Baghdad in My Shadow (2019)
director: Samir
In London, four Iraqi friends gather in a café as they prepare for an important football match. With disarming openness, they share their experiences: stories of loss, exile, and longing for a home that no longer exists. Swiss-Egyptian director Samir interweaves past and present, with Baghdad—the city they fled—casting its shadow over their new lives. The film shows how a single day can be filled with memories, hope, and the constant tension between two worlds. A poignant portrait of the Arab diaspora.
Timbuktu (2014)
director: Abderrahmane Sissako
In the Malian city of Timbuktu, jihadists seize power and impose absurd restrictions: no music, no football, mandatory veils. Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako follows several inhabitants as their daily routines are steadily constrained by extremism. The film breathes with the rhythm of a city under pressure: the quiet morning prayers, the suffocating midday heat, the discreet acts of resistance at nightfall. Sissako films with a poetic eye, yet the message is unflinching. Timbuktu reveals how one day—and every day thereafter—is irrevocably altered when freedom is taken away.
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Do the Right Thing (1989)
director: Spike Lee
Spike Lee follows the residents of a Brooklyn street, from pizzeria owner Sal to radio host Mister Señor Love Daddy. It is the hottest day of the year, and as temperatures rise, so do the tensions in the neighbourhood; the smallest irritations slowly swell into explosive conflict. Lee uses colour and music to make the heat almost tangible: every frame seems to vibrate under the midday sun. Do the Right Thing shows how, in the span of a single day, everything can change—and how swiftly a community can unite or fall apart.
Capernaum (2018)
director: Nadine Labaki
Director Nadine Labaki follows twelve-year-old Zain through Beirut over the course of a day: the chaotic morning market, the stifling afternoon heat, the uncertain evening. In step with the city’s rhythm, a story unfolds of poverty, injustice, and resilience. Capernaum is raw and direct, yet filled with moments of tenderness.
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Groundhog Day (1993)
director: Harold Ramis
Weatherman Phil Connors becomes trapped in a time loop: every morning he wakes to the same day, 2 February, in the small town of Punxsutawney. What begins in frustration grows into a philosophical journey. Director Harold Ramis uses repetition to trace Phil’s transformation: from cynicism to empathy, from selfishness to love. The cycle of a single day becomes a metaphor for personal renewal. And though it is a comedy, Groundhog Day poses a thoughtful question: what do you do with your time if tomorrow is simply today again?
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De Dag (2017, tv-reeks)
director: Dries Vos
An ordinary workday in an Antwerp bank changes abruptly when armed men take hostages. What follows is a day of intense suspense, where every minute counts and every decision carries life-or-death consequences. The Flemish thriller series De Dag unfolds almost in real time and shows not only what happens inside the bank, but also how the crisis evolves outside: from the routines of morning to the chaos of midday and the suffocating tension of evening. A gripping story in which time can be your greatest ally — or your worst enemy.
