On February 2nd, 2010, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced its nominations for the 2010 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Unfortunately only five films
could make the list and other valuable works have been left out.
Looking at Academy’s choice this year the “suspense” is a common factor to most of the five selected works:
The front runner seems to be the black and white German film the “White Ribbon” fresh winner of a Golden Globe for the same category and also winner of the top prize at Cannes in 2009.
The film directed by Michael Haneke, takes place in the in pre-World War I Germany, in the village of Eichwald where an abusive pastor makes children wear white ribbons to punish them for their sins; the village Baron exploits the farmers, everyone has secrets and some “strange” accidents are happening.
The director trough the innocence of the children describes the corruption and the grip of the gene of Nazism.
A curiosity: this film has been submitted by Germany but the production is Austrian; according to some insiders, the US distributor of the film has pressured Germany to submit the work as its own because Austria received two nominations in a row, therefore a third one could have been statistically unlikely.
Nominated is also the Peruvian film “Milk of Sorrow” directed by Claudia Llosa. With her second work Llosa confirms to be one of the most interesting directors in Latin America. With this film she describes to the viewers the pain and violence (not showing any), that Peruvian women had to go trough the 70-90s. Beginning with the death of her mother in Lima, Fausta is determined to transport her remains back to her native village. To do so, however, she is forced to face fear that has isolated her all her life. The film slices the life of a family in the slums of modern Peru.
“Milk of Sorrow” surprisingly won in 2009 the Golden Bear at the Berlino Film Festival.
The Argentinean film “El secreto de sus ojos” (The secret of his eyes) made the list, The film is co-produced with Spain and marks the second nomination for director Juan José Campanella, who is also known for directing TV Shows in the US.
The film is a thriller set in 1999, but it is told with flashbacks starting from 1974. A woman is found raped and murdered while her husband was at work and two immigrant workers are essentially forced into confessing to the crime. A federal justice agent Benjamín Espósito, played by Ricardo Darin, not believing the guiltiness of the suspected keeps investigating and finds clues that bring the homicide back to the husband of the victim. The movie has been very well received by the critics and the public in Argentina and Spain and until now has grossed $8.3 million a record for an Argentinean film.
The French crime film “ A Prophet” is also among the nominations of the Academy; directed by Jacques Audiard, this film tells the story of young analphabet French-Arabian, Malik, who is sentenced to prison for almost 7 years for violence against a police officer.
In prison he tries to keep his head down, but this isn’t possible because of the ruling Corsican mafia which forces him to murder an inmate. After the murder Malik gains the trust of the Corsican ring leader, César, and he works for him inside and also outside prison using a series of day-release excursions. During these excursions Malik builds the bases of his own drug deals and gains power in his criminal world.
This movie won the Grand Prix award at the Festival of Cannes in 2009.
Last but not the least is the Israeli’s production “Ajami”, co-directed by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani; the peculiarity of this film is that it uses mostly non professional actors.
The movie develops its story, with flashbacks and flash-forwards, around the lives and crossing paths of Omar a young Israeli determined to avenge the murders of his family members; Malek, a Palestinian refugee working illegally in order to afford major surgery; Dando a Jewish police officer hell-bent on finding his missing brother; and Binj a wealthy Palestinian trying to find peace as he romances a young Jewish woman.
The film takes its name from a rough neighborhood in Jaffa, a city near Tel Aviv.
“Ajami” received several awards and was the winner of Jerusalem Film Festival in the category of Best Full-Length Feature, and won a minor award at the Cannes Film Festival.
To my surprise the Italian movie “Baaria”, a sentimental autobiographical tribute to the hometown of Oscar winner director Giuseppe Tornatore and his family, did not make the list. The movie was well received by the international critics and was thought to be the front runner with “The white ribbon” to receive the nominee.
Oscar night can make a great deal for a movie, unfortunately, there are always Winners and Losers, but these five movies are already Winners because they will get the visibility
and they will gain popularity around the World, even if only a couple of them will receive a wider distribution in the U.S. market that is till the most remunerative one.
We have to wait till March 7th to the fatidic moment in which the presenter will say…and the Oscar goes to……….
Remember independent or foreign films are out of the schemes of the lucrative major production companies, and usually are great works with very good but often not well known actors, so going to the theater to watch one of those productions can keep opportunities alive for many artists, therefore let’s do it!!
