All of them, to some degree. But here's a few off the top of my head that are maybe a little less well known that have really stuck with me over the years. I'll try not to say too much about them, and encourage you to go into them without spoilers, as I did:
* Leviathan (Russia, 2014) - It's a minor miracle this film was made and saw the light of day, depicting as it does the banality of corruption and impunity in provincial Russia. Not especially obscure, it won a slew of awards including a Golden Globe but it's not nearly as well-known as it should be. This film isn't didactic and there really are no "good guys" - it's at least as much a tale of love and loss. I certainly understood local corruption at an intellectual level - I saw plenty of it growing up in the American "Deep South," but as a middle-class white boy it was never really aimed at me. This film helped me feel the weight of it at a visceral level in a way I hadn't before.
* Nobody Knows (Japan, 2004) - Sometimes what shapes us is only visible in retrospect. Most parents, in my experience, will acknowledge the profound shift in mindset and empathy that occurs when you have a kid. Half a decade before my first, I can trace the first experience of those feels to this film. Surely this has something to do with my (20s) age when I saw it, but it's a rare film that triggers such a re-programming of the psyche. I feel duty-bound to warn this isn't a comedy.
* Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989, Finland and America) - This IS a comedy. A band from (fictional) northern Russia unable to hit it big in the terminal-stage USSR (this film was released 8 months before the fall of the Berlin Wall) comes to America to seek fame. By Finland's (arguably) greatest director Aki Kaurismäki, the heart of the film is a journey through the forgotten routes and dives of the American South. The places are real. The extras are local. As a cinematographic document, it's the best road movie since Easy Rider. The band (by virtue of being visible outsiders) obliviously crosses all kinds of social boundaries, playing in redneck bars and juke joints alike. This film gave me an outsiders frame of reference to a part of the country where I grew up, and was an inspiration to me to get out and see the world. Inconsistently available, I've bought it on multiple physical formats over the years. For folks in the US, I guess HBO Max has a lot of Criterion-distributed films now so they might have it? But I can't tell because that service isn't available in the country where I now live.
* Leviathan (Russia, 2014) - It's a minor miracle this film was made and saw the light of day, depicting as it does the banality of corruption and impunity in provincial Russia. Not especially obscure, it won a slew of awards including a Golden Globe but it's not nearly as well-known as it should be. This film isn't didactic and there really are no "good guys" - it's at least as much a tale of love and loss. I certainly understood local corruption at an intellectual level - I saw plenty of it growing up in the American "Deep South," but as a middle-class white boy it was never really aimed at me. This film helped me feel the weight of it at a visceral level in a way I hadn't before.
* Nobody Knows (Japan, 2004) - Sometimes what shapes us is only visible in retrospect. Most parents, in my experience, will acknowledge the profound shift in mindset and empathy that occurs when you have a kid. Half a decade before my first, I can trace the first experience of those feels to this film. Surely this has something to do with my (20s) age when I saw it, but it's a rare film that triggers such a re-programming of the psyche. I feel duty-bound to warn this isn't a comedy.
* Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989, Finland and America) - This IS a comedy. A band from (fictional) northern Russia unable to hit it big in the terminal-stage USSR (this film was released 8 months before the fall of the Berlin Wall) comes to America to seek fame. By Finland's (arguably) greatest director Aki Kaurismäki, the heart of the film is a journey through the forgotten routes and dives of the American South. The places are real. The extras are local. As a cinematographic document, it's the best road movie since Easy Rider. The band (by virtue of being visible outsiders) obliviously crosses all kinds of social boundaries, playing in redneck bars and juke joints alike. This film gave me an outsiders frame of reference to a part of the country where I grew up, and was an inspiration to me to get out and see the world. Inconsistently available, I've bought it on multiple physical formats over the years. For folks in the US, I guess HBO Max has a lot of Criterion-distributed films now so they might have it? But I can't tell because that service isn't available in the country where I now live.