El baño del Papa

"In Melo, a poor Uruguyan country village near the Brazilian border, several men earn their living from contraband, mostly transported on bicycles. One of them, Beto, is getting too old for heavy freights but hopes to a earn a motorbike. The idea is to build and charge money for the use of a proper lavatory at the occasion of the first-ever papal visit to Urugay, as is holiness is expected to pass trough Melo where he may be cheered by hordes of Catholic Brazilians."

-KGF Vissers (www.imdb.com)

"It is 1988, and Melo, a Uruguayan town on the Brazilian border, awaits the visit of Pope John Paul II. Numbers begin circulating: hundreds of people will come, no thousands say the media. To the poor citizens of Melo this means one thing: pilgrims in need of food and drink, paper flags, souvenirs, commemorative medals. Brimming with enthusiasm, the locals not only hope for divine blessing, but above all for a small share of material happiness. Petty smuggler Beto is certain that he’s found the best business idea of all: “The Pope’s Toilet”, where the thousands of pilgrims can find relief."

-Wikipedia

Waking Ned

"Jackie O'Shea, a resident of the tiny Irish coastal village of Tully More, discovers that one of his neighbors has won the lottery - the question is, who? It takes some doing, but Jackie figures out that the lucky person is none other than his new best friend, Ned Devine. Unfortunately, it turns out Ned is in no position to collect the jackpot, which totals almost 6.9 million Irish pounds. So Jackie and his real best friend, Michael O'Sullivan, try to figure out a way to share in Ned's good fortune - after all, Ned would want it that way. But things get a lot more complicated than either Jackie or Michael could have anticipated."

-Eugene Kim (www.imdb.com)

"Waking Ned (titled Waking Ned Devine in North America) is a 1998 comedy film by English writer and director Kirk Jones. It stars Ian Bannen, David Kelly and Fionnula Flanagan. Kelly was nominated for a Screen Actors' Guild award for his role as Michael O'Sullivan. The film is set in Ireland but was filmed on location in the Isle of Man. It was produced by the British studio Tomboy Films and distributed by the American company Fox Searchlight Pictures."

-Wikipedia

Tsotsi

"In Johannesburg, the small time criminal Tsotsi is a teenager without feelings, hardened by his tough life. After killing a man with his gang in a robbery; hitting the gangster Boston of his gang; humiliating a crippled beggar along one night, Tsotsi hijacks a car and under the despair of a woman, he shoots her in the stomach. While driving the car, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat and the woman was a desperate mother. He brings the baby to his house in the slum and becomes attached to him. For six days, the baby changes his behavior, arousing and developing the sense of empathy and humanity in the cold blood killer."

-Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (www.imdb.com)

"Tsotsi is a 2005 film written and directed by Gavin Hood. The film is an adaptation of the novel Tsotsi, by Athol Fugard. The soundtrack features Kwaito music performed by popular South African artist Zola as well as a score by Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker featuring the voice of South African protest singer/poet Vusi Mahlasela. Set in a Soweto slum, near Johannesburg, South Africa, the film tells the story of Tsotsi, a young street thug who steals a car only to discover a baby in the back seat. The film won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006. Tsotsi was the inspiration behind the Tamil language film called "Yogi" starring director Ameer Sultan."

-Wikipedia

Cinema Paradiso

"A man receives news from his aging mother in a little town that someone he once knew has passed away. A beautiful story unfolds about the man's childhood friendship with an old man who was the projectionist at the local theater. Their bond was one that contained many highlights and tragedies, and shaped the way for a young boy to grow and move out of his rundown village to pursue a dream."
-Tam Bui (www.imdb.com)

"Nuovo cinema Paradiso (Italian pronunciation: [ˈnwɔvo ˈtʃinema paraˈdizo]) (translates as New Paradise Cinema) is a 1988 Italian film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. It was internationally released as Cinema Paradiso in France, Spain, the UK and the U.S."
-Wikipedia

Gwoemul

"The film revolves around Park Hee-bong, a man in his late 60s. Park runs a small snack bar on the banks of the Han River and lives with his two sons, one daughter, and one granddaughter. The Parks seem to lead a quite ordinary and peaceful life, but maybe a bit poorer than the average Seoulite. Hee-bong's elder son Gang-du is an immature and incompetent man in his 40s, whose wife left home long ago. Nam-il is the youngest son, an unemployed grumbler, and daughter Nam-joo is an archery medalist and member of the national team. One day, an unidentified monster suddenly appears from the depths of the Han River and spreads panic and death, and Gang-du's daughter Hyun-seo is carried off by the monster and disappears. All the family members are in a great agony because they lost someone very dear to them. But when they find out she is still alive, they resolve to save her."

