Red: A Crayon's Story

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.

Billy Casper is a fifteen-year-old in a Yorkshire mining town, bullied at home and caned at school, expected to end up down the pit. Then he finds a young kestrel in a nest, steals it and trains it, and for the first time he is good at something. A teacher notices. The school doesn't care.

Why it’s here: The film is a case study in what school ignores. What's punk is that the one thing Billy loves is the thing no one has put on the syllabus. What's pedagogical is the scene where he describes falconry to his class, and the teacher listens. Pairs with Teacher, Summerhill School and The Class (suggested earlier this month). Note: Loach's later politics are publicly contested, including his 2021 expulsion from the Labour Party; the film predates all of it.