Foreign movies have been making a lot of buzz over the years taking some well deserved wins outside of the foreign film categories during award season. Award season brings more exposure and capture more viewers for the films in the process. Most recently, Parasite won four awards at the Academy Awards which include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. The beauty of watching a foreign film, especially when its is great one, is that it managed to bring you the emotions of sadness, happiness, fear, or move you in some type of way even if you don’t fully understand the language and view the film primarily through subtitles. This highlights the power of the director and writer’s talent of making powerful scenes and the actors’ ability to make you feel connected to the lives of the characters they portray.

Here are my top 4 foreign films you should take the time to watch.

Paraiso Travel

Paraiso Travel is a film that I randomly fell on in my teenage years when flipping through channels. Although the film is definitely not suitable children, the story line, acting, and writing provide us with a realistic view of the journey people go through in search of “The American Dream” in the United States. The film’s most notable actors include Ana de la Reguera (Narcos, Nacho Libre)) and John Leguizamo (Chef, The Lincoln Lawyer) and the two main characters are played by Columbian actors Aldemar Correa (Marlon) and Angelica Blandon (Reina). The story begins in Columbia where a young couple , Marlon and Reina, live a pretty comfortable life, but have their eyes set on something bigger. Marlon’s blindness love for Reina has him follow her on a long and dangerous trip to the United States. The film does a fantastic job of portraying the tough conditions immigrants have to go through, risking robbery, rape, and death. Once they finally arrive and make it to New York, they realize that “The American Dream” isn’t exactly what they expected it to be.

City of God

Watching a movie and relying on subtitles was never really something I looked forward to and hardly ever came across. When it came to my first time watching City of God, having to watch the movie and relying on subtitles didn’t matter or affect my enjoyment at all. The story line is eventful, the acting is pure, and the movie is a shocking rollercoaster you’ll enjoy from beginning to end. City of God takes place in the slums of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s. The film tells us a few story lines but focuses on two young boys and their poor, action packed, interesting lives. One boy, “Ze” (Leandro Firmino da Hora) becomes one of the most ruthless and feared drug dealers in town. The other, “Rocket” (Nachtergaele) surrounded by the drug and gang life, managed to avoid it while documenting the violence through his photography.

Parasite

The most recent foreign film on this list, Parasite, was a movie I finally watched after a few months of its rise to fame. The film made history becoming the first South Korean film to receive recognition from the Academy Awards winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. Director Bong Joon-ho’s film takes place in Seoul where a poor working class family living in a crammed basement apartment. Through a friend, Ki-woo (the son in the family) gets chosen by a friend who is leaving to attend his university, to take over his tutoring duties for a wealthy family. While working as a tutor, Ki-woo and his family make things interesting as they develop a scam taking advantage of the wealthy family, only for things to take a crazy turn and twist that no one expected.

Life is Beautiful

Similar to Paraiso Travel, I randomly fell on Life is Beautiful playing on a channel when looking for something to watch, something to do, on a random summer day. The movie had just started and for whatever reason it caught my interest, even though I told myself I’d watch for a few minutes and carry on doing something else. The only thing was I didn’t carry on doing something else, and I found myself standing for almost 20 minutes before realizing I was committed to watching the entire film. The movie begins as a joyful comedy taking place in the late 1930s when a Jewish man (Guido) wins over an Italian schoolteacher (Dora) and have a son together. Eventually, as time goes by, Guido and his son become victims and get caught up in the horror of the Holocaust. It’s here where Guido develops a clever game in order to comfort his son throughout the film.

Share your foreign film favorites and recommendations.