WATCH THE WORLD

Our goal is to open up the world to everyone through film. Everyone should travel if they can (the world is amazing), but it costs time and money which we don't always have. That's where FilmRoot comes in. We bring the world of films to your couch, so you can travel wherever you want to without the flight fees.

Use our World Map to find the best films from each country, choose a continent below to explore the best films from each continent, or simply scroll down to see our latest posts featuring films from around the world. Or, if you're up for a challenge, work your way up to the top of our Film Difficulty Rankings to become a World Film expert.

Latest Posts

Pornomelancholia – Outfest Los Angeles 2023

Pornomelancholia is a slow paced character study of a up-and-coming porn star navigating the Mexican porn industry. It has plenty of dry humor and an underlying commentary on social media culture.

The film starts with a mid-range shot of Lalo standing alone by a busy street in the city. People walk past him and cars pass behind him as we watch him peer around. It seems like he’s waiting for someone or taking a breather in a chaotic day. However, before the shot lingers further, Lalo breaks down into a soft sob as the title credits pop up: Pornomelancholia. It’s a prelude for the critique of superficial influencer-culture that Lalo uses to make his way into the porn industry.

Lalo is portrayed as a lonely man parading as a popular sex icon. His Instagram videos hide the fact that he works in a small factory with two other people that he hardly talks to. His confidence in his sexuality online contradicts his inability to come out to his family – shown in the rehearsed voice messages he can’t bring himself to send to his mother. It follows films such as Sweat in showing that the digital lives promoted by influencers don’t always reflect reality.

Despite the underlying commentary, there is dry humor in Pornomelancholia. This is probably the only film that you can watch that is built around a Zapata led Mexican revolution porn film. It also probably runs on for too much of the film, but the pornographic shots, which linger for more than expected are designed to make you awkwardly uncomfortable (like Lalo himself). The sex scenes are provocative, but not as outrightly as another Mexican festival film – Battle in Heaven.

Overall, if you’re looking for a slow-paced festival film that follows a gay man working his way into the porn industry, Pornomelancholia is worth a watch. Whilst the culture fostered by the industry and Lalo is portrayed as fake, his journey feels unique, real and believable.

Nauru: The Forgotten Children – Refugees Imprisoned on Island

Nauru: The Forgotten CHildren Film Difficulty Ranking: 1

A made-for-Australian-TV documentary that covers Australia’s refugee crisis that it brought to Nauruan shores. The lack of an indigenous perspective makes Nauru: The Forgotten Children problematic.

From: Nauru, Australasia
Watch: YouTube
Next: Limbo, Sitting in Limbo, Between Fences

Nauru: The Forgotten Children Breakdown

Ultimately, this isn’t really a Nauruan film. It’s a made for TV documentary about the residents of the Nauru Regional Processing Facility, aka the offshore detention facility, that Australia uses on the island. The documentary itself is produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV network and the subjects of the documentary are either refugees from Asia or Australian charity workers. However, we’re using this TV documentary as a proxy as we couldn’t find any films of any length that were made by Nauruans. This could be because they’re not readily available to watch, or perhaps because they don’t exist yet (Nauru is one of the smallest countries in the world, hosting a population of just 12,000 people). Please let us know if you can share any films from Nauru.

Despite being set in Nauru, this documentary does not interview any Nauruans for the film. This is problematic as the documentary emphasizes their ‘violent nature’ without attempting to present their perspective. Instead it chooses to show us second-hand footage of violent fights between Nauruans as evidence to back up the comments on their violent nature made by the non-native refugees and Australian charity workers. Without an indigenous perspective, the documentary encourages us to accept a stereotype that Nauruans are violent and unwelcoming. The lack of a Nauruan perspective also dehumanizes the native people, placing the pseudo-colonizers (in this case the Australian charity workers) and the Asian refugees as more respectable than the natives that have been displaced by both through recent and current history. Perhaps, as this is an Australian documentary made by Australian national television, dehumanizing the Nauruans makes the Australian use of the island as a detention center more palatable.

