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5 Indie Movies This Week: Ricky, Two Prosecutors, The Road Warrior, & More · Indie Film Weekly

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Indie Film Weekly for the week of March 20, 2026.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Glenn Reynolds.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: This week in theaters, we have a re-entry drama about a man trying to stay out after doing time.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have a Soviet-era thriller where a young prosecutor picks a fight with a system designed to crush him.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a modern German fable about a piano student who survives a crash and ends up inside a family's grief.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: On T Vod, I'm spotlighting a luminous Mumbai set drama about friendship, love, and the weight of unfinished lives.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And for our classic, we're celebrating a landmark post-apocalyptic action film turning 45.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you love indie film, do not wait for some day.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Go this weekend.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Theaters book what people actually show up for.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: This episode of Indie Film Weekly is brought to you by Circus Road Films, helping indie filmmakers find their audience since 2006.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Learn more at CircusRodefilms.com.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Our first indie film in theaters this week is Ricky.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Rashad Fret.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: This drama follows Ricardo Ricky Smith, newly out after being imprisoned as a teenager and now trying to build a life that does not pull him back under.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: The movie stays close to the day-to-day reality of re-entry.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Ricky needs work, money, and a place to land.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: He also needs to rebuild trust with the people he hurt and the people who feel like they lost him to the system.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Stephon James plays Ricky with a mix of pride and raw nerves, like a guy who wants to move forward but keeps hearing old doors slam.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: The story is not about one big speech.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's about pressure, temptation, and the small choices that decide whether you make it through a week.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: The film also shows the social side of re-entry.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Friends pull you towards old patterns.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: New relationships can feel like tests.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Family love can come with rules and resentment.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Fred expanded this from his earlier short, and you can feel how personal and specific the world is.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's also a Sundance Screenwriter's Lab connection, which tracks with how focused the writing is on behavior instead of plot tricks.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a grounded film about what freedom actually costs, this is a strong pick.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Our second indie film in theaters this week is Two Prosecutors.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Written and directed by Sergei Lutznica, it drops you into the Soviet Union during Stalin's purges and follows Korniev, a young state prosecutor who believes the system can be pushed to do the right thing.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: A letter from a political prisoner reaches his desk, and Korniev decides to investigate what is happening behind prison walls.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: That choice sounds small on paper, but in this world it is a life-ending risk.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: The film becomes a procedural with a pulse.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Korniev travels, asks questions, files requests, and keeps running into closed doors that are polite on the surface and lethal underneath.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: His search pulls him up the chain toward offices where language is careful and fear is policy.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Alexander Kurtnetsiov plays Korniev with a calm, stubborn decency, which makes the surrounding cruelty feel colder.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Lutznitsu stages scenes with long takes and tight blocking, so you watch power operate in real time.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Offices, corridors, waiting rooms, and bureaucratic rituals become part of the trap.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's no action movie release valve here.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The tension comes from watching one person try to stay honest while the rules keep shifting to protect the machine.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: They premiered in canned competition and played major festivals after that.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you like historical films that focus on moral choices and process, this one lands hard.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Our last city film in theaters this week is Miroir's number three.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Christian Petzold, it follows Laura, a young piano student who survives a car crash during a weekend trip.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: She is shaken and disoriented, and she is taken in by Betty, a woman in the German countryside who witnessed the accident.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Betty offers food, a bed, and a kind of care that feels almost too ready.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: The reason becomes clear.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Laura resembles Betty's daughter, who died years ago, and that resemblance starts shaping the way the household relates to her.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Laura stays, rests, and slowly begins to move through the home like she belongs there.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: But the comfort comes with an undertow because everyone is reacting to more than the person in front of them.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Paula Beer plays Laura as someone trying to understand what just happened on the road and what is happening now in this house.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Petzl keeps the story lean at 86 minutes, and he builds mood through daily details, meals, chores, music, and the way grief can reorganize a family.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: The title points to Ravel's piano suite, and the film treats music as part of the drama.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is a small film with a lingering aftertaste.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: This film premiered at Can in Director's Fortnite.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you like Petzold's mix of the everyday and the uncanny, this one will stick with you.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So in theaters this week, that's Ricky, Two Prosecutors, and Miroir's number three.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Our spotlight indie film on Tivod this week is All We Imagine as Light.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Payal Kapadia.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: It follows Praba and Anu, two Mayalali nurses, sharing an apartment in Mumbai.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Praba is steady and reserved, living in the shadow of an arranged marriage to a husband who left for Germany and has largely disappeared from her life.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Anu is younger and more defiant, trying to protect a secret romance that does not fit her family's expectations.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: The film also tracks Parvati, a cook at their hospital who is suddenly threatened with eviction and discovers she cannot prove legal tendency.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: That housing fight and the daily grind of hospital work sit right next to the private battles these women carry around.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: One small object ties the emotional threads together.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: A modern rice cooker that arrives from an unknown cinder, made in Germany and loaded with meaning.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: When Parvati decides to leave the city and return to her coastal village near Ratnagiri, Prabha and Anu travel with her.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: The shift in location opens the story up, and you can feel the characters breathe differently outside the crush of Mumbai.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is a film about companionship as survival, and about the ways people keep going when answers do not arrive on time.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: You can rent the film on Apple TV and Prime Video.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Our indie film classic this week is The Road Warrior, celebrating its 45th anniversary.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by George Miller, this is the film that turned the wasteland into a full language, dust, engines, armor, and desperation, all moving at highway speed.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Max is a lone drifter, still carrying the damage of what he lost, and surviving by staying unattached.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: He stumbles onto a small community guarding a vital fuel refinery, and they are under siege by marauders who want the gas and will burn everything to get it.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: The gang's leader, the Lord Homungus, sells himself as order, but his world is pure intimidation.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Max First tries to make a deal for fuel and get out.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is the road is not neutral anymore, and once you are in someone's crosshairs, you are in it.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Mel Gibson is the recognizable face here, but the real star is the staging.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Miller shoots chases like geometry, with clear positions, real weight, and practical mayhem that still looked dangerous because it was.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: One fun production note the film was made in Australia on a tight budget and it still created an entire sub-genre of post-collapse cinema.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a classic that plays like a masterclass in momentum, this is it.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch it on the Criterion Channel or rent it on Apple TV or Amazon Video.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that wraps it for the March 20, 2026 edition of Indie Film Weekly.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this episode, help me keep it rolling.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe so you can catch the next drop.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Share it with your most opinionated movie friend.
• 8:38
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• 8:40
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• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Until next week, keep it hungry, keep it honest, and keep it indie.