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.
You have no excuses now. Here are a list of free world films that you can watch on YouTube right now. Enjoy!
We’ve split these free world films by continent so you can target the countries that are missing from your personal film map or if you want to visit a country on film 🙂 We will keep updating this as we go along, please let me know if you’ve found more great world films on YouTube, or if any of the links below aren’t working by commenting in the comment box below or emailing me here.
Have you ever been displaced or exiled from your home? Or simply been away from home for more than a few months? Well you may sympathize with Jonas Mekas when watching this film. Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is a walk in the shoes of a displaced person. It’s the incredibly intimate diary film of Jonas Mekas’ return to Lithuania to see his mother and family after 25 years in exile.
Here’s an example of three minutes from the film.
Why Watch Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania?
To see what makes a great diary film (films like a diary, often shot home video style)
Experience the life of a displaced person by seeing Mekas’ return from exile, shot mostly from a 1st person perspective
It’s one of the most intimate films you’ll see (you’ll be transported into Mekas’ life)
Because it was added to the U.S. National Film Registry because of it’s cultural, aesthetic, and historical significance
The Breakdown
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is made up of three parts:
Shots of Mekas and his brother in Brooklyn, New York from just after they were moved there from displacement camps in Germany
Footage of their return to Lithuania after 25 years in exile
Hamburg, the place they were both detained in Nazi German slave labour camps after fleeing Lithuania
The most time is spent on part 2, shooting their reunion with their mother and family after 25 years in exile. But because of the way the film is shot, it never really feels like they were home.
How the Style of the Film Emphasizes their Displacement
There are a few things you’ll notice straight away when watching Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania.
There are a lot of cuts! The entire film is made up of short shots, so you never really have time to concentrate on one image.
There’s no diegetic sound (ie. sound that comes directly from the film shown, apart from two singing scenes). All the sound comes from the melancholic piano soundtrack or from Mekas’ brother’s narration.
As above, there’s also no dialogue. The whole film is narrated by Mekas’ brother.
When these three stylistic elements are combined in the film, it makes everything appear to be a memory from the past. Each short shot is like another memory of their former life in Lithuania.
If you’re not convinced, think of your childhood. Can you actually visualize a 3 minute long memory from your childhood with all the emotions you felt without relying on old VHS footage? If you can, you’re gifted. If not, your memory is probably composed of a load of snippets of things that made you laugh, smells, tastes, and people’s faces. This is exactly how Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is composed, with short snippets of fresh fruit, family faces, and funny memories.
So even though the film is from the present, it looks like a distant memory that can never be relived. The style matches their inability to return home, after fleeing the country as Nazis and Soviets advanced in WW2.
Conclusion
Because the film appears like a distant memory it’s pretty melancholic and nostalgic all the way through. The sounds of the piano and crackling film also don’t help to lift the mood.
Melancholy aside, it’s no surprise that this film was added to the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. It intimately depicts the experiences of a displaced person abroad and returning home. No other filmmaker allows the audience to get as close to the displaced person experience as Jonas Mekas. For this, and because it’s a beautifully made film, you should watch Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania.
Do you want some drama? Well this film has plenty. In Murder in Pacot, Peck shines a light on all of the tensions that the earthquake revealed. You’ll hear fierce arguments from the start between Haitian’s and the NGOs, and between the middle and working classes. This is Haiti at it’s worst.
It’s all shot in one household which becomes a microcosm for Haitian society (see La Soledad for a Venezuelan equivalent)
It’s a fierce attack on NGOs and Haitian society
The Breakdown
This film starts with dramatic music accompanying workers in white body suits carrying bodies pulled from the rubble. It’s 3 days since the 2010 Haiti earthquake struck and a middle-class couple are trying to get by after their house has been made almost inhabitable by officials. So they’re living in their former servants shed and need to let out their main house to try and make enough money to pay for repairs.
The person who starts renting their house is Alex, a young NGO worker from France. However, it is never clear what he does for the fictional ‘Beyond Aid’ NGO, as all he tells us is that ‘he helps’. The only evidence of his work are of the photos he takes, featuring him with smiling kids reminiscent of your typical ‘gap-year’ pictures (see right). These pictures are his ‘trophies’. They symbolise his delusions that he is actually helping Haiti recover from the earthquake when he is really not helping at all.
Furthermore, Alex also has a Haitian girlfriend, Jennifer, who comes to live with him in the derelict house. She has escaped from the poor south of the country which has been devastated by the earthquake and is trying to use Alex as a way to get her to Europe.
Jennifer becomes a symbol of Haiti. Like many in Haiti, she lost her family and home in the earthquake and now she is temporarily enjoying the benefits of NGO support. She lets Alex (the NGO) take advantage of her in exchange for temporary shelter and food. She also lets her ‘brothers’ into the house when Alex is away to pleasure them. However, Jennifer, like Haiti is doomed to be exploited. She can never escape the society that she was born into and is doomed to be stuck in poverty.
Conclusion
It’s clear that Peck (the director) doesn’t think much of the NGOs that came into Haiti following the earthquake. He makes Alex into a pathetic NGO worker who only works for the photos that he can share with his friends at home rather than actually committing to help change the country. In addition, Peck also attacks his fellow Haitians for taking advantage of Jennifer (our symbol of Haiti). She is free and beautiful, but is taken advantage of by men and the middle classes who are keen to keep her in her place in poverty.
Do you want to see one of Africa’s best films from the 20th Century? Set aside 55 minutes to watch Black Girl below (please comment if the video is not working). Don’t let film scholars be the only ones to have seen this incredible film as this should be seen by everyone.
