese Civil War. There are, of course, limitations with the way this film understands the Isreali-Palestinian-Lebanese conflicts, but it's a fascinating piece of culture nevertheless.

MoviesDominique LearMarch 14, 2020Israel, Powerful, Thought-Provoking, Documentary

Rams

"An Icelandic saga of the highest order" is how an IMDB review of this movie begins. Set in rural Iceland, this movie, directed by Grímur Hákonarson, follows two brothers who both own ancestral, prize-winning sheep farms. One day, the village discovers that the local sheep have been infected with scrapie, a fatal, degenerative, and highly contagious nerve condition, and they're faced with the prospect of sacrificing their herds to prevent a wider outbreak. It's a touching, slightly unnerving saga.

MoviesDominique LearMarch 14, 2020Iceland, Quirky, Thought-Provoking

The Eternal Femenine

In The Eternal Feminine (Los adioses, dir. Natalia Beristáin), Mexican director Natalia Beristáin portrays the life of Rosario Castellanos, the renowned Mexican poet and diplomat. Interlacing Castellanos's youth and her days as a student in Mexico and Guatemala with the tensions in her marriage later in life, Beristáin presents a complex portrait of a profoundly feminist figure, whose writing and thinking was years beyond her time. This is a sweet and short historical fiction, perfect for a rainy day.

MoviesDominique LearMarch 14, 2020Mexico, Thought-Provoking

Virunga

We're always looking for great documentaries that transport us to different places and times. Virunga takes you to Easten Congo, where you meet a family of orphaned gorillas and their caretakers, who are battling dangerous political conditions to keep the gorillas alive. It's a poignant, gripping, and heart-wrenching journey.

MoviesDominique LearMay 3, 2019Congo (DRC), On Netflix, Enraging, Thought-Provoking

Taxi

In 2010 the Iranian government briefly imprisoned director Jafar Panahi, and officially banned him from making films for 20 years. Taxi is Panahi's third film since the ban went into effect. A faux-documentary shot entirely on dashboard cameras and mobile phones, the movie follows Panahi as he drives his taxi around Tehran during a single afternoon. Old women, a young accident victim, a banned film distributor, Panahi's young niece, and old friends all pass through his cab as the city bustles around them. Almost entirely plotless, the film lives on the dialogue with the passengers, which can be funny, heartfelt, irritating, or mournful, but always orbits the political. Panahi crafts a tender portrait and stiletto critique of his home city, all the more amazing because it seems to happen by chance.

MoviesDominique LearMay 3, 2019Iran, Thought-Provoking

Aquarius

We loved this film—it depicts a middle-aged woman waging a war on a developer looking to buy out her apartment to demolish a classic building on Recife's coast. The main character is a force of nature - she is the best kind of stubborn, sticking to her (literal) ground, despite what anyone around her says or thinks. This is a forceful and beautiful movie, with an excellent, empowering, and bewildering ending.

MoviesDominique LearMay 3, 2019Brazil, On Netflix, Thought-Provoking, Empowering