Another movie that interested me due to the mixed reviews and its candidacy in Oscar made me curious to watch it. There are times some international movies have great impact and can be used for Movie Therapy. I myself as usual don’t like to watch Drama and this is not my favorite genre but this time I gave in and watched the movie (actually the past few weeks I spent mostly on Drama, maybe because there were no any good thriller, action or mystery moviesavailable).

The movie had an open ending (another type of movie I don’t like since the closure is up to the viewer, though I know this itself can be a valuable point) and reminded me of Asghar Farhadi movies. But at least the genre had a thriller and mystery which made me convince to watch it.

Honestly Sandra Hüller, played well and specially the scene where she was in a cab leaving his son and saying a joke was great and played profoundly beautiful.

The story was also a written nicely showing the conflict of personal life goals and how cultural differences can impact one’s life, showing extent of sacrifices one is making by accepting to give in different culture by making big choices in life, like marriage. Actually, somehow the movie reminded me of my mom and how she accepted to travel half of the globe just to live in my father’s country with all those limitations and cultural shock.

I personally somehow could relate to the characters where the conflict of culture and personal ambitions may interfere with life. Challenges and conflict may arise and relationships (any type of relationships) may face challenges to maintain, but those in relationship can make the best decision possible at that moment to make the best outcome and for that one or both or all parties may need to make sacrifices.

Sandra Voyter: Sometimes a couple is kind of a chaos and everybody is lost. Sometimes we fight together and sometimes we fight alone, and sometimes we fight against each other, that happens.

When we know and accept these things happen, then in facing relationship challenges we can look for solutions TOGETHER. Better is to find the how and cause of the conflicts but the best way is to get to the root of it. Knowing the why in any conflict may help much in finding the how, which can lead us to find the solution.

Daniel: When we’ve looked everywhere and still don’t understand how the thing happened, I think we have to ask why it happened.

But next to that lesson mentioned above, the other lesson I personally learned was to know thyself and not to be victim of those who live in victim mode. To go and reach your goals and not to let your partner or friend(s) hold you back. Worst than a bad relationship is living in one that makes feel being prisoned. Sometimes we may encounter being in a relationship with a victim person who thinks he/she need the attention from others and stops them from growing because they don’t want to feel left behind and alone. Somehow their motto is “I am pity and can’t succeed and therefore my partner shouldn’t succeed too”. If you have such a friend, I suggest you to leave them or if they are people whom you cannot leave them, then talk to them and get help from a third person like a family/relationship therapist or a life coach. If this nor resolved accordingly, it leads to relationship and personal life failure. Making the partnership/relationship have a lose-lose result where everybody fails.

Sandra Voyter: You complain about a life that YOU chose. You are not a victim. Not at all. Your generosity conceals something dirtier and meaner. You’re incapable of facing your ambitions and you resent me for it, but I’m not the one who put you where you are. I had nothing to do with it! You’re not sacrificing yourself as you say. You choose to sit on the sidelines because you’re afraid! Your pride makes your head explode before you can even come up with a germ of an idea! You wake up at 40 needing someone to blame. You’re the one to blame! You’re petrified by your own f**king standards and your fear of failure! This is the truth!

So, in life for one to succeed, he/she needs to be strong not only in facing life challenges but also in helping his/her partner to grow together. Partnership and relationship are the best place for one to grow and if it is done properly, it can help prosperity and success achieved faster and sweeter.

At the end I like to refer to the joke Sandra said in the Taxi (one of the best scenes in the movie where you can see someone being vulnerable), and the joke refers to the importance of financial stability, one of the main causes of every relationship conflict, especially among life partners. Partners should understand how finance can affect their relationship and up to what extent. Understanding belief systems around money and finance among people in a relationship can help partners and friends to understand each other and plan better in life where all enjoy the happiness and the life quality.

Sandra Voyter: Somebody said, of course money doesn’t make you happy, but it’s still better to cry in a car than in a subway. To summarize, understanding life challenges in relationship and personality types that causes the conflicts, importance of respecting each other’s personal goal and also impact of finance in a relationship is among the topics partners in life should pay attention to. Attending to these topics before hand may help to prosper in life and relationship