Independent
Some of the greatest films I’ve ever seen are films that I’ve had to go off the beaten track to find, Hollywood of course consistently produces high quality films and many of my favourite films come from Hollywood, but below you will find a selection of some of my favourite non Hollywood films, these range from South Korean action thrillers, to US psychological dramas.

Take Shelter
Take Shelter is a 2011 Psychological Thriller starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastaine which is directed by Jeff Nichols. The film which is set in Ohio, is about a happily married couple and their daughter getting on with their day to day lives. But as the film progressed, Michael Shannon starts to have nightmares about an impending storm that is to hit his town. Troubled by these nightmares, Shannon struggles to adapt to his day to day live and the strain soon takes its tool on his marriadge, his job and his friends. This film’s two stars but in superb performances, Shannon is great as the man who is struggling with his mental problem and Chastaine as the wife who seems powerless to help him. The sense of tension and dredd in the film is notched up to almost unbearable levels at times and Jeff Nichols does a superb job behind the camera.If you liked films like Black Swan and The Machinist, then this film is for you.
A Bittersweet Life
A Bittersweet Life is a 2005 Sout Korean action thriller directed by Kim Ji-woon and Lee Byung-hun plays the lead role in this film. Lee play’s the role of Kim Sun a Korean gangster who is religiously dedicted to the cold and ruthless leader of his gang, Kang. When Kang goes away on business for a few days it is up to Lee to watch over his mistress, Heesoop. While shadowing her one night, he discovers she is having an affair, Lee proceeds to attack the man Heesoop is having the affair with, but in a rare moment of compassion he lets him go, from there on, things suddenly spiral out of control. A Bittersweet life is super violent but its also very slick, with superb camera work and thrilling action scenes, Lee buts in a superb performance as the troubled gangster, cold and ruthless yet his love for Heesoop makes avery interesting charachter. For anyone not very similar with Korean film, there are few better films out there to introduce you to Korean film

Winter In Wartime
Winter In Wartime is dutch film from 2008 which is based on the novel of the same name. This film which is set during 1945 in Nazi occupied Netherlands, is about a young Dutch boy called Michiel. Michiel is proud of his Dutch heritage and has a deep hatred of his German opressors, so when a RAF plane crash lands in the woods in the outerskirts of his town, he can’t help but try help the pilot. Winter in wartime is somewhat different to a lot of other WW2 films, there is hardly a shot fired in this film and a lot of the german soldiers featured in this film are portrayed as normal humans who are as depsearte for the war to end as the dutch civilians.Martijn Lakemeier who plays the role of Michiel is in pretty much every scene and is superb and 1945 Holland is brilliantly re-created. For anyone who likes the WW2 genre but is somewhat bored by the similarity of a lot of WW2 films, then this should be of interest to you