My short list of World Cinema at its best
in no particular order
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- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiZiyi ZhangFaye WongSeveral women enter a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years, after the author has lost the woman he considers his one true love.
- DirectorIsao TakahataStarsTsutomu TatsumiAyano ShiraishiAkemi YamaguchiA young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.
- DirectorFernando MeirellesKátia LundStarsAlexandre RodriguesLeandro FirminoMatheus NachtergaeleIn the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.
- DirectorPen-Ek RatanaruangStarsTadanobu AsanoSinitta BoonyasakTakashi MiikeA suicidal, obsessively compulsive Japanese librarian is forced to lie low in Thailand with a pot-smoking woman coping with the recent loss of her sister.
- DirectorJun IchikawaStarsIssei OgataRie MiyazawaShinohara TakahumiWhen technical illustrator Tony Takitani asks his wife to resist her all-consuming obsession for designer clothes, the consequences are tragic.
- DirectorAnton CorbijnStarsSam RileySamantha MortonCraig ParkinsonA profile of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to die by suicide at the age of 23.
- DirectorRoberto BenigniStarsRoberto BenigniNicoletta BraschiGiorgio CantariniWhen an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.
- DirectorWolfgang BeckerStarsDaniel BrühlKatrin SassChulpan KhamatovaIn 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
- DirectorShira GeffenEtgar KeretStarsSarah AdlerNikol LeidmanGera SandlerMeduzot (the Hebrew word for Jellyfish) tells the story of three very different Israeli women living in Tel Aviv whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a young child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a young bride who breaks her leg in trying to escape from a locked toilet stall, which ruins her chance at a romantic honeymoon in the Caribbean. One of the guests is Joy, a Philippine chore woman attending the event with her employer, and who doesn't speak any Hebrew (she communicates mainly in English), and who is guilt-ridden after having left her young son behind in the Philippines.
- DirectorGreg McLeanStarsNathan PhillipsCassandra MagrathKestie MorassiThree backpackers stranded in the Australian outback are plunged inside a hellish nightmare of insufferable torture by a sadistic psychopathic local.
- DirectorAchero MañasStarsÓscar JaenadaIngrid RubioJavier RíosImpelled by a spirit which still preserves a patina of idealism, Alfredo arrives in Madrid intent on creating "a performance which is freer.
- DirectorDanny BoyleStarsEwan McGregorEwen BremnerJonny Lee MillerRenton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.
- DirectorBanjong PisanthanakunParkpoom WongpoomStarsAnanda EveringhamNatthaweeranuch ThongmeeAchita SikamanaA young photographer and his girlfriend discover mysterious shadows in their photographs after a tragic accident. They soon learn that you can not escape your past.
- DirectorHayao MiyazakiStarsDaveigh ChaseSuzanne PleshetteMiyu IrinoDuring her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungSiu Ping-LamTwo neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsMania AkbariAmina MaherKamran AdlA visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsRyan O'NealMarisa BerensonPatrick MageeAn Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJeanne MoreauOskar WernerHenri SerreDecades of a love triangle concerning two friends and an impulsive woman.
- DirectorPark Chan-wookStarsChoi Min-sikYoo Ji-taeKang Hye-jeongAfter being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must track down his captor in five days.
- DirectorJulie TaymorStarsSalma HayekAlfred MolinaGeoffrey RushA biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein AbediniZahra BahramiMohammad Amir NajiIn a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.
- DirectorNeil ArmfieldStarsHeath LedgerAbbie CornishGeoffrey RushA poet falls in love with an art student who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.
- DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsOlivier GourmetMorgan MarinneIsabella SoupartA joinery instructor at a rehab center refuses to take a new teen as his apprentice, but then begins to follow the boy through the hallways and streets.
- DirectorLee Chang-dongStarsSol Kyung-guMoon So-riAhn Nae-sangAn irresponsible and childish ex-con befriends a girl with cerebral palsy and develops a progressively stronger bond with her.
- DirectorTaika WaititiStarsJames RollestonTe Aho Eketone-WhituTaika WaititiBoy, an 11-year-old child and devout Michael Jackson fan who lives on the east coast of New Zealand in 1984, gets a chance to know his absentee criminal father, who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years ago.
