Top 5 international movies of 2025 – 828reviewsNOW

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — 2025 was a fantastic year for global cinema. From searing docudramas to surreal celebrations of the film medium itself, we visit Brazil, China, Iran, Norway and Palestine to bring you the best international movies of 2025. Read our list below.

Honorable mentions

• “No Other Choice” (2025, 139 min., directed by Park Chan-wook)
• “Nouvelle Vague” (2025, 106 min., directed by Richard Linklater)
• “Reflection in a Dead Diamond” (2025, 87 min., directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani)

5. “THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB” (2025, 89 min., directed by Kaouther Ben Hania)

“The Voice of Hind Rajab” is about the Palestinian Red Crescent’s efforts to save the life of Hind Rami Iyad Rajab, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl, who was killed by Israeli forces – alongside six of her family members – during the Gaza war in January 2024. However, “The Voice of Hind Rajab” is not just a dramatization of Rajab’s story. The film is a fusion of performance and real audio and video: during their attempt to rescue Rajab, the Red Crescent recorded around 70 minutes of phone calls with the little girl. That audio is incorporated into the film, with actors playing the Red Crescent crisis workers responding to the real-life Rajab’s voice in every scene. Elsewhere, the film finds innovative ways to show actual camera footage of the real Red Crescent team alongside their performers. The line between fact and fidelity is blurred to an extreme I have never seen accomplished in quite this way.

At times, “The Voice of Hind Rajab” can be an impossibly difficult movie to watch. It will shatter your heart.

The film is successful in large part thanks to the committed performances from its central quartet of actors. “The Voice of Hind Rajab” stars Saja Kilani as Rana Hassan Faqih, Motaz Malhees as Omar A. Alqam, Amer Hlehel as Mahdi M. Aljamal and Clara Khoury as Nisreen Jeries Qawas, all four portraying the Red Crescent crisis workers who were responsible for coordinating Rajab’s attempted rescue. The work the actors have done to recreate the emotion, strength and conflict of Faqih, Alqam, Aljamal and Qawas is staggering, especially when the audience can see for themselves the accuracy of their performances in the incorporated archival footage.

Perhaps because of the unmistakable realism of the rest, there are sections of “The Voice of Hind Rajab” which do feel overwritten, predominantly concerning an ideological conflict between Malhees’ and Hlehel’s characters. These scenes, in which Malhees begs for immediate action and Hlehel insists on following procedure, are well-performed, but verge on redundancy as the movie bucks against its runtime. It’s an odd case of a story being massively important to tell and narratively spare in the telling, a consequence of the decision to situate the film almost entirely inside of the Red Crescent offices.

In the voice recordings, we hear Rajab introduce herself to the Red Crescent workers by her nickname, Hanood. Through watching the film, the level of trust Hanood gave to them is granted to the audience, too. From the moment you hear her voice, “The Voice of Hind Rajab” is vital viewing.

Rating: 4/5

“The Voice of Hind Rajab” will play in select theaters beginning Dec. 16.

4. “SENTIMENTAL VALUE” (2025, 135 min., directed by Joachim Trier)

One of my favorite movie micro-trends this year has been an abundance of dads realizing they sacrificed a relationship with their family for success in the film industry. See: the titular “Jay Kelly” or a significant subplot in “Rental Family.”

However, the best of these sad, showbiz dads has to be Gustav Borg, a famed, fictional Norwegian director played charismatic, belligerent, pompous and wise by Stellan Skarsgård in “Sentimental Value.”

“Sentimental Value” is the latest film by Norwegian director Joachim Trier, who last made a splash in Hollywood with his 2021 romantic drama, “The Worst Person in the World.” That movie starred Renate Reinsve, who reteams with Trier in “Sentimental Value” as Nora, a depressed stage actress and one of Gustav’s two estranged daughters. Her younger sister, Agnes, played by Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, is far more diplomatic toward their father, but the two share a common childhood of abandonment courtesy of the Borg patriarch.

The drama of “Sentimental Value” kicks into high gear after the death of Agnes and Nora’s mother, after which Gustav returns to their childhood home to reclaim his property title – and to shoot his next movie, the lead part in which he claims to have written for Nora. Nora, however, rejects the part, which Gustav proceeds to give to Rachel Kemp, an American movie star played by Elle Fanning.

There’s no getting around the fact that Trier’s movie is a grand old melodrama, but it is blessedly unconventional in its structure, if not its content. The movie is made up of a series of elliptical vignettes, each divided by a pregnant black screen and largely focused on one of the three Borgs at a time. Even when the film appears to be taking discursions from that rule, like when the final scene from one of Gustav’s films is shown or after an omniscient narrator personifies the Borg house itself, the narrative focus is always on the Borg family tapestry. The fun part is when it happens in surprising ways.

“Sentimental Value” is a kaleidoscopic look at how one family has irrevocably impacted one other. If that wasn’t made clear enough by the story alone, one segment presents the idea visually with a trippy visual of the three principal actors’ faces melding in and out of the same head. For better or for worse, Agnes, Gustav and Nora are three parts of the same whole.

