Kenneth Turan's five buried film treasures

Kenneth Turan’s five buried film treasures

Aug. 25, 2017 6 AM PT

Picking five personal choices for neglected pleasures was harder than collaborating on a top 25 (in the gallery above). It felt cold and final to consign delightful but unselected individual finalists like David Mamet’s inside Hollywood spoof “State and Main” or the New Zealand sensation “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” to the outer darkness of neglect. But rules are rules, so here are my five, listed in alphabetical order.

1. ‘Divided We Fall’ (2000)

Set during World War II, this Czech film tells of the moral complications and farcical chaos that result when a couple shelters a Jewish concentration camp escapee. Brilliant in its ability to maintain a razor’s edge balance between humor, pathos and potential tragedy.

Boleslav Polivka as Josef Cizek in the movie "Divided We Fall." (Martin Spelda / Sony Pictures Classics)

2. ‘Goodbye, Lenin’ (2003)

Funny but not a comedy, serious but never overbearing, emotional in an engagingly bittersweet way, this German film offers an unusual take on the fall of the Communist system, the humbling of a god that failed.

Daniel Bruhl as Alex in "Goodbye, Lenin." (Conny Klein / Sony Pictures Classics)

3. ‘Lumumba’ (2000)

Before he created a sensation with “I Am Not Your Negro,” Raoul Peck directed this complex, powerful and still urgent drama about the life and death of charismatic African leader Patrice Lumumba, aided by a splendid performance by Eriq Ebouaney.

Eriq Ebouaney as Patrice Lumumba in the movie "Lumumba." (Zeitgeist Films)

4. ‘My Son the Fanatic’ (1999)

Called “a romantic film with ideological edges” by screenwriter Hanif Kureishi and starring the great Om Puri in one of his signature roles, this nuanced, prescient film details the fallout of a son’s decision to embrace the Muslim fundamentalism his father rejected.

Om Puri, left, Rachel Griffiths and Stellan Skarsgard in Udayan Prasad's "My Son the Fanatic." (Joth Shakerley / Miramax Films)

5. ‘Tell No One’ (2006)

A top-notch thriller so twisty you may forget to breathe, this is a French version of a novel by bestselling American writer Harlan Coben that Hollywood was unable to crack. Directed by Guillaume Canet and starring François Cluzet, Nathalie Baye and Kristin Scott Thomas, it shows why Coben believes in “stories that grab hold of your heart and do not let go.”