The Best Foreign Language Movies 2022


These films showcase the depth and variety of cinematic storytelling from around the world. From the intense fantasy of Troll to the thrilling action of Klienten, these movies offer something for everyone (not English language or US movies).

DE EN ES FR IT PT RU

DE EN ES FR IT PT RU

30 Before we say goodbye (Prima di andare via)

Andrea is a young man who lives with the surprises and hardships of life. He lives with his best friend, seeks to complete his studies and has an ex-girlfriend who plays with him like cat and mouse. When he discovers that he has an incurable disease, the world collapses on him. Can an illness change a person’s life… for the better? Thanks to Giulia, Andrea will understand that the time has come to assume what remains of her own existence.

Director: Massimo Cappelli
Writers:
Gianluca Ansanelli, Tito Buffulini
Starring:
Riccardo Maria Manera, Jenny De Nucci, Pino Quartullo
Country:
Italy

Trailer:

 

 

29 Troll

Deep inside the mountain of Dovre, something gigantic awakens after being trapped for a thousand years. Destroying everything in its path, the creature is fast approaching the capital of Norway. But how do you stop something you thought only existed in Norwegian folklore?

Director: Roar Uthaug
Writers:
Espen Aukan, Roar Uthaug
Starring:
Ine Marie Wilmann, Kim Falck, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen
Country:
Norway

Trailer:

 

28 Corsage

Empress Elizabeth of Austria is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. But in 1877, ‘Sissi’ celebrates her 40th birthday and must fight to maintain her public image by lacing her corset tighter and tighter. While Elizabeth’s role has been reduced against her wishes to purely performative, her hunger for knowledge and zest for life makes her more and more restless in Vienna. She travels to England and Bavaria, visiting former lovers and old friends, seeking the excitement and purpose of her youth. With a future of strictly ceremonial duties laid out in front of her, Elizabeth rebels against the hyperbolized image of herself and comes up with a plan to protect her legacy.

Director: Marie Kreutzer
Writer:
Marie Kreutzer
Starring:
Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister, Katharina Lorenz
Country:
Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, France
Box office:
$3 073 000

Trailer:

 

27 Final Cut (Coupez !)

In a disused factory, a Z-grade horror film shoot is in full swing. Jaded technicians, uninvolved actors… only the director seems to possess the necessary energy to give life to this umpteenth low-budget zombie movie. During the preparation of a particularly difficult shot, filming is disrupted by an eruption of the real living dead. In front of the camera, everything looks more-or-less normal. Behind it, the crew is freewheeling to save the film while following their one and only watchword: DON’T CUT!

Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Writers:
Michel Hazanavicius, Shinichiro Ueda, Ryoichi Wada
Starring:
Romain Duris, Bérénice Bejo, Grégory Gadebois
Country:
France, USA, United Kingdom, Japan
Box office:
$2 062 000

Trailer:

 

26 How I Fell In Love With A Gangster (Jak pokochalam gangstera)

A mysterious woman recounts the rise and fall of Nikodem “Nikoś” Skotarczak, one of the biggest gangsters in Poland’s history.

Director: Maciej Kawulski
Writers:
Krzysztof Gureczny, Maciej Kawulski
Starring:
Tomasz Wlosok, Aleks Kurdzielewicz, Antoni Królikowski
Country:
Poland

Trailer:

 

 

25 November (Novembre)

In November 2015, a series of unprecedented and deadly attacks hits Paris. The anti-terrorist police led by Heloise and her chief commander Fred face an unprecedented level of pressure: in a race against the clock, they must find the perpetrators of the attacks as quickly as possible before they can strike again, travelling across Europe and beyond in one of the biggest manhunts in history.

Director: Cédric Jimenez
Writers:
Olivier Demangel, Cédric Jimenez
Starring:
Jean Dujardin, Anaïs Demoustier, Sandrine Kiberlain
Country:
France
Box office:
$18 114 000

Trailer:

 

24 Loving Adults (Kærlighed for voksne)

The thin line between love and hate turns deadly when a wife discovers her husband’s affair and they both take extreme measures to get what they want.

