Drama QueensIndie and Foreign Films At The Venice Film FestivalWhat: Upcoming indie and foreign films take you from Europe to the slums of Brazil to the Far East.

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The Dirt:
Are you a fan of the American flicks that are so depressing you leave happy your life is seemingly ‘normal’? Or, do you put up with subtitles to get a dose of the international films, be they the African or Latin American, which often show faraway, seemingly unfamiliar lands, offering a mini cultural and geographical education. Or, what about the Asian film addicts, who crave either the special effects and sincerity of Asian action films or the genius lighting that romanticizes most any shot in the drama films? No matter your preference, the following films, in addition to a variety from Europe proper, will soon court cinema whores in their journey to the two-hour vacation or therapy session.

From the director of The Weight of Water and K-19: The Widowmaker comes Hurt Locker, a tale of a special operations group in Iraq. Kathryn Bigelow directs Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes in this war movie that attempts to show the daily lives of special ops soldiers at war.

Set in Kabul, Afghanistan, Barmark Akram’s Kabuli Kid is a drama about a cab driver and his passengers and a strange occurrence that changes his life. In Farsi with English subtitles, the film follows the driver as he searches for an unknown burqa-wearing passenger who left her baby in the backseat.

A British drama from Sallie Aprahamian,Broken Lines stars Paul Bettany, best known for his role in A Beautiful Mind. The film follows individuals returning to the past from which they fled in light of family tragedies.

Moving east, the director of Unknown Pleasures, Jia Zhang Ke brings us Heshang De Aiqing or Cry Me a River. In Mandarin with English subtitles, this short film is a reunion of friends a decade after they graduate from college, the tale of the evolution of humans from teenagers to adulthood.

Plastic Nation is a journey through the daily lives of East Asian immigrants living in Sao Paolo, Brazil. This Yu Lik-wai film featuring Anthony Wong of Infernal Affairs will likely require concentration as it follows the Chinese community in a Brazilian city and despite English subtitles, features Chinese, English, Spanish and Portuguese. Wong plays a father and the neighborhood god of stolen goods whose son, played by Jo Odagiri of Princess Raccoon, is a playboy. Both of their lives are disrupted when dirty politicians and gangsters threaten their success. The story shows the lives of immigrants against the backdrop of Brazil, with its breathtaking Amazon and its dangerous, poverty-stricken favelas (slums). Meanwhile, according to IMDB, Odagiri is also in the next film from the South Korean director of 3-Iron and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Ki-duk Kim, whose latest project is reportedly called Bi-mong or Dream.

Stay tuned for reports on films showing in Toronto next week…