Welcome back to the Cause Cinema Spotlight.
This week, we have two two road movies, both exploring issues of lost souls and faith. and a futuristic drama that confronts issues of class and life choices.
We’ll start there with
The Kitchen
London, 2040 -- rising house prices, computerized labor and eradication of the Welfare State has turned the city into a billionaire's playground, pushing the lower classes to provincial empty slum-like high rises like The Kitchen. Ex-Smash-and-Grabber Izi is desperate to go straight but when his young son contracts a devastating illness, he is forced to take part in a heist that will change the lives of everyone in The Kitchen forever.
You can see The Kitchen on Netflix.
Fugitive Dreams
In this allegorical road movie touching on issues of homelessness, mental health, and addiction, two lost souls embark across a dreamscape America. Their darkly strange journey confronts them with their traumatic pasts, and bonds them in compassion and love.
You can see Fugitive Dreams on Amazon Prime, AppleTV and Vudu.
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Winner of the prestigious Camera d’Or for Best First Feature at the Cannes Film Festival, this enthralling debut from Vietnamese filmmaker Thien An Pham is a reverie on faith, loss, and nature expressed with uncommon invention and depth. The sudden death of his sister-in-law brings unexpected responsibilities to Thien (Le Phong Vu), who is reluctantly tasked with bringing his five-year-old nephew Dao to their countryside hometown. On the road, Thien is drawn into a search for his long-missing older brother, haunted and spurred forward by a series of sublime dreams that reignite suppressed memories, forbidden desires, and specters of his own youth. What began as a journey home becomes a pilgrimage marked by visual splendor and mystical overtones, a quest for understanding and certainty in a Vietnam that seems unable to provide any clear answers. As Thien battles with the existential question of what is worth living for, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell interrogates the persistence and complexity of faith, not only in the spiritual but in the delicate beauty of earthly existence.
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is currently in limited theatrical release.
The movie was shot shot in the Vietnamese language and can be seen with English subtitles
Sundance Film Festival Turns 40 today
I’m kicking off a new podcast, and Episode 1 features Sex, Lies and Videotape, arguably the most important turning point in the Sundance Film Festival’s history. Click below to hear (or you can read transcript and see clips).
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