Foreign Film and Documentaries at the Oscars

It's hard to deny that the Oscars are anything but a celebration of the studio system in Hollywood. This makes a certain amount of sense: a big-money event that brings in advertisers, expensive gowns and borrowed jewelery should applaud the films that allows this culture to exist. Yet, however easy it is to mock this mainstream awards fest, it is impossible to deny the power that an Oscar carries. And Independent film, foreign films, and documentaries profit from the glow.

Whatever you think, please do not think Oscar gold does not matter. If you love film, you depend on distributors to show your movies. But if a foreign film with no marketing budget such as Caravan (the first film from Nepal ever to be nominated for an Oscar) wins, chances are good it will appear in Landmark Theatres across the country. Therefore, film lovers, in between groans over Billy Crystal's jokes and the ooh and ahs over Tom Cruise in his tux, pay close attention to these three categories: Foreign Film, Documentary Feature, and Documentary Short Subject.

Foreign Film

All About My Mother (Spain), directed by Pedro Almodovar
Caravan (Nepal), directed by Eric Villi
East-West (France), directed by Regis Wargnier
Solomon and Gaenor (Wales), directed by Paul Morrison
Under the Sun (Sweden), directed by Colin Nutley

The academy has nominated an interesting selection of foreign films. Interesting, I may add, because for most discerning Americans and regular patrons of world films, these movies have not been shown. World famous Spanish director Pedro Almadovar's film All About My Mother has received incredible attention from the press, is currently being distributed by Sony Picture Classics and has already won numerous awards including the Britsh Independent Film Award for Best Foreign Film - Foreign Language, and Best Director at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. But have you head of the Nepalese film Caravan yet? I look forward to learning more about it. The French film East-West stars the wonderful French actress Catherine Deneuve, yet once again has not received screen time in the US besides New York and Los Angeles. Solomon and Gaenor (Wales) and Under the Sun (Sweden) are the other nominees in this category. Chances are, we'll eventually get to see the winners.

All About My Mother (Spain), directed by Pedro Almodovar
A sweeping mix of love, loss, and redemption. When Manuela, a nurse in Madrid, loses her son Esteban in a devastating accident following a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire, she travels to Barcelona to inform the boy's father, now a transsexual named Lola. Befriended in Barcelona by another transsexual named Algrado, Manuela is taken in by a group of prostitutes and meets Sister Rosa, a nun who ministers to the needy. Joined by members of the Streetcar cast, Manuela, amid a hubbub of relationships, recriminations, and reunions, begins to heal.

Caravan (Nepal), directed by Eric Villi
In a far-flung village in the northwestern Himalayas, Tinle, a charismatic old chieftain whose eldest son has just died, refuses to allow the young Karma, whom he holds responsible, to lead the yak caravan. Defying the oracles and Tinle's anger, Karma leads the group anyway. Tinle, assisted by his second son, Norbou, decides against all reason to set off in pursuit. This is Nepal's first Academy Award nomination.

Solomon and Gaenor (Wales), directed by Paul Morrison
Against a backdrop of racial tension and industrial unrest in the Welsh Valleys of 1911, Solomon and Gaenor tells the moving and passionate story of illicit love between a Welsh girl and a Jewish boy. Gaenor, born into a family of strict chapel-goers, falls for Solomon, a young door-to-door salesman, who conceals his Jewish identity from Gaenor and her family. The couple, from similar yet very distinctive worlds, fall helplessly in love.

East-West (France), directed by Regis Wargnier
East-West is Casablanca for the '90s. With the Cold War well-thawed, one of the darkest chapters in modern European history is brought to film in East-West: Stalin's encouragement of "White Russian" emigrés who had fled the Soviet Union to return in 1946 to help "rebuild the Motherland." What the idealistic returnees did not know was that the days of Stalinist opression had not passed: almost all of those who returned were promptly executed or imprisoned.

Under the Sun (Sweden), directed by Colin Nutley
The year is 1956. Forty-year-old Olof lives alone on a farm in the Swedish countryside. His younger friend, Erik, helps him with errands. One day, Olof puts an ad in the local paper, looking for a young housekeeper. Ellen arrives and gradually takes over the household - and Olof's heart.

(synopses from oscar.com)

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