The proposed paper examines representations of leadership within small communities in contemporary films. Across Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (USA), Just Mercy (USA), Erin Brockovich (USA), Article 15 (India), I, Daniel Blake (UK), and También la lluvia (Even the Rain, Spain/Bolivia) as well as others, leadership is consistently depicted as a moral practice emerging from within small communities rather than from formal authority. In these narratives, leadership emerges less from formal authority and more from moral courage, often arising in response to systemic failure within tightly knit social environments. The films depict towns, villages, and localized institutions where proximity intensifies both accountability and the perpetuation of injustice. Official leaders—police, bureaucrats, corporate executives, and legal authorities—frequently prioritize order, procedure, or reputation over human dignity, creating space for ordinary individuals to assume ethical leadership. Through acts of confrontation, advocacy, and persistence, these characters challenge complacency and demand justice for marginalized or vulnerable community members. By analyzing these films collectively, this paper argues that cinematic depictions of leadership in small communities highlight the ethical stakes of responsibility, the limits of institutional power, and the transformative potential of individual action in the face of a larger systemic oppression.

Authors:
Eleni Varmazi, Bahçeşehir University, Türkiye

About the Presenter(s)
Eleni Varmazi is an Associate Professor at the Cinema and Television Department of Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul. Her interests include cinema aesthetics and documentary films. She has several publications and has directed short documentaries.

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eleni-Varmazi/research

Additional website of interest
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3skUR4MAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

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