Ethics of Care

A program of diverse titles exploring the myriad ethical quandaries and spiritual rewards that can come with taking the role of caretaker to another human, be it parent (Bong Joon-ho’s Mother), child (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s L’Enfant, Tsai Ming-liang’s Stray Dogs), sibling (Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Nobody Knows), romantic partner (Michael Haneke’s Amour, Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves), or some other, more ambiguous arrangement (Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master). Films that explore uncomfortable, essential questions concerning the dynamics of co-dependency—can mercy be a form of vanity? Is “taking responsibility” always the responsible thing to do?—in lucid, fearless, and deeply felt ways.