Family

“All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
– Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina”

Families are the basic building blocks of society. A couple decides to make a life together and before they have time to consider all the consequences, suddenly they have a family. We do not choose our family. We are born into a family and suddenly thrown into the world. By virtue of how our family receives and relates to us, we become known to ourselves and to others.

We learn a language which is shared by members of our family. It is by means of language that we first begin to understand the world. Our memories begin at that moment when we first master language and are able to express ourselves and gather our thoughts.

With language comes a culture. Whether we like it or not, we become a part of that culture. Growing up is becoming familiar with a series of ever widening circles. You are circling your family, your home, your neighborhood. Our circles expand, we start school and the process of socialization becomes more formal. We learn more about our language, about our culture, and about our teachers and fellow students. A new layer of identity is added to that first identity within the family.

There are all kinds of families. Somber, serious families. Happy, go lucky families. Staying together families and, unfortunately, falling apart families. Probably nothing affects who you are and how you look at life more than your family. Who wants to watch movies about happy families? I am sure that after about thirty minutes of unrelenting happiness, one would be tempted to walk out of the theater! Unhappy families are much more interesting!

Here are four engrossing movies about unhappy families. Each movie is set in a different country. The families in these movies are all quite different from one another. They illustrate the truth of Tolstoy’s famous statement, “Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”