Director: Barbara Topsøe-Rothenborg
Writers:
Anders Rønnow Klarlund, Jacob Weinreich, Anna Ekberg
Starring:
Dar Salim, Sonja Richter, Sus Noreen Jondahl Wilkins
Country:
Denmark

Trailer:

 

23 The Man Who Drew God (L’uomo che disegnò Dio)

The rise and fall of a blind artist who has the extraordinary gift of making true-to-life portraits just by listening to human voices, and of becoming a TV-junk star. A fable on the need to rediscover the miraculous power of dignity in a world where media’s noise has solved the problem of man’s imperfection simply by removing the problem itself.

Director: Franco Nero
Writers:
Lorenzo De Luca, Eugenio Masciari
Starring:
Franco Nero, Stefania Rocca, Robert Davi
Country:
Italy

Trailer:

 

22 One Fine Morning (Un beau matin)

With a father suffering from neurodegenerative disease, a young woman lives with her eight-year-old daughter. While struggling to secure a decent nursing home, she runs into an unavailable friend with whom she embarks on an affair.

Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
Writer:
Mia Hansen-Løve
Starring:
Léa Seydoux, Pascal Greggory, Melvil Poupaud
Country:
France, United Kingdom, Germany
Box office:
$1 380 000

Trailer:

 

21 Eo

The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. EO, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life’s path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence.

Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Writers:
Ewa Piaskowska, Jerzy Skolimowski
Starring:
Sandra Drzymalska, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Isabelle Huppert
Country:
Poland, Italy
Box office:
$2 330 000

Trailer:

 

Next page:

⬅️ Support our website on DonationAlerts

20 Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Bardo, falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades)

Bardo is an epic, visually stunning and immersive experience set against the intimate and moving journey of Silverio, a renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles, who, after being named the recipient of a prestigious international award, is compelled to return to his native country, unaware that this simple trip will push him to an existential limit. The folly of his memories and fears have decided to pierce through the present, filling his everyday life with a sense of bewilderment and wonder. With both emotion and abundant laughter, Silverio grapples with universal yet intimate questions about identity, success, mortality, the history of Mexico and the deeply emotional familial bonds he shares with his wife and children. Indeed, what it means to be human in these very peculiar times.

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Writers:
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone
Starring:
Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid
Country:
Mexico
Box office:
$38 000

Trailer:

 

 

19 Gangubai Kathiawadi

A little girl is sold to brothel of Rashmibai who is forcefully asked to enter the business of flesh trade.When the girl doesn’t agree Rashmibai is finally forced to take help of Gangubai Kathiawadi.Gangubai Kathiawadi aka Ganga who wanted to be an actress and years back eloped to Bombay with her boyfriend Ramnik who sold her at brothel of Shelia Masi.

Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Writers:
Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Abhiruchi Chand, Prakash Kapadia
Starring:
Alia Bhatt, Shantanu Maheshwari, Vijay Raaz
Country:
India
Box office:
$3 271 000

Trailer:

 

18 Holy Spider

In Holy Spider, we follow family man Saeed as he embarks on his own religious quest to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes. After murdering several women, he grows ever more desperate about the lack of public interest in his divine mission.

Director: Ali Abbasi
Writers:
Ali Abbasi, Afshin Kamran Bahrami, Jonas Wagner
Starring:
Mehdi Bajestani, Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, Arash Ashtiani
Country:
Denmark, Germany, Sweden, France
Box office:
$1 700 000

Trailer:

 

17 Four to Dinner (Quattro metà)

A happily married couple argues for the existence of soulmates, and what that term really even means. By pairing up four of their single friends and telling different variations on the same stories, we see how the many seasons of life call for various partners, and how the idea of “soulmates” really plays into who we end up with.

Director: Alessio Maria Federici
Writer:
Martino Coli
Starring:
Ilenia Pastorelli, Matilde Gioli, Giuseppe Maggio
Country:
Italy

Trailer:

 

16 Das letzte Opfer (Klienten)

When the experienced and well-reputed psychologist Susanne greets the last client of the day, Mark, she is expecting a meeting like any other. But when Mark turns out to be a notorious serial killer, Susanne realizes that the next hour will change her life forever. Mark gives her an ultimatum: Unless she cures him, she will be his next victim. For every grain of sand that passes through the hourglass, the noose tightens, and an intense life-and death race commences.

