"I would say Kes by Ken Loach. It’s a story about a 12-year-old kid in the middle of England in a very poor area. He finds a kestrel – it’s like a small eagle – and tries to tame it. He goes to the library and steals a book about how to tame and educate a kestrel. And there is this scene – he’s always dismissed in class; he has nothing to say – and one time the teacher asks each pupil to tell a personal story. Every pupil has something really flat to say, and suddenly he stands up and he tells his story about his kestrel, and he becomes animated and he’s completely inspired, to the point that his teacher comes to see his bird."

"Apart from increasing the level of actual synchronicity in my real life, reading Carl Jung's Synchronicity has been a pleasant stroll down subjectivity lane. In it, Jung subtly introduces the concept of a woven fabric of time and space that brings us together — past the laws of causality and the physical world — a mutual resonance between individuals beyond our understanding. As we each reflect the grandiose forces of the universe on a micro level, repelling and attracting events and other individuals, the solar system simultaneously plays the backdrop to our personal dramas on this planet, sweeping us up in greater cycles. All I gotta say is I'm a fan of attributing meaning to this process; I'll take Jung's ‘meaningful synchronicity’ over ‘pointless coincidence’ any day."

"Satrapi grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and its aftermath; Persepolis is the story of her childhood. Through Marji’s youthful (though not-always-innocent) eyes and mind, we see a turbulent moment in history unfold, and we witness the tremendous impact that local and global events and politics can have on even the most intimate moments of personal lives. We experience with Marji her day-to-day dreams and struggles, from family strife to wrestling with religious faith and custom. We’re swept up in her parents’ anxieties and her grandmother’s memories of an utterly different era. And we get a very real sense of what it was like to be a woman in Iran during this intense time of cultural and political transition."