Why Watch Black Girl?
It’s short: it will only take 55 minutes of your time!
It features a strong female character
The best pieces of art are completed quickly. Black Girl was made in 20 days
Examine the legacy of colonialism
The Breakdown
Ousmane Sembene’s Black Girl starts with a big passenger ship arriving at a port in France. A finely dressed black woman, Diouana, leaves the boat wondering if anyone will be there to pick her up. Sure enough a white man greets her, takes her bags, and drives her off. After a few jump cuts in the car ride (a style made famous in Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard) she arrives at a house on the French Riviera.
The opening suggests Diouana is here to meet her friends. Because of her nice dress and the white driver meeting her, it initially appears that she shares equal status with the white French people. However, as soon as she enters the apartment, it becomes clear that she does not share the same freedoms as her employers. She is kept in the apartment all day, every day to clean and cook and never ventures out because she never gets paid and is never introduced to anyone (which is always helpful when you don’t speak the language). As a result, she is almost a slave.
What’s the significance of the African mask?
To get to know the film a little better, look out for the African mask. It first appears in the film when Diouana buys it from a small boy from her neighbourhood in Senegal. She then gifts it to her employer who first question it’s authenticity (‘it looks like the real thing’) and then hang it on one of their blank white walls in their apartment in France.
Firstly, the mask initially signifies equality between Diouana and her employer. The act of gifting implies that you share an equal standing with the person you give to. Initially, because of the gifting, Diouana is equal to her employer. However, when her employers dismiss the mask as a fake, they imply that Diouana cannot afford a real mask and therefore she is not on the same level as them.
Secondly, the mask is a metaphor for Diouana’s isolation in France. Like the mask hanging in the middle of a blank wall, she is alone and out of place in French society.
Lastly, the mask is a symbol of the misappropriation of African culture. In Africa the mask is alive as the young boy is shot playing with it and wearing it. However, in France, the mask is dead. In France, the mask has been reduced to an ‘exotic’ artifact which sits on a wall as a trophy of Diouana’s employer’s exoticism. It allows her employers to temporarily ‘play’ their ‘connection’ to African ‘exoticism’ without experiencing any of the discrimination they perpetrate. Just like a fancy dress that they can take off whenever they want.
Narration as a symbol of post-colonialism
When watching Black Girl you’ll notice that whilst Diouana doesn’t speak French, all her thoughts are narrated in French. Her consciousness has been taken over by a language that isn’t her own. She can’t physically speak French and therefore become equal to the French speakers in France, but she can think in French. In fact, French is the only language she actually thinks in via the narration.
This is symbolic of the legacy of French colonialism in Africa (in this case, Senegal). Although Senegal achieved it’s independence from France a few years before this film was made, by restricting Diouana’s consciousness to French Sembene emphasises the parasitic legacy of colonialism. The colonisers colonised Senegal and replaced it’s native culture with it’s own and disrupted Senegalese consciousness in the process.
Conclusion
There’s so much more to say! Simply put, Sembene’s Black Girl packs a lot into just under an hour. If it’s not being studied at schools across the world, it should be. Everyone needs to watch this film!
If you haven’t seen it, you’re in luck. Watch it here on YouTube!
You’ve probably heard about the 2010 Haiti Earthquake and you may have even donated some money via one of the many fundraising initiatives, but have you got any idea about how all the funds raised were put to use? Fatal Assistance investigates the recovery attempts after the earthquake and will get you questioning whether we need to reform how we donate and how charities work.
Why Watch Fatal Assistance?
Learn about the devastation caused by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti
Analyse the effectiveness of disaster relief charities
Watch a film from Haiti from Haiti’s minister for culture, Raoul Peck (who you may know from his other great documentary: I Am Not Your Negro)
Find out if there are any solutions for the future
The Breakdown
Fatal Assistance starts with a first hand account of the 2010 Haitian Earthquake. You’ll see footage of people falling to the ground under the tremors and buildings shaking and crumbling. However, unlike the big disaster fiction films, this film is a documentary and focuses on the earthquake’s aftermath.
The destruction of the earthquake was massive. It made 1.5 million people homeless and caused 24 times as much debris as 9/11. Loads of celebrities and people around the world raised millions to help Haiti’s recovery. As a result, the country was full of hope despite being ravaged by disaster. There was enough money to change the country, for it it recover from the earthquake and lift it out of poverty.
However, you can tell that the hope is not going to be fulfilled. The letters that are narrated throughout the film seem to come from the future and feel full of regret.
The lack of hope is personified in the zombie-esque appearance of former U.S. President Bill Clinton who is in charge of the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission. The IHRC was part of a ‘dictatorship of aid’ which consumed all of the money without actually solving anything. All the charities involved in the relief effort only offered temporary solutions, arguably to ensure they continued to exist and receive funding instead of actually solving the problem they were created for.
Conclusion
The result is a pretty negative view of the IHRC and Haitian recovery effort. Whilst the documentary doesn’t outwardly point fingers, it’s quite clear who Peck thinks is to blame. It’s worth watching to debate the effectiveness of relief charities (see GiveWell for a one solution) and for a quick lowdown on Haiti in the 2000s.
The only evidence of his work are of the photos he takes, featuring him with smiling kids reminiscent of your typical ‘gap-year’ pictures (see right). These pictures are his ‘trophies’. They symbolise his delusions that he is actually helping Haiti recover from the earthquake when he is really not helping at all.
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