Director: Anders Rønnow Klarlund
Writers:
Anders Rønnow Klarlund, Jacob Weinreich
Starring:
Signe Egholm Olsen, Anton Hjejle, Dan Zahle
Country:
Denmark
Box office:
$35 000

Trailer:

 

 

15 Broker (Beurokeo | 브로커)

The film follows two brokers who sell orphaned infants, circumventing the bureaucracy of legal adoption, to affluent couples who can’t have children of their own. After an infant’s mother surprises the duo by returning to ensure her child finds a good home, the three embark on a journey to find the right couple, building an unlikely family of their own.

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Writer:
Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring:
Song Kang-ho, Kang Dong-won, Bae Doo-na
Country:
South Korea
Box office:
$18 789 000

Trailer:

 

14 The Passengers of the Night (Les passagers de la nuit)

On election night in 1981, celebrations spill out onto the street and there is an air of hope and change throughout Paris. But for Elisabeth, her marriage is coming to an end and she will now have to support herself and her two teenage children. She finds work at a late-night radio show and encounters a troubled teenager named Talulah whom she invites into her home. With them, Talulah experiences the warmth of a family for the first time. Although she suddenly disappears, her free spirit has a lasting influence. Elisabeth and her children grow in confidence and begin to take risks, changing the trajectory of their lives.

Director: Mikhaël Hers
Writers:
Maud Ameline, Mariette Désert, Mikhaël Hers
Starring:
Charlotte Gainsbourg, Quito Rayon Richter, Noée Abita
Country:
France
Box office:
$1 665 000

Trailer:

 

13 Waiting for Bojangles (En attendant Bojangles)

A young boy, Gary, lives with his eccentric parents Camille and Georges, and an exotic bird in a Parisian apartment each night, Camille and Georges dance lovingly to their favorite song, “Mr. Bojangles.” At home, there is only room for fun, fantasy and friends. But as his mesmerizing and unpredictable mother descends deeper into her own mind, it is up to Gary and Georges to keep her safe.

Director: Régis Roinsard
Writers:
Romain Compingt, Régis Roinsard, Olivier Bourdeaut
Starring:
Romain Duris, Virginie Efira, Grégory Gadebois
Country:
France, Belgium
Box office:
$4 550 000

Trailer:

 

12 Tori and Lokita (Tori et Lokita)

From two-time Palme d’Or-winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Tori and Lokita is a heart-stopping thriller that casts an unflinching eye on the trials of the young and dispossessed.

Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Writers:
Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Starring:
Pablo Schils, Joely Mbundu, Alban Ukaj
Country:
Belgium, France
Box office:
$678 000

Trailer:

 

11 No Bears (Khers nist)

Two parallel love stories in which the partners are thwarted by hidden, inevitable obstacles, the force of superstition, and the mechanics of power.

Director: Jafar Panahi
Writer:
Jafar Panahi
Starring:
Naser Hashemi, Reza Heydari, Mina Kavani
Country:
Iran
Box office:
$1 083 000

Trailer:

 

Next page:

⬅️ Support our website on DonationAlerts

10 R.M.N.

A non-judgmental analysis of the driving forces of human behavior when confronted with the unknown, of the way we perceive the other and on how we relate to an unsettling future.

Director: Cristian Mungiu
Writer:
Cristian Mungiu
Starring:
Marin Grigore, Judith State, Macrina Barladeanu
Country:
Romania, France, Belgium, Sweden
Box office:
$571 000

Trailer:

 

 

9 Decision to Leave (Hyeeojil gyeolsim | 헤어질 결심)

From a mountain peak in South Korea, a man plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man’s wife Seo-rae. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire.

Director: Park Chan-wook
Writers:
Jeong Seo-gyeong, Park Chan-wook
Starring:
Park Hae-il, Tang Wei, Lee Jeong-hyeon
Country:
South Korea
Budget:
$10 000 000
Box office:
$22 995 000

Trailer:

 

8 Irréductible

Vincent has always enjoyed the benefits of his family’s status. When the government votes on a massive savings plan, Vincent is pushed out. When he is transferred to the North Pole, he meets Eva and finds love. It’s time for him to choose.

Director: Jérôme Commandeur
Writers:
Jérôme Commandeur, Xavier Maingon, Checco Zalone
Starring:
Jérôme Commandeur, Laetitia Dosch, Christian Clavier
Country:
France
Box office:
$5 727 000

Trailer:

 

7 The Bombardment (Skyggen i mit øje)

On March 21st, 1945, the British Royal Air Force set out on a mission to bomb Gestapo’s headquarters in Copenhagen. The raid had fatal consequences as some of the bombers accidentally targeted a school and more than 120 people were killed, 86 of whom were children.

