27 of the Best Foreign Movies on Netflix That Are Worth Reading Subtitles For

Taking place in the early 1970s in Mexico City, Netflix's Roma is a semibiographical take on the life of Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón (who also produced, coedited, and shot the film), following a formative year in the life of a middle-class family and their live-in housekeeper. Oh, and did we mention that this movie scored Netflix its first-ever Oscar nomination for best picture (along with nine other nominations, including best director, best original screenplay, and best cinematography)?

Watch Roma on Netflix.

This movie is a coming-of-age romance about a 15-year-old French teen who begins to explore her sexuality with an older art student whom she meets at a lesbian bar. Is it melodramatic? Yes. Is it incredibly intoxicating and very sexy? Absolutely.

Watch Blue Is the Warmest Colour on Netflix.

This German Oscar-winning drama tells the story of a dedicated Stasi officer who decides to spy on a playwright and his famous actress girlfriend when he doubts their loyalty to the Communist party, but the longer the officer watches them, the more he warms to them — a sentiment that becomes complicated when his superior orders him to eliminate the playwright so he can have the beautiful actress for himself.

Watch The Lives of Others on Netflix.

When two teens go on a road trip across Mexico with a woman in her late 20s and both begin a sexual relationship with her (as well as with each other), things are bound to get complicated. As well as being nominated for best original screenplay at the Academy Awards and best foreign language film at the Golden Globe Awards, this movie might just be one of the sexiest flicks of all time.

Watch Y Tu Mamá También on Netflix.

This Italian magic-realism fable tells the story of an unexpected bond that forms between a naive and optimistic young farmer and an imaginative nobleman when the nobleman asks the farmer to help him stage his own kidnapping. If the Brothers Grimm rewrote Forrest Gump to take place in Italy, this would probably be the result.

Watch Happy as Lazzaro on Netflix.

This Danish 19th-century drama (based on the heartbreaking epic by Henrik Pontoppidan) tells the story of a pastor's son who decides to break free from his devoutly religious family in Western Denmark to pursue a career in engineering, never expecting to fall in love with a progressive, intellectual Jewish woman who will never be accepted by his family. The movie is one of the most expensive Danish film productions in history, and when you see the incredible costuming and period detail, you'll be glad the producers made the investment.

Watch A Fortunate Man on Netflix.

This Taiwanese dark comedy follows a recently bereaved widow who drags her teenage son into a complicated financial dispute when she learns that her late husband left his inheritance to someone else: his free-spirited gay lover, creating the most complicated love triangle ever. The movie manages to be both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and the characters are so nuanced and believable that you'll feel as though you know them personally by the end.

Watch Dear Ex on Netflix.

This Chinese mystery thriller revolves around Lok, a tireless police officer attempting to track down a Chinese migrant worker who disappeared from a land reclamation site in Singapore, only to discover that another Bengali worker — a friend of the first worker — has also gone missing. Though it's difficult to feel any empathy for the characters, the whole movie feels like a dark dream that you can't help but be drawn into.

Watch A Land Imagined on Netflix.

Based on a manga of the same name by Kyoko Okazaki, this dark Japanese comedy-drama takes place in a 1990s Tokyo suburb, telling the story of a teen girl who befriends the school outcast, a relationship that becomes complicated when he tells her about the dead body he found near the riverside. It will definitely remind you of the 1987 Keanu Reeves movie of the same name, and even though it's a bit of a bummer, it's too raw, poignant, and smart to miss.

Watch River's Edge on Netflix.

In this Indonesian action film, members of a small village are all brutally massacred after stealing from drug-trafficking Triads — except for one young girl. The assassin who saved her life must face the consequences of his sacrifice when he becomes the new target.

Watch The Night Comes For Us on Netflix.

This French erotic thriller follows Zachary, a 17-year-old recently released from a juvenile detention centre and rejected by his mother who finds himself living on the streets of Marseille, which is where he falls for a young prostitute named Shéhérazade. It's dark and it's grim, yet you'll be rooting for these two as they find love in a hopeless place.

Watch Shéhérazade on Netflix.

This film follows the love story between two strangers who meet on a train in China (and who happen to be from the same rural hometown) and the bond that forms and evolves over several decades after. Jianqing and Xiaoxiao's life in Beijing is far from a fairy tale, but their tumultuous story is what makes this movie so powerful.

Watch Us and Them on Netflix.

This French film takes place in 1930s Paris, following Grand Guignol Theatre's leading lady, who finds herself pursued by a threatening stalker from her past. It's loosely inspired by the work and life of actual French actress Paula Maxa (who earned her nickname after being violently murdered on stage more than 10,000 times), and this thriller is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Watch The Most Assassinated Woman in the World on Netflix.

