Norway, Switzerland, Italy & Australia
The seventh installment of Filmatique’s Foreign Language Oscar Submissions series features films from Norway, Switzerland, Italy and Australia.
The Divine Order dramatizes an unassuming Swiss housewife's transformation into an activist for female suffrage in Europe's oldest democracy, where women were denied the right to vote until 1971. Iram Haq's What Will People Say also foregrounds the female perspective in its exploration of family, duty, and cross-generational assimilation in Europe—here, a Pakistani-Norwegian teenager encounters the fault lines between her family's traditional values and the modern, urban lifestyle she has carved out for herself among classmates and friends. Two films from Australia focalize tragic circumstances through the resilient eyes of children protagonists—Rodd Rathjen’s Buoyancy follows a young Cambodian boy who is sold into slavery aboard a Thai fishing vessel, while Kim Mourdant’s The Rocket delves into the travails of a rural Laotian community displaced by the construction of a dam. Paolo Virzì’s The First Beautiful Thing is a tender portrait of a middle-aged son healing his relationship with his ailing mother.
-
Buoyancy
WATCH TRAILER
Rodd Rathjen • Australia • 2019
Fourteen year old Chakra lives in Cambodia with his family, where he labors each day in the rice fields his older brother stands to inherit. Yearning for freedom, Chakra secretly works with a local broker to make the passage to Thailand, where he ...
-
Fire at Sea
WATCH TRAILER
Gianfranco Rosi • 2016 • Italy
A small fishing town emerges as the nexus of the refugee crisis.
Halfway between Sicily and the coast of Tunisia lies a tiny island with a dwindling full-time population of several thousand. As the island denizens go about their business, distress...
-
Sister
WATCH TRAILER
Ursula Meier • 2012 • Switzerland • A ski resort drama with a powerful performance by Léa Seydoux.
At the very edge of adolescence, Simon lives with his sister Louise in a Swiss valley beneath a large mountain range. Each day he makes the commute to a luxury ski resort at altitud...
-
The Divine Order
Petra Volpe • 2017 • Switzerland
Nora becomes the face of the local suffragette movement.
-
The Rocket
WATCH TRAILER
Kim Mourdant • Australia • 2013
Since the time he was born, Ahlo has been told he’s bad luck. Twins are inauspicious in Laotian culture, and Ahlo’s brother perished during childbirth. To the objection of some in her family, Ahlo’s mother raised the small boy anyway, showering h...
-
What Will People Say
WATCH TRAILER
Iram Haq • 2017 • Norway • Nisha is sent to live in a small village 200 miles from Islamabad.
Sixteen year-old Nisha lives in Oslo. At home, she adheres to the conservative values of her Pakistani family; with her friends, Nisha is an average Norwegian teenager. When Nisha's fat...
-
The First Beautiful Thing
WATCH TRAILER
Paolo Virzì • Italy • 2010 • A gentle comedy of life, love, and family.
Bruno, a middle-aged teacher, sits stoned out of his mind on a park bench. He’s forgotten his own birthday, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Sandra, who organized the party. Before he can say no, Bruno...
