As a number of cinemas celebrate the work of radical filmmaker Chantal Akerman, Julia Wagner picks five films from the artist's canon that you won't want to miss

Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman (1950-2015) was one of the most significant Jewish artists of a generation. The daughter of Polish Holocaust survivors, Akerman imbued her films – from slow-paced documentary to vivid musical – with expressions of the silences and absences that marked her family’s life. The BFI, Curzon and Watershed Bristol are currently hosting a retrospective of her work, Chantal Akerman: Adventures in Perception, which includes national re-releases, a two-volume Blu-ray box set and online streaming through BFI Player, making her films more accessible than ever. We've picked out five, considered through a Jewish lens, that are absolute must-sees.

1. Golden Eighties (1986)

Golden Eighties is a delightful, multicoloured musical tale of love, longing and rivalry under the bright lights of consumerism. The film takes place almost entirely in an underground shopping centre, where young beauty salon employees and the (Jewish) family working in the clothes shop intermingle, supported by a witty chorus. The question of how to make the most of love runs through this multilayered production, but at the film’s core are themes quintessential to Akerman’s ouvre, performed through Delphine Seyrig as Jeanne, a version of Jeanne Dielman (see number four for more on that character). The beautiful art design and original soundtrack, with lyrics written by Akerman, make Golden Eighties both surprising and enchanting.

2. No Home Movie (2015)

Akerman’s final film, No Home Movie, is the ultimate portrait of the relationship between the filmmaker and her mother, Natalia. Through this delicately crafted, fly-on-the-wall style documentary, filmed mostly in Natalia’s apartment in Brussels, we feel the conflicting emotions of both mother and daughter as they attempt to communicate, whether in silence, chatting across the kitchen table or over Skype. We see the broad brushstrokes of Natalia's life (born in Poland, fled to Brussels, sent back to Poland – to Auschwitz – and returned to Belgium after the war), but the inarticulation of what happened to her during the war years remains a silence that reverberates in both the film and Akerman’s life. As Natalia’s health deteriorates and her mobility becomes more limited, the stifling interior becomes heavy with anxiety, encouraging reflection on the meaning of 'home'.

3. American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy (Histoires d’Amérique) (1988)

American Stories (Histoires d’Amérique) is one of several films that Akerman made in New York. The wonderful cast, stylised performances and compelling characters narrate memories of family and immigration, incorporating elements of Yiddish storytelling and absurdist theatre. The tragicomic script blends imagined memories with text inspired by Isaac Bashevis Singer’s stories and the Bintel Brief (a sort of Yiddish problem page published in the Forward through much of the 20th century). Shot outdoors near the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, American Stories deals with feelings of uprootedness, precarity and freedom. Listen out for the richly evocative music by cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton.

4. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)*

Akerman made a splash at the age of 24 when Jeanne Dielman premiered at Cannes in 1975. The film then made shockwaves seven years after her death when it topped the 2022 Sight and Sound Critics’ Poll, making Akerman the first female filmmaker to be voted number one since the poll’s launch in 1952. Jeanne is a meticulous mother, homekeeper and sex worker, who leads a carefully organised life until disorder shakes her routine. Putting the domestic realm centre-screen, Akerman intended to honour the diligence of her mother’s generation, while upending cinematic traditions that ignore or undervalue the reality of many women’s lives. The protagonist’s reliance on daily ritual reflected Akerman’s perception that the women who surrounded her (mother, aunts, friends) supplanted Jewish observance, abandoned in the post-war years, with an anxious precision in domestic tasks. Don’t let the film’s three hours and 18 minutes put you off: Akerman wanted the audience to feel the time passing, and you’ll never think about peeling potatoes in the same way again.

*Also screening in other locations across the UK, as well as London and Bristol.

5. Tell Me (Dis-moi) (1980)

In this 46-minute documentary made for French TV on the theme of grandmothers, Akerman sits down with three Holocaust survivors to record recollections of their grandmothers and memories that depict lost worlds. There is an affecting informality to the interactions between the filmmaker and her subjects, who welcome Akerman into their Parisian homes, offer tea and cake: "Eat, or else I won’t tell you the rest," one bargains. The interviews are interspersed with a voiceover from Akerman’s own mother, remembering her grandmother (with whom she lived after returning from Auschwitz) with great affection. Tell Me (Dis-moi) has a gentle, intimate tone that suggests it is not a fact-finding exercise, but an exchange: tell me and I – we – will listen.

By Julia Wagner

Chantal Akerman: Adventures in Perception runs in-person and online:
London – BFI Southbank (until Tuesday 18 March) & Curzon Bloomsbury (until Sunday 30 March);
Bristol – Watershed (until Sunday 30 March);
Online – BFI Player.

There is also a one-day Chantal Akerman Symposium on Saturday 8 March at the BFI Southbank, London, SE1 8XT. whatson.bfi.org.uk