The algorithm is not your friend. It will show you the same ten films it showed everyone else, and call that personalisation. Meanwhile, some of the most extraordinary cinema of recent years is sitting in the back catalogues of Netflix, Mubi, and various VOD platforms, waiting patiently for someone to notice. Here are ten international films that deserve far more viewers than they’ve found.
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- The Card Counter (2021)
Paul Schrader’s glacially composed film about a former military interrogator turned professional gambler is one of the most underappreciated American films of the decade. Oscar Isaac gives a performance of extraordinary stillness. It’s a companion piece to Taxi Driver for the age of Abu Ghraib.
- Compartment No. 6 (2021)
Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s quietly devastating film about a Finnish woman sharing a train compartment to Murmansk with a boorish Russian miner is one of the great recent European films about connection and loneliness. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes and almost nobody saw it.
- Lingui, the Sacred Bonds (2021)
Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s film about a mother and daughter navigating an unwanted pregnancy in N’Djamena is one of the most quietly radical feminist films made anywhere in the world in recent years. It’s precise, compassionate, and furious all at once.
- Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020)
Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić’s film about a UN interpreter during the Srebrenica massacre is almost unbearable to watch and absolutely essential. One of the great films about complicity, bureaucratic failure, and the individual caught between systems and humanity.
- I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
Charlie Kaufman’s Netflix film divided audiences sharply — which is generally a sign that something interesting is happening. Based on Iain Reid’s novel, it’s a disorienting psychological horror about memory, regret, and the stories we tell ourselves. It rewards close attention and a high tolerance for unease.
- The Souvenir (2019)
Joanna Hogg’s autobiographical film about a film student’s relationship with an older man who is hiding something remains one of the most honest films about romantic self-deception in years. The sequel is equally essential. Both films are quiet devastations.
- Time (2020)
Garrett Bradley’s documentary about a woman’s twenty-year campaign to free her incarcerated husband is formally extraordinary — shot in luminous black and white, assembled from home video and new footage into something that feels like memory itself. It was robbed at the Oscars.
- Acasa, My Home (2020)
Romanian director Radu Ciorniciuc’s documentary follows a family of nine children who have lived wild in the wetlands outside Bucharest, forced by bureaucrats into the city. It’s one of the most poignant films about the loss of a particular kind of freedom you’ll see.
- Days (2020)
Tsai Ming-liang’s film has almost no dialogue, minimal plot, and is one of the most profoundly moving films of recent years. Two lonely men in Taipei barely connect. The film’s patience with stillness and silence is extraordinary. It is not for everyone, but for the right viewer it is unforgettable.
- Gagarine (2020)
French directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh made their debut about a teenager trying to save his housing estate — named after Yuri Gagarin — from demolition. It’s a poetic, gentle, formally inventive film about belonging and transformation. Stunning debut.
Take these as a starting grid, not an endpoint. Every single one of these films has filmmakers, cinematographers, and actors whose other work is worth following. Pull one thread and see where it leads.
