Recommending some of my favorite non-English movies with beautiful visuals:
Farewell my Concubine (1996) 🇨🇳
The doomed relationship between a beautiful male China opera actor who is forced into a feminine role and his fellow star. Set against a backdrop of regime changes from the Republic Era, Japanese occupation to the modern PRC.
Gabbeh (1998) 🇮🇷 🇹🇯
Named after a type of Persian rug- the art form through which we experience a girl’s life, from her family’s nomadic culture to her romance and marriage.
The Silence (1996) 🇮🇷 🇹🇯
A blind boy who repairs instruments sees the world through music. Explores concepts of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) as seen in Rumi’s poetry. (Same director as above)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring（2003)🇰🇷
A young monk lives with his elderly master in a floating temple on a lake. We follow the seasons of his life, told via Buddhist symbolism and philosophy.
Death of a Beauty/ 美人之死 (1986) 🇨🇳
Based on an Uyghur folktale. A woman who was once renowned for her beauty now lives in an old castle, hiding her burned face even as the prince who loves her searches for her.
On the Silver Globe 🇵🇱
Surreal sci-fi film about space travelers who crash on a primitive planet, starting a religion among the inhabitants as divine figures even as they long for the heaven that is old earth. A ‘parody’ of the origins of the Abrahamic faiths(?)
