Everyone is familiar with the feeling of watching a film that resonates with them so deeply, pulling apart the sinews of their heart, that one cannot return to them in fear that they are too hard to bear a second time or that their magic will be lost. In each case, the films uncover a universal or personal truth that mirrors one's life, or brings attention to a facet of our universal experience as human beings that is difficult to face. The inclination to bury these forlorn areas of existence in ignorance makes it all the more important that stories which choose these topics as their subject matter be told.
Many of the films in this collection target the emotions through a similar cinematic language, several having an affinity for the close-up, but each also has an idiosyncratic means to sink their hooks in and arouse the audience's emotions. This diversity in the stories told and the techniques used creates a colorful and persuasive batch of films.
