Live good there

Eight life -affirming films about emigration and adaptation in a new place

The number of temporarily left Russia and emigrated finally over the past year and a half ranges from several hundred thousand to a couple of millions. The wave of emigration after February 2022 is one of the most massive for the post -Soviet space over the past hundred years.

Moving to a new place is always difficult. Social tension, lawlessness against refugees and bureaucratic problems are the reality of the moved, and many social dramas are devoted to this. But in the history of the latest cinema there are also positive stories about moving and fixing in a new place. The New Gazeta Europe has collected eight films about moving in search of a better life with charismatic and inspiring the main characters.

"Brooklyn", dir. John Crowley

Young Irish in New York rushes between two beloved

One of the most delicate melodramas about the longing for the homeland, shot in the 21st century. Sirsha Ronan plays a young Irish girl Eilish, who comes from the village to the promised land - to the main metropolis in the world. She lives a poor life in a small hostel for girls, gets a job as a saleswoman and tries to get acquainted with new people. But the natural shyness and longing for the house is the upper hand: the ocean remained behind the ocean, her youthful love, the native island with her favorite spaces and the language, so not similar to the "American adverb." Brooklyn perfectly conveys the feelings of the immigrant: the thirst for new and curiosity fight in the main character with nostalgic sadness, and only next to the same confused immigrant-Italian does she cease to feel lonely.

"Synonyms", dir. Nadav Lapid

The adventures of the Israeli in modern Paris

Wanting to escape from the script, the young yoav, a young yoav, comes from the Middle East to Paris - the city of his dreams. Having seen enough French films, Joav was imbued with Parisian mythology: neither poverty, nor a language barrier, nor lack of work scare him. In a few days he remains without money and roof over his head, but meets his saviors - young Parisian bourgeois, who decide to shelter Joava and show him a real European life. “Synonyms” - a drama about the confusion between Hebrew and the French language, based on an episode from the biography of the director of the film, who had a chance to live in a room with a hole in the ceiling and work with a rabil in the bar. Lapids retells the history of his first months in an unfamiliar city - inexpressibly beautiful and unbearably cold - where he loses its youthful illusions and gradually begins to navigate in the maze of the French language and the local lifestyle.

"Minari", dir. Lee Isaac Chun

Korean immigrants begin life from scratch in the village of Arkansas

Having moved from California, where life is getting more expensive, to Arkansas, the father of the Korean family decides to do agriculture in order to provide himself independently, and not work to hire. His wife takes care of two children and is constantly worried about the likelihood of bankruptcy and the inability to plan the future: the nature of Arkansas is capricious, and even a neighbor farmer is a veteran of the Korean war. The arrival of a grandmother from Korea should weaken tension in the family and facilitate the upbringing of a son and daughter to parents, but the clash of generations will lead to a new family crisis. The main symbol of the film will be minari - water celery, from which Koreans prepare traditional food. Another delicate removal of growing up on the basis of a real story: director Chun recalls his childhood in Arkansas, the feuds between his parents and the difficult path to the elusive American dream, which does not fit into the simple formula "work a lot, and everything will be fine."

"Madam America", dir. Noah Baumbach

The provincial with writing ambitions conquers New York

For most Americans who grew up in one-story cottages, New York is another planet. Tracy, who entered the New York College, feels an alien: she does not develop relations with classmates, she is not accepted into a student literary society, and shyness prevents her from making acquaintances in the city, where everyone moves in a frantic rhythm. Then the mother invites her to call her daughter her future husband-a 30-year-old entrepreneur and party-minded person Brooke Cardinas, who is always in the thick of events. Tracy falls under the influence of Brooke and is amazed at the adventures of the future combined sister. The ironic comedy about the world of collapsing capabilities and about New York impostors looking for a place under the sun, a smart and accurate film about the generation of millennials and daily risks in an unstable world.

"Dipan", dir. Jacques Odiyar

The former militant of the rebel movement begins a new life in France

After arrests and torture, a young man named Dipan, a participant in the partisan movement “Tamil Tigers”, runs from Sri Lanka to France to start life from scratch, but the only work he can claim is a cleaner in a Parisian suburb. To relieve himself of suspicions, the man pretends to be an ordinary Lankan and gives a stranger with a child for members of his family. Living in a problem area, he is in danger and humiliation: no one from Dipan’s entourage is even aware of his military past. The director of the criminal drama “The Prophet” and the thriller “My Heart has stopped fighting”, Jacquar Jacquar removes the masculine history of struggle and resistance, not turning away from violence, which is saturated with any society - both Asian military dictatorship and Parisian suburbs. The main theme of "Dipan" is a thirst for life and justice, and also an affection, which manifested alone and need.

"Cuscus and Barabulka", dir. Abladetif Keshish

The aging North African immigrant is trying to open a restaurant

A three -hour epic about a suffering immigrant family and circular border. An elderly man of Arabic origin is fired from work right in front of the pension: in the port French town a decline, and companies are unprofitable to keep elderly workers. In a huge family consisting of a wife and several children and grandchildren, it is difficult for the main character to find understanding. His only joy is the mistress and her teenage daughter, who refers to her mother’s boyfriend as a native father. It is the girl who decides to take the salvation of a desperate man into her own hands and persuades the poor old man to open a family restaurant with Maghriba food - a fish piece on an old boat. Despite the difficult ending, the drama of Keshish is a gentle recognition of love for the homeland, parents and traditions: true love and sense of duty come to the rescue when formal ties and bureaucracy cannot cope. The drama was suffered by the director: he removes stories about people who are well known to him - about immigrants from North Africa, who re -build their lives in modern France.

"Land of nomads", dir. Chloe Zhao

The widow goes on a trip to America, which will change her views on life

Poetic drama about nomadic life and an alternative community of new homeless people. Having buried her husband and having lost his job, the 60-year-old Fern decides to go on a trip on wheels: in his native town in Nevada, she holds nothing else. Living depression and experiencing devastation, Fern will meet thousands of those like her - middle -aged, accustomed to work a lot of Americans who have lost their jobs and the last hope for a decent old age. On the way, the heroine will gain freedom, a sense of shoulder and at home that America will become for her. The daughter of Chloe Immigrants raised on the road was inspired by documentary Bestseller research on new homeless people-a project about people who lost the roof over their heads due to the financial crisis and the crash of the banking system. But where the state is cruel, people find the strength to show mercy and understanding: dozens of new acquaintances will give Fern a lot of lessons about what makes a person wise and truly independent.

“Everything, everywhere and at once”, dir. Dan Kwan and Daniel Shainert

The hostess of the Chinese laundry - superheroine of our time

The extravagant “matrix” of the 2020s: the fate of the whole world is in the hands of the most ordinary Chinese hard worker in America. Early married and left the parental house, Evelyn is drowning in household chores and accounting of his little business. She controls the laundry room, and also cares for her father-mashematist and takes care of her husband and young daughter. One of the visits to the accountant regarding fines and taxes turns around for her an alternative space Odyssey: it turns out that Evelyn is in the hands of goodness over evil around the world, only for this it will be necessary to agree with his own family. Comedy science fiction, which received several “Oscars” and the applause of Spielberg and Scorsese, is a militant, a family saga, and a costume comedy about adaptation to new circumstances. The life of every immigrant is a dozen invisible battles every day, in which it is necessary to maintain sobriety and resistance, without losing humanity.