Songs My Brothers Taught Me + ELTE discussion / Q&A

Set on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Chloé Zhao's remarkable feature debut follows Lakota siblings Johnny and Jashaun as they come of age in a community marked by poverty, fractured families, and limited opportunities. After the death of their estranged father, Johnny dreams of leaving for Los Angeles with his girlfriend, while his younger sister clings to the only home she has ever known. As the siblings find themselves pulled in opposite directions, Zhao paints a tender portrait of family, belonging, and the difficult choices between leaving and staying.

Blending documentary realism with lyrical visual storytelling, Songs My Brothers Taught Me introduced the distinctive cinematic language that would later define Zhao's acclaimed career. Working almost entirely with non-professional actors from the reservation itself, the director creates an intimate, deeply compassionate portrait of a community rarely represented on screen. Without sentimentality or easy answers, the film explores identity, home, and the quiet resilience of those living on society's margins. Premiering at Sundance before screening in Cannes' Directors' Fortnight, it announced the arrival of one of contemporary cinema's most vital new voices.

After the screening, there will be a discussion about the film, organized by ELTE film studies students.

Sundance Film Festival 2015 – U.S. Dramatic Competition
Cannes Film Festival 2015 – Directors' Fortnight

Chloé Zhao is a Chinese-born filmmaker whose distinctive blend of fiction and documentary has established her as one of the defining voices of contemporary American auteur cinema. Following her debut feature Songs My Brothers Taught Me, she directed The Rider, the Academy Award-winning Nomadland, Marvel Studios' Eternals (2021), and Hamnet, which premiered at last year's BIFF and also went on to win the Academy Award. Her films consistently focus on people living on the margins of American society, combining non-professional performers with lyrical landscapes and deeply human storytelling.

The Rider (2017)
Nomadland (2020)
Eternals (2021)

Original title: Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Director: Chloé Zhao
Cast: John Reddy, Jashaun St. John, Irene Bedard, Taysha Fuller, Travis Lone Hill, Eléonore Hendricks
Cinematography: Joshua James Richards
Screenwriter: Chloé Zhao
Producers: Forest Whitaker, Angela C. Lee, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Mollye Asher, Chloé Zhao
Editors: Alan Canant, Chloé Zhao
Sound: Bob Edwards, Corey Tyler, Laura Cunningham, Dmitri Makarov
Hungarian distributor: –
Colour: Colour
Run Time: 93 mins