5 movies about family

Cinema offers us films to reflect on a group as peculiar as the family. In this article we give you the titles of some of the footage that meets this requirement.

The family nucleus is not chosen and, however, it is one of the most decisive. Whether due to mere belonging, ignorance or exclusion, on many occasions the family predisposes or encourages certain decisions.

Now, what is family? This is a group of people who are linked by a first or second degree of consanguinity, although There are also family relationships through adoption.

Family models vary depending on different variables, such as society, culture or the weight of religion. Consequently, the regulation of the obligations and rights of families in each place also depend on these variables.

As we see, the family universe is immense and complex, has many nuances; As many as there are families in this world. Something that we usually ignore, but that cinema brings us closer to reflect on.

1. Family, by Fernando León de Aranoa

Family is the debut feature of Fernando León de Aranoa, a filmmaker who had already worked in the world of television. In 2012, Paolo Genovese directed A perfect familya film that takes the plot of León de Aranoa as its starting point.

The central theme of film It’s the family crisis. A plot that takes shape through the need of Santiago (Juan Luis Galiardo) to celebrate his anniversary surrounded by a false “relative” that makes him feel loved for a day.

However, the theatrical representation of the clan reveals the dark side of this institution, something that is evident in the metonymic images of the credits on which the camera stops to show the details of a family photo that hides the true relationship between its members.

Domestic violence

There are numerous references to domestic violence in the film. In the opening scene, Martín tells the anecdote of Santiago’s birth that refers to this type of violence: his father wanted to be the first to hit him so that the doctor, a stranger, would not be the one to give him the first “slaps.”

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There are other scenes in which this type of violence is exemplified: when Santiago tightens his belt and adds: “and, if not, we can always use it to hit the children.” In another scene, when looking at a family photograph, Santiago suggests that his father mistreated his mother.

The contradictions inherent to this institution are manifested in the juxtaposition of two planes. On the one hand, the scenes of the play or space of appearances. In it, the secrets, lies and main problems of the artists emerge, as well as the crisis of the marriage of the director and the main actress. On the other, the space of everyday life or the “real life” scenes of the characters.

2. Nader and Simin, a separation

Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, it is a paradigm of contemporary Iranian cinema. In this form of filmmaking, the desire to portray daily life and the conflicts of Persian society from a naturalistic perspective and free of artifice prevails.

Fahardi belongs to the new wave of Iranian filmmakers inaugurated by Abbas Kiarostami. Except the film Shah-re-ziba, in 2004, in which he dealt with the death penalty, the central plot of the rest of the five feature films that complete his filmography is the relationship crisis.

Nader (Payman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) are a middle-class Iranian couple who have started divorce proceedings. She wants the entire family to go abroad, where her daughter Termeh will have a better future, but Nader refuses: her argument is that she should take care of her father who is sick with Alzheimer’s.

The film describes the process of destruction of two families as a result of their members putting personal interests first. to the clarification of the truth. In the background, the resolution of a conflict that confronts the marriages represented in the film.

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From the beginning of the film, the viewer is a privileged witness whose judgment about the behavior and attitude of the characters varies depending on the information available to them.

3. Rosetta

Among movies about families, We also find some in which the abandonment and negligence of the parents mark the destiny of their offspring. This film by Belgian brothers Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne, winners of the Palme d’Or at the 1999 Cannes festival, was the most visceral cinematic experience of the year.

Rosetta, played by Émilie Dequenne, lives in a garage with her alcoholic mother. Simply, he would like to change his life. The struggle for decent work also exemplifies the struggle of poor against poor in a capitalist system.

Rosetta is a character that settles in the viewer’s heart before there is time to reflect on her. It is as if the Dardenne brothers wanted to turn an experience of realism into something “trivial”. The film made such an impression in Belgium that in November 1999 a law on salaries for young people was passed under the name “Rosetta plan”.

4. Go and Live, by Radu Mihaileanu

The first epic film dedicated to the emigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Radu Mihaileanu’s work follows a formula that allows viewers to become emotionally involved in a story that much of the planet is unaware of.

Schlomo is a nine-year-old Ethiopian boy who is sent by his mother to “Operation Moses,” a program that returns Ethiopian Jews to Israel. But Schlomo has a secret: he is neither Jewish nor an orphan, two lies that will mark his entire existence.

In Israel, Schlomo has the good fortune to fall into a happy and loving family, composed of a protective mother, a loving father and a wise grandfather. It is a family drama that encompasses the complex and divisive politics of Israel, in which moderates confront fundamentalists for the “soul” of the country.

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The young Schlomo finds himself at the heart of the debate, as opinions of black people, Orthodox and secular, explode against a backdrop of political protests, airstrikes and racial prejudice.

go and live It is as much the story of a child as that of any person who begins to grow and is born again in a new country.

5. Little Miss Sunshine, by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Being a family melodrama, Little Miss Sunshine is a magnificent staging of the formula of making a family live together for a considerable period of time .

Little Miss Sunshine It represents the best of American cinema, where in addition to the great films assembled in the studio, there is also independent film production.

The Hoover family heads to California to support the youngest of the clan (Abigail Breslin) in her attempt to win the contest Little Miss Sunshine. On the journey, each of them will have to face their own ghosts.

A united family without knowing it

The family is made up of six people. Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette), a mother who has to assume more responsibilities every day, and to which must be added the care of a brother who has tried to commit suicide.

Meanwhile, Sheryl’s husband, Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear) is trying to start a career as a motivational speaker. Sheryl’s son Dwayne (Paul Dano) has vowed not to speak until he achieves his goal of becoming a test pilot in the Air Force.

Richard’s father Edwin (Alan Arkin) also lives with the family; He lived in a residence, but his flirtations with drugs caused him to be kicked out of the center.

Finally, there’s Olive (Abigail Breslin), the aspiring beauty pageant contestant. Little Miss Sunshine It brings us closer to a group of somewhat naive souls besieged by conflicts who have to begin a journey to achieve that goal that unites them.