Thursday Movie Picks – Non-English Language Movies

For this week’s Thursday Movie Picks, run by Wandering through the Shelves, we’ve been asked to list three to five films that are not in the English language.

I previously posted a top 10 list of films not in the English language earlier this year. For today’s post I’m making my selection from films that I’ve watched this year.

Ponyo (2008; Japan)

Ponyo is a whimsical tale heavily inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ with elements borrowed from Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ and nods to Japanese superstition. Ponyo is a fish who dreams of being human and who forms a friendship with a special boy, Sōsuke. [Read my full review.]

Run Lola Run (1998; Germany)

Directed by Tom Tykwer, this film is genuinely like nothing I have ever seen before. At just shy of 1h 22m it’s a short film that gives you a glimpse – just 20 minutes, in fact – into the lives of Lola and her boyfriend, Manni, who must return some missing cash to a crime lord boss [Read my full review.]

Timbuktu (2014; Mauritania)

Set around 2012 and inspired by the real-life occupation of Timbuktu, Mali by Ansar Dine (a militant Islamist group), Timbuktu feels in some ways more of a fly-on-the-wall documentary than a feature film: you feel as though you are observing ordinary people as they go about their day-to-day lives as there is a naturalness — a realness — to the cast. [Read my full review.]

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