15 Best Japanese Movies | How To Know Japan Cinema
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Latin American cinema is quite unique in world cinema for its emotional depth and social honesty, very much like Iranian movies. Similarly, unlike big-budget Hollywood productions, the best Latin American movies are about everyday struggles, the tension between tradition and change, and what drives people’s lives.
It’s no wonder that Latin America has produced some of the most powerful and politically charged films. Whichever Latin American country you look at, you will find stories closer to home and traditions. The authenticity of these local stories also makes them universally relatable.
So, I will discuss the list of best cine Latino movies across the continent. Most of the movies are contemporary. But if you want a classic Latino movies list, just mention it in the comment section. For now, let’s discuss the famous movies from Latin America!
Retablo is one of the best Latino movies from Peru. The movie provides a rare and authentic representation of Indigenous Andean culture.
Segundo is a 14-year-old boy training under his father to become a retablo maker. It is an artisan profession that creates devotional altarpieces for homes and churches. Segundo admires his father and is proud of their sacred craft.
However, Segundo’s world shatters when he accidentally discovers that his father is queer. That challenges everything he has known. The revelation isolates him within his conservative rural community, pushing him into emotional conflict and a difficult journey of acceptance.
La odisea de los giles is one of the best cine Latino movies, taken from the novel La noche de la Usina by Eduardo Sacheri. The film stars Ricardo Darín and his real-life son Chino Darín. The film happens during Argentina’s 2001 financial crisis.
The story begins in a rural town where a group of neighbors, including a retired soccer star, a mechanic, and a widow, pool their life savings to revive an old grain storage facility. Their dream takes a plunge when a corrupt lawyer and bank manager defraud them. Overnight, they lose everything.
Instead of giving in, the neighbors come together with a new plan to recover their stolen money. They find that the corrupt lawyer has hidden the cash in an underground vault on a private estate. What happens next is a risky and clever heist, full of tense moments.
Heroic Losers won the 2020 Goya Award, making it one of the best Latino movies. It was also Argentina’s official entry for the 2020 Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category.
Apart from these 2 great Latin American movies, Argentina has many more movies to offer. Check out the best Argentinian movies for a great list.
Machuca is a 2004 Chilean drama film by Andrés Wood. To bring authenticity to this great Latino movie, Andrés went for non-professional actors. This is one of the great coming of age movies about Wood’s childhood experiences during the early 1970s in Chile.
Gonzalo is a wealthy boy, while Pedro comes from a poor neighborhood. But both attend the same elite private school. It’s because the school’s headmaster, Father McEnroe, has an integration program in place to bring students from different social classes together.
As the boys become friends, there’s also a growing political unrest in Chile. When the coup of 1973 nears, the fragile friendships divided by social class begin to crumble. Eventually, the friendships become a casualty of the escalating violence and class conflict.
Machuca won Best Latin American Film at the Huelva Latin American Film Festival and received nominations at the Goya Awards and Mar del Plata Film Festival. It is one of the best Latin American movies on Netflix to watch.
A Fantastic Woman is one of the best cine Latino movies by Sebastián Lelio. The film stars Daniela Vega, a real-life transgender woman. She became the first trans actress to present at the Academy Awards.
Marina is a young transgender woman living in Santiago, Chile, who works as a singer and waitress. One day, Orlando, her older boyfriend, unexpectedly dies. Now, she’s the suspect just because of her gender identity. Meanwhile, she is mourning and struggling to prove her dignity after such discrimination.
Despite these obstacles, she remains resilient and works to prove her innocence and recognition of her identity. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the first Chilean film to receive this honor.
Nise: O Coração da Loucura is one of the best Latin American movies on Netflix. It is about the life of Dr. Nise da Silveira, a pioneering psychiatrist who challenged conventional psychiatric treatments in 1940s Brazil. Glória Pires, who plays Dr. Nise, won the Best Actress award at the 2015 Tokyo International Film Festival.
Nise returns to work at the psychiatric hospital after being imprisoned for her political beliefs during Brazil’s authoritarian regime. Instead of following electroshock therapy and lobotomy, she introduces a progressive approach—using art as therapy.
She encourages patients to express their emotions through painting. As Nise’s therapy gains success, she forms the Casa das Palmeiras, a space for her patients to showcase their artwork. This therapeutic shift helps her patients find a sense of self-worth and humanity.
Brazil, as one of the biggest countries of Latin America, has a lot to offer when it comes to literature. You should explore the best Brazilian books to find your next read. And why not the best Brazilian movies for more hidden gems?
Sueño en otro idioma is one of the best cine Latino movies from Mexico. The movie is a blend of drama, magical realism, and linguistic anthropology. This film is really interesting because a fully fictional indigenous language, Zikril, was created for the movie. Ernesto Contreras, one of the famous people in Mexico, is behind the movie direction.
Martín is a passionate linguist who arrives in a remote village to study and record Zikril, a nearly extinct indigenous language. Evaristo and Isauro are the only two elderly men who speak the language. Interestingly, the two men have not spoken to each other in over 50 years due to a mysterious falling-out.
