Every screen, every language

World Cinema

Film cultures and movements from every corner of the world.

Discover by region

The cinema atlas

Film history moves in waves. Pick a region to read the movement that put it on the world's screens.

Italy

Neorealism

1943 – 1952

Out of the rubble of the Second World War, Italian directors took their cameras into the streets. They cast non-professional actors, shot on location, and told stories about ordinary people and hard work.

The movement proved that a film could be made with almost nothing and still move the entire world.

Key directors
Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti
Start with
Rome, Open City (1945) · Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Influenced
The Indian parallel cinema of Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, and the Iranian New Wave.
The Cinmaa canon

Essential picks

Eight films from eight film cultures. Start anywhere; each one opens a door to a whole national cinema.

Seven Samurai (1954)

Akira KurosawaJapanese1.37:1

Villagers hire seven ronin to defend their harvest. The template for every team-up film that followed.

Pather Panchali (1955)

Satyajit RayBengali1.37:1

A boy, his sister and a train across the fields. Indian cinema's arrival on the world stage.

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Vittorio De SicaItalian1.37:1

A father searches Rome for his stolen bicycle. Neorealism at its most human.

Stalker (1979)

Andrei TarkovskyRussian1.37:1

Three men walk into the Zone, where a room grants wishes. Slow cinema as spiritual journey.

In the Mood for Love (2000)

Wong Kar-waiCantonese1.66:1

Two neighbours discover their spouses' affair. Longing told through cheongsams and corridors.

City of God (2002)

Fernando Meirelles & Kátia LundPortuguese1.85:1

Two boys grow up in a Rio favela on opposite paths. Kinetic, furious, unforgettable.

Parasite (2019)

Bong Joon-hoKorean2.39:1

A poor family worms into a rich household. The first non-English film to win Best Picture.

Baahubali: The Beginning (2015)

S. S. RajamouliTelugu2.39:1

A man climbs a waterfall into a kingdom that is his birthright. Telugu cinema goes global.

Stories

From world cinema

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Cinmaa World · every screen, every language

Tonight,
the whole
world is
showing.

A guide to the films that shaped how the world sees itself, from Kurosawa's Japan to Ray's Bengal to Rajamouli's Mahishmati.

See the picks Open the atlas
2.39 : 1 · SCOPE

2.39:1 is anamorphic widescreen, the frame of the modern epic. Parasite and Baahubali were both shot for it.

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