Movies and books you should face in your lifetime

Text: Eliisa Haapala

Illustrations: Anni Hakkarainen

Everyone watches movies, some of us read books.  

Many of us have seen the classic Titanic, or read the Harry Potter books. You’ll notice that this list does not contain Harry Potters or Star Wars, or other very obvious classics. This is a list of books and movies, that I think are worth your time.  Maybe you’ve encounterd with some of these already. So, then, what a great chance to revisit them!  

But if you haven’t, feel free to add them to your list right now! 

MOVIES

Films are now a part of our normal everyday life, there are hundreds of options available for us from rom-coms to classic horror movies to sci-fi. 

There is no such thing as ”best” in this case. Taste is subjective. But I’ve put together films that are well worth watching at least once in your life! 

 1.One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest  

This is definitely one of my favourite movies. Based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 best-selling novel, the movie tells the story of Randle Patrick McMurphy, who feigns insanity in order to be recommitted from a prison farm to a state mental hospital. At the hospital, he becomes the rebellious leader of patients in his ward but also the nemesis of Nurse Ratched, who is determined to maintain control of her ward at all costs. 

2. The platform  

The concept of this Spanish horror movie is undeniably clever. It’s raw and metaphorical film, that’s set inside a vertical prison where people are forced to eat the leftovers of those above them. This movie is a big metaphore of capitalism and of the wealthier taking too much and leaving nothing for the lower classes who need to fight for scraps.  

3. Miracle in cell No. 7 

This Turkish film is a remake of the very popular 2013 South Korean film of the same name. The story focuses on a developmentally challenged father who was wrongly accused of murder and his six year old daughter. I quarantee, this will make you cry.  

4. Squid and a whale  

The movie follows two young boys dealing with their parents’ divorce and how this manifests in the family members’ connections and personal lives. The Squid and the Whale is essentially about how we grow up by absorbing what is useful in our parents and forgiving what is not. 

5. Harold and Maude 

An antisocial young man, obsessed with death, finds himself drawn to a free-spirited and much, much older woman. This 1971 classic cult film incorporates elements of dark humor and unusual love story, it is SO worth the watch. 

BOOKS

The wonders of books are endless – they can eliminate your stress, increase your happiness, or boost your intelligence. So, to give yourself a good literary grounding, I’ve narrowed it down to 5 must-read pieces that everyone should experience at some point in their lifetime.

1. The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

A book probably every Finn knows, but how many have really fully read it? Now, do not be frightened by the thickness of this book. I promise, the time flies by with this one. The story consists of the biography of Sinuhe, a fictional character, based on a real persona in a later Egyptian timeline, and he describes his entire life throughout the reign of six pharaohs. 

2. Beautiful world, where are you by Sally Rooney

A book you will love and hate. Beautiful world, where are you, is a fascinating and beautifully written story of life. It centers around four people — Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon — living their mundane millennial lives in Ireland, with friendship and relationships intertwined. Set in the backdrop of Brexit/Trump Era, the novel is about connections between human beings and all the messiness of living and loving in the 21st century.

3. Alchemist by Paolo Coelho

Now this might be pretty easy, because it’s really popular. But i know not everyone has read it, and I think everyone should. This is such a book – a beautiful parable about learning to listen to your heart, read the omens strewn along life’s path and, above all, follow your dreams. Santiago, a young shepherd living in the hills of Andalucia, feels that there is more to life than his humble home and his flock. One day he finds the courage to follow his dreams into distant lands, each step galvanised by the knowledge that he is following the right path: his own. The people he meets along the way, the things he sees and the wisdom he learns are life-changing.

4. 1984 by George Orwell

Written more than 70 years ago, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. A scary look into a society where free thought is punishable. Disturbing and thought-provoking, 1984 warns us of the dangerous possibilities of what would happen if everyone became completely submissive to the state.

5. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five is the semi-autobiographical account of the fire bombing of Dresden, Germany by the British and American air forces in the February of 1945. Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the books the writer Vonnegut is most remembered for and contains philosophies about free will, fate, life, and death, often through the use of irony.