International Day of Families
The family as the children's primary secure place.
Two days before the celebration of 17 May, the focus is on the International Day of Families. The goal is to emphasise the importance of raising children in a safe environment creating good lives for them, and to show how the family plays a vital role in this work.
There are different kinds of families: the important thing is for children to feel secure and well cared for.
Here are several important and inspiring movies about childhood and life, both on the inside and outside of the framework of the traditional family.
Løvetannbarn (Ma vie de Courgette) is a French animated film about a little boy who has lost is mother, and who must recover his sense of security.
In the intense Norwegian movie Barn (Children) a bad accident in the school yard has a deep impact on all the involved parties. The movie reflects on what children signify in today's society: what it means to have children, and being children.
The movie School of Life takes place in beautiful surroundings. A young boy is sent from the orphanage he lives in to Célestine and her husband, a grounds keeper at a large estate. In the woods the young boy encounters Totoche, who teaches him to love and master nature.
In Tapt barndom (Dalva) a young girl is removed from her home by police officers and placed in an institution with other disadvantaged children. Dalva must learn how to be a child again. The movie has won several International movie awards, including the Rising Star award at the Cannes Film Festival.
It is a touching story in En sang for datteren min (Lullaby) when new mother Amaia must move in with her parents, so they can help her with her baby. The movie displays a very recognizable mother-daughter dynamic.
In The Glass Castle the siblings in the family must take care of each other, with a father who drinks and a selfish mother, and constantly on the run from the government. The movie is based on the book by the same name, with Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts in some of the roles.
It has become a classic, the movie Tree of Life. Three brothers grow up in the same family, and we follow the youngest from innocent childhood and into a desillusioned adult life. The movie won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.
The tone of the film Familien Belier is slightly lighter, despite everyone in the family being deaf, except Paula. How do you survive being different from all the others? Paula discovers that she has a beautiful voice, and finds her way through singing.
Some families create a solid unity for working together and acquiring new skills. The Krempig family in Villmarksbarna - En eventyrlig reise travel to Greenland to experience the nature and culture. They are all from Finnmark in Norway, well accustomed to the outdoors. The movie is based on the TV-series by the same name.
But does Den perfekte familien (The Perfect Family) really exist? In this 2009 drama Demi Moore and David Duchovney plays a couple with two children who move into a charming neighborhood. Everything about the family seems perfect, but is it actually real?
Published: 12/05/2025 Last updated: 15/05/2025
