Films & Shows — Mohammad Abu Daqer

Stories that make me think, feel, and stare at the wall after.

Film, Letterboxd, Watching, Reviews

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Favourite Directors

Whose work I keep coming back to

I find tracking directors delivers very consistently! Directors I keep returning to because their films feel built from a worldview, not just a plot. Nolan for structure and moral pressure, Villeneuve for scale and dread, Anderson for constructed tenderness, Tarkovsky for spiritual time, Tarantino for style and tension.

Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, Wes Anderson, Andrei Tarkovsky, Quentin Tarantino

The Classics

Films that stuck

The films that stay with me usually have a scene where the floor drops out: Fight Club, Incendies, Memento, Prisoners, A Beautiful Mind, Shutter Island. I like twists when they are not cheap shock, but a new way of understanding the whole story. The best scenes feel like two people, or two versions of one person, acting out a much deeper philosophy, the White Lotus is a show that illustrates that really well!

Fight Club, Whiplash, Memento, The Prestige, Inception, Interstellar, Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, Prisoners, Incendies, Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, The Lighthouse, Manchester by the Sea, Nocturnal Animals, Catch Me If You Can, Gladiator, Paprika, Coraline, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The Imitation Game, A Beautiful Mind, Shutter Island

TV & Limited Series

fav shows

Different formats hold different parts of me. I loved Game of Thrones for how unpredictable it was (till the last two seasons), as well as its beautiful dialogue, and explorations of morality. Daredevil for the raw dark feel. Adventure Time and Gumball were the cartoon worlds that shaped my younger brain. Tokyo Ghoul for the intense darkness. Sherlock and Chernobyl for proof that a limited series can hit with the force of film.

Sherlock (BBC miniseries), Chernobyl (HBO), Game of Thrones, Adventure Time, Daredevil, Tokyo Ghoul, Gumball

What film means to me

Personal note

Film, like music, is communication. I love moral dilemmas, gray areas, multidisciplinary stories, science that becomes philosophy, and art that makes me feel something before I can explain it. Arrival stayed with me because it treats language as a force that shapes reality, empathy, and even moral imagination. Samsara feels like a meditation. Prisoners asks what morality becomes under pressure. Incendies leaves you in shock. I like work with depth: make me think, make me feel, then make me reconsider what I thought I understood.

I look for communication under the plot: moral pressure, altered mental states, language shaping reality, spirituality, shock, empathy, and scenes that make the whole story rearrange itself in your head. The best films move first, then explain themselves later.