From:Â Kuwait, Asia Watch: YouTube, IMDb Next: Battleship Potemkin, The Cow, BatuqueContinue reading “The Cruel Sea – A Tragedy Inspired by the Soviet Masters”
Why should you watch Bolot Feray? Because it’s the only Seychellois feature film you’re likely to find to represent the country. It’s an adaption from a comedy theatrical play and will give you an insight into the customs of traditional society in the Seychelles even if you can’t find a copy with subtitles.
From: Seychelles, Africa Watch: YouTube, Letterboxd Next: The Grand Marriage, Hand of Fate, Gold Watch
Disclaimer: We couldn’t find this film with English subtitles. If you speak French fluently, you might pick up a few words or phrases, but as the film uses the Seychellois Creole language, it won’t be too much of a help. We decided to watch the film anyway to be able to add the only film we could find from The Seychelles to this site. However, we’ll be looking out for a copy with English subtitles and also for any more films we can review in more depth from the country. If you know of any, please let us know.
It’s pretty obvious that Bolot Feray is adapted from a stage play. Firstly, the film is split into 3 parts with each one taking place in a different location – mimicking the set changes of a stage play. Secondly, there are a few moments where an actor gives an internal monologue to the audience – looking directly at the camera – something very rare in film, but fairly common on stage, particularly in comedies. Lastly, as is typical for stage plays, Bolot Feray focuses on the dialogue more than the visual elements, making the film dialogue heavy with no cinematic innovation. Watching the stage play (also available on YouTube) will likely be a pretty similar experience to watching the movie.
The story features a family getting ready for a wedding. There’s a lot of arguing and debating between both families of the future husband and wife. Unfortunately most of this will go over your head because of the language barrier. However, you get the idea that there is a lot of soapy gossiping and drama in what they’re saying. Despite this, the final part shows the wedding going ahead, complete with speeches and singing.
Whilst there’s not much you’ll be able to understand of this dialogue heavy film if you can’t find a version with subtitles you can understand, watching this film does allow you to see a little insight into the customs of Seychellois culture. Plus, if you’re trying to complete a World Film challenge, you’ll get to see a film from the Seychelles.
If you’re looking for more films that are adapted from stage plays, try Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom or Gold Watch. Or if you’re just after the set-piece drama style, you could also try Richard Linklater’s Tape.
Or if you’re after more films about marriage in Africa, there’s The Grand Marriage, a documentary that looks at marriage customs in the Comoros. Or, for more marriage drama, check out Hand of Fate from The Gambia, a family drama centered around the marrying off of a family’s young daughter.
All of the following World Films are available to watch with an Amazon Prime UK membership. If you don’t have a membership you can always make the most of the free trial and watch as many of the films below before the trial runs out 😉 Just click here to sign up for a free trial!
If you haven’t seen Motorcycle Diaries you’re in for a treat. It’s one of the best road trip movies out there and perfect to watch if you want to go to South America. Plus, it’s got the legendary revolutionary Che Guevara. Night in sorted!
Hot off of the press, Train to Busan is one of Amazon Prime UK’s most recent additions. If you like zombies you’ll love this film. If you’re not bothered about zombies but love a great action movie, you’ll also love this film. It’s a win-win.
Also recently added, Iranian film The Salesman won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Film at last year’s Oscars. If you missed the free viewing that the Mayor of London held in Trafalgar Square, no worries, as you can now watch it for free on Amazon Prime (with the free trial).
You can also watch another Oscar winner. This one follows a Jewish worker in the Auschwitz prison camps during WW2. It’s harrowing, but brilliantly well made. Read more about it here.
There’s also plenty of Cannes Film Festival winners available to watch. Hou Hsiao-hsie won the best director prize for this beauty, a martial arts film set in 9th century China. Films don’t get much prettier than this.
For a bit more grit, check out this prison drama. A new prison officer gets trapped on the wrong side of the prison bars during a prison riot. Can he play the part of a prisoner for long enough to escape? This one is perfect for an easy night in.
