Winter is a great time to watch movies. With the early sunset times, the dark evenings are the perfect time to *squeeze* the family onto the couch and enjoy watching something together! Here are our favorite food & farming movies for the family *PLUS* one more favorite for mom & dad!
These are in no particular order!
1. Ratatouille
This animated film is about a rat that loves to cook. It is full of humor and good cooking advice! The way the main character Remi, a rat, thinks about combining flavors is EXACTLY how Farmer Stephen thinks about cooking and is the key to being a good cook! If you’re ever lacking inspiration in the kitchen (as I often am), just look at what veggies you have on hand and think like Remi/Farmer Stephen.
2. The Tale of Despereaux
Another animated film about a rodent! This one is about an imaginary kingdom where soup is highly celebrated! A tragic death occurs that leads the king to ban soup and rats. A brave mouse ends up saving the day, bringing healing, forgiveness, and soup back to the kingdom (along with the rats who are peaceful). There is a delightful character made of vegetables that provides inspiration in the royal kitchen.
3. Babette’s Feast
This is one of our all-time favorite films. It is slow. It is in a foreign language. And it is beautiful.
This is the story about three women at the time of French Revolutions following Napoleon: two sisters in Jutland and the female cook they hire from France as an act of charity and a favor for an old friend.
Babette, the female cook, prepares a feast in honor of the father of the two sisters as an act of love–both for the sisters themselves and for the love of art. This is a film that can be returned to time and again, with new depths to explore each time.
4. Biggest Little Farm
This documentary is about a farm in California that was inspired by a dog. One of the farmers had been a filmographer of wildlife and so he documented the building of the farm over 8 years. This is a very inspiring movie about the hard work, failures, and successes of starting a small, diverse, regenerative family farm.
5. Tree of the Wooden Clogs
This is another slow, beautiful, foreign film. It chronicles one year of the lives of the peasant families that cultivate an Italian manor farm in the 1800s. The actors are the descendants of the people who actually lived and farmed in this Italian village at that time. Filled with both the joys and sufferings of living in a closely-knit community, this film ends as a tragedy–but one that is a fitting tragedy in the tradition of Sophocles and Flannery O’Connor.
While we love this film, we have never watched it all in one night, but have enjoyed it spread over a few nights.
Bonus:
I would recommend all 5 of the above movies for family-viewing. We would also recommend the following as one of our favorites, but just for mom and dad, or mature teens at your own best judgement.
A Hidden Life
This movie is about Blessed Franz Jägerstätter and his family. Franz Jägerstätter was an Austrian farmer who became a conscientious objector during the Nazi occupation of Austria. In this film, we get a glimpse into the hidden life of a farmer in his work, in his family, and his spiritual life. There are many beautiful scenes of his family and farm, but there are also graphic scenes, especially in the second half, of what Franz Jägerstätter suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Blessed Franz Jägerstätter was beatified in 2007 and this movie is an inspiring way to learn more about him.
We’d love to know what you think when you get a chance to watch one of these movies! Or let us know if you have a food or farming movie to recommend!
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