280. Takva, a man's fear of God (2006)

 

Country: Turkey

Directed by Ozer Kizitlan

A very well made movie with a main character who looks totally real, with a human vulnerability that, even if we probably have totally different living conditions, we can identify ourselves with him, Takva explores the difficulty, almost impossibility, for the individual to live a virtuous life the way that the traditional religions define it, in our modern world that is full of temptations and almost obliges you to value money and power in order to fit and function in it properly. Although the film, no matter how slightly, criticizes the Islamic sects and generally all the religions that have similar demands from the believers, still keeps a very solid distance from having a black/white, bad/good approach. Is not the organized faith that is blamed for everything nor the world is evolving in a wrong direction: just the two can't go really together and the honest person who gonna try to combine them most likely it has to face a mental breakdown and a crisis of consciousness

 

279. Insects in the backyard (2010)

 

Country: Thailand

Directed by Tanwarin Sukkhapisit

A very unique, brave and revolutionary film in the history of Thai cinema "Insects in the backyard" depicts nudity, raw homosexual sex, prostitution, a patricide, themes that made the conservative Thai ministry of Culture to panic and to ban it immediately, claiming that it features negative portrayals of Thai society and it goes against Thai morals. Since then Insects in the backyard has a cult legendary status and it's in high regard by the Thai art film lovers, however it's not only its bold and daring content that made it such a significant film: with its fresh and modern style it belongs to just a handful of films that broke away from the fakeness of the old studio made commercial Thai cinema so emphatically and it opened the doors for many more art cinema films to follow

278. Mother India (1957)

 

Country: India

Directed by Mehboob Khan

Watching the film almost 65 years since its release it seems that hardly has a significant artistic value, being a commercial musical/ comical/melodramatic/epic salad that is hard to appreciate much (as a critic once put it " it's an outrageous masala of indigenous versions of Soviet-style tractor-opera, Italian neo-realism, Hollywood kiddie-cuteness, a dozen Technicolor musical numbers, and, most significantly, a metaphoric overlay of pop Hinduism"). However, if we put it back at the era of its production, Mother India managed to communicate perfectly at many levels with the common people who watched it in packed movie theaters as it combined impressive visuals, catchy songs, action, emotions and a simple political commentary with a way that they loved it. Probably the most influential and celebrated Indian movie of all time, even as a "bad" film certainly has a place in this list 

277. Mundane history (2009)

 

Country: Thailand

Directed by Anocha Suwichakornpong

One of the most significant movies of the Thai new wave cinema, 'Mundane history' is a film that has a rather simple storyline but a complexity in its content, as it has readings at so many levels that it's hard to be fully understood. Thai politics, history, comments about the social enequality, allegories,  Buddhism, even cosmology or existentialism, are only some of the elements of a film that, even if left us with the feeling that it underperformed its fully potential, manages to bring everything together beautifully at the end

276. Aparajito (1956)

Country: India

Directed by Satyajit Ray

A flawless film at any level, "Aparajito" is still amazingly fresh and powerful, with a timeless universality, as it relates to viewers from all cultural backgrounds, and a deep humanism that bathes everything in light: reflecting people's lives and emotions with tenderness it can be felt even by the most "modern" audiences. Poetical, delicate, touching, with stunning visuals but still realistic, it's one of the finest works of Satyajit Ray: just magnificent

275. A devilish murder (1965)

 

Country: South Korea

Directed by Lee Yong-min

Obviously a horror film that is so often comical when it intents to be scary is not a good horror film. However, 'A devilish murder", as a ghost vengeance b-movie, is so entertaining, with a no stop action and a fair amount of weirdness, that it can't be left out of the list. Watch it without expectations of high quality: it's just fun with a lot of cult moments

https://youtu.be/rVVtAPh2M9Q

274. P like Pelican (1972)

 

Country: Iran

Directed by Parviz Kimiavi

I always liked the short films of Parviz Kimiavi. The way that the realism is blended there with dreamy, surreal elements, their slightly avant garde style but also their symbolic, allegorical nature that is not always easy to decode. Is P like Pelican a film about our fruitless search for comfort, relief, purification, serenity? It's a movie about God? Or about the cruel and deceptive essence of existence that we never can escape from ? No exact answers are given but this is the way it should be: life doesn't give exact answers too