Stuart Klawans, film critic for The Nation,
reviews
two
of the most talked about foreign films of 2008.

Gommorah, “an endlessly compelling” Italian movie about the
Neapolitan mob based on Roberto Saviano’s
book of the same name, was directed by Matteo Garrone. It is “as
harsh and un-romanticized a gang movie” as Klawans has ever seen.

The Class has been shortlisted for “Best Foreign Language
Film” but Klawans encourages viewers not to “let the Oscar nomination
get in your way of liking the movie.” This French film directed by
Laurent Cantet and written by the lead actor, François
Bégaudeau, is an “ethically complex, emotionally troubling” look
inside one diverse
Parisian classroom. Both films are daring in their own ways and are
highly recommended.

—Corbin Hiar

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