OUR TOP TEN FAVOURITE MOMENTS OF THE YEAR

DECEMBER 28, 2023

(Hungary, Israel, Colombia)

This week we're taking a look at our favourite scenes of the year.  These are the moments of a film which we remember time and time again long after watching the movie.

​We've narrowed it down to twenty movies and the following ten just missed our best of the best:

​THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS

SHAYDA (Australia) - the opening airport scene
VERA (Austria) - the ending of the film, after witnessing what has just happened to Vera, and feeling like this has happened before
A MALE (Colombia) - putting the lipstick on the mirror
THE PROMISED LAND (Denmark) - the killing of the man with hot water
FOUR SOULS OF COYOTE (Hungary) - the killing of the buffalo and knowing that life in this perfect world is over​
IN THE SHADOW OF BEIRUT (Ireland) - playing with the kid in the water, hoping for a better life for his child
SEVEN BLESSINGS (Israel) - when Marie screams at the table "beg me to forgive you."
THUNDERS (Moldova) - trying to save the cow
THE PEASANTS (Poland) - the gorgeous dance scene between Jagna and Antek
GLORIOUS ASHES (Vietnam) - the burning of the house 

10. PLAYING IN THE SNOW - SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD (ESTONIA)

The latest documentary from Anna Hints is a film focused on a small group of women who disclose their secrets and fears to one another inside a smoke sauna. This safe space is sacred and it’s a place where these women are open to all conversations and feelings.  These women share their pain, hopes and regrets.  The conversations between these women can sometimes be extremely uncomfortable to hear, and incredibly sad, especially after finding out some of the trauma they've had to experience.  During the documentary, there's a scene where all the women are playing in the snow.  Seeing their pure bliss and watching them laugh, even for a second, is such a joy to witness.  And it's a beautiful moment of escape for these best friends before having to return back to their lives.

9. THE FLEEING BIRDS - BANEL AND ADAMA (SENEGAL)

The film is about two young lovers, namely Banel and Adama, who live in a tiny village in Northern Senegal.  A drought has struck the village, and weeks and months go by without any rain.  Without any rain, this extended dry spell begins to kill all the cattle in the village forcing the men to leave their homes for other work.  As the lizards and other animals begin to dry up, and as the people start to die as well, this destruction is shown with devastating beauty.  In one incredibly beautiful scene, as Adama is looking for food, he is encompassed by thousands of birds fleeing the lifeless village.  This is a reminder of the effects of climate change in countries like Senegal. 

8. THE ATTACK - BLAGA'S LESSONS (BULGARIA)

Starring the incredible Eli Skorcheva, the film is about a 70 year old retired literature professor from Shumen named Blaga. She has just been a victim of a terrible scam.  And her entire life has changed because of this one incident.  But even though Blaga has lost everything she has not lost her willingness to fight back.  She is forced to make a difficult decision for her own survival and she has decided to go to extreme measures as a result.  As Blaga slowly enters the dark crime world, she is attacked by a man and the brutal realization of the dangers she has put herself in begins to shake her entire world.  Forced to continue doing what she's doing, Blaga's entire existence begins to change.

7. THE BAR SCENE - SLOW (LITHUANIA)

The film revolves around Dovydas, a sign language interpreter, who comes to assist a contemporary dancer Elena.  They soon after begin to form a romantic bond with one another.  There’s a gravitational pull that brings them together.  But as their relationship begins to get more intense, Dovydas reveals that he is asexual, and that he’s not attracted to anyone sexually. He never has been and he never will.  While they begin to figure out how to build on a relationship that isn’t physical, the intimacy between the two is ever present.  In one particular scene, the two of them are seen in a room full of people, a room filled with noise and endless chatter, yet the two of them feel like they're the only ones, they're completely alone and in sync, and in love.  

6. THE BREAKDOWN IN CLASS - EXCURSION (BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA)

Una Gunjak latest film is about a young girl named Iman, who’s in the eighth grade.  Iman has just lied to her peers that she’s had sex with an older boy named Damir.  She does do in desperation to want to fit in with her fellow classmates.  She fabricates a story in the hopes of winning their respect. She thinks that announcing to everyone that she’s had sex will make her cool, that it’ll make her seem more important.  A lie though, which may feel small at first, can spread rapidly amongst ones peers. And once a rumour starts spreading, the widespread effect that it can cause is insurmountable.  In one devastating scene, Iman begins to get bullied by her classmates to the point of assault in a bathroom at school.  Shattered and to the brink of a complete breakdown, Iman re-enters her classroom, shaken and near the point of tears, forced to face her peers.

