1. Money Heist/La Casa de Papel: Spain
This Spanish crime show revolves around a gang of robbers involved in two heists—the first at the Royal Mint of Spain and the second at the Bank of Spain—and their police investigation team counterpart. As all the characters develop through exposition and their actions during the heists, the idea of 'criminals are bad, police are good' shatters, asking a question that not only Spain, but much of the world must one day answer: Who is the real criminal here?
2. Bad Genius/ฉลาดเกมส์โกง:Thailand
This Thai film features Lynn, a genius lower-class teen, who attends a prestigious academy along with Grace and Pat, upper-class teens who are notoriously bad at schoolwork. When Pat's funding from his parents is on the verge of being cut off due to his grades, he and Grace look to Lynn for "tutoring", which turns into a popular business for all the low-ranking rich kids at the academy to benefit from. When the STIC, an international college-entrance exam, comes around, Lynn is offered a ludicrous amount to provide answers to all of Thailand's test-takers who are willing to pay. Once things get sticky, Lynn must face the reality of her situation and ask herself if she values money over education.
3. Osmosis: France
In the near future in Paris, dating and sex is shifting towards a completely virtual experience. Enter Osmosis, a revolutionary piece of technology that can find your true love with 100% certainty by assessing your brain data. Of course, when you combine technology with something as powerful as the human brain, there will be unintended consequences. The line between love and desire is blurred, and despite Osmosis's guarantee of finding your soulmate, smooth sailing is not guaranteed.
4. My Happy Family/ჩემი ბედნიერი ოჯახი: Georgia
Manana is a wife, daughter and mother in a three-generation household in Tbilisi, Georgia. Fed up with her living circumstances while juggling work as a schoolteacher, Manana decides to go live by herself, defying societal expectations of women in her position. However, as her scandalous situation is uncovered to those around her, Manana must overcome gossip, privacy intrusions and accidentally finding out a life-altering secret.
5. The Platform/El hoyo: Spain
The Platform is a massive prison consisting of seemingly infinite levels with 2 prisoners per level. Once per month, the prisoners wake up on a new level, sometimes lower, sometimes higher. There is a slab upon which food descends every day, enough for all of the prisoners, however the greed of man makes it so that the plentiful food never actually reaches the bottom. For those poor unfortunate souls at the bottom of the platform, one must do whatever it takes to survive.
6. Lionheart: Nigeria
When Chief Ernest Obiagu, the head of the powerful Lionheart Transportation, falls ill and is unable to work for a time, everyone expects him to fill the vacancy with his daughter, Adaeze, who has been working alongside him for seven years. Much to the company's, and Adaeze's, surprise, he instead brings his eccentric brother, Godswill, to help run the company. When Adaeze and Godswill find out that the company is in severe debt, Adaeze must step up to the challenge and be the businesswoman her father has raised her to be.
7. Parasite/기생충: South Korea
Obviously I can't write an article about foreign language films without including the historic 2020 Academy Awards Best Film. "Parasite" is a South Korean film about the impoverished Kim family slowly scamming their way into the Park residence, the high-class family's mansion, by posing as tutors, butlers and chauffeurs for them. The strife between the two extremes of economic class intensifies throughout the entire film until an unexpected development makes the entire operation blow up in their faces.
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