9 Oct 2025
From 21 October, a new film season will look at how religious traditions shape the way families are portrayed on screen. Audiences are invited to take part in discussions after each film.
Although the importance of the churches may be dwindling, the influence of religion is not. This is illustrated quite clearly in the family stories that are so popular in movies. At times critical, at others affirmative, these films take up motifs from various religious traditions. They explore guilt, hope, and fresh starts, and continually renegotiate the question of what family actually is. A cozy nest? Or the hell of one’s origins which one must leave in order to find oneself?
© CLOSE (Lukas Dhont, BE 2022)
Exciting stuff – and not just for movie buffs. In the framework of the “For Family” research association, the religious studies team at LMU is exploring how religious values influence the portrayal of families in film.
“I’m interested in which questions and problems are negotiated against the background of family life, and which social constellations are reflected in movies,” explains Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati, Chair Professor of Religious Studies and Religious History at the Faculty of Protestant Theology. “What models are being put forward for emulation, what visions developed?”
The team has devised “Escaping the Labyrinth,” a movie season devoted entirely to the portrayal of families in contemporary cinema. In close cooperation with the Leopold Kino movie theater in Munich’s Schwabing district, selected films will be shown on the big screen every Tuesday afternoon during the winter semester. After the screening, moviegoers will have the opportunity to discuss the films at LMU’s main building with experts from various disciplines.
All the movies will be contemporary auteur films – no mainstream productions, rather a total of twelve independent films from around the globe. In these works, we see how Tibetan Buddhism, say, or different Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions shape the depiction of families.
“Shambhala” (2023, Nepal, director: Min Bahadur Bham) opens the season. The production depicts a complex family situation in the Himalayas: The young Pema marries three brothers. When the eldest disappears, the tradition of polyandry (where woman have more than one husband) dictates that his brothers should replace him. However, Pema breaks out of old patterns. And so the “very cinematic movie,” which, as Pezzoli-Olgiati notes, floats between dream and reality, calmly tells its astonishing story of female emancipation against a stunning mountain backdrop.
Other features explore guilt and forgiveness, such as the documentary film “Beyond Guilt” (2024). In this work, Munich-based directors Katharina Köstner and Kathrin Nemec follow the parents of Niels H., a nurse who is thought to have murdered hundreds of patients in two hospitals and was convicted in 80 cases. “In this documentary, the theological relevance concerns the question of guilt and devotion,” explains Pezzoli-Olgiati. “What do the deeds of children say about their parents? Does the guilt of the child taint the parents? What obligation do the parents have toward their son? And can one forgive a serial killer?”
“Close” (2022, Belgium/France/Netherlands, director: Lukas Dhont) meanwhile is a disturbing coming-of-age drama. It tells the story of two 13-year-old friends Léo and Rémi, whose close friendship threatens to collapse under the mistrustful gaze of their fellow pupils – with tragic consequences.
The surprise Italian hit “There’s Still Tomorrow” (2023, Italy, director: Paola Cortellesi) looks at Rome in the postwar area. Delia, wife and mother, suffers under patriarchal violence – but eventually finds ways to redefine her role. In Italy, the black-and-white drama even outperformed blockbusters like Barbie and Oppenheimer at the box office – a moving portrait of female self-empowerment and social change.
From their own different perspectives, “My Life as a Zucchini” (2016, Switzerland/France, director: Claude Barras), “Women Talking” (2022, USA, director: Sarah Polley), and “The Blue Caftan” (2022, Morocco/France, director: Maryam Touzani) also depict families as difficult, crisis-ridden structures, which eventually lead to new models and life plans.
The comedy “Broker” (2022, South Korea, director: Hirokazu Kore-eda) treats the subject of family in an endearing fashion: Two small-time crooks operate an anonymous baby flap, where mothers can deposit their newborns. The scoundrels try to make profit from the illegal sale of the babies. However, the planned deal falters on a most un-scoundrelly feeling: caring. It is not blood ties that make the family here, but connection, responsibility, and affection.
And so the movie season offers an informative, interdisciplinary overview of how diverse and religiously influenced cinematic family portrayals can be. Moreover, it invites people to reconsider their own conceptions. And – perhaps – helps them develop new perspectives that can have effects well beyond the world of cinema.
Dates
The movies in the “Escaping the Labyrinth – Depictions of Family in Cinema” season will be shown at the Leopold Kino movie theater on Tuesdays at 3:30 pm, beginning on 21 October. They will be screened in their original language with German subtitles. From 6:15 to 7:45, various experts will talk about the movie at LMU, followed by an audience discussion. To kick off the season, an introductory talk with audience discussion will be held on 14 October at 6:15 p.m. (Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, Room M 110).
Further information, trailers, and introductions to the speakers (in German only) are available here