Reinsve and Skarsgård have long since proven themselves as reliable presences at the movies, but it is Lilleaas who comes out of “Sentimental Value” with the most impressive performance. Though Agnes is more reserved than the manic, messy Nora and less magnetizing than her famous father, Lilleaas reveals the younger sister as the bedrock of the film with a subtly unfolding display of feeling.

In a movie about fathers and daughters, cinema and child-rearing, generational trauma and the legacy of art, the scenes Lilleaas and Reinsve share together toward the end of the film make it hard to find anything more important in “Sentimental Value” than the love two sisters have for each other.

Rating: 4.5/5

“Sentimental Value” is now playing locally at the Fine Arts Theatre and in select theaters nationwide.

3. “RESURRECTION” (2025, 160 min., directed by Bi Gan)

I have never seen a movie like Bi Gan’s “Resurrection.”

At the same time, I have seen so many movies like Bi Gan’s “Resurrection.”

That’s part of the design.

“Resurrection” is a two hour and 40 minute odyssey through film history, divided into six surreal segments corresponding to the six Buddhist senses – sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and mind. The opening 15 minutes is almost Lynchian in its industrial dreaminess, but with German Expressionism set design out the wazoo. The second story is akin to a noirish spy thriller. The third segment takes place in a snowy Buddhist temple. The fourth follows a “Paper Moon”-like conman and a little girl he befriends. The fifth, a spectacular, one-take journey through a New Year’s Eve of Y2K panic, is like a Wong Kar-wai crime romance combined with the mid-2000s vampire craze. Lastly, the sixth is a beautiful, moving ode to the theatrical experience.

Everything Gan does with the camera, production and color in his film is a maximalist, joyous display of the abilities of the movie medium. There is not a moment in “Resurrection” that you forget you are watching a film, but that’s purposeful, meant to prompt a celebration of that very thing.

The overarching story, which is consistently confusing throughout 90% of the film, is set in a far-flung future where humans have gained immortality, but lost the ability to dream as a result. In the movie, an immortal woman takes pity on a “Deliriant,” or a human who still dreams, and grants him a pleasant death via a journey through cinema, literally depicted as a film projector installed directly into his skull. The ensuing anthology of “dreams” stars versions of the Deliriant as the main character, all played by Jackson Yee.

If that premise sounds a little impenetrable, it is. “Resurrection” is not an easy movie to swallow, especially for its first three parts. It’s obtuse, though beautiful, and erudite, though earnest. However, if you can stick with it, “Resurrection” pays off in dividends during the endlessly charming fourth segment, which sparks a euphoric feeling carried all the way through the finale.

Watching “Resurrection” often feels like dissecting a particularly tricky dream, but if you’re into that, fellow Deliriant, this is a movie for you.

Rating: 4.5/5

“Resurrection” will play in select theaters beginning Jan. 1.

2. “IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT” (2025, 104 min., directed by Jafar Panahi)

I have already written extensively about the incredible accomplishment of Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident” – read our full review here – but it is worth repeating how much of a delight the movie is to watch.

While Panahi’s revenge thriller covers very real and relevant ground, the movie is bursting with humor, terrific dialogue and propulsive pacing. It’s a lot of fun, in addition to shedding light on the nauseatingly topical. 

Bong Joon-ho, director of the Oscar-winning “Parasite,” said that “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

If you are able to watch one foreign language flick this year, “It Was Just an Accident” is that amazing film.

Rating: 4.5/5

“It Was Just an Accident” is now playing in select theaters and is available for pre-order on digital platforms.

1. “THE SECRET AGENT” (2025, 161 min., directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho)

The thing I love most about watching movies from around the world is their unique ability to transport you to a completely different place. While I have never actually visited Palestine, Norway, China or Iran, these movies are a fantastic travel guide.

“The Secret Agent” has all that, plus a little bit of time travel, to boot. As far as I know, watching Kleber Mendonça Filho’s film feels exactly like living in 1977 Brazil.

Filho’s political thriller stars Wagner Moura as Armando, a man attempting to escape persecution under the Fifth Brazilian Republic military dictatorship. Moura is magnificent in the part, radiating dependable charm among his fellow dissidents, wily intelligence among his political enemies and warm confidence around his remaining family members. Moura is never flashy in “The Secret Agent,” but he is impossible to forget, even accounting for distractions like the gorgeous 70s sets and hysterical bits of surrealism, like when the camera briefly switched into the POV of a disembodied, sentient leg.

Living up to its name, “The Secret Agent” is stealthily a weird movie.

Much like “It Was Just an Accident” and “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” “The Secret Agent” is as relevant to the political landscape of today as representative of the turmoil of the 70s. Additionally, like “Sentimental Value” and “Resurrection,” it has a heartfelt love for the movies. The two are twinned inside of the flick, which tackles political resistance right alongside celebrating “Jaws” and “The Omen.”

While there may be movies this year that will hit closer to home for American audiences, “The Secret Agent” is a fantastic, resonate trip I recommend you all take. No passport needed.

Rating: 5/5

“The Secret Agent” is now playing in select theaters nationwide.