-"Plot Summary" (www.imdb.com)

"The Host is a 2006 South Korean film, which also contains elements of comedy and drama films. The film was directed by Bong Joon-Ho, who co-wrote the screenplay, along with Baek Chul-hyun."

-Wikipedia

Les triplettes de Belleville

"

Madame Souza, an elderly French woman, instills in her grandson Champion (for who she acts as his guardian) a love of cycling. As a young man, he does become a dedicated road racer with his grandmother as his trainer. During a mountainous leg of the Tour de France in which Champion is racing, he goes missing. Evidence points to him being kidnapped. Indeed, he and two of his competitors were kidnapped, the kidnappers who want to use the threesome's unique skills for nefarious purposes. With Champion's overweight and faithful pet dog Bruno at her side, Madame Souza goes looking for Champion. Their trek takes them overseas to the town of Belleville. Without any money, Madame Souza and Bruno are befriended and taken in by three eccentric elderly women, who were once the renowned jazz singing group The Triplets of Belleville. The triplets help Madame Souza and Bruno try to locate and rescue Champion."

-Huggo (www.imdb.com)

"The Triplets of Belleville (French: Les Triplettes de Belleville) is a Belgium-Quebec-France coproduced 2003 animated surreal adventure film written and directed by Sylvain Chomet. It was released as Belleville Rendez-vous in the United Kingdom. The film is Chomet's first feature film and was an international co-production between companies in France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Canada."

-Wikipedia

Fargo

"Jerry hires two men to kidnap his wife so he can get his rich father in law to pay the ransom of $1 million. Once the ransom is paid the kidnappers will get $40,000 and Jerry gets the rest. That's the plan, but what happens is something totally different. Blood is shed when a cop and two innocent people are killed. Marge Gunderson is the Chief who investigates the murders. While Marge investigates, Jerry gets involved in deeper problems, ranging from financial troubles, to threats from the kidnappers.

-Lisa Walker (www.imdb.com)

"Fargo is a 1996American dark comedy crime film produced, directed and written by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Frances McDormand as a pregnant police chief who investigates a series of homicides, William H. Macy as a car salesman who hires two criminals to kidnap his wife, Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare as the criminals, and Harve Presnell as the salesman's father-in-law."

-Wikipedia

La stanza del figlio

"Giovanni is a successful psychoanalyst who has to put up with the seemingly endless string of trivial details his patients ramble on about. Yet his family provides a loving and steadfast foundation for his life that can even survive a problem like their son, Andrea, being accused of stealing a rare fossil in school. That foundation is profoundly rocked when Andrea dies in a scuba diving accident. Although the usual arrangements run smoothly, the emotional harm is profound. Giovanni begins to obsessively dwell on the missed chances he had with his son that might have saved his life, even blaming his patients. In addition , his wife is inconsulable and his daughter is becoming anti social in their loss. In the midst of this turmoil, a secret of their son's life is revealed that provides healing in a way they never anticipated."
-Kenneth Crisholm (www.imdb.com)

"The Son's Room (Italian: La stanza del figlio) is a 2001 Italian film directed by Nanni Moretti. It depicts the psychological effects on a family and their life after the death of their son. It was filmed in and around Ancona, Italy."
-Wikipedia

Nói albínói

"Nói albínói is an Icelandic film by director Dagur Kári released in 2003. The film explores the life of teenage outsider Nói Kristmundsson (played by Tómas Lemarquis) in a remote fishing village in western Iceland. The film won multiple awards."
-Wikipedia

