Summary: After being sold to a mortician, young orphan Oliver Twist runs away and meets a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor.

Director: Carol Reed
Stars: Mark Lester, Ron Moody, Shani Wallis

Duration: 153 min.

Themes: musical, orphanhood, friendship, poverty, conscience

Summary: A national manhunt is ordered for a rebellious kid and his foster uncle who go missing in the wild New Zealand bush.

Director: Taika Waititi
Stars: Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rima Te Wiata

Duration: 101 min.

Themes: losing a loved one, family, manhunt

Summary: A young girl risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend – a fascinating beast named Okja.

Director: Bong Joon-ho
Stars: Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Seo-hyun Ahn

Duration: 120 min.

Themes: environment, animal rights

During these times of climate protests, carried out by the teenagers of today, discussing these topics in a classroom setting is almost necessary. Okja provides the ideal opener. Instead of having to watch a documentary, which can often become a tedious endeavour, the students can watch a fantasy film that at the same time shows the reality of modern day life.

This film also shows the effect multinationals have on current day economy. Is all of this ethical? Can we not find a better solution? These are some of the questions the students might ask themselves. The teacher can let students discuss using the think-pair-share method, in which the students first think about certain topics individually, then discuss in pairs to finally share their thoughts with the rest of the class.

Summary: Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet’s power problems.

Director: Duncan Jones
Stars: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott

Duration: 97 min.

Themes: loneliness, identity, loyalty, future

This film is an ideal pick if you want to let your students discuss what the future could look like and whether they agree with all of the progress that has so far taken place. Because of the plot line, one could even organise an actual debate concerning the ethical principles of modern day technology. The film shows some unethical practices, without showing gruesome images, which makes it usable in younger class groups as well.

Moon is also great to use when you want to show the importance of certain film techniques such as use of colour, sound, camera angles, zoom, etc. Having outer space as a setting is ideal for showing examples of all of the above.

Finally, one could also discuss the fact that we only hear Kevin Spacey, since he plays the part of a robot. A fun creative activity to carry out in class could be to act out a short dialogue between a human and a robot (played by two seperate students).

Summary: A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out to find them.

Director: Wes Anderson
Stars: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton

Duration: 94 min.

Themes: friendship, love, childhood, adolescence

This film shows the adventures of two children growing up on a secluded island with not much to do. We follow them as they run off together to start a new life. Both the childish naivety of our main characters as the exaggerated reaction of their guardians will definitely put a smile on every viewer’s face.

Moonrise Kingdom can be used in the EFL classroom for several reasons. One being the analysation of the special directorial features of Wes Anderson. Another element to discuss is the progression of the relationship between the two characters. Finally, one could also analyse the many fast-paced dialogues that take place in the film.