With Oscar season fast approaching and official foreign film submissions already made, The FreeStyle Life picks seven foreign films you need to watch before the 2012 Academy Awards.
A Separation
An Iranian marriage is strained when a father struggles to choose whether to leave the country to better the life of his child, or to stay and care for his ailing father.
Footnote
Historic rivalries are commonplace within Hebrew University’s world-renowned Talmud Department, even ones between father and son. When a father wins the Israel Prize, the most prized honor in Israel, his son (and fellow professor) must choose between advancing his father’s career or sabotaging it.
The Flowers of War
During Japan’s infamous Nanjing Massacre, an American (Christian Bale) must pose as a priest in a nearby church to protect a group of female refugees.
Declaration of War
Based on the true story of Valerie Donzelli and Jeremie Elkaim, who wrote, directed and star in Declaration of War, a young couple struggles to stay together after their child is diagnosed with cancer.
Le Havre
In this deadpan comedy from Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki, an elderly man who is down on his luck takes in a young African illegal immigrant trying to make his way to England in a cargo shipping container.
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
In Turkey, a group of men search for a dead body buried in the Anatolian steppes.
In Darkness
Based on a true story, in the city of Lvov, sewage worker and part time burglar Leopold Socha agrees to shelter a group of Jewish refugees in Nazi-occupied Poland. However, what starts off as a cold business arrangement, gradually evolves into something much deeper.