The Beast in Me: A Journey Through Darkness Toward the LightIn the modern landscape of storytelling, few series dare to hold a mirror to our most feral instincts while inviting us to see beauty in the fracture. The Beast in Me, a 2025 mini-series directed by Alina Varga and streaming on Apple TV+, belongs to this…
Tag: fiction
The Power of Your Story in ‘Dix pour cent’
The Netflix series Dix pour cent (also known as Call My Agent!) is a compelling exploration of the intertwining narratives of ambition, identity, and resilience in the demanding world of celebrity talent agencies. Here is a story inspired by the theme of “The Power of Your Story” — the story you tell yourself about yourself and then to…
The Power of Your Story in ‘The Abandons’
The Netflix series The Abandons explores themes of mystery, trauma, and the human struggle to reclaim identity in the face of loss and abandonment. Here is a story inspired by the theme of “The Power of Your Story” — the story you tell yourself about yourself and then to others — through the lens of The Abandons: In…
The Power of Your Story in ‘Dark Winds’
Dark Winds is a captivating series that delves into themes of identity, resilience, and the power of the stories we carry within ourselves and project outward. Here is a story from the perspective of the essence of the Power of Your Story as you requested: In the vast expanse of the American Southwest, amid the…
The Power of Your Story
Your story is your life. As human beings, we continually tell ourselves stories — of success or failure; of power or victimhood; stories that endure for an hour, or a day, or an entire lifetime. We have stories about our work, our families and relationships, our health; about what we want and what we’re capable…
The Power of your Story in ‘The Woman in Cabin 10’
There is something profoundly unsettling and yet freeing about stories that peel back the layers of fear, perception, and identity. The Woman in Cabin 10, a film adaptation of Ruth Ware’s novel, is precisely such a story — a thriller that disguises itself as entertainment while secretly shouting to the human spirit: Wake up. Look closer. You’ve…
Online Seminar. Master Your Story in 36 Dramatic Situations
At its core, storytelling is how humans make sense of the world, our experiences, and ourselves. Every individual carries an internal narrative — a self-story — that influences identity, emotions, decisions, and actions. Tapping into this story can spark profound transformation by helping you reshape your narratives toward empowerment and clarity. Master Your Story: The…
The Power of Your Story in ‘Untamed’
Introduction: Mystery, Trauma, and the Power of Story in Untamed Netflix’s “Untamed” (2025) is a gripping crime drama and psychological thriller set in the vast, remote wilderness of Yosemite National Park. With Eric Bana as Special Agent Kyle Turner and Lily Santiago as rookie cop Naya Vasquez, the story explores the investigation of a brutal…
The Power of Your Story in ‘Souleymane’s story’
Introduction: Living on the Edge—Why Souleymane’s Story Speaks to Creative Leaders “Souleymane’s Story,” directed by Boris Lojkine and starring Abou Sangaré, is a compelling, unvarnished portrait of a Guinean refugee in Paris navigating the brutal landscape of survival, hope, and truth in arrival and asylum. This intense, kinetic film captures not only the urgency of…
The Power of Your Story in ‘The Graduate’
Introduction: Between Expectation and Escape The Graduate stands as a landmark film capturing the uncertain liminal space every young adult faces—the time after school but before life’s real shape takes hold. At its center is Benjamin Braddock, a fresh college graduate trapped in the stifling expectations of his affluent suburban world. Seduced by the older, enigmatic…
The Power of Your Story in ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’
Introduction: The Relentless Quest for a Better Tomorrow The Pursuit of Happyness tells a powerful true story of grit, sacrifice, and unwavering hope. Centered on Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman and devoted father in early 1980s San Francisco, the film chronicles the intense hardships he faces as he fights poverty, homelessness, and overwhelming odds to secure…
