As a filmgoer, what do I expect from films? They have to surprise me, transport me to a different world, make me feel and make me think, change my mind perhaps. I do not like formulaic cinema, so I tend to avoid Hollywood movies. Also, I generally don’t go for films dealing with life-defining and world-changing events such as war, or a living person’s biography – there are exceptions, of course.

I am not saying cinema should not deal with pressing topics, it should. Indeed, cinema is there to tell us about the world, but it does not necessarily have to follow reality, or chronology, and real people should not be turned into heroes. I much prefer a well-told story about the trivial and mundane to big hits with big names on big subjects in big screens.

Watching a film is also inextricably associated with atmosphere. Watching it at home is not the same as going to the cinema. Whether you go alone or with other people, there is nothing like walking into a dark theatre with stranger all around you. Making an effort to make it to the cinema is important: be it in the middle of the day with three or four strangers or with a crowd for a popular film festival.

As a linguist, I love foreign language films, whether in a language and about a country I know, where you can dig much deeper, or just to experiment the pleasure of hearing undecipherable sounds, experiencing the unknown and searching for the common humanity among different cultures.

Julia Spatuzzi Felmanas is a Brazilian filmgoer who lives in London and works as an interpreter and translator. You can contact her via email juliafelmanas@gmail.com.