Directed by Alê Abreu • 2013 • Brazil
Starring Vinicius Garcia, Lu Horta, Marco Aurélio Campos
Brazilian artist Alê Abreu’s vibrant, Academy Award–nominated animated adventure is a riotous explosion of music and color that depicts the wonders and struggles of the modern world as seen through the eyes of a young boy. Cuca’s cozy rural life is shattered when his father leaves for the city, prompting him to embark on a quest to reunite his family. The young boy’s journey unfolds like a tapestry, the animation taking on greater complexity as his small world expands. Industrial landscapes are inhabited by animal-machines, with barrios of decoupage streets and shop windows and flashing neon advertisements that illuminate the night. The story depicts a clash between village and city, the hand-crafted and the mechanized, rich and poor—and throughout the tumult, the heart and soul of the people beats on as a song.
Up Next in 21st Century Cinema
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Love in the Time of AIDS
Directed by Deepa Dhanraj • 2006 • India
LOVE IN THE TIME OF AIDS follows a group of kothis (gay men who identify as femme) in Belgaum, a small city in Karnataka, and traces their stories of love, desire, and ostracization, as well as their work with an NGO that promotes safe-sex practices.
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Things to Come
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve • 2016 • France, Germany
Starring Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman KolinkaWhat happens when the life you’ve worked so hard to build falls apart all at once? Nathalie (a radiant Isabelle Huppert) is a philosophy teacher with a seemingly settled existence, jugglin...
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Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My ...
Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese • 2019 • Germany, Lesotho
Part poetic essay, part documentary, this rapturous film by director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (THIS IS NOT A BURIAL, IT’S A RESURRECTION) analyzes the complexities of his relationship to his native country of Lesotho from his new hom...
