Girl Week 2019: Great Foreign Films Directed by Women

Female directors have been really leaving a mark in recent years with films like Wonder Woman, Lady Bird, Mudbound, and others; widely-known films that are both critically acclaimed and loved by the audience. These, however, are not the films I’m going to tackle in my first post for Dell’s Girl Week 2019, the wonderful yearly blogathon that celebrates women in films, as I’m focusing on foreign gems directed by women that touch important themes. 

Alles ist gut (2018)

The first feature of German director Eva Trobisch, this drama follows Janne (Anne Schwarz), a young woman who tries to move on with her life after being raped. While not perfect, the script features a strong and realistic character, a tough woman who is so used on relying on herself that she thinks her best and only option is to pretend like nothing happened, that, as the title says, alles ist gut. Of course, acting as if nothing has happened isn’t easy and Schwartz does a wonderful job at capturing Janne’s struggle. In addition, the film provides a raw and realistic portrayal of the society we live in where rape victims are (still) blamed for the violence. 

Mustang (2015)

The debut of Turkish-French filmmaker Deniz Gamze Ergüven is set in a village in northern Turkey and follows five sisters who, after innocently playing with some boys on their way home from school, are imprisoned in their home, forced to homeschooling and arranged marriages. It’s a story similar to The Virgin Suicides’s but Ergüven proves herself to be more than capable of bringing freshness in the story while addressing and describing the issues concerning women in Turkish society. It’s not as tragic as Coppola’s; it, in fact, leaves a glimmer of hope, and the chemistry between the actresses playing the sister is incredible. 

Wadjda (2012)

The feature-length debut of Saudi Arabian director Haifaa al-Mansour, this drama follows a 10-year-old girl, Wadjda (Waad Mohammed), who desperately wants a green bicycle. Bicycles aren't toys for girls though so she signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition to win the cash prize for first place and buy it herself. While it looks like a simple coming-of-age meeting an average underdog tale, al-Mansour's film is a complex, touching film that depicts the efforts of a young girl to break free from her conservative nation while showing the condition of women in Saudi Arabia and their struggles both in everyday life and emotional.