Jus Lyk Dat (Guyana, 2014); Bal Kan (Kosovo, 2016)
I’m back! Sadly, in the intervening time since my last post, the Uzbek short film The Dog has been taken down from YouTube, and I cannot find…
Cage (Malta, 1971)
Filmed by Mario Azzopardi in 1971 while he was still a film student, Cage was not commercially released until 2007. It tells the story of a young Maltese…
The Parade (Serbia, 2011)
In this film, director Srđan Dragojević tackles the contentious issue of gay rights in the Balkans. The opening sequence lists several ethnic slurs as well as who uses…
Kolya (Czech Republic, 1996)
Directed by Jan Svěrák, Kolya is, I believe, the first film on the list to have won an Academy Award, in this case for Best Foreign Language…
Trollhunter (Norway, 2010)
This isn’t my first time seeing this André Øvredal film, and anyone who’s seen it can understand why I had to watch it again: it’s just that…
Black Bread (Spain, 2010)
Based on a novel by Catalan novelist Emili Teixidor, Black Bread is a dark and unsettling film from the get-go. Although its director, Agustí Villaronga, is from…
Beyond Silence (Germany, 1996)
Directed by Caroline Link, Beyond Silence is the story of a hearing girl named Lara Bischoff, whose parents, Martin and Kai, are both deaf. Nominated for…
Conversations on Serious Topics (Lithuania, 2012)
This brief but powerful documentary consists of snippets of filmmaker Giedrė Beinoriūtė’s interviews with twelve Lithuanian children. The film begins with a deaf girl, Ruta, telling a…
