News from Home

1976

Sight and Sound 2022: Critics' Poll — No. 52Sight and Sound 2022: Directors' Poll — No. 72

Director:

Chantal Akerman

Studio:

Unité Trois, Paradise Films, INA, ZDF

Starring:

Chantal Akerman

WikipediaLetterboxdApple TV

Long, static shots of New York in the mid-1970s, its streets, subway cars and empty buildings, are set to Akerman reading letters her mother sent her from Belgium. The affectionate, worried letters are often drowned out by the city's noise, so the film becomes a portrait both of the city and of the distance between a mother and daughter.