10 Best Foreign-Language Movies on Hulu

10 Best Foreign-Language Movies on Hulu

November 21, 2024

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Ever since it became a Disney entity, Hulu has fast become a prolific source of entertainment. Not only does it produce original content left and right, but it also actively acquires titles from all around the globe, making it an ideal option for foreign-movie lovers. 

Like any other streamer, Hulu occasionally changes the line-up to keep things fresh, but despite the constant shifts and heavy volume, there are always foreign title gems to choose from, and we’ve gathered the very best of them below.

1. The Guilty (2018)

best

9.0

Country

Denmark

Director

Gustav Möller

Actors

Alexander Clement, Anders Brink Madsen, Camilla Lau, Gustav Möller

Moods

Intense, Mind-blowing, Suspenseful

Before you press play on this movie, we highly recommend you take a few very deep breaths. This 2018 thriller is wound so tight, you will need the extra oxygen to get through it without fainting. In his directorial debut, Swedish-danish filmmaker Gustav Möller uses very little in terms of resources to create this breath-taking atmosphere. While The Guilty feels like it was made on a $100 million budget, all it physically brings to the table is one man in a dark room. It plays with our imagination instead of blinding it with special effects. Similarly, the plot is also short and sweet: a police officer is temporarily sent to do emergency dispatch, when he receives a call that turns an ordinary shift into a hell ride. This is all we are going to give away before you’ve completed your breathing exercises. The movie’s minimalist approach is held together by great acting from Jakob Cedergre, a screenplay to match, and incredible sound design. A real white-knuckle ride.

2. Saint Omer (2022)

best

9.0

Country

France

Director

Alice Diop, Female director

Actors

Adama Diallo Tamba, Alain Payen, Aurelia Petit, Charlotte Clamens

Moods

Challenging, Emotional, Intense

Nothing about Saint Omer is easy. A female Senegalese migrant (Guslagie Malanga) is put to trial for committing infanticide, but throughout the film, it becomes clear how much of a victim she is too, of an uncaring and deeply prejudiced society. “What drove her to madness?” Her attorney asks at one point. We’re not sure. We’re not necessarily asked to side with her, nor answer the many hard-hitting questions brought up in the film, but we sit with the uneasiness of it all and, in that silence, confront our ideas about motherhood, womanhood, personhood. 

This confusion is what makes the film so compelling. Despite the court’s best efforts, Laurence isn’t meant to be understood. She’s meant to be an example of the ever-ambiguous, forever-complicated, always-hurt person. It’s human nature after all to be this complex and messed up. The film shows us that the best that we can do in situations like this is to listen, understand, and as our protagonist Rama (Kayije Kagame) does, make peace with the noise. 

3. Smoking Causes Coughing (2022)

7.7

Country

France

Director

Quentin Dupieux

Actors

Adèle Exarchopoulos, Alain Chabat, Anaïs Demoustier, Anthony Sonigo

Moods

Easy, Funny, Grown-up Comedy

At 80 minutes, Smoking Causes Coughing is another slice of perfectly paced absurdist fun from Quentin Dupieux, the zany mind behind Rubber (in which a car tire turns serial killer) and Deerskin, the tale of a motorcycle jacket that wants to rule the world. This time around, the protagonists aren’t inanimate objects: they’re Tobacco Force, a Power Rangers-style band of lightly idiotic superheroes who harness the toxic power of cigarettes to defeat Earth’s enemies, and are each named after one of their harmful components (Benzene, Nicotine, Mercury, Ammonia, and Methanol). They’re led by Chief Didier, a rat who inexplicably dribbles green goo — and, even more inexplicably, casts an intense erotic spell over Tobacco Force’s female members.

Smoking Causes Coughing leans deliriously, hilariously far into its absurdist premise. Citing a lack of “group cohesion,” Chief Didier sends the Force to the woods on a team-building retreat. While they swap “scary” stories over a campfire, however, a reptilian galactic supervillain plots to put Earth “out of its misery” because it’s a “sick planet” (can’t really argue with that). Full of insane plot twists and without a tired trope in sight, Smoking Causes Coughing never approaches the realm of predictability — no small achievement in this era of superhero fatigue.