Unfortunately, the lacking indigenous perspective detracts from what is otherwise an interesting documentary of the refugees detained on the island by the Australian government. It conveys Australia’s disregard for legitimate refugees and their neighbors (in throwing their problems onto other countries to avoid dealing with them), as well as the sad personal experiences of some of the refugees.

What to Watch Next

For more films showcasing how ‘the West’ poorly treats their refugees, check out:

Limbo (U.K.) where refugees are sent to remote Scotland instead of Nauru
Split at the Root (U.S.) where children are split from their parents when seeking asylum
Between Fences (Israel) where African refugees are detained in the Israeli desert

Plus, you don’t even have to be a refugee for the West to treat you badly. Sitting in Limbo dramatizes one man’s experience during the U.K.’s Windrush scandal.

Hulhudhaan (Maldives) – Family Drama on Perils of Addiction

Hulhudhaan Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Hulhudhaan is a family drama that focuses on the perils of drug addiction. It features a recently retired father and his drug-addicted daughter that comes to him for money.

From: Maldives, Asia
Watch: YouTube, IMDb
Next: Hand of Fate, Where I Come From, Cargo

Hulhudhaan – Breakdown

Social issue cinema can be problematic. Focusing on trauma and suffering to generate a base emotional response is exploitative, especially without character development or context in the plot. When this happens in film, it resembles charity commercials, which show malnourished kids to emotionally exploit viewers into donating. It also simplifies complex issues into a quick fix problem + solution equations.

In the case of Hulhudhaan the social problem is Sama’s drug addiction, and the solution is her father’s love and forgiveness. Sama took up drugs because she didn’t get enough of her father’s attention in childhood, and she’s addicted because she doesn’t realize her father still loves her. This presents a happy and dangerously easy solution: love can overcome addiction. The problem with this is the simplification of the issue and solution. Not all addiction is due to a lack of love, and love isn’t the silver bullet for drug addiction.

The depiction of the two main characters is also a little problematic. Manik, the father, is portrayed humbly whilst his daughter, Sama, is shown to be fragile and in need of help. Manik’s respectability is shown through his work ethic (he remains at work throughout the day as other employees come in and out), his tidy apartment, and his religious devotion (he faithfully wakes up through the night for prayer). He appears to be trustworthy and honorable. As Sama doesn’t receive a similar level of character development, the audience naturally sympathizes with Manik, the more complete character. This makes it easy for the film to deliver the love as cure for addiction solution – particularly led by the trustworthy Manik in saving his fallen daughter. It feels like it’s directed at men to take care of their women (especially considering the happy ending).

What to Watch Next

If you liked Hulhudhaan and want to watch more films which deal with social problems, try Hand of Fate (arranged marriage), Cargo (immigration), Where I Come From (poverty).

Or for other films that depict drug addiction, try the entertaining world of Trainspotting or the brutally real world of In Vanda’s Room.

The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived (Oman) – Feminist Revolution

The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

The Hour of Liberation has Arrived is the only first-hand account of the democratic, feminist Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf. Enabled by recent advances in film technology, the film gave voices to the voiceless to create one of the most direct revolutionary documentaries from the Arab world and beyond.

From: Oman, Asia
Watch: YouTube
Next: Battle of Algiers, Flame, Mortu Nega

Why Watch The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived?

For one of the best examples of a revolutionary documentary film, helped by recent technological advances to film equipment
It broke boundaries – it was the first film directed by an Arab woman that was screened at Cannes (in 1974)
It’s the only first-hand account of the democratic, feminist guerrilla movement against the British backed Sultanate of Oman

The Breakdown

The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived offers the only glimpse of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf, a secular, democratic, feminist revolutionary movement that managed to liberate one third of the Sultanate of Oman. In the region they liberated, the Front launched an extensive program of social reforms, captured in this revolutionary documentary, the most radical being affirmative action for women.

