Partly because he is suffering from glaucoma as well as the rules of the theatre residency he is attending in Hiroshima, Kafuku is forced to hire a driver, Misaki Watari (Tôko Miura), a young woman equally tormented by her own guilts.Īs Watari drives Kafuku in his red SAAB, he listens to tape recordings of Uncle Vanya's dialogues in his late wife's voice.Ī deeply emotional but a very satisfying film, Drive My Car calls upon us to accept the complexities of life, try to move forward, even when the cobwebs in our mind refuse to clear up, and forgive and understand those who may have wronged us. Hopefully, they will become available in India as well, especially at film festivals to be held in the Spring of 2022.īased on a short story by Haruki Murakami, Director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car narrates the tale of a middle-aged man, Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), grappling with his wife's sudden death, her infidelities and his challenges to mount a production of Uncle Vanya with a multi-lingual Asian cast. The rest are slowly getting theatrical releases in the west.
Others are still making rounds of films festivals - The Worst Person in the World will have its North American premiere at Sundance in January.
These are good mix of films from Asia, Australia and Europe.Ī few films such as The Power of the Dog and The Hand of God are available on streaming platforms. The fact that a diverse group of film-makers were so creative during one of the most difficult two years of our lives is worth celebrating.Īseem Chhabra lists his favourite films, most of them shown at international film festivals held virtually (Berlinale and Rotterdam), hybrid (Toronto) or physical (Cannes and Venice). What is remarkable is that practically all of these films were made during the pandemic - just after the first waves subsided in most countries and then later before the second and third waves hit Europe and other continents. 2021 may go down in the history of world cinema as having produced the largest number of good quality films from across the world.