30. Aquarius (2016, Kleber Mendonca Filho, Brazil)

During this decade the multiple awarded Brazilian writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho issued three films. Each one of them could easily have made it to this Top 50 list. In between Neighbouring Sounds from 2012 and Bacurau from 2019, we find my personal preference: the Cannes nominee of 2016 Aquarius.

Aquarius is a tour de force performance of the Brazilian actress Sonia Braga. She plays Clara, a widow and retired music critic, well-known in cultural circles in the city of Recife. She lives in an aging seaside apartment, has a maid and has in many ways a ‘full’ life of her own. Her apartment building draws the attention of a big construction company which succeeds to buy out all the tenants except Clara. When the pressure to sell becomes more and more threatening and intimidating, Clara grows more and more stubborn, even when her own children start to add to the pressure. Her home is the place of her memories and identity and she will not budge. The film has a rich range of issues like the importance of memories through places, objects and sounds, the challenge of aging well, class issues and nepotism in Brazilian politics and economics. It weaves these themes together into a completely engaging narrative.

29. Happy as Lazzaro (2018, Alice Rohrwacher, Italy)

Also the Italian director Alice Rohrwacher has brought us three beautifully shot, imaginative films during this past decade. Her third one Happy as Lazzaro is the most ambitious and imaginative of the three. The film has two different sections, the first one is rural in the recent past, the second one urban in our present. Lazzaro is a young peasant, good at heart, innocent, always willing to help and serve, although he lives in a feudal, exploitative setting on a farm. In the second part Lazzaro travels through time to the present into the urban, modern world. Does Lazzaro stay the same while the world changes? How does that goodness and innocence express themselves now? Can goodness and innocence survive regardless of the context it needs to be lived in? This dreamy, fairy tale-like film asks important questions about stories retaining their value and beauty because they carry values that can and will survive throughout all world context changes.

28. Child’s Pose (2013, Cãlin Peter Netzer, Romania)

Child’s Pose from 2013 by the Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer is an outstanding example of the Romanian New Wave of the past two decades. It won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013. In many Romanian Wave films bureaucratic corruption plays a role, but in this film we get to the heart of it.

Child’s Pose is a tale about Cornelia, a privileged, middle-aged, well-to-do architect, who uses all her contacts and her money to get her only son off the hook after having caused a fatal accident involving a child. She uses everything she has to try to keep him out of prison, while the son wants to escape his controlling mother. This is a character study and family drama with keen insights on family, class and corruption. It brings us an outstanding performance of Luminita Gheorghiu in the role of Cornelia, for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the European Film Awards 2013.

27. Loveless (2017, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia)

Loveless is the fifth feature film of Andrey Zvyagintsev, who is arguably the most original and respected Russian filmmaker of today. It is a very disturbing story and it is hard not to become deeply sad after having seen this film of a marriage relationship and a family in which love has completely dissipated. It grows beyond a personal drama into an allegory of a nation in deep moral crisis. Zvyagintsev has complete control over his storytelling from the beginning to the end. Here is a passionate, engaged voice from within Russia, telling us that in a world of materialism and self-absorption the children are the big casualties.

26. Corn Island (2014, George Ovashvili, Georgia)

Corn Island is a gem from Georgia, made by George Ovashvili. This film plays in the border region of Georgia and Abchasia, a politically disputed area, on a temporary island in the Enguri river. In the Spring season islands grow in the river when the melting snow water from the mountains fills the river and carries along earth. These new-formed, fertile islands in the river are used in the summer for growing corn. The film starts with an old man and his granddaughter arriving at such an island, staking it out as his and starting to build a hut. They plan to be there until the river reclaims its rights. The whole film plays within the limits of this little island. But it is not only nature that create dangers for them. Tension increases when different groups of patrolling soldiers pass by and a wounded soldier invades the peace of their tranquil spot. It becomes the setting of a summer of coming-of-age for the granddaughter. I love this kind of minimalistic moviemaking with almost wordless acting, yet full of emotions and with narrative strength! Unique and memorable!