Martín’s research is in limbo because of their silence. And, he must find the reasons behind their silence. Over time, he learns that Evaristo and Isauro their bond was broken by cultural and societal pressures. The silence between them is not just linguistic but emotional, tied to grief, betrayal, and internalized shame.
Eventually, Martín’s work becomes less about language preservation and more about healing emotional wounds. The film won the Audience Award for World Cinema at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. If you want to read more about Indigenous cultures and languages, check out my favourite Indigenous books.
The Kings of the World is one of the famous Latino movies from Colombia. The film features non-professional actors playing a group of street-connected teenagers. The film’s shooting took place across Shot across Colombia, and the result is raw and visually stunning.
The story is about five boys who live on Medellín streets without family support. They make a strong bond in a place devoid of laws. And they show disobedience and resistance in their own way.
All of this starts when Rá inherits land from his late grandmother through a government restitution program. They travel the Colombian countryside to claim Rá’s inherited land. Along the journey, they encounter different individuals, helping or hindering their progress.
Since it is one of the best cine Latino movies, meaning it is in Spanish. So, why not learn Spanish to enjoy the movies in their original language?
The Pope’s Toilet is one of the great Latin American movies directed by César Charlone. Now, Charlone is the same guy who did cinematography for the City of God. The film mixes dry humor and realism to show the struggles of poverty and hope.
Beto is a smuggler living in the small town of Melo in 1988, near the Brazil-Uruguay border. Things change when news about the visit of Pope John Paul II reaches the village. The townspeople believe this rare event will bring thousands of pilgrims, offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make money.
While others prepare to sell food or souvenirs, Beto comes up with an unusual business idea. To build a pay-to-use toilet for the expected visitors. As Beto works tirelessly on constructing “the Pope’s toilet,” he faces many challenges.
The film uses this absurd plan to discuss dignity, faith, and survival under poverty. This movie was Uruguay’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 80th Academy Awards.
Although people have many Mexican stereotypes, saying Mexican cinema doesn’t produce great movies is certainly exaggerated. It’s because you can include La Camarista in one of the best Latin American movies. This film has a minimalist storytelling and an intimate character study through labor, class, and invisibility in urban society.
Eve is a reserved hotel maid working in one of Mexico City’s luxury hotels. She finds her daily routine rigid and boring. She also hopes to get promoted to a more prestigious floor for a better payday.
To improve her chances, she enrolls in adult education classes, fleeting friendships, and does small misdeeds. Through these, we see her inner person. However, institutional barriers and personal disappointments continually frustrate her efforts. It is a subtle critique of social structures that limit upward mobility for working-class women.
The film was Mexico’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. Mexico has a great art culture, and you can explore that through famous Mexican singers and Mexican books.
Satanás is one of the best cine Latino movies from Colombia. The plot is taken from the award-winning novel Satanás by Mario Mendoza. The film has plenty of crime, psychological tension, and social commentary about a society on the edge of collapse.
Enrique is a former-priest-now-English-teacher, who becomes mentally unstable due to extreme alienation. His thoughts get darker as he gets more paranoid.
There are also two other characters. Paola is a young woman working in a high-end bar. While Ernesto is a scam artist who preys on the elderly.
These three stories unfold simultaneously in Bogotá, as the narrative converges towards a harrowing climax. The film won the Best First Feature Award at the 2007 Guadalajara Film Festival.
Once you watch Satanás, you should also consider watching these Colombian movies.
Utama is one of the best Latin American movies from Bolivia. The film happens in the Bolivian highlands and is about indigenous life. It won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
The story is about an elderly Quechua couple, Virginio and Sisa, who have maintained the same daily routine for years. Their tranquil life is disrupted by an unusually long drought that threatens their way of life. Virginio, who is secretly ill, continues to graze their llamas, while Sisa walks miles to fetch water.
When their grandson, Clever, comes from the city, everything changes. He urges his grandparents to relocate to the city for better living and medical care. However, the couple grapples with the decision of preserving their traditional lifestyle and adapting to a new environment.
The Aura is an Argentinian neo-noir crime thriller movie directed by Fabián Bielinsky. I have also covered another classic film, Nine Queens, in the best Brazilian movies. This was his last film before his untimely death in 2006.
Esteban Espinosa is an introverted taxidermist who suffers from epileptic seizures. While on a hunting trip in the Patagonian forest, he accidentally kills a man who was planning a heist.
Now, Espinosa always wanted to pull off the perfect crime. And this murder gives him the perfect opportunity.
He assumes the dead man’s identity and plans the heist. However, his lack of experience with his neurological condition creates suspense. Will he pull off the heist? Or make things worse?
The Aura won the Best Film at the Havana Film Festival and the Silver Condor Awards by the Argentine Film Critics Association. It is one of the best Latin American movies if you love slow-burns.
It’s pretty evident from our list of best Latin American movies that Latino cinema is quite innovative when it comes to stories. And that’s what matters. If the story is good, you can always make an excuse to watch a great Latino movie.
Another incredible factor is the dedication of directors who deliver Latin American movies on modest budgets. Yet, these cine Latino movies go beyond the borders and even Latin America. Their winnings in world cinema music festivals certainly testify to that.
If you have any favourite Latin American movies to share, please leave a comment!
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