Now that the USAmericans/English are listening (thank you Bong Joon-Ho), time to share our favourite movies
Here’s a list of my favourite films and TV series. I encourage all non-American people (or Americans too if they watch other stuff) to add to the list. I’m from Southern Europe so my list is going to be pretty centred on what I know, please add things from other parts of the world too.
Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain): France, 2001. One of the most famous modern films of all times in Europe. Amélie is a girl from Paris who finds an old box hidden by a child decades ago. From there, she decides to go on a quest to fix other people’s lives, and maybe also her own. Romantic comedy narrated in a very cool and interesting way, with touches of fantasy. A classic in Europe which everyone has seen and whose music we’d always recognise. Trailer in French with English subs.
Agora (Ágora): Spain, 2009. This movie was originally filmed in English (starring Rachel Weisz and Oscar Isaac) but I found it’s surprisingly unknown in the USA. It tells the real story of the astronomist and philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria in 4th century Egypt, during the rise of Christianity and religious intolerance (as well as intolerance for a woman teaching those subjects). This movie was my favourite the years after it came out. Trailer in English.
3 idiots: India, 2009. Two friends are searching for their long lost companion. They revisit their college days and recall the memories of their friend who inspired them to think differently, even as the rest of the world called them “idiots”. Humour but also talks about very real problems, like the problems of the education system -especially in universities- in the way it is centered on memorizing and how it over-stresses students. By the way, this is Bollywood, it’s a musical. Trailer (activate the English subtitles on the subtitles button).
The Chorus (Les Choristes): France-Switzerland, 2004. A new teacher at a severely administered boys’ boarding school works to positively affect the students’ lives through music. One of my personal favourite movies of all times, and the music is beautiful too. English trailer.
Life is Beautiful (La Vita è Bella): Italy, 1997. When an open-minded Jewish librarian and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor, and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp. Drama and (romantic) comedy. Another modern classic in Europe that everyone has seen. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Movie (also Best Actor and Best Original Score) in 1998. English Trailer.
Like Stars on Earth (Taare Zameen Par): India, 2007. An eight-year-old boy is thought to be a lazy trouble-maker, until the new art teacher has the patience and compassion to discover the real problem behind his struggles in school. A positive story about the issues faced by neurodivergent children. THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL, PREPARE TO CRY! English trailer.
The Wave (Die Welle): Germany, 2008. I guess everyone has seen this movie by now, but I couldn’t leave it out. It’s based on the real story of the Third Wave social experiment. A high school teacher has to teach a class about autocracy. His students believe that a dictatorship would not be possible in nowadays Germany, he starts an experiement to show how masses can be manipulated: The Wave. This movement embraces uniforms, discipline, the leadership of the teacher, and quickly develops into fascism, and gets out of the professor’s control. Trailer.
Colonia: Chile-Germany-Luxembourg-France, 2015. A thriller based on a real story, filmed in English (starring Emma Watson). A young German couple get involved in the fight for socialism in Chile. In 1973, the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet deposes Salvador Allende and rounds up its supporters, including Daniel. This mocie explains the story of Lena, Daniel’s girlfriend, and her desperate search for her abducted boyfriend draws her into the infamous Colonia Dignidad, a sect nobody has ever escaped from. Trailer.
Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso): Italy, 1988. A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema’s projectionist. English trailer.
Rabbit-Proof Fence: Australia, 2002. Technically from an AngloSaxon-dominated country (Australia) but based on the experiences of indigenous people so it and anyway just a generally very good film so it deserves a place on the list. About the true story of three Aboriginal girls of the Stolen Generation. Taken from their home and separated from their mothers, they are sent to a remote settlement 1,500 miles away. In response they attempt the impossible and embark on a daring escape and epic journey to find their way back home - across an unforgiving landscape that will test their very will to survive. Trailer.
Good Bye, Lenin!: Germany, 2003. In 1990, to protect his socialist mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared. Trailer.
A Twelve-Year Night (La Noche de Doce Años): Uruguay, 2018. The real story of the 12 years that Pepe Mujica, Mauricio Rosencof and Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro spent in solitary confinement for their ideology after the dictatorship decides that, since they can’t kill them, they will drive them crazy. Trailer.
Rang de Basanti (रंग दे बसंती): India, 2006. Six young Indians who assist an English woman to film a documentary on the freedom fighters from their past. Disinterested at first, the events in their lives and the lives of the early 20th century revolutionaries have more and more parallels, leading them to relive the long-forgotten saga of freedom. Trailer.
Salvador (Puig Antich): Catalonia, 2006. The real story of the last person condemned to death -in 1974- by Franco’s fascist dictatorship: the Catalan anarchist Salvador Puig i Antich. Trailer.
Lagaan (लगान): India, 2001. When the British occupiers raise the Lagaan tax during a drough, the people of a small village in Victorian India stake their future on a game of cricket against the ruthless British rulers. Trailer.