"Is he the village idiot or a genius in disguise? 17 year old Noi drifts through life on a remote fjord in the north of Iceland. In winter, the fjord is cut off from the outside world, surrounded by ominous mountains and buried under a shroud of snow. Noi dreams of escaping from this white-walled prison with Iris, a city girl who works in a local gas staion. But his clumsy attempts at escape spiral out of control and end in complete failure. Only a natural disaster will shatter Noi's universe and offer him a window into a better world."
-www.imdb.com

Lola rennt

"Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manny. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. Lola has 20 min to raise this amount and meet Manny. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run."
-Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (www.imdb.com)

"The story follows a woman who needs to obtain 100,000 Deutsche Mark in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life."
-Wikipedia

Maria Full of Grace

"Although the movie depicts rural life in Colombia, it was actually filmed in Ecuador. The title is a double-entendre alluded to on the poster—a simultaneous reference to the Hail Mary and to what Maria carries in her into the United States."
-Wikipedia

"In a small village in Colombia, the pregnant seventeen years old Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) supports her family with her salary working in a floriculture. She is fired and with a total lack of perspective of finding a new job, she decides to accept the offer to work as a drug mule, flying to USA with sixty-two pellets of cocaine in her stomach. Once in New York, things do not happen as planned."
-Stephen Bowen (www.imdb.com)

Persepolis

"Persepolis is a 2007 French animated film based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The film was written and directed by Satrapi with Vincent Paronnaud. The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The story ends with Marjane as a 22-year-old expatriate. The title is a reference to the historic city of Persepolis."
-Wikipedia

"In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Statrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own."
-Kenneth Chisholm (www.imdb.com)

Shall We Dansu?

The Japanese culture portrayed in the film, Shall We Dansu, was a lot different from that of the culture in the life of an American. The people in the film were a lot more conserved and caring. People in America will give themselves up for basically anything. They seemed shy and content whereas in America, people will yell and scream at each other over nothing. It seems that Japanese culture and American culture differs greatly when it comes to every day life. It would be interesting to go to Japan and see it first hand.

"Shall We Dance? is a 1996 Japanese film. Its original Japanese title is Shall We Dansu? (Shall We ダンス??) which refers to the song, "Shall We Dance", played many times in the film. It may also refer to the earlier 1937 movie "Shall We Dance" starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire[citation needed]. It was directed by Masayuki Suo."
-Wikipedia

"Shohei Sugiyama has attained all that he has wanted in life. But he is still depressed and unhappy. One day, he gathers up the courage to sign up for dancing lessons. He hopes they will rid his depression and help him get his life back together."
-Robert Krzanowski (www.imdb.com)

Please Vote For Me

Please Vote For Me was a documentary style movie about 3 Chinese children who are chosen to run in the first democratic running for Class Monitor. Living in a communist country, none of the kids understand this. Since parents may only have 1 child, these kids are very spoiled with attention and the parents do everything possible to help the students win the race for Class Monitor. A few times the children decide to play dirty and make fun of the fellow students in order to make them drop out. Lots of hard ships for the children and they always over came them. Luo Lei's parents were both police officers so he grew up in an environment of strictness and some sort of dictatorship. That's how he treated his fellow students that were running. In the end, Luo Lei won after he bribed all the voters with gifts after his speech. The other two competitors congratulated him and cried. They had all grown up in a sort of dictatorship environment and at the very end, during the credits, Luo Lei was bossing everyone around.

"Please Vote for Me is a 2007 documentary film following the elections for class monitor in a 3rd grade class of eight year old children in the Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China. This was reported to be the first election of its type for a class monitor held in a school in China, as well as an interesting use of classic democratic voting principles and interpersonal dymanics."
-Wikipedia

"Wahun is a city in China the size of London where an experiment in democracy is conducted. At Evergreen Primary School, a grade 3 class learns what democracy is when an election for class monitor is being held. Three children are chosen by the teacher as candidates and they have a few days to campaign and convince their classmates to vote for them. The little candidates are seen at school and at home, where their parents do their best to make sure their child will win the election."
-Marco van Hoof (www.imdb.com)

Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)

"The Betrayal — Nerakhoon is a 2008 documentary film directed by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath. It is about an immigrant from Laos living in New York."
-Wikipedia

