Earlier this year, I posted an article about films that encourage women to travel (Part 1), yet I’ve always considered the list to be incomplete. Thus, in a somewhat second part to the article, here’s another five titles to further get you inspired to travel, to get to know the world, but also yourself.
The reason I’ve chosen to dedicate both articles to women is because I still consider the reality of today’s world to be full of gender inequalities, especially when it comes to parts of the globe that are not so open to the concept of globalization, that, therefore, keep their cultures and traditions more intact than in other places, which is not necessarily always bad, but it could be limiting to women’s aspirations and achievements. An example of that is the story of Haritha Khandabattu, whose life could have been destroyed and deprived of meaning precisely because of the outdated beliefs rooted in one culture’s traditions and understanding of the outside world.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
This is a movie about traveling through different phases in life in search of your own peace and happiness, a search for the ultimate completeness that only comes when another person fills the missing pieces within you with love and care. After all, it takes a few wrong people before you meet the right one, the one to show you that home is not always a place. It could also be a person.
Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind faces the issues that inevitably come when you’re learning to share your life with somebody else, when you let another person so close to you that there are no longer any secrets between you, when you find yourself undressed physically and emotionally, and all your vulnerabilities are fully exposed. A film that observes the exploration of another individual while simultaneously shows the exploration of one’s feelings and emotions. A reminder that the search in 21st century does not focus on starting a family, but on finding yourself and where you belong in this world.
2. The Holiday (2006)
Life does not always go according to plan and sometimes people disappoint you, even those closest to your heart. For moments like these, one needs a plan B, an escape route from the crime scene where part of you died. The Holiday proves that sometimes all we need is a change of scenery for a new chance and a new start towards rediscovering the happiness that resides within us.
What’s more, The Holiday teaches women that they should always feel respected and appreciated from the man standing next to them. If a woman loses from her confidence because of her partner, then it’s time to move on, because the purpose of a relationship is to empower each other, and essentialy, to make us better human beings. Life is indeed too short to settle down for anything less than a complete and overwhelming happiness. Women, despite proven to be more emotional than men, are anything but all emotions and no logic. Their striving to find their place in this world, to build a career, to be successful is real.
3. P.S. I love you (2007)
This is a story of two people who met because one of them decided to travel, and so whether by chance or destiny, they recognized one another as the two halves of one. A brave American woman that traveled to Ireland to get lost in its beauty and then found by a local Irish man. A fairytale that’s becoming more and more common. With the increased number of cheaper flights nowadays, people travel through different countries and continents and meet hundreds of new people while discovering the foreign lands: some of them destined to be a companion for a day, others to stay for a lifetime. One of these many journeys we all take sooner or later leads us to someone special to us.
P.S. I love you delivers a story about a different kind of journey one must face from time to time – the path we must undertake when a loved one is no longer with us. Although the film is a sad and bitter exploration of the ever-changing life we are all part of, it portrays a realistic image of the woman of the 21st century – the traveling, independent lady always looking for inspiration and aspiring to build a career of her own. A story that agrees that we can have everything that we set our hearts on as long as we are ready to fearlessly face every challenge that comes our way.
4. Cairo Time (2009)
Cairo Time explores the theme of choice and focuses on the choices that over time become mistakes. Mistakes that broaden the universe of our personal experience. Mistakes that teach us that we are not so different from one another, despite having different cultures, traditions, and birthplaces. Mistakes that bring us to the understanding of who we fully are and what we truly want in life.
In a beautiful and inspiring story, Cairo Time reasures women that it’s never too late to discover new worlds and give chance to new experiences. The beauty of our world is endless as long as we find the time to explore it and we have the courage to take the road leading outside of our comfort zone.
5. Tracks (2013)
Tracks tells the story of a girl who spent her life trying to blend in and realized that her purpose in life is to stand out. Paradoxically, sometimes life can be a lonely journey when you’re sharing it with people who look at all the wrong directions, and an unforgettable one when it’s just you and the silence of the universe. It’s important to be in peace with yourself, just the way you are, and keep searching for your spot in the world that has the right people for you.
Tracks brings the essence of another movie that’s featured on every traveler’s list, Into the Wild, and the whispers of a well-known poem by the great Lord Byron:
There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.
The purpose of our life is not to blend in, to follow somebody else’s rules for happiness, and be part of society for the sake of not being alone. If that was the case, we would have never learned the meaning of words such as “evolution” and “revolution”.
Life is a vast, constant mass of changes. It’s not an easy task to find your place in the world, but it’s a task one must undertake in order to make sure the brevity of life we are given is not wasted in a mediocre existence.
CINELªSTE 