First off, apologies. Speaking of families, “life stuff” got in the way of my regular posts during this year’s SIFF. I plan to catch up this week so that folks may still have the opportunity to see some of these films during SIFF’s streaming week that continues through midnight, June 1st. See all the streaming selections here.
If there was a theme of what I saw this year, “it’s complicated” rises to the top. In a world where the political elite push an idealized, faux-nostalgic view of their versions of perfect families, perfect citizens, and a perfect society, so many of the films this year showed that life is simply not that simple.
Between GoodbyesBetween Goodbyes (8/8)
In this extremely moving, extremely complicated documentary about adoption, filmmaker Jota Mun digs deep into the decades-long wave where over 200,000 Korean children were adopted internationally. The film focus on Mieke, a Dutch adoptee that happened to be found by her own Korean birth family some 20 years after she was surrendered for a better life by her parents who struggled (like so many) in 1980s Korea. Mieke’s life in The Netherlands was good, but by the time she was in college the parents who raised her had passed and she struggled with being raised Christian but knowing she was queer. Needless to say it was an awkward time for a highly emotional “new” family from a different culture to want to embed themselves in her life to make up for what they saw as lost time. What could and should be a best-case scenario for all involved (her bio family wants to be a part of her life, and Mieke herself wants to reconcile with her cultural heritage) becomes completely overwhelming. What I appreciated about this moving documentary is the equal attention given to the perspective of the bio-family. Birth mother Okgyun struggles with guilt and regret, and finds a support network in Korea of other women who try to reconcile similar decisions from their past. Mieke can’t handle some of Okgyun’s culturally earnest expectations and disappointments and retreats physically and emotionally during parts of their journey. And as the two of them discover the bureaucratic lies that blocked birth families from connecting with their children (and vice-versa), it’s shocking and heartbreaking.
Color Book (7/8)
This gorgeously-shot black-and-white film has a simple premise: A recently-widowed man wants to take his 11-year-old son to a professional baseball game across town. But the opening moments, of a lovely woman patiently showing the disabled boy (Jeremiah Daniels) how to bead a necklace, and then later the boy’s father (William Catlett) dressing his son for what turns out to the woman’s funeral, gently establishes the complexity of the situation. What should be a simple outing out turns out to be Sisyphean for so many reasons. But there is so much quiet patience, kindness, and gentle empathy in this film. When they make it home at the end of a very long day out and repeat the boy’s daily bedtime ritual, there is so much aching love in the moment. You know the next day is going to be just as hard, but they’ll find a way to make it through.
Beginnings (Begyndelser) (2025)Beginnings (Begyndelser) (7/8)
Let me start with saying that I’ll watch the fantastic Trine Dyrholm in anything. Beginnings is one of those brittle, difficult family dramas that is rewarding for the powerhouse acting and for the anticipation that things will hopefully end well (or at least slightly better) for all involved. Dyrholm plays Ane, an academic at the top of her game whose marriage has dissolved at home. Her husband Thomas (David Dencik) is planning to move in with his girlfriend as soon as he figures out how to tell their children. But a wrench is thrown into their lives when Ane suddenly has a stroke, paralyzing one side of her body. Ane is bitter and furious that she needs help and Thomas regretfully but dutifully delays his plan to move out “until she gets better,” stepping up to be her caretaker. The emotional push and pull between the two actors crackles on screen as Ane’s condition surprisingly brings the couple closer again. I must add a special shout-out to Bjørk Storm who plays the couple’s teenage daughter Clara. She’s terrific, bringing a nuance, vulnerability, and ferocity to a character who is kept in the dark way too long but is way more intuitive than her parents give her credit for.
