Foreign-language Oscar entries open windows into unfamiliar cultures and new ideas

Several of the 85 entries in the foreign-language film Oscar derby lend Western viewers rare glimpses into unfamiliar cultures. Others feel like American films through foreign lenses. Here are just five of the top contenders:

SAND STORM (Israel)

An intimate family drama in a modern Bedouin household. Writer-director Elite Zexer became very close over the years to Bedouin women in desert villages through her mother’s work as a photographer.

“On one of our visits, we escorted a young woman during her wedding to a strange man, a man she only married to please her family, while she secretly loved another,” she says. “Minutes before she met him for the first time, she turned to me and said, ‘This will never happen to my daughter.’ I looked at her and felt my stomach twitching. That’s the moment I knew that I had to make this movie.”

The understated film depicts the effect of long-ingrained cultural norms on Bedouin women but also shows how even men are trapped in an ancient loop.

Zexer says she thinks audiences can relate to this family from a culture rarely portrayed onscreen because “they feel how strong the women are, how courageous; how goodhearted the father is, even if he is caught in a set of binding rules. They can understand that the film is showing how the situation of the society is very complex, and can be viewed in many ways.”

THE SALESMAN (Iran)

This film takes a premise that would fit right into a Hollywood genre mystery, mixes it with obsession and revenge, and sets it in Tehran. While performing in a local production of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” a couple experiences a shattering incident it struggles to understand.

“I’ve strived for the drama taking shape in my stories to be the outcome of the details of daily life, details that seem ordinary and simple, and that we all face and deal with daily in our lives,” director Asghar Farhadi says.

“Incorporating the thriller — prime examples of which are American, e.g. Hitchcock’s films — into daily life and reality, is something I am always trying to expand on in all my films. You could call these films ‘reality thrillers.’ ”

The differences between how “Salesman” unfolds and how Western audiences might expect are stark — and rooted in the culture of today’s Iran.

“Thematically, humiliation is at the heart of ‘Death of a Salesman.’ … In ‘The Salesman’ too, Emad, the main character, undergoes humiliations all through the story. Ultimately, it is this feeling that results in Emad acting in a way that is unexpected for us.”

TONI ERDMANN (Germany)

If “Salesman” feels ripe for an American remake, “Toni Erdmann” already feels like a remake of an American comedy. A fun-loving 60-ish dad pays a surprise visit to his career-focused, too-serious daughter. Hilarity ensues, right? Well, it does when Peter Simonischek is onscreen in a delightfully unpredictable performance. Simonischek resembles an even more evil Maximilian Schell, sometimes outfitted with fake teeth, foolish brown wig and whoopee cushion.

“I come from drama. All the comedy of the film comes from the desperation of the characters,” says Maren Ade, writer and director of the international FIPRESCI Prize winner. “I wasn’t sure how funny it would be in the end because we were concentrating so hard on the characters, and for them it was really a tough struggle. So I was very happy when the comedy came through with a full audience.”

It takes a very long time to get where it’s going, though — any American pass at a remake (calling Will Ferrell and Emma Stone) would likely be half “Erdmann’s” nearly three-hour length. Caveat auditorium: Viewers will never look at petit fours the same way again.

A MAN CALLED OVE (Sweden)

Based on Fredrik Backman’s novel, “Ove” is a gentle character study that sets itself the difficult task of redeeming an obnoxious protagonist through back story and comic vignettes.

“It was really interesting and rewarding for me to have the opportunity to show how a stubborn, grumpy old man became that stubborn, grumpy old man,” says writer-director Hannes Holm. “Where does his bitterness get its fuel? Is there any hope for stubborn idiots like Ove? During the production it became clear to me how important it is to explain normal people’s irrational behavior. Especially these days, when racism and selfishness and fear intrudes more and more in our world.

“The audiences’ reactions in the theaters all over the world have been the same. People laugh and cry at almost exactly the same places. Of course, there’s no surprise by the fact that the grumpy old man is an international phenomenon.”

NERUDA (Chile)

Director Pablo Larraín takes a bold approach to conveying the essence of Chilean poet and national hero Pablo Neruda. Stylized, shot largely in mild fisheye and seemingly structured in opposing stanzas while employing poetic language, the not-really-a-biopic focuses on Neruda’s time underground as his government cracked down on communists.

“If there’s anything hard and dangerous in cinema, it’s to bring poetry to the screen,” says Larraín. “There are specific poems that have a distinctive rhythm, sometimes connected to ideas of love; sometimes political ideas that are full of rage and fury. That rhythm is the one we intended to bring into the cinematic experience.

“We tried to describe the Nerudian world more than Neruda. It’s about the cosmos he created. We tried to grab as much as we could from his life and his world, but you can’t put him in a box. To grab Neruda is like grabbing water in your hand. You can hold him for a couple of seconds, it would drain, but your hand stays wet.”

Other notable foreign entries include another Hollywood-influenced film, “The Age of Shadows” (South Korea), Warner Bros.’ first Korean-language co-production. The patriotic “Age” is a well-shot but convoluted espionage thriller set during the Japanese occupation of the 1920s.

A more novel twist on a cinematic trope is “Desierto” (Mexico), directed by Jonás Cuarón, son of Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón. Here the “world’s most dangerous game” gets spun by the illegal immigrant/defender of the border dynamic. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan on “The Walking Dead”) adds another psycho to his résumé as a bloodthirsty American hunter of unarmed migrants in the desert. Gael García Bernal plays a noble father trying to survive the pursuit on his way to reuniting with his son in the U.S. Cuarón effectively creates tension in a tightly focused narrative.

Like “Neruda,” “Nagasaki: Memories of My Son” (Japan) feels stylized – even downright theatrical. It concerns the friendly haunting of an elderly Japanese woman by the ghost of her son, who perished in the atomic bomb attack. It features a lush score by Ryuchi Sakamoto. “My Life as a Zucchini” (Switzerland) is an animated heart-tugger about life in an orphanage and the chances for healing among children who’ve been through horrific experiences. Not for young kids.

The impeccably shot “Tanna” (Australia) is another heretofore hidden window like “Sand Storm,” this time into the world of indigenous tribes on a South Pacific island. Acted entirely by actual tribes people, its tale of star-crossed love in an ancient culture is based on a true story. “Tanna” has been nominated for five “Aussie Oscars,” including best picture.

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