Watch Family Stories From Around the World Over Thanksgiving Weekend
Whether you look forward to the yearly gathering that is Thanksgiving or it fills you with visceral dread, the reason is the same: family. Maybe you’re close with your relatives, maybe you’d rather watch paint dry than have one more political debate, or maybe you’re just in it for grandma’s pecan pie. Whatever your situation, take comfort in the fact that family is a universal experience. This Thanksgiving weekend, see what familial dynamics are like across the globe, from fights to breakthroughs and everything in between. Stream family stories on Kino Film Collection now.
A Great Wall (1986)
China
The first American movie shot in China, "A Great Wall" is a delightful comedy about a San Francisco computer programmer who quits and moves his family to stay with his sister in Peking where he nostalgically searches for the traditional China he left behind. The culture clash develops in unexpected, hilarious directions, which all come to a head in a climactic ping pong battle.
The Son of Joseph (2017)
France
The American-born expatriate filmmaker Eugene Green exists in his own special artistic orbit and his film "The Son of Joseph" is perhaps his most buoyant. A nativity story reboot that gently skewers French cultural pretensions, it features newcomer Victor Ezenfis as a discontented Parisian teenager in search of a father.
A Delicate Balance (1976)
US
An invasion of friends and family pushes the repressed problems of a complacent marriage to the fore in this exceptional adaptation of Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Oscar-winners Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield star, and acclaimed British director Tony Richardson allows these thoroughbreds to explore the full range of conflict and confrontation in this explosive WASP gothic.
Rocco and His Brothers (1963)
Italy
Five brothers move north with their mother to Milan, finding fame in the boxing ring and love in the same woman. Labeled by Scorsese as “one of the most sumptuous black-and-white pictures,” this is a timeless story of modernity, class tension, and family drama by director Luchino Visconti and staring Alain Delon.
Don't Call Me Son (2016)
Brazil
When a Brazilian teenager learns he was stolen at birth, he's forced to leave his working-class home for his wealthy biological family. But his gender expression and identity clash with their expectations, challenging ideas of family, acceptance, and belonging in this bold coming-of-age drama and Berlin Film Festival winner.
Boy (2010)
New Zealand
An international hit from acclaimed director Taika Waititi ("Thor: Ragnarok"), this Berlin Film Festival winner is a hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age tale about heroes, magic, and Michael Jackson. Set on the east coast of New Zealand in the year 1984, "Boy" is the story of an 11-year-old kid whose life turns upside down when his father (Waititi) returns to Waihau Bay to find his lost money.
Killer of Sheep (1977)
US
Charles Burnett’s masterpiece captures the trials, fragile joys, and tenacious humor of Black working-class life in 1970s Los Angeles. Centering on a weary slaughterhouse worker, the film blends lyrical beauty with a stark neorealist style, offering a rare and deeply nuanced portrait of everyday life in American cinema.
The Tree (2010)
Australia
Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in Julie Bertuccelli’s achingly beautiful mystical drama of loss and rebirth in the Australian countryside. Blindsided by her husband’s sudden death, Dawn and her four young children struggle to make sense of life without him. Eight-year-old Simone becomes convinced that her father is whispering through the leaves of the gargantuan fig tree that towers over their house.
Sorry We Missed You (2020)
UK
British master Ken Loach is one of the only directors to win the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival not once but twice. Known for his socially conscious filmmaking, Loach updates his tried-and-true political themes by focusing on the lives of a nurse and a delivery driver struggling to make ends meet in this intimate family drama that exposes the dark side of the so-called “gig economy”.
My Wonderful Wanda (2020)
Switzerland
Winner of major awards at the Tribeca and Vancouver Film Festivals, "My Wonderful Wanda" is a delightful satire of the haves and the have-nots set against the backdrop of a lakeside villa in Switzerland. At the story’s center is Wanda, a Polish caretaker who has left her own small children in Poland to look after Josef, the stroke-ridden patriarch of the wealthy Wegmeister-Gloor dynasty.
Momma's Man (2008)
USA
Bumped from a flight back to Los Angeles, Mikey returns to his childhood home, a cluttered, cocoon-like Manhattan loft presided over by his bohemian parents. Re-installed in a household saturated with two generations of bric-a-brac evoking days gone by, Mikey starts to regress and drift back to an awkward youth he never outgrew.
Costa Brava, Lebanon (2021)
Lebanon
Nadine Labaki stars in this award-winning near-future drama about a close-knit family who have built a mountain refuge from the environmental crisis, only to have their serenity intruded upon by a government sponsored landfill that threatens to upend their relationships and way of life.