One surprising perk of streaming is the foreign movies you gain access to. Netflix especially, but Amazon and Hulu too, get a lot of good foreign movies, often right after their theater run. There are so many that don’t get much mention, so I am going to periodically post on the most notable movies available.
One of the foreign films Netflix offers is Mustang, a 2015 Turkish language movie about the subservient roles women are forced into by their culture. It’s about five girls forced into marriage as a result of behavior their elders don’t understand.It stars Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu and Tugba Sunguroblu. It was directed by Deniz Gamze Erguven, in her directorial debut and won the Europa Cinemas Label Award at Cannes. It is a wonderful movie and gets a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Also on Netflix is Neruda, a Chilean movie from 2016 about the search for the famed poet Pablo Neruda by a police inspector(Gael Garcia Bernal). Neruda is played by Luis Gneco and Mercedes Moran plays his wife. It’s directed by Pablo Larrain and gets a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Another great foreign film on Netflix is Byzantium, a 2013 movie from Ireland and Neil Jordan, director. It’s about two female vampires, Gemma Atherton and Saorise Ronan, trying to survive in a hotel in a resort town. It’s a great take on the vampire story and RogerEbert.com gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars. And, Netflix offers an Iranian horror movie, with Under the Shadow, a 2016 movie. It takes place in 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War, and a family begins to suspect their house is occupied by evil spirits. It stars Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi and Bobby Naderi. It’s a scary movie and gets a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I couldn’t find many foreign films on Hulu this month, which is unusual for them, but they do have a few, one of them being Force Majeure, a 2014 Swedish movie directed by Ruben Ostlund, the director of The Square(I recommended that March 4) , also on Hulu. It’s a comedy about how a husband reacted to an avalanche that the family was in and the repercussions of that decision. It stars Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli and Clara Wettergren. It gets a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and it’s well worth your time. And Hulu has the classic Amelie, the 2001 smash hit by Jean-Pierre Jumet. It stars Audrey Tautou as Amelie a wide eyed girl, and covers her quest to help people in Paris. It gets a 3.5 out of 4 on RogerEbert.com.
One exciting movie on Amazon is The Innocents, a 2016 movie from french director Anne Fontaine. It takes place in a Polish convent just after the end of World War II. They story of a woman trying to help a pregnant nun, it stars Lou de Laage, Agata Buzek and Agata Kulesza. It is based on fact, of the mass rapes that took place after World War II. It was nominated for lots of awards at Cannes and gets a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. also on Amazon is A Single Frame, a documentary from 2015. It’s directed by Brandon Dickerson and covers how the camera see things, from both sides, in post-war Kosovo. It gets a 9 on IMDb. And, finally, Amazon has Everlasting Moments, a Swedish film from 2008. It’s directed by Jan Troell and stars Maria Heiskanen, Mikael Persbrandt and Jesper Christensen in a true story of Maria Larrsen. She was a woman bent on being a photographer in 1911 and onward. The troubles a woman faced in the early twentieth century is especially relevant now, in Women’s History Month, but it is important regardless. It is beautifully filmed as well. Roger Ebert gave it four out of four stars, and Rotten Tomatoes give it a 90%.
So enjoy first rate films even on a Monday, and sit back and binge watching foreign movies online.
Grownups Guide to Streaming 