In this Mexican comedy, two competing swindlers who often target cruise ships reunite to con a lottery winner while abroad a cruise from Spain to Mexico. Be warned: you're going to want to immediately book a cruise of your own after watching this one.

Watch Yucatán on Netflix.

Centreed on real-life Russian-Jewish journalist Sergei Donatovich Dovlatov-Mechik, this film follows the events in Dovlatov's last few days before his death in 1971 Leningrad. Though Sergei aspires to stay in Russia with his family and write about what he has witnessed during the Brezhnev regime, his manuscripts are continually rejected, but he continues trying, despite the fact that other writers have been forced into exile for their views.

Watch Dovlatov on Netflix.

This high-budget French submarine thriller is set in the near-future, telling the story of an underwater acoustics military expert who may just be the only person who can resolve an impending apocalyptic scenario, using sounds that only he can hear. It's eerie as heck, and it will probably make you pretty reluctant to ever board a submarine.

Watch The Wolf's Call on Netflix.

This crime drama, set in 1920s Barcelona, follows a double agent who is assigned to work his way into the local mafia to find out the source of the weapons being sold to anarchist groups. It's sure to give you major The Departed vibes, and with the threat of civil war looming, this one might be even more thrilling.

Watch Gun City on Netflix.

This film takes place in 1970s Uruguay, telling the story of three imprisoned members of the left-wing urban guerrilla group known as the Tupamaro (including Pepe Mujica, the future president of Uruguay) who are taken from their jail cells in a secret military operation and put into solitary confinement for 12 years. This one is tough to watch but worth the seriously harrowing experience.

Watch A Twelve Year Night on Netflix.

In this South Korean mystery thriller, a Buddhist monk is hired to look into a cult group known as Deer Mount, while at the same time, a police captain investigates a murder case that he suspects is tied to a member of the Deer Mount cult. It may start out a little slow, but this one definitely pays off in the end.

Watch Svaha: The Sixth Finger on Netflix.

Inspired by a story in Denis Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist, this French historical drama stars Hereafter's Cécile de France as Madame de la Pommeraye, a wealthy widow who, after she is spurned by her lover, decides to enact a complicated plan for revenge with the help of the titular Lady J. This one is for anyone who can't resist a good revenge plot (especially when it plays out among aristocrats).

Watch Lady J on Netflix.

In this Hindi drama set in the Chandni Chowk area of Delhi, India, a father attempts to reconnect with his estranged son through social media, though the world is totally foreign to him. We guarantee that you've never seen a catfishing movie quite like this one.

Watch Rajma Chawal on Netflix.

Set in 2029, this South Korean sci-fi flick (which is a live-action adaptation of the Japanese animated film Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade) imagines South and North Korea preparing for a unified government, as well as the special South Korean police unit that must keep the terrorists trying to prevent the unification at bay. The film cost 19 billion won to produce, but we think it was worth the investment.

Watch Illang: The Wolf Brigade on Netflix.

In this Mexican drama, a former boxer named Miguel "Bayoneta" Galíndez decides to leave behind his life in Tijuana after a terrible match to move into a cramped flat in Finland. Eventually, a desire for redemption forces him to face his past and find his way back into the ring, and you can't help but root for him.

Watch Bayonet on Netflix.

This Spanish biographical romantic drama recounts the real-life story of Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas, two women who tied the knot in 1901 in the first same-sex marriage recorded in Spain (though they were only able to pull it off by having Elisa adopt a male identity). Though not all critics got behind this one, we think this love story is one for the ages.

Watch Elisa & Marcela on Netflix.

This biopic follows the life of wildly popular Cuarteto performer Rodrigo Bueno, whose charisma and good looks led to a meteoric rise to fame in the tropical music scene — but not without personal consequences. If you can't get enough of musical artist biopics, then this one is definitely a must-watch.

Watch El Potro: Unstoppable on Netflix.

This Malaysian action film follows a group of interconnected stories in Kuala Lumpur, including an illegal domestic helper who runs away from her employer's home to search for her brother and a police officer who takes advantage of a corrupt system and extorts bribes from foreign workers. Raising questions about who is really the thief, this movie will keep you guessing until the very end.

Watch Crossroads: One Two Jaga on Netflix.

This Hindi comedy-drama follows a meek yet gifted young woman who recruits the help of a mysterious conman to help her reclaim her car, which was stolen by a Mumbai gangster. If Nirma doesn't remind you even a little bit of Bridget Jones, then you're nuts.

Watch Chopsticks on Netflix.