Getting tired of Netflix? Why not try the curated collection on Kanopy. Here are a few of my top international picks!
Oslo, August 31st
Directed by Joachim Trier (Norway, 2011)
A Norwegian anti-fairy tale about a young recovering heroin addict taking stock of his past, present and future. “Un certain regard” award winner at Cannes, 2011.
Life Feels Good (Chce sie zyc)
Directed by Maciej Pieprzyca (Poland, 2013)
An emotional powerhouse of a film based on a true story of a boy wrongly labelled as “mentally retarded” in early childhood and kept from participating in the outside world. As viewers, we are witness to his struggle to communicate his sentience in a body that constantly betrays him. Jury and audience prize winner at the Montreal film festival in 2013.
Gutland
Directed by Govinda Van Maele (Germany, 2017)
A German “surrealist noir” about a brutish drifter with a shady past who slowly gains acceptance and eventual domestication in a small town awash in secrets of their own. Multiple jury prize nominee.
Teddy Bear
Directed by Mads Matthiesen (Denmark, 2012)
The (albeit rare) “feel good” foreign film in Amanda’s repertoire, features a gentle giant of a body builder trying to break free from an emotionally entangled relationship with his mother. A Sundance film “official selection” for 2012.
The Banishment
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev (Russia, 2007)
An obvious ode to Ingmar Bergman, this slow-paced but beautifully shot film follows a family on a trip to a father’s childhood home in the Countryside that results in Dostoevsky-esque disaster.
All images courtesy of Kanopy