PRECIOUS

Dir. Lee Daniels | USA | 2009 | 109 mins.

Based on the novel "PUSH" by Saphire 

Lee Daniels’s Precious: Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome.

Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Precious then begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.

"One of the most important films of this generation" - L.A. Times