5. THE RED SMOKE - THE ZONE OF INTEREST (UNITED KINGDOM)

The film takes place around 1943 and it’s about a German family: Rudolf, a long-serving commandant, his wife Hedwig and their five children. They live in a large country house, impeccably maintained by a handful of Jewish women, with a beautiful garden and right by a lake, where they frequently spend their time to relax. This could be any loving, ordinary German family. But they’re not. Right next door is the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp.  The signs of horror are subtle yet always constant. The black smoke in the distant is always present. There’s ash in the lake. Gun shots are frequently heard, followed by screams. In one truly horrific scene, at night, the redness of the gas chambers glow. This is the place where more than one million Jews were murdered, tortured and forced into the most inhumane forced labour. But it’s never shown.  And not seeing it, makes it that much scarier.

4. THE REVELATION - THE MISSING (PHILIPPINES)

The film is about Eric, a quiet young man who works as a computer animator.  He has not said a word since he was a child. He now communicates by writing on a whiteboard that’s always hanging around his neck. He has been suffering from nightmares since he was a child. His safety is hiding under his bed for hours, and sometimes even for some days. Eric hasn’t spoken to anyone about what’s been happening with him, and he feels alone despite Carlo, his best friend, and his mother’s best attempts to find out what’s wrong.  The darkest traumas in our lives can strip away our humanity day by day, year after year.  Near the end of the film, there's a special moment between Eric and the two closest people in his life.  It's an unforgettable, perfect moment.

3. THE "REUNION" OF ALL THE SISTERS - FOUR DAUGHTERS (TUNISIA)

Based on a painful true story, the film is about Olfa Hamrouni, a divorced mother of four daughters from the coastal town of Sousse. They made the headlines seven years ago when two of her daughters, Ghofrane and Rahma, fled their home and country to join ISIS in Libya. Director Kaouther Ben Hania re-enacts key parts of Olfa’s family, featuring the remaining daughters Eya and Tayssir to play themselves, while hiring actresses to play the daughters who vanished from their lives.  When Olfa sees the two actresses playing her two missing daughters, she breaks down in tears.  It is one of the most moving, heartbreaking moments of any film this year.  Her dream of having all her kids under one roof will never happen again, but for that split second it felt that her family was complete again.

2. THE WOMAN IN THE DESERT - THE CAPTAIN (ITALY)

The film is about two young teenagers and cousins, Seydou and Moussa. They live in Dakar, Senegal. They’ve been secretly working odd jobs for the past six months saving money to leave their city and families behind to move to Europe.  After securing fake passports, their first goal is to head west to Agadez, Niger. And from there to head across the Sahara Desert up north to Tripoli, Libya until they reach the small town called Zuara. The final leg of the journey is the boat ride to Italy. Their destination. Their dream. But nothing goes as planned.  In one of the most heart-wrenching, most beautiful scenes of the year, Seydou and all the other migrants are forced to walk for hours under the excruciating heat of the desert.  One woman collapses unable to move forward.  Seydou rushes to help her and the reality of their situation begins to hit the cousins hard that this journey may not have been worth it after all.

1. THE WOMAN ON THE STRETCHER - 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL (UKRAINE)

This film begins in February 24th, 2022. Vladimir Putin announces that a “special military operation” in “self-defence” was starting due to threats that Ukraine might attack Russia. Mstyslav Chernov, and two of his colleagues, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko decide to head to Mariupol, knowing full well that this key port, just 30 miles from the enemy border would be Russia’s first target. They were right, within hours, bombs begin to fall and this documentary showcases the next twenty days in the city.  There aren’t enough trigger warnings to prepare someone for what’s to come in this unflinching, never compromising documentary. From its opening frame, the film doesn’t shy away from the most harrowing scenes, including graphic depictions of violence, bloody deaths, and the aftermath of destruction. Watching people walking in the streets, lost, confused, destroyed, hopeless is agonizing.  When a maternity hospital is bombed, a wounded pregnant woman is taken on a stretcher where she passes away shortly later.  It's a scene one can never forget.  And it's a scene that deserves to be the best, most important, moment of the year.