The Power of Your Story in ‘Mystic River’
Introduction: Confronting the Shadows Beneath Our Past Mystic River is a gripping and haunting exploration of friendship, trauma, and justice set in an Irish-American neighborhood of Boston. Directed by Clint Eastwood, the story follows three men whose lives were forever changed by a violent childhood event. Decades later, the brutal murder of a teenage girl reconnects…
The Power of Your Story in ‘Jerry McGuire’
Introduction: From Fast Talk to True Connection Jerry Maguire is more than a sports drama—it’s a vibrant story of transformation, integrity, and the search for meaning beyond success. At its core is Jerry Maguire, a high-flying sports agent at the peak of his career who suddenly questions the ruthless, profit-driven world around him. After writing a…
The Power of Your Story in ‘A Star is Born’
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: The Dual Roads of Glory and Despair A Star Is Born is much more than a simple love story. It is an intricate dance between rising talent and fading glory, hope and addiction, creation and destruction. The 2018 version, directed by and starring Bradley Cooper alongside Lady Gaga, explores the intertwined…
The Power of Your Story in ‘Atonement’
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: Truth, Guilt, and the Power of Our Stories “Atonement,” directed by Joe Wright and based on Ian McEwan’s novel, is a heart-wrenching epic that asks: What happens when a single misunderstanding unravels lives, love, even the possibility of redemption? At its core, this film is not only a meditation on…
The Power of Your Story in ‘Wilhelm Tell’
Introduction: You Are the Storyteller of Your Life Standing at the edge of dark waters, the legend of Wilhelm Tell asks us: Will you step forward when fate calls, or watch as the world writes your destiny? The 2024 film adaptation of “William Tell” is not just a cinematic retelling of a Swiss folk hero—it’s…
The Power of Your Story in ‘Black Bag’
Black Bag: The Hero’s Journey of Trust, Betrayal, and Identity The Call to Adventure: The Clock Ticks Within the high-stakes world of Black Bag, George stands at the precipice of disaster. With just a week to uncover a traitor in his intelligence organization, the fate of tens of thousands hangs in the balance. The suspects? His…
The Power of Your Story in ‘The Sicilian Clan’
The Call to Adventure: A World of Shadows and Legends In the world of The Sicilian Clan, the call to adventure is not a trumpet blast, but the cold click of a cell door and the whispered promise of freedom. Roger Sartet, a daring and volatile thief, is sprung from prison by the enigmatic Mafia patriarch…
The Power of Your Story in ‘The 25th Hour’
The Call to Adventure: The End as a Beginning Monty Brogan stands at the edge of his life as he knows it. Tomorrow, he will surrender his freedom and begin a prison sentence. His friends, Jacob and Frank, look out over the river and murmur, “it’s over.” But is it? Or is this, in truth,…
The Power of Your Story in ‘Department Q’
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: Entering the Shadows – The Call of the Unsolved There are stories that begin with a bang—explosions of action, declarations of love, or the arrival of a hero in shining armor. But some stories begin quietly, almost unnoticed, in the shadows. They begin with a whisper, a question, or a…
The Power of Your Story in ‘Straw’
By Peter de Kuster Every so often, a film emerges that doesn’t just tell a story—it holds up a mirror to our own struggles, our breaking points, and our capacity for transformation. Tyler Perry’s Straw (2025), starring Taraji P. Henson as Janiyah Wiltkinson, is such a film. It is a raw, unflinching exploration of a woman’s descent…
Black Sails and the Power of Your Story
Navigating the Hero’s Journey on the High Seas By Peter de Kuster Introduction: The Stories That Steer Our Ships Every day, whether we realize it or not, we set sail on the open seas of our own lives. We are each the captain of a ship, charting a course through calm waters and tempests alike….
