Five films from five countries have been shortlisted for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Oscars, with the winner to be read out on Feb 24 (morning of Feb 25 Thailand time). In a way, this is a no-brainer: Roma is a clear favourite, though that leads to another complication: with the Netflix-backed Mexican film also being nominated for Best Picture, can the beloved Roma win both categories? Not to mention that Alfonso Cuaron is also a front runner to win the Best Director prize, a likelihood that only widens the smile on Netflix's 2.35:1-ratio face (the film is still showing at House RCA, as well as on your Netflix account).
A category that represents world cinema as best as possible in the context of the Oscars, the Best Foreign Language race is often more interested than the main section in its variety of topic and style, and the films on its list deserve a chance to be screened in cinemas everywhere. Let's take a look at the five nominations for Best Foreign Language film.
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Nadine Labaki's film is branded, depending on whether you're a fan or not, either a devastating social-realist drama or poverty porn, a film whose award-baiting intention is as clear as the Levant sky. Caked in dust and wandering the mean streets of Lebanon, 12-year-old Zain appears in court after he has sued his own parents for neglecting him. We then go back to witness the boy's plight, an interminable, manipulative melodrama that sees Zain fleeing his abusive parents and ending up in a rickety zinc-roof shack with a migrant Ethiopian woman, in a condition far worse than the slum home he has left. When the woman doesn't return one day, Zain is left to care for her toddler by dragging him around in a makeshift trolley (cute?), literally begging and rummaging trash cans while evading the scheme of a child smuggler. It's all so miserable and supposedly uplifting, only when it's not and becomes a laboured attempt to make the bourgeoise audience of the world feel good about their own lives and charitable instinct. There's no news of the film coming to Thailand at the moment.
Cold War (Poland)
This is the only film that can upset Roma on Feb 24. Cold War has been directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, the Pole who also has scooped a surprise Best Director nomination (he also won Best Foreign Language film with the nun drama Ida in 2014). A gorgeous black-and-white film (again like Roma), Cold War tells the story of a stormy love affair between a pianist and folk singer he has groomed, spanning the Stalinist decades and taking place in rural Poland, Berlin and Paris. The film's first half is full of a fascinating rendition of Polish folk songs, sung in spiritual unison that is quickly co-opted by the regime as a propaganda tool to promote Stalin. Then the story shifts to the smoky jazz bars of Paris after the lovers are separated and briefly reunited, only for their desire and passion to yank them apart again before the final rendezvous at a crossroads, one of the most devastating trysts you'll see this year. Joanna Kulig and Tomasz Kot play the two leads with such heat and sensitivity, and their screen presence should guarantee their long and promising careers. It's possible that the film will come to one of the film showcases in Bangkok.
Never Look Away (Germany)
From director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives Of Others, winner of Best Foreign Language Film in 2007), Never Look Away is loosely based on the life of the German artist Gerhard Richter, who fled East Germany, where his art was mandated to serve the ideology of the communist regime, to build a celebrated career in the West in the 1960s when post-war modernism was in full swing. Tom Schilling plays the artist (called Kurt) and Paula Beer plays his wife, and the film is propelled by the momentum of a life driven by artistic impulse, past torment and romantic despair, all in the soft-focus treatment that feels like it could be expanded into a TV series. Running at nearly three hours, the film is a straight, old-school biopic that's entertaining though doesn't have any real urgency or present-day association. Perhaps we can look forward to it being screened at our European Union Film Festival this year?
Shoplifters (Japan)
Last time Japan won in this category was in 2009 with the film Departures, in which an unemployed cellist takes up a job as a mortician. In a year without Roma and Cold War, Hirokazu Koe-eda's family drama would have been a bankable title. The story about a "family" of petty thieves has however won the heart of viewers everywhere including here when it was released last year. It also won the Palme d'Or at Cannes last May.
Roma
Roma (Mexico)
Praise has been sung and many awards have been bestowed, so the question is simple: on Feb 24 will Roma win Best Picture, or Best Foreign Language Film, or both?
