Movies to Watch With Social Issue Dramas

Souleymane’s Story

Dir. Boris Lojkine

What is Souleymane’s Story? Right off the bat, that’s what everyone asks from Souleymane. It’s what his fellow immigrant asks,…

Dupahiya

Dir. Sonam Nair

A town with no crime is a dream everywhere. It means safety, security, and trust for the residents within, so…

Like Water for Chocolate

With the gorgeous period costumes, the romance, and the familial dynamics, you would think that Like Water for Chocolate’s latest…

One Hundred Years of Solitude

It’s a tall order to depict One Hundred Years of Solitude. Considered to be one of the world’s most important…

It Was Just an Accident

Dir. Jafar Panahi

You can probably predict from the title that an accident starts this thriller but what happens after is totally unexpected.…

Nickel Boys

Dir. RaMell Ross

The first things that grab your attention in Nickel Boys are its beauty and technicality. Director RaMell Ross, a large-format…

Goodbye Julia

Dir. Mohamed Kordofani

Amidst the chaos that occurred when South Sudan split from the nation, a man is shot dead. To make up…

The Believers

Dir. Wattanapong Wongwan

When people donate to temples, they rarely contemplate the way these donations are used for its upkeep and renovation, and…

Pyramid Game

Dir. Park So-yeon

High school can be an incredibly cruel place, but it’s not as systematically cruel as the Baekyeon Girls’ High School…

Criminal Record

With the various police procedurals available online, it can feel like an oversaturated genre, at best. At worst, with the…

Interior Chinatown

When adapting a novel, television showrunners have to transform the text into video, so sometimes, things get cut, lines get…

The Bequeathed

Dir. Min Hong-nam

Succession, whether that be of family assets or of job titles, is always a tricky situation to navigate– often, those…

Stonewalling

Dir. Huang Ji & Ryuji Otsuka

At two hours and nearly 30 minutes, Stonewalling is quite long. The third film from spouses Ryuji Otsuka and Huang…

Terrestrial Verses

Dir. Ali Asgari & Alireza Khatami

Since we live in a society, interacting with authority is inescapable. Terrestrial Verses depict fairly mundane day-to-day interactions– getting a…

Expats

With immigration being a vastly different experience across race, gender, and origin country, it can be easy to dismiss Amazon…

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World

Dir. Radu Jude

With a title like this, it was expected that Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World…

Black Cake

We don’t really know our parents the same way they know about us. Black Cake recognizes this, and takes that…

Nothing to See Here

When a comedy is centered around people with disabilities, there’s a worry that the humor would be unfunny or demeaning…

Simón

Dir. Diego Vicentini & Diego Vincentini

While we would like to think that we would do all we can to fight against a tyrannical regime, it’s…

Kaala Paani

Dir. Amit Golani & Sameer Saxena

There’s a lot happening in Netflix’s first Hindi survival thriller series Kaala Paani. The main plot follows the discovery of…

Bad Press

Dir. Joe Peeler & Rebecca Landsberry-Baker

We all learned that it’s good to have a free press, but most of us rarely consider why it’s good,…

The Secret Agent

Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho

From 1964-1985, Brazil was under a military dictatorship. If you’re looking for films about this period of time, you can…

Revenant

Dir. Lee Jeong-lim

Mysterious and hair-raising, Revenant is a supernatural drama whose demonic possession deals with modern-day detectives and Korean folklore. This strange…

Tell Me That You Love Me

Dir. Kim Yoon-jin

Romantic relationships can come and go, but sometimes, one partner comes along and irrevocably changes your life forever. Tell Me…

Abang Adik

Dir. Jin Ong

At the fringes of society, sometimes, all you have is your family. You would do all you can to feed,…

The Good Bad Mother

Life never goes the way we expect, especially for those who don’t have plenty of options. Because of this, parents…

About Dry Grasses

Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Given the controversial subject matter, there’s something remarkably placid about the way About Dry Grasses proceeds. Amidst the snowy white…

Maestra: Strings of Truth

Dir. Kim Jeong-kwon

After titles like Tár (2022) and the Dutch film The Conductor (2018), Western female conductors continue to intrigue audiences as…

A Thousand and One

Dir. A.V. Rockwell

At once intimate and sweeping, A Thousand and One seamlessly weaves Inez’s personal turmoil and familial troubles with the systemic…

Crashing Eid

Dir. Ali Alattas & Said Zagha

As the world becomes more globalized, it’s possible for people to form relationships with people across the world, from different…

The Settlers

Dir. Felipe Gálvez

Horse riding. Gunslinging. Revenge and protection. These are notable elements in a Western, Spaghetti or otherwise. But rarely do these…

Trial by Fire

Dir. Avani Deshpande & Prashant Nair

Tragedy can strike at any time, but some instances are preventable, and rare is the instance where people do seek…

Captain Miller

Dir. Arun Matheswaran

Set in the British colonial era, Captain Miller is more unapologetically violent than its counterparts, but it’s not mindlessly so.…

She Said

Dir. Maria Schrader

In 2017, the New York Times published a groundbreaking report by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey that detailed, for the…

Can You See Us?

Dir. Kenny Mumba

As the first Zambian film on Netflix, Can You See Us? is an interesting portrayal of albinism. Inspired by the…