Foreign Film Discussions

This group is for relaxed discussion of recent foreign films - of all types, from any country. We keep the number of meeting participants small so everyone has an equal opportunity to speak. In addition, our aim is not to be technical film critics. The goal is to search out films that give us an alternative cultural, social, political viewpoint - a viewpoint that comes from the rest of the world outside the US. And our main interest is in character development, relationships, and story.

As Scott Roxborough of the Hollywood Reporter puts it:
“Hollywood has stopped making movies for adults, with a few exceptions. That leaves room for the Europeans, who only make films for adults.”

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Eye in the Sky is a 2015 British war/political thriller film, starring Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman, directed by Gavin Hood. The film explores the ethical challenges of drone warfare & collateral damage.

Critics consensus: “As taut as it is timely, Eye in the Sky offers a powerfully acted -- and unusually cerebral -- spin on the modern wartime political thriller.”

“To their enormous credit, director Gavin Hood and writer Guy Hibbert offer no easy answers and take no easy outs, electing instead to keep viewers as conflicted and uncomfortable as the characters on the screen.”

This group is for relaxed discussion of recent foreign films - of all types, from any country. We keep the number of meeting participants small so everyone has an equal opportunity to speak. In addition, our aim is not to be technical film critics. The goal is to search out films that give us an alternative cultural, social, political viewpoint - a viewpoint that comes from the rest of the world outside the US. And our main interest is in character development, relationships, and story.

As Scott Roxborough of the Hollywood Reporter puts it:
“Hollywood has stopped making movies for adults, with a few exceptions. That leaves room for the Europeans, who only make films for adults.”

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Sentimental Value is a 2025 Norwegian drama film directed by Joachim Trier. “Sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film.”

The film is one of the 2026 Oscar nominees for best picture (there’s no way it will win of course), and each of the four lead actors are award nominees. The movie won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.

“Deftly exploring the uneasy tension between artistic expression and personal connection, Sentimental Value is a bracingly mature work that's marvelously acted across the board.”

Joachim Trier is a Danish-Norwegian filmmaker whose films have been described as “melancholy meditations concerned with existential questions of love, ambition, memory, and identity.” All of that certainly applies to this film, which addresses a number of profound adult themes.