The deadline is Oct 1, but more than 40 countries have already submitted their entries for the foreign-language film category at next year’s Academy Awards. Earlier this week, Thailand announced that its representative at the 2015 Oscars would be hit romantic comedy Kid Tueng Wittaya (Teacher’s Diary). The film, which focuses on two teachers and the indirect courtship they conduct via messages written in a diary hidden on a houseboat, was released earlier this year to a mixed critical reception but local box-office success. Life wishes its director, Nitiwat Tharatorn, the best of luck.
Kid Tueng Wittaya (Teacher’s Diary) (Thailand).
The shortlist of Oscar nominees is due to be announced in January. We highlight, below, some of the titles submitted from around the world in the foreign-language category and will have more on this subject once the award season kicks into high gear.
Two Days, One Night
(Belgium)
This film by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne stars Marion Cotillard as a factory worker (it did take a certain suspension of disbelief on my part) who’s about to be laid off. The only way she can cling onto her job is to convince her co-workers to vote to keep her on the payroll — even though that would cause them to forfeit their bonus. Shining a light on a capitalist dilemma and a humanist riddle, this is a realistic portrait of Europe’s underbelly.
Ice Poison
(Taiwan)
Curiously, the director of this, Taiwan’s Oscar nominee, is actually a Myanmar national. Midi Z is a young filmmaker based in Taipei who’s made his name from gritty dramas about the harsh lives of impoverished compatriots of his. In this, his latest film, two youngsters from Shan State are forced by economic circumstances to get involved in the deadly drug trade. It’s a rather surprising, but commendable, decision by the Taiwanese authorities to submit this low-budget film for consideration on the glamorous stage that is the annual Academy Awards.
Norte, The End Of History
(Philippines)
This entry, too, was a courageous choice, a testament to the fact that Filipino cinema can place artistic excellence above box-office success. Norte, directed by Lav Diaz, is a four-hour-long film about guilt, redemption, the failure of ideology and a rapturous ray of humanism. By the standards of the Oscars, it’s a difficult film, and by choosing this to represent the Philippines that country’s national film organisation has certainly displayed the maturity of its cinema scene. (The film was screened in Bangkok last month).
White God (Hungary).
White God
(Hungary)
A great canine revenge flick, this bizarre thriller opens with a girl on a bicycle being chased down a deserted street, in broad daylight, by a large pack of howling dogs. The film then flashbacks to explain how this opening scene came to pass — an account of the cruelty perpetrated on animals by human beings and a sci-fi/karmic retribution by a species that’s supposed to be lower than us in the evolutionary pecking order. Dog lovers will rejoice, and cringe.
Saint Laurent
(France)
There are two separate feature films about Yves Saint Laurent out this year. One of these biopics was called after his full name. The other, nominated for best foreign-language film at the Oscars, takes its title from the full version of the man’s surname — and, by so doing, is perhaps a deliberate play on the word “saint”. Certainly, Saint Laurent’s creative but tormented existence (he died in 2008) was one marked by melancholy and numerous ordeals. Gaspard Ulleil plays YSL, and the director, Bertrand Bonello, takes a sensual and rather surreal approach to portraying his subject. One of the best films I’ve seen so far this year, Saint Laurent is due to open here in November.
Mommy (Canada).
Mommy
(Canada)
Xavier Dolan, 25, tends to provoke either a chorus of “genius!” or derogatory rants ending with “brat!”. Verging on hysterical (though admirers would term it “heartbreaking”), Mommy tells the story of an emotionally unstable, potentially violent teenage boy and the dedication of his unmarried mother. The film was a hit at Cannes earlier this year, but I detected clear signs of relief from a group of critics when it didn’t win the big prize.
Timbuktu (Mauritania).
Timbuktu
(Mauritania)
A group of militant Islamic rebels take over Timbuktu, that ancient town in Mali, and start imposing their strict religious views on the population. Market vendors have to wear gloves when handling fish, and kids aren’t allowed to play football. Out in the desert, a family struggles with the changes wrought by the newcomers while a tribal revenge is in the offing. The director, Abderrahmane Sissako, has a gentle, humane touch in telling a tough story which is based on real incidents.
Force Majeure
(Sweden)
This domestic drama is a clever, sardonic exploration into the male psyche. The whole film takes place at a ski resort where Tomas, Ebba and their children are vacationing. A conflict is sparked by a visually majestic but seemingly trivial incident: while the family is having lunch, an avalanche threatens to slam into the restaurant and Tomas reacts by fleeing the table, abandoning his wife and kids to their fate. When the wall of snow doesn’t quite reach the spot while the family is having lunch, an avalanche threatens to slam into the restaurant and Tomas reacts by fleeing the table, abandoning his wife and kids to their fate. When the wall of snow doesn’t quite reach the spot where they are sitting and everyone escapes the danger unscathed, the head of the family finds he has a lot of explaining to do.
Ida
(Poland)
Shot in crisp black and white, this film is set in 1960s Poland where the icy breath of World War II is still being felt in the ruins of that devastated country. Ida, the title character, is a young woman who’s about to go through the process of becoming a Catholic nun when she discovers that she was actually born Jewish and that her entire family was killed by the Nazis. Nothing can torture the present like the past.
Winter Sleep
(Turkey)
This Palme d’Or winner by director Nuri Bilge Ceylan is set in a small Anatolian town where an ex-actor and his young wife have to navigate the potholes of insecurity, mistrust, and resentment (fuelled by perceived differences in class) that create obstacles between themselves and other residents of the town.
