Jennifro

I love....

Tonight I was browsing my Netflix account and all the movies we've rented over the past year. I've decided that foreign films are usually my very favorite.  Below are just a few.

This is just a precious film.  The characters are so adorable and endearing you can hardly believe it.  It is about a really poor, but loving family in Iran, who is struggling to make ends meet.  The oldest child, a boy, loses his little sister's shoes and the movie is about their attempt to share his shoes each day for school and keep the secret from their parents.  It is truly so well done and such an insightful glimpse into another culture.  After Nick and I saw it, we showed it to our kids (that was fun translating the subtitles to Mitchell) because it is such a wonderful depiction of love and loyalty within a family.  Not to mention, it was a great lesson in gratitude for all the riches we have--compared to other places on earth.  They really loved it and could grasp the story line perfectly, without understanding a single word.  

Another winner.  This is a British film about Lizzie, a single mother who lies to her deaf and mute son, Frankie, about the whereabouts of his father; she tells him he is aboard a ship.  After years of pretending, including sending Frankie fake letters detailing his dad's adventures, she is faced with a dilemma when the boy learns the ship is docked by their home.  Lizzie, has to find a man to pose as Frankie's father immediately.  I just love movies like this that ease you into the characters so slowly that by the end of the movie you have fallen in love with them.  This is such a sweet, human film--it shouldn't be missed.  

Last but NOT least, the French have done it again.  This is truly a beautiful and charming film. The scenery and costumes are so authentic, you feel as though you have been transported back to the years after the war. It is the story of a music teacher who gets a job at a boys' boarding school for delinquents and orphans--and run by a militant headmaster.  The gentle teacher senses potential in the boys and forms a choir to transform them through the power of song. The music is beautiful and haunting, the acting amazing and the story line so captivating, I hated it to end.  I love French films, and this one is no exception.  This little gem goes straight to your heart, with an ending that will stop your breath and bring on the tears.  You'll want to download songs from this one.