For those nights when you’re looking for thought-provoking content that still knows how to entertain, here are two recommended streaming options. One examines the worth of lives in the aftermath of 9/11; while the second offers a reality check at the lives of refugees and asylum seekers.

Worth (Netflix USA) - Based on Kenneth Feinberg’s 2005 book, this much-lauded Sundance entry has found a home in Netflix, and it’ll be a major shame if not enough people watch it. It follows the true events of attorney and dispute mediator Feinberg as he offers his pro bono services, and is appointed by Congress to lead the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. As you can guess, this was created after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. At heart a dry legal procedural, the fascinating thing here is how to ascertain the human cost. For Feinberg (Michael Keaton) and his fellow lawyer/partner (Amy Ryan) it becomes about ‘determining the worth of a life to help the families who had suffered incalculable losses’. Stanley Tucci plays Charles Wolf, a community organizer mourning the death of his wife.

The ethical complications arise as the system and due process may reward families of stockbrokers, while penalizing families of immigrant, service workers, and those in gay relationships. This becomes the moral quandary and minefield that Feinberg enters and has to negotiate. It’s not a black and white issue, and credit to the Director and screenwriter for keeping the grayness of these issues intact. Keaton is impressive in underplaying Feinberg and avoiding any histrionics or big emotional meltdowns. Tucci is at his best scene-stealing elements, and may come off as the more memorable character, the film’s moral compass. But it is ultimately, about the ‘journey’ Feinberg undertook while leaving the Fund, and it’s a sobering lesson about disasters, about the value of human lives, and how victims may include those left behind, and not just the ones who perished.

Limbo (Video On Demand) - Written and directed by Scot Ben Sharrock, this film is an entertaining and thought-provoking examination into the lives of political asylum seekers and refugees. It all happens on a Scottish island at the very tip of Northern Scotland - relatively barren, desolate and unforgiving. As one of the refugees stationed there comments, it’s like they’ve been put there either to be forgotten or in the hope that they’ll be so discouraged, and ask for repatriation to the country they came from. From Syria, from Afghanistan, or Nigeria, we’re treated to an ensemble cast who create strong individual portraits of each refugee. To poke and provide humor on the whole exercise, there are two hapless and clueless Scottish social workers tasked to instruct them on assimilation for when they re-enter society.

The framing and cinematography work are in themselves strong reasons to watch this film as they’re so stylized, and work. Sharrock has studied and lived in the Middle East so it’s interesting to watch how this film goes beyond the headlines of the boat people or refugee camps that we see too often, and he makes the effort to come up with a humanistic angle into the problem of these neither here nor there, stateless in ‘limbo’, people. If there is one central character, it would be failed musician Omar (Amir El-Masry), who constantly carries his oud (a guitar-like instrument) in a case, as it’s his connection to his former life in Syria, and to his family. The oud becomes a potent symbol of his heritage and past, and one other character likens it to carrying your coffin wherever you go. Not for everyone, but a brilliant film that rewards the viewer.