Fènix 11*23: Catalonia, 2004. The real story of a 14-year-old Catalan boy who sent an email to a supermarket chain asking them to label their products also in the Catalan language. Inspired by Harry Potter, he had an account on a forum website called The Army of the Phoenix. One nigh, 30 military policemen show up to his home to arrest him, accused of terrorism. Trailer.
War of the Buttons (La Nouvelle Guerre des boutons): France, 2011. In France occupied by the Nazis, Lebrac leads a play war between two rival kid gangs, but a girl he likes, who’s Jewish, is in danger of being discovered by local Nazi sympathisers. Lebrac and the village must now respond to the reality of what’s happening. Trailer.
Jean-François and the Meaning of Life (Jean-François i el Sentit de la Vida): Catalonia, 2018. A 12-year-old boy finds a copy of “The Myth of Sisyphus” by French philosopher Albert Camus. He then decides to become an Existentialist and runs away from home to Paris to meet Albert Camus, not knowing he has been dead for fifty years. On the way, he meets a girl named Lluna and new experiences and feelings. Trailer.
Deutschland 83: Germany, 2015-2020. An East German young man is recruited to infiltrate the West German army. As a rookie spy, his decisions constantly put his cover at risk and force his agency to take extreme measures. The first season takes place in 1983, the second (titled Deutschland 86) in 1986, and end with Deutschland 89 with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. (Btw, gay and lesbian main characters). Trailer.
Babylon Berlin: Germany, 2017-. Netflix show based on the bestselling detective novels by Volker Kutscher. Set during the Weimar Republic, starting in 1929, in Berlin, a city that represented freedoms of all kinds, but where a drastic change was being prepared. Following Colognian commissioner Gereon Rath who just moved to the city and Charlotte Ritter, mechanographer by day and flapper by night, teir investigation takes them to the deepest secrets of Berlin: from the clandestine meetings of refugee Troskyist Russians, to the army generals planning the return of the Kaiser, to the Berlin nigh scene and sexual and gender freedom circles, to working class movements, and more. Trailer.
Cable Girls (Las Chicas del Cable): Spain, 2017-2019. Netflix. Four women in search of independence are brought together through their work as telephone operators in 1928 Madrid. Their lives show the troubles and fights of women of their time. (Bisexual and trans main characters). Trailer.
The Ministry of Time (El Ministerio del Tiempo): Spain, 2015-. On Netflix. The Spanish Govenrment has a secret Ministry: the Ministry of Time. Through a centuries-old system of doors that connect different times and places of the history of Spain, its workers travel in time to make sure nobody changes history for their own personal benefit. Follow the main characters (Julián, a nurse from modern-day Madrid; Amelia, a Catalan 19th-century woman, one of the firsts to attend university; and Alonso, a 16th-century soldier who has some trouble but a lot of fun discovering the modern world) accross time in different missions that lead you to meet the most important people in Spanish history and literature. Trailer (activate English subtitles).
Note: the American company Sony Pictures offered to buy El Ministerio del Tiempo to make an American version of it. After a while, they decided to copy it without paying (but making it worse and way less funny): that is the show Timeless. This is a situation where a big business took advantage of small countries’ productions. The Spanish TV sued Sony Pictures for it, but because of how much more money American entertainment businesses have, the case wasn’t solved. Please, boycott Timeless and watch the original El Ministerio del Tiempo. There is also a Portuguese version (Ministério do Tempo) who did it legally and has been successful in Portugal. China has also bought the idea but hasn’t made the show yet.
Romanzo Criminale: Italy, 2008-2010. The complete first season of the Italian crime drama based on the novel by Italian judge Giancarlo De Cataldo. The series follows the dealings of an organised gang of drug dealers as they gain control over Rome’s heroin trade. As well as coming up against each other from time to time, the group also have to compete with other local criminal syndicates with similar illicit interests. Trailer.
Polseres Vermelles: Catalonia, 2011-2013. A group of children (teenagers in the second season) with different illnesses meet in a hospital. An older man in the hospital tells the main characters that, in order to be a good group of friends, they must have a leader, a second leader, the indispensable one, the handsome one, and the girl. Narrated in a semi-magical way, this is their story of friendship and will to live.
Note: Steven Spielberg loved the show so much he bought the rights and made an American re-make, named Red Band Society. The re-make erased all the settings and instead of having the action take place in Barcelona (Catalonia) with Catalan culture, they moved it to the USA. The result was that they took away the depth and uniqueness of the characters, and the American show was very bad and got cancelled. If you’re interested, watch the original Catalan, NOT the American re-make.
I think that’s enough for now, I’ll probably add more to the post in the future. And as I said, feel free to add too!
You can find most of these easily with English subtitles online on for free. Some are also on streaming services (in case they are, it’s preferred to watch them there so the production can get recognition and money to make more! our movies most of the time have to be financiated by the government and the European Union because we can’t make as much money as American movies because Americans have bought most of the distribution for themselves, so it helps a lot if people watch the movies/shows legally. But enjoy them in any way you can!).
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