Directed by Cristi Puiu • 2005 • Romania
Starring Ion Fiscuteanu, Luminița Gheorghiu, Doru Ana

Hailed as one of the defining works of twenty-first-century cinema thus far, Cristi Puiu’s unflinching, darkly comic bureaucratic nightmare heralded the arrival of the Romanian New Wave as a major cine...

Directed by Werner Herzog • 1977 • West Germany
Starring Bruno S., Eva Mattes, Clemens Scheitz

Werner Herzog’s tragically absurd tour through 1970s America stars the singular Bruno S. as an ostracized, alcoholic Berlin street musician who, joined by a prostitute (Eva Mattes) and his eccentric el...

Directed by David Schickele • 1971 • United States
Starring Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam, Elaine Featherstone, James Earl Garrison

When Paul Okpokam arrived in the U.S. in 1968, David Schickele decided to make a film about his Nigerian friend’s experience of coming to teach at San Francisco State Coll...

Directed by Peter Howitt • 1998 • United States, United Kingdom
Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah, John Lynch

The split-second moments that can take a life down one path instead of another form the crux of this wonderfully fresh, existential twist on the romantic comedy. Gwyneth Paltrow deli...

Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho • 2012 • Brazil
Starring Irandhir Santos, Gustavo Jahn, Maeve Jinkings

Kleber Mendonça Filho’s masterful debut feature is an unsettlingly incisive study of class and simmering urban unrest in contemporary Brazil that unfolds with the gripping, slow-burn tension ...

Directed by Kidlat Tahimik • 1977 • Philippines Starring Kidlat Tahimik, Mang Fely, Dolores Santamaria

Acclaimed by Werner Herzog as “one of the most original and poetic works of cinema made anywhere in the seven...

Directed by Mina Shum • 1994 • Canada
Starring Sandra Oh, Stephen Chang, Alannah Ong

An irresistible, star-making performance from Sandra Oh lights up this warm, sharp-witted look at what it means to hold onto heritage while forging one’s own identity. She stars as Jade, a young Chinese Canadian...

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1980 • France, West Germany
Starring Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton

Part human drama, part sci-fi cautionary tale, Bertrand Tavernier’s DEATH WATCH unfolds in a future where death by disease has become extremely rare. When it is discovered that...

Directed by Jia Zhang-Ke • 2004 • China
Starring Zhao Tao, Cheng Taishen, Jing Jue

An at once intimate and expansive exploration of globalization from visionary director Jia Zhang-Ke, THE WORLD takes place in the eponymous theme park on the outskirts of Beijing, where iconic monuments from the E...

Directed by Olivier Assayas • 1998 • France
Starring Mathieu Amalric, Virginie Ledoyen, François Cluzet

Having chronicled the heady abandon of adolescence in COLD WATER, renowned French auteur Olivier Assayas turned his attention to another in-between stage of life: the moment when the seemingly...

Directed by Ousmane Sembène • 1977 • Senegal
Starring Mamadou Dioumé, Ousmane Sembène, Tabata Ndiaye

In precolonial Senegal, members of the Ceddo (or “outsiders”) kidnap Princess Dior Yacine (Tabata Ndiaye) after her father, the king, pledges loyalty to an ascendant Islamic faction that plans to...

Directed by Leos Carax • 1984 • France
Starring Denis Lavant, Mireille Perrier, Carroll Brooks

The first feature by Leos Carax (made when he was just twenty-three years old) is an intoxicating, lusciously stylized evocation of a nocturnal Paris populated by moody misfits and lost souls. Among th...

Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder • 1974 • West Germany
Starring Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin

The wildly prolific German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder paid homage to his cinematic hero Douglas Sirk with this update of that filmmaker’s 1955 ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. A ...

Directed by Tony Richardson • 1959 • United Kingdom
Starring Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Mary Ure

Based on the smash-hit play by John Osborne that inaugurated Britain’s “angry young men” literary movement, this touchstone of the British New Wave features a searing performance from Richard Burt...

Directed by Ousmane Sembène • 1968 • Senegal
Starring Makuredia Guey, Yunus Ndiaye, Isseu Niang

This second feature by Ousmane Sembène was the first movie ever made in the Wolof language—a major step toward the realization of the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker’s dream of creating a cinema by,...

Directed by Kira Muratova • 1989 • Ukraine, Soviet Union
Starring Olga Antonova, Sergei Popov, Galina Zakhurdayeva

Widely considered Kira Muratova’s masterpiece, THE ASTHENIC SYNDROME is also Soviet cinema’s grand avant-comic opus, a deconstructive portrait of the nation in the final, frenzied s...

Directed by Jacques Rozier • 1962 • France
Starring Jean-Claude Aimini, Daniel Descamps, Stefania Sabatini

In his bold yet playful feature debut—an overlooked gem of the French New Wave—Jacques Rozier satirizes several major cultural currents of early-sixties France: political myopia, romantic e...

Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien • 1983 • Taiwan
Starring Doze Niu Cheng-Tse, Zhang Shi, Lin Hsiu-Ling

THE BOYS FROM FENGKUEI was Hou Hsiao-hsien’s fourth film as director, but in many ways it can be viewed as his first mature work—the one in which he moved away from commercial comedies toward a more...

Directed by Héctor Babenco • 1977 • Brazil
Starring Reginaldo Faria, Ana Maria Magalhães, Paulo César Peréio

An enormous box-office success in Brazil, Héctor Babenco’s second feature electrified audiences with its gritty, gut-punching evocation of a corrupt world where the line between criminals...

Directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky • 2000 • Hungary
Starring Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla

This mesmeric parable of societal collapse is an enigma of transcendent visual, philosophical, and mystical resonance. Adapted from a novel by László Krasznahorkai, WERCKMEISTER HARMONIE...

Directed by Catherine Breillat • 1976 • France
Starring Charlotte Alexandra, Hiram Keller, Rita Maiden

Filmed in 1976 but not released until 2000, A REAL YOUNG GIRL is Catherine Breillat’s taboo-busting directorial debut and one of the boldest explorations of female sexuality ever committed to c...

Directed by Hasse Ekman • 1950 • Sweden
Starring Eva Henning, Ulf Palme, Anders Ek

One of the most acclaimed Swedish films of all time (heralded as a masterpiece by no less than Ingmar Bergman), this moody, masterfully crafted psychological mystery unfolds in a tantalizing series of CITIZEN KANE...