"The epic story of a family forced to emigrate from Laos after the chaos of the secret air war waged by the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Kuras has spent the last 23 years chronicling the family's extraordinary journey in this deeply personal, poetic, and emotional film."
-www.imdb.com

Gran Torino

Gran Torino was about a man named Walt Kowalski, who was a Veteran from the Korean War. He slowly became closer with his neighbors Thao and Sue after saving them from their cousins in a gang. The gang would not leave them alone and did anything to bring them pain and suffering so Walt decided that he needed to take action. Gran Torino showed cultural differences between Walt's neighbors and the Hmong Gangs of the neighborhood. His neighbors Thao, Sue and their family were in touch with their culture and they celebrated like their ancestors. The gangs had fallen out of right and wrong and thought nothing about anything but crime and havoc. Walt realized that the world of Thao and Sue would be filled with awful things until the gang was put away so he sacrificed himself for a lifetime of safety for the kids.

"Walt Kowalski, a retired Polish American Ford factory worker and Korean War veteran, has recently been widowed, which is made further difficult by the generational clash between him and his sons' families. His neighborhood in Highland Park, Michigan, formerly populated by working-class white families, is now dominated by poor Asian immigrants; gang violence is commonplace."
-Wikipedia

"Walt Kowalski is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy an old man, who can't get along with either his kids or his neighbors, a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. When his neighbor Thao, a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Thao's family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood."
-alfiehitchie (www.imdb.com)

Taare Zameen Par

"Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi is an eight-year old boy who hates school. Every subject is difficult for him and he perpetually fails his exams. He also lacks motor coordination skills and finds it difficult to throw a ball in a straight line. Rather than helping him, his teachers and classmates subject him to constant acts of public humiliation. At the same time, Ishaan's internal world is rich with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate: magical lands filled with color and animated animals. His forte is art, although no one realises this at first."
-Wikipedia

"The Mumbai-based Awasthi family consists of Nandkishore, his wife, Maya, and two sons, Yohan and Ishaan. Both sons attend St. Anthony's High School where Yohan excels in his studies, but Ishaan does the opposite, having failed in his 3rd standard twice already. His parents continue to be disappointed with his performance, and as a result he hides his report cards from them, often misses school, and keeps to himself all the time. Things get worse when he gets into disagreements and fisticuffs with other children, prompting his father to have him admitted in the New Era Boarding School in distant Panchgani. Even this re-location does not improve Ishaan performance, and the Principal decides to rusticate him. Then a temporary teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh is recruited. Ram meets with Ishaan and believes he has a solution that will improve the child's life - little realizing that Ishaan does not have much of a future as neither his teachers, his friends, and even his parents believe that there is any hope for him."
-rAjOo (www.imdb.com)

Chak De! India

"Kabir Khan lives a middle-class lifestyle along with his widowed mom in Delhi, India, and is the Captain of the Indian men's hockey team. He fails to score at the last tournament resulting in Pakistan winning the World Cup amidst allegations that he was more inclined toward his opponents due to his religion. Kabir and his mom move away and virtually disappear for seven years. Thereafter Kabir surfaces to be a Coach for the women's hockey team, consisting of 16 players from all over India, some of who do not communicate well."
-rAjOo (www.imdb.com)

Lü cao di (Mongolian Ping Pong)

A young boy, named Bilike, finds a ping pong ball in a river near his home in the Gobi Desert. He asks a lot of people what it is but nobody knows. His grandmother tells him it's a "Glowing Pearl". He and his friends find out that it is a ping pong ball after watching the television. He and his friend both want the ball so they end up cutting it in half. At the end, he gets sent off to school in Beijing and when he goes to the bathroom he walks into a room full of ping pong players. I thought this movie was inspiring because these little kids travel through the desert and almost die to find out about this ball. Their friend goes out looking for them and finally finds them. This movie is about true friendship. In their culture, they punish their children by whacking the children's butts with rods or sticks. The children are also allowed to roam wherever they please because their neighbors and friends live miles into the desert.

"The story is a gentle art film about a Mongolian boy who discovers a ping pong ball and his journey of discovery about its origins."

