SILVER DOLLAR ROAD

Raul Peck delivers an infuriating, celebratory, and serene picture with Silver Dollar Road. The film takes place in Adam's Creek, Carteret County in North Carolina. For the Reels family, keeping their property becomes a burden. Constantly harassed by Adams Creek Associates and other white people like them, the Reels are constantly bullied into giving up their property. Peck examines a world that hasn't changed its prejudice since the Emancipation Proclamation.

What happens to the Reels is sickening but not surprising. When Elija Reels (the original property owner) dies, the Reels family has to fight tooth and nail to maintain ownership of their land. The Reels aren't rich. They make most of their money through Uncle Melvin, who's a shrimper. He's a charismatic man who's the life of the party, and he's darned good at what he does.

Director Raul Peck documents the Reels in a restrained style from his usual filmography for something more conventional. Unlike I Am Not Your Negro, Peck takes less of an essayist style to something of a more standard documentary approach. The film switches from talking head interviews to family photos, personal home videos, and fly-on-the-wall Cinéma vérité style to concoct a familial tale.

Through a looking-glass perspective, Raul Peck constructs a stunning piece of filmmaking about a family who displays tremendous bravery when facing adversity.

Silver Dollar Road will have a limited theatrical release on October 13 and will play at the Chicago International Film Festival on October 17. It will be available for streaming via Amazon Prime on October 20, 2023.

THE PERSIAN VERSION

Neither a romcom nor a drama, The Persian Version is a delightful look into Iranian family culture that exceeds beyond categorization. Filmmaker Maryam Keshavarz directs a family portrait that's hilarious and heart-wrenching. It looks into family trauma through a comedic lens (for the most part). The subject matters of homophobia, xenophobia, and parental mental abuse are examined through a lighter perspective than what a film tackling such heavy subject matter would usually carry.

Leila (Layla Mohammadi) is known as the family "f**k up." She resides in Brooklyn, taking care of her grandmother, and goes to film school in hopes of one day becoming a movie director. Leila's mother, Shireen (Niousha Noor), is ashamed of her daughter for not pursuing a successful career in becoming something prestigious like a doctor. The father of the family is a doctor himself, which is how the family immigrated to America in the first place. With the U.S. in need of doctors, Ali Reza Jamshidpour (Bijan Daneshmand) brings his family across seas in the hope of a better life.

The movie juxtaposes itself between the early 2000s and the past frequently. Sometimes, too frequently as the narrative can get messy and confusing. Although puzzling, the flashes to the past are necessary for the narrative to work. If not for the flashbacks, the differences and similarities between mother and daughter would be lost to the audience.

By seeing things not only through the daughter’s perspective but the mother’s as well, we see how the two are more similar than what they initially see in each other. Maryam Keshavarz injects humor and tragedy in the correct spots to make for a thoroughly entertaining picture that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

The Persian Version will be released on October 17 as part of The Chicago International Film Festival and on October 20 for a limited theatrical release.