Filmed in 1971, The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived was made possible due to advances in film technology. It brought voices to the voiceless through synch sound (sound recorded at the time of filming). Whilst synch sound had been around since the birth of sound movies, it had only recently become more portable with new hand-held filming equipment that could record sound and video by itself, without a separate sound recorder. Without this advance in technology, this film wouldn’t have been made, as the 800 kilometers that Heiny Srour and her Team had to walk to reach the Front (under the bombing of the British Royal Air Force) would have been dauntingly arduous. The advance in synch sound technology allowed filmmakers, particularly documentary filmmakers, to capture otherwise inaccessible locations. The less intrusive equipment also allowed filmmakers to capture more authentic representations of reality – a truckload of equipment, lighting, and larger crews make people act different to one person filming with a small camera.

The film pieces together stock and live footage, photography, maps, and voice-over narration to create both a first-hand account of the movement, as well as a revolutionary manifesto. The photography and live footage provide the first-hand account of the revolutionaries and their day to day activities, whilst the stock footage, maps, and voice-over narration provide the anti-imperialist impetus that drives them. Its use of a range of media to tell its message looks raw, like a modern, student-made essay film, but this gives the documentary an authenticity that studio-made movies couldn’t replicate. Free from the ties to corporations/companies, governments and heavy, expensive film equipment, Srour could make whatever film she wanted. This is revolutionary cinema at its most direct.

What to Watch Next

You don’t have to turn far to watch more revolutionary cinema. For the big budget films, turn to the brilliant Cuban films sponsored by the USSR such as I Am Cuba and Lucia or Pontecorvo’s docu-drama of the Algerian fight for independence in Battle of Algiers. You can also find gold in lower budget third cinema films such as Flame, Mortu Nega, and Sambizanga.

To see how further technological advances have enabled filmmakers to get even closer to the revolution, check out some films enabled by the digital revolution, such as The Square, Winter on Fire, and The Edge of Democracy.

Boy on the Bridge (Cyprus) – One Kid Finds Trouble and Secrets

Boy on the Bridge Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

If you’re a fan of coming of age films centered around trouble seeking kids, you’ll find a lot of familiar ground in Boy on the Bridge. Set within a now sleepy mediterranean town, 12 year old Socrates forces the community to reckon with secrets in a way that the police and town leaders cannot.

From: Cyprus, Europe
Watch: Trailer, JustWatch
Next: Granma Nineteen and the Soviet's Secret, The Colors of the Mountain, Kings of Mulberry Street

Boy on the Bridge – Breakdown

Boy on the Bridge starts with two 12 year old boys setting off home made firecrackers in the middle of the street to surprise a drunk man as he walks out of his house. The noise they create alerts the local police chief, setting up a bike chase through the town. Socrates, the troublemaking kid, escapes through the forest to the home of an old war vet. His stories of the war, and willingness to give young Socrates advice to advance his bomb-making, makes him one of his role models in the film.

His other role model, his respectable dad, generously forgives him for his trouble-making. He’s positioned as the benevolent character in this film through his role as community mediator (as seen in a scene in which he gathers community leaders to confront a domestic violence incident), his leniency with Socrates, and his position as a doctor (an always respectable occupation). However, his benevolent character is a front to disguise the secrets he keeps from his family, which inevitably, the curious Socrates uncovers. His secrets, not his benevolence, are shown to be what binds the community together.

Like other films that feature boys getting into trouble, Boy on the Bridge shows that trouble often leads to discovering hidden secrets. Whilst the secrets that Socrates uncovers are less fantastic than the hidden treasure in The Goonies, its humble community murder mystery make it an engaging enough watch.

What to Watch Next

For more similar movies featuring boys getting into trouble, check out Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret from Mozambique and Kings of Mulberry Street from South Africa. There’s also the more serious The Colors of the Mountain from Colombia.

Or if you’re looking for more films focusing on community in small towns on the Mediterranean, try The Black Pin from Montenegro and Simshar from Malta.