Ludi: Directed By Edson Jean
Ludi, a hardworking and exhausted nurse, battles coworkers, clients and one impatient bus driver to learn her self worth as she chases the American Dream in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood. (IMDB Synopsis)
There is always the misconception that if you work harder and achieve more, you will live a happy and fulfilling life. Ludi is a person who thinks this way and we see that within this movie with several moments where she makes herself overworked. She is a very determined individual that intentionally puts a lot of weight on her shoulders. We see her try and carry this weight and how it effects her life. Her relationship with her family is very interesting. We see a very unique way of how she connects with them and it's honestly pretty awesome. She and her family send each other audio recordings through a cassette about their life updates and mail it to each other. I thought that was a clever way how they communicate and shows that they do something very personal. We see from the beginning that she immediately hard to not only provide for herself, but also help out with her family. This main motivation is shown in order to understand why she decides to take multiple shifts to get more money. She's like the rest of us who is putting in the effort to make her dream come true. The whole fact of that work equals a better life is turned on its side in Ludi. Driven by making money to meet her goals she decides to even risk her job of being a nurse. A friend lets her know about a job she can take. This would require her to be taking a client outside of the hospital which is against the rules. She has to assistant and older man, Geroge, and be his give-taker for just one night. She decides to take the job and that's when things get good. When she meets George, that's when the movie really begins to shine for her new patient is gonna be her new nightmare.
Ludi arrives at George's place and we get the best back and forth from the two characters that I have seen in a long time in any movie. They are completely two different people and prove to be a great challenge to each other. She just wants to get this job done, where he thinks he does not need her help at all. He continues to give her a very hard time by talking back, messing with her, threading to call the cops and more. The chemistry between these two are hilarious to see. George is a feisty old man who stands his ground, but Ludi is just as determined as he is. She knows that she musty get this job done, in order to get the money she needs. Two forces that don't want to give in to each other allowed a compelling and entertaining series of events to witness. I laughed throughout their conversations and the silliness of some of the actions that George pulls on her. There is also something very special that happens. There are moments that come out of nowhere that hit you with a lot of emotion and begin to explore their different perspectives on life. Both individuals in reality are just trying to hold onto their own identities.
Ludi has a rather short runtime, but delivers on large amounts of topics to be explored. It tackles on the subject if work means success. There is a great story that is shared about finding water in a rock at the beginning of the movie. The main lesson to take away from that is Ludi is a person who was trying to find something where it won't be found. She has all this ambition for so many things to ultimately blind herself with the reality of what she is actually accomplishing. There is a nice little twist at the end, which unfortunately I saw was coming, that still delivers quite the impact when it happens. A very character story driven movie that will make you feel a lot of emotions. I think this movie is absolutely worth a watch and checking out when it is available.