Foreign Language Film Submissions 2019

Golden Bear winner Commitment is directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu, one of the most acclaimed writer-director-producers of contemporary Turkish filmmaking. The 2-hour 15-minute film centers on young mothers Asli and Gül Nihal which takes place in Istanbul.

They are three cops of the anti-crime squad assigned to the tough Les Bosquets projects in the impoverished suburbs of Montfermeil, just east of Paris. Stephane (Damien Bonnard) is the new recruit that joins the two blatantly unscrupulous veterans.

Invisible Life premiered in Cannes and was the winner of the Un Certain Regard prize there. Based on the 2015 debut novel by Martha Batalha, it tells the tale of two sisters separated for decades by familial shame and deceit in midcentury Rio de Janeiro.

Shot in Cambodia, with dialogue in Khmer and Thai, Australian director Rodd Rathjen’s debut feature is an intense drama about immigrants desperate for a better life. The story focuses on Chakra (played by impressive first-time actor Sarm Heng), a Cambodian 14-year-old boy trading his unhappy upbringing for an even tougher future.

Written and directed by respected Italian director Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket), the political drama Il Traditore (The Traitor) follows 20 years in the life of Tommaso Buscetta, also known as “the boss of the two worlds”, the first great  “pentito”, or informer, of the Mafia, who helped judges Falcone and Borsellino shed light on the organization of the Cosa Nostra and its bosses in Sicily.  The film was selected to represent Italy at the upcoming Academy International Awards after its very strong reception in festivals from Cannes to Toronto and received four nominations at the European Film Awards, including Best European film.

Based on the acclaimed novel by Jerzy Kosinski, The Painted Bird took producer/writer/director Vaclev Marhoul over a decade to make. Shot in 35mm black and white, the film takes us on a journey through wild Eastern Europe and its bloody reality towards the end of World War II.

Monos (which means monkeys as well as little kids and cute in Spanish), takes place on a Colombian mountaintop where eight child-soldiers armed with guns watch over a hostage (played by Julianne Nicholson) and a milk cow. The film tackles the subject of young guerrilla soldiers, often trained at a young age and pulled away from their families, living alone and terrorized by an adult figure who imparts orders by radio, resorting to violence and drugs in order to fill the void of love and compassion in their young lives.

How would we judge a middle-aged woman who has a sexual relationship with her 17-year-old stepson? This is the question that director May el-Toukhy and her co-writer Maren Louise Kaehne force us to face in Queen of Hearts. Anne (Trine Dyrholm) is an attorney who advocates for children victims of abuse.

It’s 1897 in Paris and young dramatist Edmond Rostand (seductively energetic newcomer Thomas Solivérès) is a struggling wordsmith plagued with anxieties, unable to find the inspiration for his next work. In desperation, he offers the great stage star of the Belle Epoque, Constant Coquelin (Olivier Gourmet, a Dardenne brother regular), a new play, a heroic comedy, in verse.

“It took me a long time to even have the confidence to tell my own stories,” says Lulu Wang, writer-director of The Farewell. As a female filmmaker and a minority, Wang hurdled challenges before she got to make her feature-length debut, 2014’s Posthumous, and The Farewell, which has been winning acclaim since it premiered in the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.