Two narrative features from Reel Love Fest: each dealing with love in their own ways, whether romantic, familial or beyond.
True Mothers (2020 | Japan | 140 minutes | Naomi Kawase)
Hiraki, a fourteen year old girl in love, finds herself pregnant. Satoko and Kiyokazu are a young couple who can’t naturally have children after many many attempts. True Mothers follows the two heart-wrenching stories leading up to, and after, the birth of Asato, the child that entwines their lives.
What truly makes this film a gut-wrenching masterpiece isn’t the emotional rollercoaster you ride throughout the film. It’s the nuance, beauty and strength the writing gives each character. Westernized adoption narratives typically have the young mother pitted against the adoptive parents who become immediately defensive and fearful of losing their child. Kawasi’s empathetic poignant love story between two mothers is everything.
My Little Sister (2020 | Switzerland | 99 minutes | Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond)
The bond between stage actor Sven (Lars Eidinger) and writer Lisa (Nina Hoss) is a closeness beyond comprehension for most of us. Twins and best friends, they feel and experience every bit of the other’s everyday lives. Sven has been diagnosed with cancer and it consumes Lisa throughout the film just as it does Sven even at the risk of her own happiness. Struggling with her husband’s desires to stay in a country that she doesn’t consider home and caring for her two young children, the whole situation quickly becomes overwhelming and you feel the breakdown not only on screen but viscerally with every moment that passes.
Watching someone you love whose vitality, talent and exuberance you could scarcely duplicate wither away before your very eyes is beyond the pale. The two brilliant leads bring every emotional break, moment of joy and bewildering downturn to stark relief. The nuance of emotions portrayed by Hoss as she tries to keep her love life solvent and take care of the one person she loves the most is what really makes this film special and rips you apart unapologetically.
Sloan Hearts Neckface (2020 | USA | 15 minutes | Justin Fair)
At only 15 minutes, Sloan Hearts Neckface is quirky, funny and unexpected. While I don’t think I’d want to meet either of the protagonists, their unusual love story unfolds before you with whit abound. Deceit, tears, graffiti and Isiah Whitlock Jr. (Da 5 Bloods) all make an appearance in this short and sweet unconventional romance.
La Gloria (2020 | USA | 15 minutes | Mary Evangelista)
A dark but hopeful story about a girl in love who contemplates suicide after a harsh rejection only to be found and comforted deep in her soul by her abuela. A little bit of magic and a lot of cultural comforts make this story very moving.