Cinema Paradiso
This comes from Professor Boyer's World Regions course at Virginia Tech. Boyer has long sponsored a weekly International Film Night as part of his World Regions class. He shares some of his favorite foreign films:
“Aftershock” (2010, Chinese, directed by Xiaogang Feng)—An absolutely awesome teaching tool for many different aspects of Chinese culture. The film depicts the aftermath of the (very real) 1976 Tangshan earthquake. Huge student favorite, though most people are literally crying at the end. (R rated)
“City of God” (2002, Brazil, directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund)—A gritty street portrait of a great world city. Brazilian crime drama spanning two decades.
“Good Bye Lenin!” (2003, Germany, directed by Wolfgang Becker)—Black comedy with a semi-romantic storyline that is easily the best teaching device for explaining the Cold War in Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall. (R Rated)
“Lumumba” (2000, France/Germany/Belgium/Haiti, directed by Raoul Peck)—Historically accurate and intriguing portrayal of Patrice Lumumba in the months before and after the Democratic Republic of the Congo achieved independence from Belgium in 1960. (Not rated)
“Motorcycle Diaries” (2004, Brazil, directed by Walter Salles)—Buddy road trip film set in South America in 1952 that focuses on the ideological development of a young Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Examines wealth disparity across Latin America, with great historical tidbits along the journey. Fantastic on-location cinematography.
“Paradise Now” (2005, Palestine, directed by Hany Abu-Assad)—Unsettling political thriller about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Israel. Realistically portrays the evolving mindset behind such extreme behavior.
“Persepolis” (2007, France, directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi)—Spartan black-and-white animation masterfully follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
“Prisoner of the Mountains” (1996, Russia, directed by Sergei Bodrov)—Based on a Leo Tolstoy story, this war drama illustrates the conflicting views between traditional (Islamic) Chechen culture and the Russian state. Amazing cinematography from the Caucasus Mountains of Dagestan.
“Rabbit-Proof Fence” (2002, Australia, directed by Phillip Noyce)—Australian drama set in 1931 and loosely based on a true story about three mixed-race girls who were forcibly removed from their Aboriginal mothers, put into an orphanage outside of Perth, and then escaped and walked for nine weeks along 1,500 miles of a rabbit-proof fence to return to their community. Great soundtrack by Peter Gabriel, too.
“Sin Nombre” (2009, Mexico, directed by Cary Fukunaga)—Gritty, sporadically ultra-violent, adventure/crime/thriller film about a Honduran girl who is trying to immigrate to the United States and meets up with a boy caught up in the violence of MS-13 gang life who also needs to escape.
“Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War” (2004, South Korea, directed by Je-kyu Kang)—Two brothers are forcibly drafted into the South Korean army at the outbreak of the Korean War and end up fighting for survival—on different sides of the conflict. More timely than ever. (Rated R)
“Tsotsi” (2005, South Africa, directed by Gavin Hood)—Powerful human drama set in a Johannesburg slum. Tsotsi is a young street thug who steals a car only to discover a baby in the back seat.
“Lumumba” (2000, France/Germany/Belgium/Haiti, directed by Raoul Peck))—My favorite animated film of all time, made all the more haunting when you find out that it is actually a series of documentary interviews carefully crafted into a linear storyline that shows the writer/director suffering traumatic memory loss of his experience as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War. (Not Rated)
“Aftershock” (2010, Chinese, directed by Xiaogang Feng)—An absolutely awesome teaching tool for many different aspects of Chinese culture. The film depicts the aftermath of the (very real) 1976 Tangshan earthquake. Huge student favorite, though most people are literally crying at the end. (R rated)
“City of God” (2002, Brazil, directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund)—A gritty street portrait of a great world city. Brazilian crime drama spanning two decades.
“Good Bye Lenin!” (2003, Germany, directed by Wolfgang Becker)—Black comedy with a semi-romantic storyline that is easily the best teaching device for explaining the Cold War in Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall. (R Rated)
“Lumumba” (2000, France/Germany/Belgium/Haiti, directed by Raoul Peck)—Historically accurate and intriguing portrayal of Patrice Lumumba in the months before and after the Democratic Republic of the Congo achieved independence from Belgium in 1960. (Not rated)
“Motorcycle Diaries” (2004, Brazil, directed by Walter Salles)—Buddy road trip film set in South America in 1952 that focuses on the ideological development of a young Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Examines wealth disparity across Latin America, with great historical tidbits along the journey. Fantastic on-location cinematography.
“Paradise Now” (2005, Palestine, directed by Hany Abu-Assad)—Unsettling political thriller about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Israel. Realistically portrays the evolving mindset behind such extreme behavior.
“Persepolis” (2007, France, directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi)—Spartan black-and-white animation masterfully follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
“Prisoner of the Mountains” (1996, Russia, directed by Sergei Bodrov)—Based on a Leo Tolstoy story, this war drama illustrates the conflicting views between traditional (Islamic) Chechen culture and the Russian state. Amazing cinematography from the Caucasus Mountains of Dagestan.
“Rabbit-Proof Fence” (2002, Australia, directed by Phillip Noyce)—Australian drama set in 1931 and loosely based on a true story about three mixed-race girls who were forcibly removed from their Aboriginal mothers, put into an orphanage outside of Perth, and then escaped and walked for nine weeks along 1,500 miles of a rabbit-proof fence to return to their community. Great soundtrack by Peter Gabriel, too.
“Sin Nombre” (2009, Mexico, directed by Cary Fukunaga)—Gritty, sporadically ultra-violent, adventure/crime/thriller film about a Honduran girl who is trying to immigrate to the United States and meets up with a boy caught up in the violence of MS-13 gang life who also needs to escape.
“Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War” (2004, South Korea, directed by Je-kyu Kang)—Two brothers are forcibly drafted into the South Korean army at the outbreak of the Korean War and end up fighting for survival—on different sides of the conflict. More timely than ever. (Rated R)
“Tsotsi” (2005, South Africa, directed by Gavin Hood)—Powerful human drama set in a Johannesburg slum. Tsotsi is a young street thug who steals a car only to discover a baby in the back seat.
“Lumumba” (2000, France/Germany/Belgium/Haiti, directed by Raoul Peck))—My favorite animated film of all time, made all the more haunting when you find out that it is actually a series of documentary interviews carefully crafted into a linear storyline that shows the writer/director suffering traumatic memory loss of his experience as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War. (Not Rated)