They were all directed by wonder women, including the superhero movie of the same name. DW's KINO team picked their favorite films showcasing girl power.
In 2017, Israeli actress Gal Gadot became an international star through her role in the blockbuster "Wonder Woman." It was the first American studio superhero movie directed by a female filmmaker. That paid off. The film broke box office records and Patty Jenkins became one of the most successful directors in film history.
Germany is celebrating the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in 2018. Many female activists, especially in Britain, took to the streets to improve women's rights. Their protests sometimes led to bloody clashes. The film "Suffragette" (2015), directed by Sarah Gavron, tells their story. In the UK, women obtained the same voting rights as men in 1928.
Image: Concorde Filmverleih GmbH
5: Mustang
The oppression of five sisters in a male-dominated world is the topic of the international co-production "Mustang" by Kurdish-French director Deniz Gamze Ergüven. The sisters fight against patriarchal structures in a remote Turkish village. The free-roaming mustang horse becomes a symbol for the young women's rebellion. An award-winning film.
Image: Weltkino
4: Bend It Like Beckham
The British film "Bend It Like Beckham" was a surprise hit in 2002. Kenya-born English director Gurinder Chadha, whose parents have Indian roots, told the story of a young talented football player (Keira Knightley) who manages to make it to the top of her soccer league in London, despite the restrictions of her conservative Punjabi Sikh family. A highly enjoyable multicultural comedy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
3: Hannah Arendt
How do you transmit the ideas of a philosopher in film? The German film director Margarethe von Trotta achieved this feat in 2012, with Barbara Sukowa starring in the title role of "Hannah Arendt." The filmmaker had already brought the story of other important historical women to the silver screen: Hildegard von Bingen and Rosa Luxemburg, as well as many unknown heroines of everyday life.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Heimatfilm/NFP
2: Rafiki
The love story of two women is the subject of the film "Rafiki" by Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu. The work was invited to the film festival in Cannes, but also created a scandal in Kahiu's home country, where homosexuality is forbidden. Authorities banned it "due to its homosexual theme and clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya contrary to the law."
Image: Edition Salzgeber
1: The Piano
A gripping movie told with beautiful images, "The Piano" enchanted the world in 1993. The story of the mute piano player Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. New Zealand director Jane Campion became the first — and so far only — woman to win the prestigious award. The film also picked up three Academy Awards.
Image: picture alliance/kpa
7 images1 | 7
The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have awoke the world — more accurately the world of unaware or indifferent men — to society's glaring gender gap.
The movements started in Hollywood and, arguably, it has been in the film world that they have had their most concrete and dramatic impact, bringing down big-name harassers, regardless of their former status as A-list stars or powerful studio bosses.
#MeToo has also shone a light on gender disparity at the world's leading film festivals, and the frankly shocking record of Cannes, Venice and Berlin in, decade after decade, ignoring or overlooking the work of women filmmakers.
On the one-year anniversary of #MeToo, and the 100th anniversary of Britain's Women's Suffragette movement, we're dedicating a new Kino Favorites special to our favorite female directors. We're celebrating 7 extraordinary women filmmakers whose movies feature strong, intelligent, complex and funny female characters in stories of feminist struggles both personal and political.
Turkish-French filmmaker Deniz Gamze Erguven (3rd from left) won an Oscar for her film"Mustang"Image: Reuters/P. Wojazer
The women in these movies fight for self-determination and their right to be heard. They battling injustice — that of a political system that shuts them out and that of a macho culture that wants to tell them who they can love or even what sports they're allowed to play.
None are perfect but all, in their own ways, are role models for past and future generations of women and young girls (and men and boys too!).
Our Magnificent 7 come from Europe and the US, from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Their stories range across history — from the suffragette's votes-for-women movement of the 19th century to struggles for sexual freedom in modern-day Kenya — and across genres — from feel-good comedy to period romance to harrowing personal drama. We've even got a superhero movie on the list — one that changed the rules for studio blockbusters.
Seven is a very small number. The list of women directors we've missed is too long to mention. Dozens of female filmmakers who've made a lasting impression on us, and on the history of cinema, are nowhere to be found in this snapshot. But every lady on this list is a wonder woman. Every film a feminist landmark.
A pioneering female filmmaker in Germany: Margarethe von Trotta Image: Getty Images/T. Fabi
Who's your favorite female filmmaker? Which overlooked talent deserves the spotlight? And who's your favorite on-screen feminist hero?
Write to us with your personal cinematic wonder women: Kino@dw.com.
Click through the gallery above to find out more about the seven films we picked:
7. Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017)
6. Suffragette (Sarah Gavron, 2015)
5. Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)
4. Bend It Like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha, 2002)
3. Hannah Arendt (Margarethe von Trotta, 2013)
2. Rafiki (Wanuri Kahiu, 2018)
1. The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)