The Hero’s Journey in 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas
Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas is not just a pioneering science fiction adventure-it’s a profound meditation on the quest for knowledge, the boundaries of human freedom, and the mysteries of the human heart. The journey of Professor Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned Land aboard Captain Nemo’s Nautilus is a classic hero’s journey, but with a spiral structure: each…
Carnival Row: Rewriting Your Legend in the Shadows of the Row
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: A Tale of Monsters, Myths, and Makers In the rain-soaked streets of The Burgue, where mythological creatures and humans jostle for survival, the true monsters are rarely those with wings or horns. Carnival Row is a Victorian fantasy series that weaves together murder mystery, political intrigue, forbidden love, and the timeless struggle…
Maria: The Aria of the Heroine’s Journey
Introduction: The Final Curtain, The Eternal Song Some legends are born on stage, but their true stories are written in the private shadows behind the curtain. Maria (2024), directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Angelina Jolie as the iconic opera singer Maria Callas, is such a story. Set in Paris during the last seven days of Callas’s…
The Story that Pulled Me from the Brink of Death
My life took a dramatic turn on the eve of a critical heart operation-a moment that would forever alter my understanding of the power of storytelling. The night before my surgery, I found himself engrossed in the series La meglio gioventu, a gripping narrative that captured my full attention. So completely absorbed was he that the…
The Gilded Age: Heroine’s Journey Through Glitter and Grit
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: Ambition, Society, and the Power to Write Your Story The Gilded Age is a lavish period drama set in 1880s New York, a time when fortunes were made and lost, and the rules of society were being rewritten. Created by Julian Fellowes, the series follows Marian Brook as she enters the city’s rigid social scene, caught between the old-money…
The Game: Playing for Your Life’s True Story
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: When Control Collapses and the Real Game Begins The Game (1997), directed by David Fincher, is a masterclass in psychological suspense and existential transformation. Michael Douglas stars as Nicholas Van Orton, a wealthy, emotionally distant investment banker whose meticulously ordered life is upended by a mysterious birthday gift from his brother….
A Hero’s Journey Through Unforgiven & The Shadows Within
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: When the Past Calls, Who Will You Become? Unforgiven (1992), Clint Eastwood’s revisionist Western masterpiece, is a meditation on violence, regret, and the search for redemption. The film follows William Munny, a notorious outlaw turned widowed hog farmer, as he’s drawn back into a world he tried to leave behind. In…
Forget It, Jake: A Journey into Chinatown and Myself
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: Truth, Power, and the Legend You Choose Roman Polanski’s Chinatown is not just a noir classic—it’s a haunting meditation on power, corruption, and the cost of seeking truth in a world where the rules are rigged. Private detective Jake Gittes, hired for a simple adultery case, is drawn into a web of…
Lucca’s World: The Hero’s Journey of a Mother – and the Legend You Can Write
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: When the Story You Tell Changes Everything Lucca’s World is more than a film about a family’s struggle—it is a luminous testament to the power of hope, the courage to defy the odds, and the resilience that creative leaders must summon in the face of daunting challenges. Mariana Chenillo’s heartfelt drama,…
American Premeval: Forging Your Legend on the Frontier of Change
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: The Frontier as a Mirror American Premeval (as depicted in “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1”) is more than a sweeping Western epic—it’s a meditation on survival, identity, and the forging of new worlds in times of chaos. Set against the backdrop of pre- and post-Civil War America, the film…
Missing You: The Detective’s Journey – And the Legend You Choose to Write
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: When the Search for Others Becomes a Search for Self Missing You is more than a gripping mystery—it’s a story about the courage to seek truth in a world of secrets and lies. When those we love vanish, we’re forced to confront not only the world’s dangers but also the stories…
Industry: The Hero’s Journey in the World of High Finance
By Peter de Kuster Introduction: Welcome to the Arena In the heart of London’s financial district, ambition is currency and survival is never guaranteed. Industry thrusts us into the lives of young graduates vying for a coveted spot at Pierpoint & Co., a prestigious investment bank. Here, every day is a test of nerve, ethics, and identity….
The Power of Your Story in ‘Our Little Secret’
After taking nearly a decade off, Lindsay Lohan made her return to the movies in 2022 with a starring role in the Netflix Christmas romantic comedy “Falling for Christmas.” Since then, she has made two more rom-coms with the streamer: “Irish Wish” and this week’s “Our Little Secret.” What this pivot has proven is that Lohan is…
The Power of Your Story 