I am always curious about which films are selected for the best foreign-language film Oscar. Alas, there are too many Americans who have only seen "The Passion of the Christ" or some Jackie Chan import in subtitles.
But, this year there may be slightly more coverage of who wins this award because one of the five nominated films "Mongol" is from Kazakhstan, which is the home country of Sasha Bara Cohen's fictional Borat character made famous/infamous in the mocumentary "Borat," which was partially filmed in my hometown of Salem, Va. (and that part of the film was the famous/infamous rodeo sequence).
"Mongol," directed by Sergei Bodrav, is the story of Genghis Khan's early life when he was in slavery. The film was mostly shot in China, and one board poster on the IMDB said the cinematography from Sergei Tromfimov reminded him of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!).
Only two of the five films came from internationally-know directors. Those are "12," a Russian film from previous Oscar winner Nikita Mikhlakov (he won for "Burnt by the Sun" in 1994) about 12 jurrors who must decide the fate of a Chechen teenager charged with murdering his stepfather.
My friend Bilge Ebiri was one of Mikhalov's assistant directors for the Russian film "The Barber of Siberia," which never released in America despite having Julia Ormond in the lead.
The other film from a known director is the Polish film "Katya" from veteran filmmaker Andrej Wajda. It is a Holocaust story, which is said to be profoundly moving.
The remaining two best foreign langague nominees are "Beaufort," an Israeli film about the conflict with Palestinaians and the Austrian caper "The Counterfeiters."
Perhaps, the bigger story is which film did NOT get nominated.
Those include the Spanish horror film "The Orphanage," the French animated film "Persepolis" and the German film "The Edge of Heaven," from Turkish German director Fatih Akin who also helmed the critically-acclaimed film "Head-On" a few years ago.
But, the most surprising snub was against the Romanian film "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days," which was a Cannes Festival winner and was considered to be one of the five best films of the year in both "The Film Comment" and "The Village Voice" critic's polls.
An Iraqi film "Jani Gal" was also considered as was the Turkish film "Takva/A Man's Fear of God," about an Islamic fundamentalist's inner struggles with his faith, from directorOzer Kiziltan.
The Iranian film "Offsides," which Ebiri (also a New York film critic) considered to be the best film of the year, was not even considered as the governments of each country choose which film should be considered for the foreign-language film Oscar.
"Offisides," which is about an Iranian girl who sneaks into a soccer stadium to watch a game, was extremely controversial in Iran (in fact, I believe it was banned, but we don't have fact-checkers to verify that!). Hence, it was not chosen by the Iranian government.
I predict that "12" will win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, but I have yet to see any of the nominated films. In fact, I'm not sure any of them have been outside major market cities as of this juncture.
For more info on the Oscars, I highly recommend my friend Moviezzz's blog (link below).
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