Here’s another Cannes winner. Dheepan took the famed Palmes D’or at the 2015 Cannes film festival and tells the story of three Tamil refugees who flee the war ravaged Sri-Lanka for a new life in Paris.
If you love coming-of-age films as much as I do you will love this film. It has all the qualities of a classic family film but with a bit more grit. A nominee at Cannes and the Academy Awards go watch this one now. Feel free to read more about the film here.
Toni Erdmann is one of the world’s great comedies. It will teach you never to lose your sense of humour or take life too seriously. Watch it for plenty of surprises that you never saw coming! It also features the world’s most embarrassing dad.
This is perhaps the best film available to watch on Amazon Prime UK full stop. It’s a beautifully shot film set deep in the Amazon jungle that delves into the biggest themes including (but not limited to) Life and Death, Civilization, and Religion. You will come out of it a wiser person 😉
Well this is just a taster of some of the best world films on Amazon Prime UK. There are many more world films available on the platform, so go ahead and start your free trial by clicking on the banner below. (Remember to cancel it if you don’t want to be charged after the free trial).
We will be back with the best world films on Netflix UK in the next few weeks.
Dadli features a boy’s narrative over a montage of shots of Antiguan life. It’s a brief but incredibly immersive 15 minutes in Antigua & Barbuda that any fans of Jonas Mekas and Khalil Joseph should love.
From: Antigua & Barbuda, North America Watch: Vimeo, IMDb Next: Process, Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania, Right Near the Beach
Dadli is short, but it doesn’t need time to build its beautifully immersive aesthetic. The quick editing and dulled diegetic sound (the music and narrative are the focus in this film) don’t allow you to think of anything else apart from the images and atmospheric sounds you are hearing, whilst the natural home video style texture of the film – which is taken to the next level with the cinematography – and the mid to close range shots draw you in further. This combination of techniques makes it feel both immersive and intimate – as if you are experiencing a Fast-Forwarded snippet of life on the island. The texture of the film even sweats the close-mugginess of the night, the warm melancholy of the sunsets, and laid back vibrancy of daytime. It feels like you’re there. Whilst other movies capture island life over the course of a feature film, Dadli manages to do it in a compact 15 minutes.
The young boy’s narrative is what separates the immersive style of Dadli from Khalil Joseph’s art-films and music videos. He’s a kid playing an adult – with no role models or parents. He talks of murder, drugs, and poverty, giving us an ‘underground tour’ of the island. However, his narrative never feels completely believable, which makes the film feel like it could be a twisted fantasy or exaggerated memory (of the brief adult narration) instead of a harsh reality. The fleeting shots of the montage helps to blur the distinction between fantasy and reality, turning it into an even more trance-like, immersive experience.
If you’re a fan of movies that use sound and editing to immerse viewers into an environment, you should watch Dadli. It creates a feeling of life on Antigua that you probably wouldn’t experience as a tourist or visitor.
For more immersive films that rely on sound, check out Khalil Joseph’s catalogue of music films such as Process (featuring Sampha) and Good Kid m.A.A.d City (featuring Kendrick Lamar). Both, like Dadli create a strong sense of place through the editing and sound of their movies.
You could also try the films of Jonas Mekas, such as Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania and Lost, Lost, Lost. These films use home-video style footage and quick editing to immerse viewers into the narrators stories.
Or for more immersive editing from the Caribbean, try Jamaica’s Right Near the Beach.
As a good percentage of our readers are based in the UK here’s a list of great movies streaming on Netflix UK to help keep our UK readers busy during the pandemic. I’ve paired up most of the recommendations so if you like one, you might like the other. So, in no particular order here’s 39 great movies to watch on Netflix UK:
If you’re outside of the UK you can look up all of these films on JustWatch to find out where they’re streaming. Or check out the Best Movies of the 2010s That You Can Stream Right Now or scroll through the Netflix films.
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