SUMMER-FALL 2026 DAVIDSON FILM CLUB SCREENINGS
JULY 18 THE MONK AND THE GUN
Directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji (Bhutan, in Dzongkha w/English subtitles, 2023, 1h52)
The Monk and The Gun captures the wonder and disruption as Bhutan becomes one of the world’s youngest democracies. Known throughout the world for its extraordinary beauty and its emphasis on Gross National Happiness, the remote Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan was the last nation to connect to the internet and television. And if that weren’t enough change, the King announced shortly afterwards that he would cede his power to the people via their vote and a new form of government: Democracy.
Discussion Leader: Lawrence Toppman, multiple award-winning former cinema and arts critic at the Charlotte Observer.
August 8: PLAN 75
Directed by Chie Hakyakawa (Japan, in Japanese w/English subtitles, 2022, 1h53).
In a near dystopian future, Japan’s government launches PLAN 75, a program encouraging the elderly to terminate their own lives to relieve its rapidly aging population’s social and economic burdens. In Chie Hayakawa’s remarkable and sensitive feature film debut, the lives of three ordinary citizens intersect in this new reality as they confront the crushing callousness of a world ready to dispose of those no longer deemed valuable. On the surface, the plan and its hawkers exude a kindness that serves as the film’s chilling vision of bureaucratic indifference and our increasing loss of interconnectedness. However, Hayakawa’s view is far from grim, as these characters soon learn to fully reckon with their own lives and what it truly means to live.
Discussion leader: Dr. David Fore, Prof. Emeritus of Education, Univ. of North Georgia, with a passionate interest in philosophy, religions, and wisdom traditions.
Sept. 5: IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Directed by Jafar Panahi (Iran in Persian w/English subtitles, 2025, 1h43)
While driving home to the countryside at night with his pregnant wife and young daughter, Eghbal’s car breaks down, and he stops in front of a garage. There, Vahid, a car mechanic, thinks he recognizes, from the sound of Eghbal’s prosthetic leg creaking, one of his former torturers from when he was detained by the Iranian authorities. After following him to find out where he lives, the next day Vahid kidnaps him and takes him to the desert with the intention of burying him alive. While carrying out his plan, he begins to doubt the guilt of Eghbal, who cries out that he has never worked in a prison. Vahid goes to find other former prisoners tortured by the same man to try to ascertain his identity before disposing of him. The four prisoners of the torturer are divided on what should happen to him. . .
Discussion Leader: Zinat Hassanpour, native of Iran.
OCT. 17: JOJO RABBIT
Directed by Taika Waititi (New Zealand, in English, 2019, 1h48)
A World War II satire that follows a 10-year-old German boy in the Hitler Youth named Jojo, whose hero and imaginary friend is the country’s dictator. Jojo’s world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi), Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.
Discussion Leader: Dr. Scott Denham, Charles A. Dana Professor of German Studies at Davidson College, Nazi Germany specialist.
Nov. 21: ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU
Directed by Cherien Dabis (Jordan, in Arabic w/English subtitles, 2025, 2h26)
In the Occupied West Bank of the 1980s, a Palestinian teenager is swept into a protest that changes the course of his family’s life. Reeling from its aftermath, his mother, Hanan, his mother recounts the family story of hope, courage and relentless struggle that led to this fateful moment. Spanning seven decades, this epic drama traces the hopes and heartaches of one uprooted family, revealing not only the scars of displacement, but the unbreakable spirit of survival. Dabis resists the lure of convenient sentimentality, weaving instead a labyrinthine character study, shrouding a series of underground and catastrophic conflicts within the bounds of family.
Discussion Leader: Dr. Rebecca Joubin, Chair of Arab Studies at Davidson College