-Wikipedia

"Bilike has never seen a ping-pong ball before. The mystery of the small white ball floating in the creek leads to questions about the world around them. They are excited to hear that their object is the 'national ball of China'. The determined young boys set off to return the ball to the Chinese capital."

-www.imdb.com

Flirting

In Flirting, Danny Embling is a student at a private boarding school for boys. (The boys and girls schools are separated by a lake.) Danny meets an African girl, named Thandiwe, and they fall in love. They sneak away from their schools at night to meet several times. In order to talk to her over the phone, he fakes being her dad as a sort of secret code to say it's him. In the end, Thandiwe must leave to go back to her country because her father was arrested and her stepmother was taken. She needs to go back to take care of her 2 younger siblings. She still writes letters to Danny but they eventually stop. At the end, he reads the very last letter about how she can't wait to see him again. I thought this movie was very good and I enjoyed watching it. I felt like the teachers were unnecessarily strict but also that the students may have gone too far in some of the things they did. In this school, the teachers are allowed to "beat" the students into obedience. If the students are disobedient, they just get beaten some more.

"Danny has been sent to boarding school, in this sequel to The Year My Voice Broke. Against a backdrop of bullying and sadistic teachers Danny strikes up an affair with an African girl, Thandiwe, studying at a nearby girls school. Their affair blossoms while everyone tries to stop it. Nicole Kidman also appears as a sexually repressed senior at Thandiwes' school."
-Matthew Stanfield (www.imdb.com)

"With its complex characters, low-key atmosphere, and sumptuous cinematography, the movie was widely critically acclaimed. It was featured on Roger Ebert's Top 10 Best Films List of 1992. The film won the 1990 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. This movie ranked number 46 on Entertainment Weekly's "50 Best High School Movies.""
-Wikipedia

The Weeping Camel

The Story of the Weeping Camel is a 2003 Mongolian documentary. It came out in 2004. The movie was written by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni. It’s about a family of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi desert trying to save the life of a rare white colt after it was rejected by its mother. I found this video to be very inspirational. I also found it odd that the treatment actually worked and it made me wonder if maybe it was merely coincidence that the Camel decided to accept it's colt during the ritual. It was a very interesting movie and I enjoyed watching it. This is definitely a movie about keeping with something and never giving up, the way the family never gave up on the colt. They did everything they could to reunite the colt with it's mother and in the end they accomplished their goal. Congratulations, Mongolian family.

"In the spring of the Gobi Desert, in South Mongolia, a nomadic family of shepherds has troubles when one camel has a tough two days delivery, immediately rejecting the offspring. The family unsuccessfully uses their best efforts trying to force the female to accept and feed the newborn. When there is no further hope of saving the animal, they send their two sons to bring a musician from the nearest town to perform a ritual and save the colt."
- Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (www.imdb.com)

Rabbit-Proof Fence/Aborigines

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a movie about 3 little aboriginal girls who were taken from their mothers and put into a sort of concentration camp for kids. A story about their journey out the camp and the travel home. They were taken to a camp and they planned their escape to happen during the rain in order cover their tracks. They came upon lots of people who helped them with food and directions. They followed the Rabbit-Proof Fence home for 1,500 miles to their mothers. The middle child never made it home because she was captured at the train tracks. This movie really captured the aspect of discrimination due to racial features. It also portrays determination and never giving up. The children traveled incredibly far in order to get home to their mothers. They risked everything for the one thing that they desired most. Family.

"In 1931, with the Aborigine Act in Australia, the Chief Protector of Aborigines in the State of Western Australia A.O. Neville had the power to relocate half-caste children from their families to educational centers to give the culture of the white man. When the fourteen year-old aboriginal girl Molly Craig is taken from her mother in Jigalong with her eight year-old sister Daisy Kadibill and their ten year-old cousin Gracie Fields to the distant Moore River Native Center, they run away trying to return to the tribe in the desert. They are chased by the tracker, Moodoo, and the police under the command of Neville, and have to survive to their long journey back home."
- Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (www.imdb.com)

"Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands, and these peoples' descendants. Indigenous Australians are distinguished as either Aboriginal people or Torres Strait Islanders, who currently together make up about 2.7% of Australia's population."
- Wikipedia