'Pain Hustlers' (2023): An Opioid Crisis
What starts off as a success story for a single mother living below the poverty line, slowly begins to weave itself into a tangled web of greed, guilt, and destruction.

Andrei's ex-girlfriend Tania (Anzhela Belyanskaya) has been constantly in danger of going to jail since he knew her. Their breakup was not his doing, and he is determined to keep her out of jail. Andrei (Oleg Menshikov) has a notion that, if he can raise enough money, he can smuggle her out of Russia into New York, where all will be well. While Andrei's grasp on reality may be tenuous, his ability to maneuver and scheme is unimpaired. He is a student filmmaker, and the kind of money he needs to save Tania with doesn't grow on trees. He begins raising funds by mugging men at public toilets, and graduates to stealing the drug money accumulated by more serious gangsters. After he has raised the money to accomplish his goal, his girl, the light of his life, confesses that she despises him, and then goes out and gets arrested.
What starts off as a success story for a single mother living below the poverty line, slowly begins to weave itself into a tangled web of greed, guilt, and destruction.
Given a choice between a man and a mountain, it’s safer to choose the mountain.
'The Mad Woman and the Feminist': This Spanish entry for the MiamisFF directed by Sandra Gallego handles a difficult conversation in a smart, memorable way.
The cancelling of these series is being blamed on the writers' strike and low viewership, but it's just the latest example of the industry's lack of appreciation for stories about queer women.
My Beautiful Laundrette is often referenced as a positive LGBTQIA+ film because our two main characters are in a homosexual relationship with no shame, fear of violence or criticism. The struggle is not their sexuality. It is the treatment of the Pakistani citizens in England.