griggs's - HerStory 2025: (Ranked) List

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Forced to live by his wits in order to survive, Zain's life in Beirut reaches a turning point when his parents make an unforgiveable deal that will see his younger sister (Haita 'Cedra' Izzam) married off.

Left distraught by this terrible turn of event he takes to the road and whilst looking for work at a fairground, befriends a young woman who is working as a cleaner and helps to look after her adorable baby Jonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole). Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) and Jonas form a touching bond but things are about to get much more complicated when a set of circumstances force Zain to make choices that will have huge ramifications. 'Capernaum' is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit - a battle cry for the forgotten, the unwanted and the lost that offers hope in the most unexpected of places.

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Mecha (Graciela Borges), the family matriarch, lives in a dilapidated country retreat near La Cienaga (the Swamp) with her husband Gregorio (Martin Adjemian) and her teenage children. The humidity is stifling and the only leisure the adults can think of is to drink - constantly.

One drinking session by the pool leads to a trip to the hospital, leaving the children - with no adult supervision - to their own devices; sunbathing, hunting, dancing, driving illegally and diving in the stagnant pool. The only adults who seem to care at all are the Indian servants who are constantly being harassed by Mecha for allegedly stealing towels. What unfolds is a subtle and sly look at intimacies of a midldle class family in crisis, with Mattel's microscope artfully observing the infidelities, alliances, prejudices and secret infatuations.

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The Watermelon Woman was the name given to the mythical Fae Richards, a beautiful yet elusive black actress from the 1930's. In all her films it was her only billing. Why should that be? It is a mystery that perplexes Cheryl , a young black film maker.

She sets out to solve the mystery by making a documentary about this forgotten star. Her research takes her from the depths of a terrifying "lesbian archive", to the heights of academia, with the irrepressible Camille Paglia giving an impromptu lecture on the hidden meaning of "watermelons". Cheryl has a full time job that supports her aspiring film making career, working in a local video store. There she meets and falls deeply in love with Diana , one of her customers. A sizzling affair ensues and while Cheryl's research answers many secrets about the actress's life, each answer opens a Pandora's box of questions; about Fae and also about Cheryl, her relationship with Diana and her future.

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From Mary Harron comes THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE, a provocative exploration of sexuality and pop culture taking us into the fascinating world of famous pin up girl, Bettie Page. Gretchen Mol plays Page who become a photo model sensation in 1950s New York.

Bettie's legendary fetish poses made her the target of a senate investigation into pornography, and transformed her into an erotic icon who continues to enthrall fans to this day. Depicting Bettie's often accidental journey to celebrity, THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE captures a vanished but not entirely unfamiliar America, where sex is a secret obsession that can incite furor at the highest levels of government. In a stylistic tour-de-force, Harron recreates the look and feel of the films of Bettie's 1950s heyday, variously evoking the era's gritty black & white noirs, lush technicolour melodramas, even its Super 8 home movies. We step into the past to follow the life and career of Bettie Page, a quiet, good-natured Southern beauty who found her calling in front of the camera and radiated vitality and joy in every single pose and every costume. Though her fetish tableaux may now appear more quaint than shocking, BETTIE PAGE remains a wonder to behold.

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Lazzaro (talented newcomer Adriano Tardiolo) is a beautiful peasant whose sweet nature makes people mistake him for simple-minded. He happily does the bidding of anyone in his local village, which is ruled over by the evil Marchesa (Nicoletta Braschi).

He finds an unlikely friend in the Marchesa's petulant son Tancredi (Tommaso Ragno / Luca Chikovani), who convinces his hapless ally to help him stage a dramatic incident to secure a ransom. 'Happy as Lazzaro' follows the adventures of this young man living on the margins of his society, who can seemingly travel through time, arriving in the big city and appearing as a fragment of the past lost in the modern world.

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South Dakota rodeo star Brady Blackburn (Brady Jandreau) awakens from a severe head injury after a horse stamped on his skull. The doctors tell him he must give up the sport - one that is his passion but also his lifeline - for fear it may kill him.

While his sister Lily is mentally disabled and his father drinks, gambles and womanises, Brady is the crutch that supports the family - but without the rodeo, he's facing a life of misery.

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A product of humble beginnings, Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek) earns fame as a talented artist with a unique vision.

And from her enduring relationship with her mentor and husband, Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), to her scandalous affairs, Frida's uncompromising personality would inspire her greaterst creations!

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10-year-old Nicolas lives with his mother on a remote island, in a village inhabited solely by women and young boys. In a hospital overlooking the ocean, all the boys are subjected to a mysterious medical treatment. Only Nicolas questions what is happening around him.

He senses that his mother is lying to him, and is determined to find out what she does with the other women at night, on the beach... What he discovers is the beginning of a nightmare into which he is helplessly drawn. But in Stella, a young nurse at the hospital, Nicolas finds an unexpected ally.

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Set in 2001, somewhere in rural India, #LaapataaLadies is about the adventures of two young brides who get lost from the same train.

The chaos that ensues is both funny and moving; and sparks an unexpected series of events that lead them into a journey of immense discovery; about themselves, womanhood and life itself

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Set on the outskirts of Bradford, 'The Selfish Giant' follows two rebellious young lads - Arbor and Swifty - and their involvement with a local scrap dealer.

At first their earnings seem to roll in but as jealousy and resentment begin to drive the boys apart Arbor will resort to a desperate act of greed, the tragic consequences of which will tear apart the lives of everyone involved...

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Based upon the best-selling novel by Jhumpa Lahiri and brought to screen by acclaimed Indian director Mira Nair, this vibrant celebration of love, loyalty ad family will stir your senses and touch your heart.

Kal Penn stars as Gogol Ganguli, a suburban teenager who finds himself caught between his Indian roots and his American birthright as he searches for his own identity. From Calcutta to New York, Googol and his Indian-born parents must somehow strike balance between age-old tradition and the modern-day sensibilities as they search for a patch of common ground.

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Madeline (newcomer Helena Howard) has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe.

When the workshop's ambitious director (Molly Parker) pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother (Miranda July) into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.

When Sophie (Miranda July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) decide to adopt a stray cat, their perspective on life changes radically, literally altering the course of time and space and testing their faith in each other and themselves.

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Struggling street food vendor Sentaro finds himself confronted with Tokue, an odd but sympathetic elderly lady looking for work.

When he reluctantly accepts, it's not long before Tokue proves to have an extraordinary gift when it comes to making "an" - the sweet red bean paste filling used in his dorayakis - which starts a relationship that is about much more than just street food. With 'Sweet Bean', Kawase again focuses on people at the periphery of Japanese society and investigates their place in the flow of life itself.