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Two beautifully tender performances lift this subtle love story, which washes away the residual haze of romantic cliché. Adapting the twinned portrait of solitude from an award-winning novel, Koya Kamura suffuses his directorial debut with shoreline blues and exquisitely vaporous watercolor imagery.

Starring Rooney Mara, Alonso Ruizpalacios’s ebullient vision of a bustling Times Square kitchen underlines the resilience of employees all too aware of cycles of exploitation. Powdery monochrome cinematography evokes dreaming, while spectacular forays into allegory let humanity shine through.

A change of pace from flexible director Fatih Akin (Head On, In the Fade), this ensemble comedy is a crowd-pleasing, lively look at the frantic and frenzied reality of running a restaurant. Set in Hamburg, Soul Kitchen is another of Akin’s depictions of modern, multicultural Germany.

The first Singaporean to have his films invited to major festivals—Toronto, Berlin and Cannes among others— Eric Khoo is the man behind this food-themed drama about the act of discovering your family roots. At once gentle and straightforward, Ramen Shop will undeniably work up an appetite.

America is an adequate refuge but no star-spangled land of dreams when it comes to the modern immigrant experience. Recalling Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismäki with each cool monochrome vignette, this Sundance darling is threaded through with deadpan humor and performances of glimmering insight.