Big Red Lollipop

Jess is a British Punjabi eighteen-year-old in West London who plays soccer better than anyone in her park, and her parents want her to learn to cook a full Indian dinner. She joins a women's team behind their backs, falls for her coach, and has to find a way to be both daughters at once. It's a comedy with a wedding, an ugly sports bra and a lot of heart.

Why it’s here: The film makes a joke out of the fight between family expectations and a girl's ambition, and the girl wins on her own terms. What's punk is that Jess isn't asked to choose between her people and her game. What's pedagogical is how it handles racism, sexism and homophobia in a form a family can watch together. Pairs with Persepolis and Funny Boy.

A legend passed down in the Arctic for generations: an evil spirit divides a camp, and a young man, Atanarjuat, runs naked across the ice to escape the men who want him dead. Zacharias Kunuk shot it in Igloolik with Inuit actors and Inuit elders advising, in Inuktitut. It was the first feature written, directed and acted entirely in the language, and it won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes.

Why it’s here: The film tells an Inuit story as Inuit tell it, at Inuit speed. What's punk is that it refuses outsider pacing and explanation. What's pedagogical is seeing how a community deals with a crime and a feud without police or prisons. It runs nearly three hours and has some violence. Companion to Whale Rider and Once Were Warriors.