Best Foreign Movies for Every Family Heart

Life Is Beautiful / La vita è bella (1997)

• Country: Italy
• Overview: When an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor, and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.

Like Stars on Earth / Taare Zameen Par (2007)

• Country: India
• Overview: An eight-year-old boy who struggles in school due to dyslexia is sent to a boarding school by his frustrated parents, where an unconventional and compassionate art teacher discovers his true artistic genius and helps him uncover his hidden potential.

Cinema Paradiso / Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988)

• Country: Italy
• Overview: A successful filmmaker returns to his native Sicilian village for the funeral of a wise theater projectionist, sparking a nostalgic journey into his childhood where he first fell in love with the magic of the movies.

Bicycle Thieves / Ladri di biciclette (1948)

• Country: Italy
• Overview: In post-WWII Rome, an impoverished father finally lands a crucial job that requires a bicycle, but when his bike is stolen on his very first day, he and his young son embark on a desperate, heart-wrenching trek across the city to find it.

Children of Heaven / Bacheha-Ye aseman (1997)

• Country: Iran
• Overview: After a young boy accidentally loses his sister’s only pair of shoes, the sibling duo hatches a plan to share his sneakers in secret to hide the mistake from their struggling parents, leading to a desperate race to win a new pair.

Amélie / Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001)

• Country: France
• Overview: A shy, imaginative Parisian waitress decides to orchestrate small, secret acts of kindness to bring joy to the lives of those around her, discovering love and her own happiness along the way.

The Color of Paradise / Rang-e khoda (1999)

• Country: Iran
• Overview: Mohammad, an enthusiastic and exceptionally perceptive blind boy, returns to his beautiful village for summer vacation, completely unaware that his widowed father views his disability as a burden to his own marriage plans.

Central Station / Central do Brasil (1998)

• Country: Brazil
• Overview: A cynical, retired schoolteacher writing letters for illiterate customers at a bustling Rio de Janeiro train station takes a young, orphaned boy under her wing, embarking on an emotional road trip across the country to find his missing father.

Shoplifters / Manbiki Kazoku (2018)

• Country: Japan
• Overview: A tight-knit, improvised family living in poverty on the outskirts of Tokyo survives on a mix of low-paying jobs and petty theft, but their bonds are tested when they rescue a neglected young girl from the freezing streets and welcome her into their home.

Not One Less / Yi ge dou bu neng shao (1999)

• Country: China
• Overview: A thirteen-year-old girl is left in charge of a remote rural school as a substitute teacher, determinedly embarking on a journey to the big city to bring back a student who left to find work so she can fulfill her promise to lose “not one less” child.

The White Balloon / Badkonake sefid (1995)

• Country: Iran
• Overview: On the eve of the Iranian New Year, a determined seven-year-old girl convinces her mother to let her buy a lucky goldfish, but she faces a series of obstacles and colorful characters when she accidentally loses the money down a street grate.

My Life as a Zucchini / Ma vie de Courgette (2016)

• Country: Switzerland
• Overview: After the sudden loss of his mother, a resilient nine-year-old boy nicknamed Zucchini is sent to a foster home, where he struggles to fit in until he befriends a group of fellow orphans and learns the true meaning of trust, friendship, and family.

Wadjda (2012)

• Country: Saudi Arabia
• Overview: A rebellious ten-year-old girl living in a conservative Riyadh suburb dream of owning a green bicycle to race a neighborhood boy, and despite her mother’s objections, she enters her school’s Qur’an recitation competition in a clever bid to win the prize money.

Tsotsi (2005)

• Country: South Africa
• Overview: A hardened young street thug leading a gang in a Johannesburg township carjacks a wealthy woman, only to discover a three-month-old baby in the backseat, forcing him to care for the infant and sparking a profound, emotional journey toward redemption.

The First Grader (2010)

• Country: Kenya
• Overview: In a small mountain village, an eighty-four-year-old Kenyan veteran and former Mau Mau fighter fights for his right to an education, enrolling in a primary school class alongside six-year-olds after his government announces free universal education for all.

Under the Same Moon / La misma luna (2007)

• Country: Mexico
• Overview: Following the passing of his grandmother, a brave nine-year-old Mexican boy escapes his hometown and attempts to cross the US border illegally, embarking on a perilous journey to reunite with his mother working in Los Angeles.

Valentín / Valentín (2002)

• Country: Argentina
• Overview: In 1960s Buenos Aires, an insightful eight-year-old boy raised by his eccentric grandmother dreams of becoming a NASA astronaut while playfully playing matchmaker and trying to fix the fractured relationships of his dysfunctional, fragmented family.

Our Father / Abouna (2002)

• Country: Chad
• Overview: Two young brothers wake up in N’Djamena to discover their father has abruptly abandoned the family, leading them on a desperate, quiet search across the city that ultimately gets them sent to a strict Qur’anic boarding school where they struggle to cope with his absence.

The Cave of the Yellow Dog / Shar nokhoin doboi (2005)

• Country: Mongolia
• Overview: A young girl from a nomadic family of herders in the Mongolian steppes finds a stray puppy in a cave and names him Zochor, but her father refuses to let her keep him out of fear that the dog will attract wild wolves to their livestock.

Bashu, the Little Stranger / Bashu, gharibeye koochak (1989)

• Country: Iran
• Overview: A traumatized young Afro-Iranian boy flees his war-torn village in southern Iran by stowing away in a truck, ending up in a culturally distinct, northern province where an independent farmhouse mother takes him in despite severe language barriers, racism, and community disapproval.

(Note: While released internationally in 1989/1990, the film was originally completed in 1986 and delayed by censorship until the end of the Iran-Iraq War.)