4. Broker (2022)

7.6

Country

South Korea

Director

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Actors

Bae Doona, Baek Hyun-jin, Bek Hyun-jin, Choi Hee-jin

Moods

Dramatic, Emotional, Heart-warming

Directed by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda, the Korean film Broker is a simple but tender story about chosen family. It follows Moon So-young (IU), a young mother who decides to drop her baby off at a church, seemingly for good. But when So-young decides to return for the child, she discovers that he’s been stolen by two brokers who’ve put the baby up for adoption on the black market. She joins them in the hopes of meeting her child’s prospective new parents (and staking a claim at the payment) but the more they spend time with each other, acting like a real family on the road as they do, the more it becomes real for her, and the more she feels conflicted about the decision she’s about to make.

As with any Hirokazu Koreeda film, Broker is an affecting, empathetic story that succeeds at humanizing its misunderstood cast of characters. Admittedly, it’s not the best Koreeda movie out there, even when the category is narrowed down to stories about found families (the best in that regard would be his 2018 film Shoplifters). And Koreeda fans will find Broker somewhat scrubbed and Disney-fied for a larger crowd, lacking the edge that his previous Japanese films had. But it is undeniably heartwarming and beautiful. The road trip setup allows the characters to build their rapport naturally, and the warm crisp tones capture the seabreeze ease of the film. Regardless of your view on Koreeda, Broker is well worth a watch.

5. Night of the Kings (2021)

7.6

Country

Canada, Cote D'Ivoire, France

Director

Philippe Lacôte

Actors

Denis Lavant, Digbeu Jean Cyrille, Issaka Sawadogo, Koné Bakary

Moods

Gripping, Original, Thought-provoking

With a script that seems to have been written for a medieval fantasy, but set in a present-day Ivorian jail, Night of the Kings immediately situates itself between the realms of reality and imagination. Whether or not one thinks that certain details about the prison’s strange rituals have been lost in translation, the mysticism surrounding the events of the movie remains impossible to shake. The idea of improvising one’s way out of trouble should make sense in any cultural context after all, and this is what keeps the film on edge—and what helps Night of the Kings work as such a singular vision from an often underrepresented region of world cinema.

6. 12th Fail (2023)

7.2

Country

India

Director

Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Actors

Abhishek Sengupta, Anant Joshi, Anshumaan Pushkar, Geeta Agrawal Sharma

Moods

Challenging, Character-driven, Discussion-sparking

When everyone around you is cheating, the temptation to join in is tempting, especially if you’re not confident in your own abilities. 12th Fail is the story of IPS officer Manoj Kumar Sharma, and it’s a story about how one instance of honesty sets him on a path to become the same honest police officer that helped save his brother’s life. While it does take a fairly standard message, and the pace falters a bit as it goes on, the biopic depicts this from an understanding of how things are unfairly stacked against people like Manoj, but also with an understanding that the country needs more everyday people in their ranks. 12th Fail may be a familiar underdog story, but it’s lovely, well-made, and unironically sincere in its message to be honest, even when the odds are stacked against you.

7. Y tu mamá también (2001)

7.0

Country

Mexico, United States of America

Director

Alfonso Cuarón

Actors

Ana López Mercado, Andrés Almeida, Arturo Ríos, Daniel Giménez Cacho

Moods

Character-driven, Discussion-sparking, Slice-of-Life

Directed by Roma auteur Alfonso Cuarón, this sexually charged, coming-of-age road trip film traverses the landscapes of Mexico while interspersing social commentary on the socio-economic realities of the 1990s. The film follows the adventures of two young friends, Julio and Tenoch, who embark on a trip with an older woman named Luisa. As they explore the beautiful and complex tapestry of their country, their own desires and identities are laid bare. As expected, Cuarón’s interpersonal yet political storytelling uniquely captures the raw emotions and conflicts of youth with a mix of intimacy and societal critique. 

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