‘Water Lilies’ and the Journey of Identity
A gentle coming of age story, Water Lilies takes its time in exploring what it’s like to be a young girl trying to make sense of her sexuality in a heteronormative world.

Set on the small island of Porto Buio, the traditional live Christmas Nativity scene might not go ahead because the baby who’s always played Jesus has grown up and no new babies have been born on the island in years! With this fundamental tradition on the line, newly elected Mayor Cecco (Claudio Bisio) wants to ask the local Tunisian community to “borrow” one of their children, but there’s conflict between the two communities. Cecco enlists the help of local Islam convert Bilal (Alessandro Gassman) to cross the cultural divide… but both communities are not sure what to make of a baby Jesus that may need his nationality, and even his religion changed!
A gentle coming of age story, Water Lilies takes its time in exploring what it’s like to be a young girl trying to make sense of her sexuality in a heteronormative world.
Sonic is a pretty generic buddy comedy with a light dusting of eccentricity.
The 2019 film, Vai, takes us through eight stories across the islands of Oceania. The settings are unbelievably beautiful, the cast is beautiful, the languages are beautiful, and the stories are beautiful…but heartbreaking.
'Jungle Cruise' is fun if you can ignore the racism of the ride it’s based on and the film’s bland, stereotypical characters.
An anti-war film denouncing the valorization of senseless violence, 'All Quiet on the Western Front' is (unfortunately) all too relevant in 2022.
Praising Black representation and condemning the power structures that suppress it, a mother delivers an impassioned speech to her distant son.