Fighting for what’s yours is a theme of Woman in Gold (2015), a drama starring Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds and Daniel Bruhl.

Maria Altmann, played by Mirren, is a retiree living in Los Angeles. She discovers a painting of her family’s had been stolen by the Nazis in the 1940’s. The painting, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, is now in the possession of the Austrian government.

Maria decides that the painting is too valuable to let it alone. It should belong with her family and she is going to prove it’s theirs with the help of a young lawyer and a journalist, Randol Schoenberg (Reynolds) and Hubertus Czernin (Bruhl).

Just a painting?

It’s just a painting I tell myself. To Maria, an elderly Jewish refugee, the painting symbolized a Nazi takeover of what belonged to her Jewish family. There is a sense of justice here as well as reclaiming something beautiful and personal.

Therefore Woman in Gold is about fighting for what is rightfully yours (without a selfish sense of entitlement).

Fighting for your rights may come down to essentials—the fight is about what you’re entitled to by birth and by law.

Everything else may be not essential. One may stick to the essentials and let the rest drop.

Was one born to be a ballerina? Was one born to sprint? Does one have a talent? These are birth rights that one can fight for in life.

There are rights by law. Is one legally entitled to some benefit from the government? Is one legitimately entitled to something stated in a contract? Is one entitled to some sort of care? Fight for these because if the cap fits they are yours.

Fighting for a painting may seem insignificant. However, an elderly lady living out her days thinks reclaiming the painting is essential to her family pride and heritage.

Woman in Gold reminds us of the rights we can claim.