Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky’s debut feature Yomeddine. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

At a time when the theaters are closed, Netflix and other streamers have quickly become the go-to option for our entertainment needs. Here in Hong Kong, MOViE MOViE has also been helping film buffs catch up with overlooked gems, all available on MOViE MOViE Play.

The adventurous might want to consider checking out what is (hopefully) the art-house channel’s kick-off of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s The Dekalog. Better known for his Three Colours trilogy, it could be argued Kieslowski’s best work is this 10-part series of one-hour films examining the Ten Commandments. An agnostic has nothing to fear from the series of intensely human shorts, set in a dour Warsaw housing complex. Kieslowski is interested in ethics and morality rather than sin, as well as perception. The stories are numbered but don’t necessarily correlate to a commandment as we know them. This is a master at the top of his game, able to be funny, touching, melodramatic and shocking in equal measure. In Dekalog 1 a math professor wrestles with his faith in science over god. Anyone who considers themselves a fan of cinema needs to check this out. 

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, by Masaaki Yuasa. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

On nearly Kieslowski’s artistic level is Peter Greenaway’s 1982 psychosexual murder mystery The Draughtsman’s Contract. If the courtly shenanigans of Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite hit the spot this should too. The story of a young artist contracted to paint the family estate by a bored landowner’s wife while her husband’s away is elegant, literary and cruel in that signature Greenaway way. Contract isn’t for everyone (Greenaway tends to be polarizing) but the seeds of his great, defining The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover are all here, and watching his hallmarks gelling in their formative stages — the painterly compositions, tensions between architecture and nature, and pain and pleasure — is enlightening.

Lu Over the Wall, a mermaid fantasy by Masaaki Yuasa. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

At the far end of the spectrum from the weighty contemplations of Kieslowski and Greenaway is Egyptian filmmaker Abu Bakr Shawky’s debut feature Yomeddine. Earlier this year, The Peanut Butter Falcon demonstrated why representation counts by casting a young man with Down’s syndrome in a movie about a boy with the condition. And while an actor should be able to play any role, Falcon had a level of authenticity that helped the story. 

In Yomeddine, a middle-aged man and an orphaned boy leave the leper colony they live in and embark on a road trip across Egypt to locate what’s left of their families. It’s a picaresque adventure about two outcasts with flashes of criticism and humor. But it’s anchored by a moving performance by Rady Gamal, an actual leper, which adds a clear-eyed honesty to a story that also touches on poverty and abandonment — by families and societies.

Krzysztof Kieslowski interprets the Ten Commandments in Dekalog. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Finally, Japanese animator Masaaki Yuasa’s razor-sharp dystopian series Japan Sinks 2020 debuts on Netflix this month, but fans of Yuasa’s bold colors, stylized art and tendency for the unconventional can check out Lu Over the Wall, basically a ningyo (mermaid) fantasy, as well as Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, his breakout rom-com about a young woman on an all-night party — neither like any anime you’ve likely seen before.