- DirectorFredi M. MurerStarsFabrizio BorsaniBruno GanzTeo GheorghiuA twelve-year-old piano prodigy who suffocates from his parent's big dreams for him decides to make his escape--and with the aid of his grandfather--chase his own dreams instead.
- DirectorLukas MoodyssonStarsLisa LindgrenMichael NyqvistEmma SamuelssonIn 1975, the dynamics of a Swedish commune begin to change upon the arrival of a beaten wife and her two kids.
- DirectorMira NairStarsNaseeruddin ShahLillete DubeyShefali ShahA stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.
- DirectorFatih AkinStarsBirol ÜnelSibel KekilliGüven KiraçWith the intention to break free from the strict familial restrictions, a suicidal young woman sets up a marriage of convenience with a forty-year-old addict, an act that will lead to an outburst of envious love.
- DirectorAtom EgoyanStarsIan HolmSarah PolleyCaerthan BanksA bus crash in a small town brings a lawyer to defend the families, but he discovers everything isn't what it seems.
- DirectorTakeshi KitanoStarsMiho KannoHidetoshi NishijimaTatsuya MihashiThree stories of never-ending love.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsNien-Jen WuElaine JinIssei OgataEach member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.
- DirectorPedro AlmodóvarStarsCecilia RothMarisa ParedesCandela PeñaA comedy-drama about a bereaved mother, and overwrought actress, her jealous lover, and a pregnant nun.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsTatsuya NakadaiAkira TeraoJinpachi NezuIn Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.
- DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsEmilio EchevarríaGael García BernalGoya ToledoAn amateur dog fighter, a supermodel, and a derelict assassin, all separately struggling to find love, find their lives transformed by a devastating car wreck in Mexico City.
- DirectorMick DavisStarsAndy GarciaElsa ZylbersteinOmid DjaliliThe story of Amedeo Modigliani's bitter rivalry with Pablo Picasso, and his tragic romance with Jeanne Hebuterne.
- DirectorGaspar NoéStarsMonica BellucciVincent CasselAlbert DupontelEvents over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in an underpass tunnel.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsMohammad Amir NajiAmir Farrokh HashemianBahare SeddiqiAfter a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsGérard DepardieuWojciech PszoniakAnne AlvaroIn 1793, as the Terror begins in France, Georges Danton, a champion-of-the-people, returns to clash against Maximilien Robespierre and his extremist party.
- DirectorMarzieh MakhmalbafStarsFatemeh Cherag AkharHassan NebhanShahr Banou SisizadehA film comprised of three interconnected vignettes that depict women at three stages of life in Iran. The first part centers on a young girl on her ninth birthday who is told that she can no longer play with the boys she had been playing with only the day before because she is now a woman. Told from the perspective of a 9-year-old girl who does not feel like or know what the word "woman" refers to, we see how devastatingly this affects both the girl and the boy with whom she had been friends. The second part is about a young woman who decides to enter a bicycle race against her husband's wishes. As first, the husband and then increasing numbers of men from her village ride beside her on horseback to convince her to return home. The race begins to symbolize a freedom that she desperately wants from the limitations that have been placed on her. Finally, the third part shows us an old woman who has come into some money and is now free to do what she wants. The way she chooses to use this freedom, however, makes one wonder just how free she is.
- DirectorSatoshi KonStarsMegumi HayashibaraTôru EmoriKatsunosuke HoriWhen a machine that allows therapists to enter their patients' dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist, Paprika, can stop it.
- DirectorLee TamahoriStarsRena OwenTemuera MorrisonMamaengaroa Kerr-BellA family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsAdrien BrodyThomas KretschmannFrank FinlayDuring WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.
- DirectorMichel HazanaviciusStarsJean DujardinBérénice BejoJohn GoodmanWhen George, a silent movie superstar, meets Peppy Miller, a dancer, sparks fly between the two. However, after the introduction of talking pictures, their fortunes change, affecting their dynamic.
- DirectorNabil AyouchStarsMounïm KbabMustapha HansaliHicham MoussouneA group of children living on the street leave their gang, prompting retribution from the gang's leader. After one of the children dies, the rest try to come up with the resources to give their friend a proper burial.