Iga:
The first time I went to the cinema in Edinburgh, was for a screening of Fight Club at The Cameo. It was the second week of first year, I hadn’t memorised the street names, or the way back to my accommodation. Getting completely lost and dazed by a film for a change seemed like a good alternative. Funnily enough, the new friends I sat in between that night became my flatmates the next year — that Halloween I dressed up as Marla Singer. While I wouldn’t call it a particularly comforting film, three years and countless Cameo trips later, Fight Club still reminds me of the moment I knew the big bad city couldn’t get to me anymore.
Florencia:
When I first moved to Edinburgh now 3 years ago, my go-to movie was always Kiki’s Delivery Service. There was a feeling of understanding that I got from seeing the witch’s journey to an unknown town by the sea that felt so intimately familiar it became the place I went to when homesickness hit. Now, starting my last year of university, Kiki’s story starts to feel familiar once more. Her hesitation in her own skills, her ability to take up any opportunity that comes to her, and the comfort she gets from the new faces she encounters will always remind me of those first few months in Edinburgh.
Hannah:
Since first year, film and the cinema have been the meeting ground between me and some of the most important people in my life. You’d think the best way to build a connnection is to sit across from someone, observe them, listen to them, and talk to them. But watching Cinema Paradiso in my second year flat with people I’d met in my first week of university, cemented my place here in Edinburgh. Witnessing, whether that is beauty or tragedy, side by side, reminds us that for as long as we hold hands with those we love, fear cannot defeat us. Alfredo admonishes Toto to never give into nostalgia, just as I think we should be kinder to ourselves for leaving home.
Illustration by Rebecca Tate, @rebi_draws on Instagram
