If you only watch movies made in Hollywood, you are severely limiting yourself. Take note of it. Countries around the world have been producing movies since the advent of cinema worth seeing, from ambitious blockbusters to independent films. Call it “world cinema” or whatever you like, every corner of the world has given birth to an impressive array of films far from the United States.
Like regular American classics, films from countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe include titles about love, fantasy, adventure, war, and comedy. But the techniques used to tell the stories and share the emotions are often radically different and refreshingly inventive.
Of course, the cinema of each country has a slight national flavor, just like American, Canadian or British cinema. A good way to delve into this wide range of films is to use ranking tools such as the famous IMDb website, which uses a weighted formula to order the best films in the world. Although American women are overrepresented, many from other countries, such as parasitewinner of the Oscar in 2020, appear at the top.
Yet another way to get a sense of what’s going on around the world and broaden your cultural horizons as a moviegoer is to use a map. One as well designed as this one from Rave Reviews.
You can see the map in its maximum resolution here.
For this globetrotting list of the highest-rated produced films, those produced in each country have been identified. using IMDb country codes and then selected the title with the highest average rating from the top 50 movies rated by the most users. Mind you: only feature films were included and for countries where there were no qualifying titles produced in that country, a film set in that country was chosen using the same criteria.
In cases where ratings were tied, the title with the highest number of user ratings was deemed the winner. For films produced in multiple countries, your country of origin was determined according to IMDB guidelines as the country whose production companies contributed the most funds to the production of the film. The data set includes 227 countries and territories.
The map travels from Mexico with the most famous surrealist in cinema; to South Korea with the most surprising “Best Picture of the Oscars”; through the iron curtain to communist (East) Germany; and through time to the war in Bosnia. There is everything.
North America
You can see the map in its maximum resolution here.
Life imprisonment It regularly tops all-time favorites lists, and IMDb agrees. Users have given the Stephen King adaptation of Frank Darabont an average rating of 9.3making it the highest-rated film produced on the continent.
But there is real class to be found in other parts of the region. The main image of Mexico is uA mid-career masterpiece by Luis Buñuel, the surrealist best known for his scandalous collaboration with Salvador Dalí. Y I am Cuba it is a “raving, lyrical, epic communist propaganda piece from 1964”. The communists rejected it at the time, but its formal innovation continues to amaze the public six decades later.
South America
You can see the map in its maximum resolution here.
Argentina’s best film is a labyrinthine crime drama set in two different time periods. The Secret in Their Eyes was named one of the 100 best films of the 21st century by the BBC and has since been remade by Hollywood.
The highest rated movie in South America is Far from home Venezuelan film, with an average of 9.8. The story follows the struggles of a young Venezuelan who leaves the country to find a better future. But probably the most famous movie here is the City of God from Brazil, “part sweet coming-of-age movie and part gang war epic,” which was nominated for four Oscars.
Europe
You can see the map in its maximum resolution here.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s best-received film is a unique take on the four-year siege of Sarajevo that occurred during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. Director Ademir Kenović based much of the perfect circle in real-life video diaries that he had facilitated and smuggled out of the city at the height of the conflict.
Germany’s entry is Other people’s lives, Oscar-winning film set in Cold War-era East Germany. The story follows a Stasi agent who sympathizes with the playwright whom he is tasked with spying on. The legendary Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski has two movies on the map: A short film about love, made in his homeland, and Three colors: reda Swiss production.
Middle East and Central Asia
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Hababam Sınıfı it was such a hit in Turkey that it spawned five sequels at the time and three more spin-offs three decades later. Director Ertem Eğilmez is a popular director in his home country, and this silly high school comedy is one of his best known.
Borat may be Kazakhstan’s most famous film “export”but the nation’s favorite picture is another school movie. harmony lessons follows a bullying victim who decides to take revenge on her tormentors. Cinematographer Aziz Zhambakiyev won a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the prestigious Berlinale Film Festival.
Rest of Asia and Oceania
You can see the map in its maximum resolution here.
The highest rated in the study is Life: Amidral Mongolian. This 2018 drama has an average rating of 9.8 on IMDb. But the most famous films from this region are from New Zealand and South Korea.
The New Zealand entry is from one of the most well-known film franchises. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King It won 11 Oscars, a record it holds with only two other films, Titanic and Ben-Hur. But the success of South Korea’s most beloved movie, parasites, at the Oscars is perhaps more surprising. Bong Joon Ho’s film was the first non-English language film to win the award.
Africa
You can see the map in its maximum resolution here.
District 9 it is the African film with the highest number of votes. Nearly 650,000 IMDb users have given the thought-provoking South African sci-fi an average rating of 7.9. After an alien landing, a human bureaucrat tasked with relocating unwanted guests begins to mutate and become one of them.
Timbuktu is an Oscar nominated film from Mauritania. It was made by internationally renowned director Abderrahmane Sissako. The controversial image dares to humanize the jihadists who have terrorized the region. “Representing a jihadist as just a bad guy, who is nothing like me, who is completely different, that is not entirely true,” says Sissako. “Frailty is an element that can make anyone fall into horror.”