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This film, masterful in its story, characters and direction, serves as a cautionary tale to those who might regard "recreational" drug use as a victimless crime.

Content: Rated R for drug content and language. Suitable for older teenagers and adults.

Nine Queens

(Argentina, 2000)

If you enjoy David Mamet's cat-and-mouse scenarios in The Spanish Prisoner, House of Games, and Heist, you'll love this clever fast-paced Argentinian thriller in which few characters are who they initially seem to be. In a movie that reveals bluff within bluff, the biggest con is the one that's pulled on the viewer.

What's so great about a pair of swindlers who set out to sell a forged edition of rare stamps (the "nine queens") to a wealthy entrepreneur for $450,000? The way their conniving reveals the pitfalls of greed ruling a human heart? The way the movie reminds us how easily we are deceived? The way it shows how one deception leads to another? Yes, that too. The movie does all these things, but, honestly, it's the thrill of the ride—the surprises that we cannot help but relish—that makes it one of the most enjoyable foreign films out there.

Content: The film isn't rated, but contains offensive language and sexual references. Mature viewers only.

The Official Story

(Argentina, 1985)

In the 1970s and 80s, the Argentine dictatorship abducted and/or murdered citizens who had any links, real or imagined, to the Marxist rebels who sought to overthrow them. Thousands of innocent people disappeared—including many children. Many of those children were adopted by the families of the murderers. In this excellent Oscar-winning drama, we see the plight of young adults who are faced with a horrible choice: whether to embrace their adoptive family—which may have been complicit in the disappearance and execution of their biological family.

The dictatorship's end came when, to buoy public opinion, they decided to invade the British-controlled Falkland Islands. They quickly discovered, as did Napoleon and Hitler, that the Royal Navy ought not to be underestimated. The war was over in 76 days. The Argentine people had had enough and began a long road toward the democracy they enjoy today.

Content: Suitable for older teenagers and adults.

Salaam Bombay!

(India, 1988)

Bombay, the economic center of the world's largest democracy (1.2 billion people), is a city of dizzying contrasts, hosts the world's largest film industry in the world and office space is more expensive than anywhere on earth. Meanwhile, many of its 18 million people, including countless children, live on the streets.

In this film, we follow the fortunes of a young boy as he delivers chai (a form of tea) to shopkeepers and residents. Working for almost nothing, he is charged for breaking a bottle, pushing him to the brink of financial ruin. One of his neighbors is a beautiful Nepali girl who has been sold to a brothel. When he brings her chai, she is at first scornful. Eventually they become casual acquaintances in a sea of humanity.

The greeting "salaam" is a variation of "shalom," implying hope and goodwill, and director Nair finds those qualities in her actors—street kids themselves—who live on the brink of starvation and death.

Content: Suitable for thoughtful middle-schoolers and adults.

The Son of the Bride

(Argentina, 2001)

See if this sounds familiar: A middle-aged restaurateur is so tired at the end of the day that all he wants to do is veg out watching reruns of old Zorro movies on TV. His ex-wife is upset that he spends too little time with their teenage daughter. He finds it hard to visit his mother whose Alzheimer's scares him. His girlfriend … Let's just say that other pressures converge on him as well, and—you've guessed it—his classic midlife crisis culminates in a heart attack.

But this is not a classic movie about midlife crisis. Unlike American Beauty, The Son of the Bride is tender and fresh, and anything but ostentatious.

Health problems, of course, have a way of making us ask ourselves the questions we've been eluding by, say, watching old reruns on TV. When the protagonist of this bittersweet comedy does the hard work of asking the questions, he becomes more alive. As we all should after any crisis.

Content: Rated R for sexuality. Suitable for mature viewers only.

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