The Best Foreign-language Films of 2017

Now that Award Season is upon us, with important prizes like the Critics’ Choice and the Golden Globe been already behind us, and the Academy right about to announce its nominations, it feels like an appropriate time for both film critics and fans to reassess which were the most important cinematic experiences of the year. Since the month of December, publications of all kinds have issued their own lists of 2017’s highlights, accurately illustrating how great was last year in film.
However, most of these outlets have been perhaps excessively focused on American or English-speaking Cinema, both indie and mainstream, largely ignoring the great developments in film on different parts of the globe. With very few exceptions, most notably Western European, the panorama of so-called “world cinema” has been criminally underreported. But, for instance, 2017 is the year were the most countries have submitted a film for Academy award consideration in History, and regions like West Africa and East Asia had a landmark year in both production and revenue.
It was an incredible year for Foreign-language movies. Here are 10 of my favorites.

10. The Wound (Dir: John Trengove, South Africa)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_8M8oJLny0

Several theorists argue that the patriarchal system ruling our world is also dangerous and destructive for men, and that the expectations of strength and aggression that are associated with masculinity are themselves oppressive for young boys. That’s the crux of the message in The Wound, the Xhosa-language feature from John Trengove that immerses us in a beautiful love story, set against a cultural practice that still raises complicated questions on the relationship of power, tradition, and community.

9. Ava (Dir: Léa Mysius, France)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpxlr8dTYrQ

An impressive first film with an even more impressive lead performance by newcomer Noée Abita, Léa Mysius’ Ava tackles a very simple premise: A young woman is about to go blind at the age of 13, during the very time one begins to really “see” the world. Mysius’ small-scale exploration of puberty, mother-daughter dynamics and the surreal nature of the sexual awakening. Ava faces her impending doom with a defiant attitude, ultimately turning this adversity into a cry for liberation.

8. Thelma  (Dir: Joachim Trier, Norway)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgQMHG9SGlU

Norwegian director Joachim Trier has a great ability to explore identity, especially through situations were his characters not only discover themselves but are set to defend who they are. From its marvelous opening sequence, Thelma follows its hero, Anja through the horrors of growing up, the oppression ─ physical and mental ─ of conservative backgrounds, and the power of individuality, in a film that uses horror, fantasy and magical realism not to provide answers, but to prove how moral uncertainty is always present in how we navigate through life.

7. On The Beach At Night Alone (Dir: Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkBJ9QGtvRA

Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo is one of the most prolific in his scene, yet he has managed to create a balanced, consistent body of work; for this film, though, his intimate, observational approach bears more revealing  considering its autobiographical aspects. On The Beach At Night Alone is a movie about the affair between an actress and a director, and the small but significant gestures, public and private, surrounding its emotional aftermath. Hong and star Kim Min-hee had an affair in real life, which seriously damaged her name, but the film does not feel like a cheap apology. It is rather a form of exorcism through art, one that never denies the consequences of male idiocy.

6. A Fantastic Woman (Dir: Sebastián Lelio, Chile)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJHex4ZitgA

Chilean society, like most societies in Latin America, is not only tremendously conservative — a strong, patriarchal, catholic church has tightly controlled everything for centuries —, it is also profoundly authoritarian — this is coming from a Mexican, by the way. This serves as both background and natural antagonist to this poignant character study of a brave trans woman and the arduous battle for her rights and her dignity. A Fantastic Woman has a steady, effective pace, as Lelio never overcooks the story, but it all really comes down to Daniela Vega’s compelling, magnetic lead performance: It is perhaps the year’s best.

5. The Lure (Dir: Agnieszka Smoczynska, Poland)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgWe9QVqrl0

Just like in music, sometimes film needs exciting new forms that challenge the way we think about genre; stories that utilize the specific tropes and lore of certain traditions and subvert them in ways that open new spaces in our understanding of the art. Poland’s The Lure is a musical about mermaids that come from the sea to become lounge singers and fall in love before remembering that they’re carnivorous, terrorizing monsters. It successfully flips through horror, fantasy, musicals and romantic comedy elements, for a film that is, for lack of a better word, its own unique creature.

4. Close-knit (Dir: Naoko Ogigami, Japan)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gPJB4g5gzQ

How amazing it is that in 2017 we got to enjoy several movies that heavily feature trans women, but unlike the Chilean A Fantastic Woman, Naoko Ogigami’s Close-knit does not focus on an individual’s experience in conflict with the outside world, but with the individual as part of a family, and the importance of nurture and acceptance within’ these social relations. Ogigami’s film does a fantastic job at addressing a rarely told aspect of LGBTQ life: trans women as caretakers, as mothers. It is a milestone in Japanese cinema because this depiction of trans life contributes to its normalization, and her quiet, naturalistic storytelling help bring such a powerful point across.

3. BPM [Beats per minute] (Dir: Robin Campillo, France)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVAw7JfTqBU

The AIDS pandemic was a particularly pointy issue during the 90’s because it involved an actual conflagration between those who have suffered most of its physical, emotional and societal consequences — the LGBT community — and the institutions and systemic mechanisms that, either inadvertently or deliberately, contributed to the spread of the disease and the stigma around it. Robin Campillo weaves this story from the intersection of the personal and the political, offering a film that is loud, graphic and uncomfortable because it has to be, because it is really about a war.

2. On Body and Soul (Dir: Ildikó Enyedi, Hungary)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK5tIkuTKbA

The most brilliant accomplishment in Ildikó Enyedi’s Golden Bear-winning comeback On Body and Soul is that, despite telling a love story through the cheesiest, most obvious of narrative devices, the way she goes through the motions of unveiling the film’s camp spirituality is so earnestly committed it’s admirable , and the end result is both light-hearted and heavy-handed, indeed cheesy as hell, but absolutely captivating. In lesser hands, the Hungarian film would be a hot mess, but fortunately there is a sensitive, skillful director at the helm.

1. Loveless (Dir: Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLegoO4NdD8

No other film in 2017 — Hell, no other film in the entire decade — has left its viewers with such an impression of hopelessness and existential dread than Russia’s Loveless. Andrei Zvyagintsev’s devastating exploration of spiritual bankruptcy centers in a married couple that does not love each other, and probably never did, who have a 12-year old son that they do not love, living a life that goes nowhere, in a Russian society that just does not care. And even when faced with the most horrible of crises, this entire society remains rotten; in the pursuit of money, luxury, easy satisfaction, the couple has sold their souls, wasting their best years and efforts in order to keep appearances under a system of conservative norms of respectability, prosperity, and patriotism. With all of this considered, the film isn’t concerned about redemption, or even a specific sense of morality, and that is precisely where its powerful protest resides. It works as an indictment of modern Russia, for sure, but its main argument is that this could be any place where we silence our most essential values in favor of the illusion of a life of success, whether its Eastern Europe, the American rust belt, an upper middle-class neighborhood in Mexico City, or the Gangnam district in Seoul. Its universality lies in our capacity for ruin.

This piece was submitted by Leonel Manzanares. If you'd like to keep up with his other writings it's best to follow him on Twitter @AFHELVEGUM
If you're able to read Spanish he's also the editor for radiopanico.org