Best foriegn language films/directors of the last 5 years?

So, I have to say, my foreign language film knowledge is a tad dated. I love foreign langauge films, but I really don’t know what to look for in today’s generation. Of course I’ve seen the ones that get big attention in North America (Tell No One, Cache, Pan’s Labrynth, Almodovar’s stuff), but does anyone have any suggestions for some more hidden recent films/filmmakers I should be watching?

Thanks.

Andre Techine: “The Witnesses”

Jacques Nolot: “Before I Forget”

Jacques Rivette: “The Duchess of Langeias” (aka. “Don’t Touch the Axe”)

Anything by Manoel De Oliveira and Patrice Chereau

Oliveira more recent generation, ho ho! But yes, i second the recommendation anyway.

If you liked Pan’s Labyrinth, check out The Orphanage. Very much like Del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone. The Lives of Others is also an interesting film.

Fredo, I was just going to suggest von Donnersmarck. After The Lives of Others I’m really looking forward to his future work.

Check out the work of:

Sang-soo Hong
Ming-liang Tsai
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Zhang Ke Jia
Hirokazu Koreeda

Since I’m restricted to only the past 5 years …

The Lives of Others (absolutely superb)

Gomorrah

Tsotsi

Katyn

Let the Right One In

The Class

As well as Tsai Ming Liang, Hirokazu Koreeda, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, i would also recommend Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Carlos Reygadas (Silent Light), and i liked Gideon Koppel’s Sleep Furiously. Oh and Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Innocence is great. And Miyazaki the Japanese animation master, eg Howl’s Moving Castle- he’s been round a while now.

Still, my top 5 living directors are:

Oliveira

Rohmer

Angelopoulos

Iosseliani

Rivette

combined age over 419

I think Gomorrah is very, very overrated. Don’t waste your time.

The Lives of Others was like Spielberg in German. If you think you’ll like that, by all means, go ahead. But I found it grating.

If you liked Cache, get Code Unknown and The Piano Teacher. Anything by Briellat will be, well, interesting.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

Yeah, I’m with Tom on Gomorrah – I really don’t understand the overwhelming praise for this film. I mean it was interesting, I suppose, but it just left me totally confused and disinterested with any of the characters (I felt the same way about Il Divo).

wow,man,it seems all people like Angelopoulos but…Greeks..haha :P
i love him anyhow,(being Greek,hehe)as well as EVERY SINGLE OTHER DIRECTOR AFOREMENTIONED…
i will agree with the Lives of Others statement which..well..it’s considerably inferior towards other German films,Edukators being a recent good example…
and i will disagree on the Divo and Gomorra references,2 of the greatest 2008 films BY FAR,unless some still feel Slumdog,Vicky Cristina and Milk are good offers…sigh..
i’ll also disagree on the positive statements of Tell No One and Tsotsi,i’ll jsutify a bit Tell No One because it was made by a wodnerful actor but Tsotsi is a copy of Pixote/City of God/Haine all at once!!!please…

p.s.: i feel that “foreign” seems kinda…divisional?i mean…am from Greece,so..even films from U.S.A. and England are foreign to me ;)
i hope u get my point ;)

The Class
Waltz with Bashir
Don’t know if this is in the past 5 years but Y Tu Mama Tambien

Dimitris, yeah, it was only quite recently that the BAFTA awards in Britain changed the award title from Best Foreign Language Film to Best Film not in English- people in Wales for instance didn’t like the idea that Welsh, the indigenous language of Britain, was being classed as foreign, and anyway there are many other languages and cultures at home in Britain. “Welsh” actually means foreigner, the name originally given by the invading Angles and Saxons from Germany 1500 years ago, so this problem goes back a long way. Now for the Oscars, if a film was made in a native American language wouldn’t that have to fall in the “foreign language” category?

Anyway, i’m with the Gomorrah dislikers. The style was a major problem, yeah Fredo’s “confused and disinterested” sums up my reaction too. It seemed pretetentious. I haven’t yet seen Il Divo but Italian cinema seems to have fallen a long way from the post-war glory days

damn, my Oliveira pic has now gone off.

u’ve studied enough,hehe ;)
to sum up the Italian cinema matter…many will dislike it for the main reason Italy has gone into shreds, post 90’s that is,hehe.Amelio however and Giordana for instance and admittedly Sorrentino have reached worldwide pinnacle with their new skills.
but let’s not also forget that 2008 had many mediocre films who many considered them to be supreme e.g. Frost/Nixon and Doubt and even The Wave!!!

foreign language film term as a whole is an insult in my point of view,not to cause any ruckus around here BUT…i feel weary watching 60% of my co-citizens,people who like to rent films thinking that U.S. films are just films and when they want to refer to a Greek film,a native film for pete’s sake,they use the word Greek in a derogatory manner,as if they’re saying..oh,we’re gonna watch films (U.S.A.) not those unknown Greek films..

that’s another humiliating story from the likes of my country,but let’s leave it aside…
and that’s why i prefer film festivals contrary to award shows,even in Cesar,Goya and other country awards besides the Oscars and BAFTAS,the term foreign language is used only to award films of foreign language,to each his/her own i mean..
what’s most annoying though is that people have mostly stuck on the Oscar award of “Foreign Language Film”,which has caused a confusing term amognst the worldwide community of film,Greek people (to speak of my country) are saying Oscar films and Foreign language films,pathetic??

Y Tu Mama Tambien is a good one. I don’t know…there’s just too many. Oldboy also.