This Year’s Theme “Thicker than Water”
The ties that bind us. The expectations we inherit. The love that sustains us and the patterns that limit us.
This year’s International Film Series explores families in all their beautiful, complicated reality through films spanning cultures and continents. “Thicker than Water” doesn’t shy away from complexity but asks the hard questions: What do we inherit from the families that raised us? What do we owe one another? How do we honor our roots while finding our own path?
These stories feel both deeply personal and universally human. Join Belmont World Film at the West Newton Cinema for films that challenge, move, and remind us that family — no matter where you’re from — is never simple.
May 11: SIX DAYS IN SPRING (France, North American premiere).
On a whim, a single mother who is determined to give her twin boys a spring vacation after her original plans collapse—trespasses at her former in-laws’ luxury villa on the Riviera, a place she once called home. Joined by the twins’ soccer coach, secretly her boyfriend, they cautiously savor six sun-drenched days. Directed by Joachim Lafosse, (The White Knights, BWF 2015), the film simmers with an ever-so-slight tension beneath its radiant setting.
May 18: PORTE BAGAGE (Netherlands, East Coast premiere).
A Dutch family of Moroccan descent embarks on a road trip to honor their father’s wish to return to Morocco and spend his final days at his ancestral home. Along the way, old tensions resurface and loyalties are tested in a closely observed family dramedy about the emotional baggage we all carry as family members—that’s sometimes strapped to the roof of the car. Preceded by an optional closing reception from 5:30-6:30 PM featuring Moroccan cuisine.
Films shown in June as part of the Pride and World Refugee Awareness Month observances include:
June 1: ENZO (France, East Coast premiere).
In this riveting drama set along the breathtaking South of France, a 16-year-old boy defies his bourgeois family’s expectations by starting a masonry apprenticeship. There he meets a charismatic Ukrainian colleague who shakes up his world. Premiered at the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, and written and partially directed by Laurent Cantet (The Workshop, BWF 2018), who died before being able to finish.
June 8: LOST LAND (Japan, France, Malaysia, Germany;).
In the hope of reuniting with their scattered family, four-year-old Shafi and his nine-year-old sister Somira leave a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on a perilous journey to reach Malaysia. The first-ever Rohingya-language film and features an all-Rohingya cast. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival.
June 15: PROMISED SKY (Poland, New England premiere).
Three women from Côte d’Ivoire, living together in Tunisia without legal status, take in a young girl who washes ashore after a shipwreck. As this fragile, makeshift family begins to take shape, mounting pressures force each woman to confront where she belongs—and what she’s willing to risk. Premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.
Funded in part by Spark Newton as part of the Linda Plaut Festival of the Arts, in collaboration with the City of Newton.