Director: Ole Bornedal
Writer:
Ole Bornedal
Starring:
Bertram Bisgaard Enevoldsen, Ester Birch, Ella Josephine Lund Nilsson
Country:
Denmark, Belgium

Trailer:

 

6 RRR

During the British era, Malli, a small tribal girl, is taken away by British governor Scott Buxton and his wife Catherine against the wishes of her mother. Rama Raju is an Indian cop who works for the British army; for him duty comes first, and he is very ruthless to revolutionary Indians but is never given his due by British government. The British government find that a tribal Komaram Bheem, who considers Malli his sister, has started his search for her and could be an obstacle for the British army. The governor and his wife announce a special post for any officer who can bring Bheem to them. Rama Raju decides to take the matters into his own hands and promises the government to bring him in dead or alive. Bheem by now has reached he city in search of Malli and pretends to be a mechanic, Akhtar. During a train accident on a lake he and Rama Raju risk their lives and save a kid and become best of friends. But each man will clash with the other and will thirst for each other’s blood in order to complete their missions.

Director: S.S. Rajamouli
Writers:
S.S. Rajamouli, Sai Madhav Burra, Madhan Karky
Starring:
Ram Charan Teja, NTR Jr., Olivia Morris
Country:
India
Budget:
$69 000 000
Box office:
$150 121 000

Trailer:

 

 

5 Close

The intense friendship between two thirteen-year old boys Leo and Remi suddenly gets disrupted. Struggling to understand what has happened, Léo approaches Sophie, Rémi’s mother. “Close” is a film about friendship and responsibility.

Director: Lukas Dhont
Writers:
Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens
Starring:
Léa Drucker, Eden Dambrine, Émilie Dequenne
Country:
Belgium, Netherlands, France
Box office:
$5 141 000

Trailer:

 

4 Triangle of Sadness

In Ruben Östlund’s wickedly funny Palme d’Or winner, social hierarchy is turned upside down, revealing the tawdry relationship between power and beauty. Celebrity model couple, Carl and Yaya, are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged boat captain. What first appeared instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island and fighting for survival.

Director: Ruben Östlund
Writer:
Ruben Östlund
Starring:
Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Zlatko Buric
Country:
Sweden, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Greece, USA, Denmark, Switzerland, Mexico
Box office:
$25 622 000

Trailer:

 

3 Argentina, 1985

Argentina, 1985 is a feature inspired by the true story of Julio Strassera, Luis Moreno Ocampo and their young legal team of unlikely heroes in their David-vs-Goliath battle in which, under constant threat, they dared to prosecute Argentina’s bloodiest military dictatorship against all odds and in a race against time to bring justice to the victims of the junta.

Director: Santiago Mitre
Writers:
Mariano Llinás, Martín Mauregui, Santiago Mitre
Starring:
Ricardo Darín, Gina Mastronicola, Francisco Bertín
Country:
Argentina, United Kingdom, USA
Box office:
$905 000

Trailer:

 

2 The Roundup (Beomjoе dosi 2 | 범죄도시2)

“You feeling it? We have to get this guy” 4 years after the events of Garibong district round up operation, Geumcheon Police’s Major Crimes Unit is given a mission to repatriate a fugitive who fled to Vietnam. Beast cop Ma Seok-do and Capt. Jeon Il-man intuitively realize that there’s something wrong with the suspect’s willingness to turn himself in and uncover crimes committed by a terrifying killer named Kang Hae-sang. Ma and his unit begin their investigation across two countries and follow the bloody breadcrumbs left behind by Kang… No borders in catching the bad! Another exciting and tension-filled round up!

Director: Lee Sang-yong
Writer:
Kim Min-seong
Starring:
Ma Dong-seok, Son Seok-goo, Choi Gwi-hwa
Country:
South Korea
Budget:
$9 000 000
Box office:
$102 135 000

Trailer:

 

1 All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues)

All Quiet on the Western Front tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Paul and his comrades experience first-hand how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches. The film from director Edward Berger is based on the world renowned bestseller of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque.

Director: Edward Berger
Writers:
Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell
Starring:
Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer
Country:
Germany, USA, United Kingdom

Trailer:

 

⬅️ Support our website on DonationAlerts