MINARI: A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugged Ozarks, they discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.
PERSEPOLIS: Persepolis is based on Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about her life in pre- and post-revolutionary Iran and then in Europe. The fi lm traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained and then executed, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war.
ENCANTO: After being forced out of their Colombian homeland by political unrest, the Madrigal family is blessed with magical gifts. When the family’s powers unexpectedly fl icker and fade, Mirabel – the only member of the family who was not granted a special ability – takes it upon herself to bring the family together and save the magic before it’s too late. At the center of Encanto, the very real fear of being forcibly displaced again lingers within an otherwise adorable story.
FOR SAMA: An intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war. A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the fi lm tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through fi ve years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic confl ict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to fl ee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrifi ced so much.
FLEE: In FLEE, Amin’s life has been defi ned by his past and a secret he’s kept for over 20 years. Forced to leave his home country of Afghanistan as a young child with his mother and siblings, Amin now grapples with how his past will aff ect his future in Denmark and the life he is building with his soon-to-be husband. Told brilliantly through the use of
animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his life, opening up for the fi rst time about his past, his trauma, the truth about his family, and his acceptance of his own sexuality.
THE DONUT KING: An immigrant story with a (glazed) twist, The Donut King follows the journey of Cambodian refugee Ted Ngoy, who fl ed escaped the brutal Khmer Rouge and arrived in California in the 1970s and, through a mixture of diligence and luck, built a multi-million dollar donut empire up and down the West Coast.
THE VISITOR: The Visitor is one of the most unique movies about immigrants, off ering a glimpse into the U.S. immigration detention system and the people it aff ects. When his college sends him to Manhattan to attend a conference, Walter is surprised to fi nd a young undocumented couple has taken up residence in his apartment. Victims of a real estate scam, Tarek, a Syrian man, and Zainab, his Senegalese girlfriend, have nowhere else to go. In the fi rst of a series of tests of the heart, Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him. When Tarek is arrested as an undocumented immigrant and held for deportation, they grapple with the issues of the treatment of immigrants and the legal process post 9/11.
THE MIDNIGHT TRAVELER: When the Taliban puts a bounty on Afghan director Hassan Fazili’s head, he is forced to fl ee with his wife and two young daughters. Capturing their uncertain journey, Fazili shows fi rsthand the dangers facing refugees seeking asylum and the love shared between a family on the run. Shot on three mobile phones, Midnight Traveler is a documentary that feels like a modern-day message in a bottle, an urgent appeal for help from a family that’s still searching for a home.
LIMBO: Limbo is a 2020 British comedy-drama fi lm that centers on four asylum seekers who are staying on a remote island in Scotland, and taking cultural awareness classes, while awaiting the processing of their refugee claims. Refl ecting the complexity of the movement of people across borders has been a long-held passion for director and writer Ben Sharrock, who spent time working for an NGO in refugee camps in southern Algeria and living in Damascus in 2009 shortly before the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. There, he formed a network of friends whose personal stories inspired this movie about immigrants.
HUMAN FLOW: An epic documentary fi lm journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. Captured over the course of an eventful year in 23 countries, the fi lm follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretches across the globe. It highlights the desperate search for safety, shelter and justice: from teeming refugee camps to perilous ocean crossings to barbed-wire borders; from dislocation and disillusionment to courage, endurance and adaptation; from the haunting lure of lives left behind to the unknown potential of the future