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Film Search
If these five excellent films can be said to have a unifying theme, it’s this: We’re not alone. That is always comforting to hear, and these films all say it so well that picking a best from among them is tough. But picking a favorite is easy. It’s Day One, from former U.S. army paratrooper Henry Hughes, about the really rough first day a new interpreter (the absolutely marvelous Layla Alizada) has with a band of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Close behind is Ave Maria, from British-Palestinian filmmaker Basil Khalil, a comedy of culture clash as Israeli settlers in the West Bank must work together with Arab Christian nuns after a car accident outside their convent. The other nominees are Everything Will Be Okay, from German filmmaker Patrick Vollrath, about a divorced dad who picks up his young daughter for an overnight visit that will not be like their typical weekend; Shok, from British filmmaker Jamie Donoughue, a coming-of-age tale set in Serb-occupied Kosovo in the 1990s; and Stutterer, from Irish filmmaker Benjamin Cleary, about a typographer in London whose severe speech impediment limits his social options. All are well worth your time.
