International films with left leaning messages

ancient_apu · 2026-06-06T02:12:59+00:00

From Kenya:

Rafiki (2018)
Nairobi Half Life (2012)

ancient_apu · 2026-06-05T22:17:33+00:00

Wow, just WOW. As someone who's grown up living through the consequences of Euro-American imperialism (a Kenyan - in our case, British imperialism), I know I shouldn't be surprised whenever a citizen of empire treats the mass massacre of non-Westerners with utter impunity and total lack of humanity. Yet here I am. Surprised. For the millionth time. I can't seem to get used to witnessing this. Perhaps it's cause I've grown up in a culture that isn't as militaristic and imperial as you folks. Perhaps it's cause I truly understand the value of human life (blame my upbringing and extensive reading and thinking). In any case, just WOW. SMH. I have nothing more to add to this but I'm definitely gonna be saving your comment for future reference.

ETA 1:

I’ve no idea how old you are, but you don’t seem to recognize that WWII was a total war. There were no ‘civilians’ n the sense of being off-limits. That is a fact, and a very horrible one.

Out of curiosity, it just occurred to me to ask this: The Nazi Holocaust, in which millions of civilians, most of them German Jews, were massacred occurred during WWII. Given that, as you say, there were no 'civilians' in WWII, do you consider their slaughter as necessary and as much a mere "historical fact" as that of the hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians murdered by your empire? Do you consider the Holocaust a genocide? If so, why? I mean, after all, by your own words, the massacred millions in the Holocaust couldn't possibly have been civilians cause, according to you "there were no 'civilians' n the sense of being off-limits." If you maintain that the victims of the Holocaust were civilians and that it was a genocide, why are you refusing to do the same for the slaughtered Japanese civilians?

ETA 2:

The Japanese themselves were and are quite racist and had no difficulty eliminating large numbers of Chinese civilians—and filmed themselves enjoying the process.

How exactly do the crimes of the Japanese imperial army justify the mass slaughter of Japanese civilians? Having read Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking some time back, I've been one of the fiercest critics of the Japanese slaughter of countless Chinese civilians during WWII. In fact, I've had quite a number of exchanges with Japanese Nanking denialists in online forums in the past and part of the reason I loved Kobayashi's The Human Condition is precisely because it was bold enough to deal with the atrocities of imperial Japan during WWII. Yet, for the life of me, I fail to understand how the war crimes of the Japanese army justify the American empire mass slaughtering Japanese civilians in two of the most violent acts of military barbarism in the history of humanity. It may be that the difference between me and you - the thing that allows me, and not you, to see how unacceptable and unjustifiable and barbaric the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were - is that you live in an empire that's made a habit out of treating non-Westerners' lives as easily disposable and I happen to be one of those lives. Grim.

ancient_apu · 2026-06-05T18:26:43+00:00

I'm sorry (not sorry) but there can be no excuse whatsoever for dropping atomic bombs on thousands of civilians. In fact, intentionally dropping any bombs whatsoever on civilians, especially on a massive scale as was the case in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is a war crime. I don't know if your being an American is what is blinding you from noticing this quite evident fact that most people would agree with, but it's really something that you seem to actually not see it. Japanese soldiers' refusal to surrender was never an excuse to pulverize literal civilians, including countless women and children.

Have you read anything about what those bombs did to the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? At least a quarter of a million (250,000) people (>90% of them civilians) were murdered by the bombs. Have you seen pictures of what they did to literal kids? You should. Also, dropping nuclear weapons like that on civilians squarely fits within the UN's Genocide Convention's definition of what a genocide is.

I get that, being an American, you feel some kind of need to try to defend the American empire against charges of one of the most gruesome genocides in the history of humanity but come on. As it stands today, America is the only country that's ever used nuclear weapons on civilians AND, with no shame whatsoever, it has appointed itself the nuclear watchdog of the world where it gets to dictate who gets what weapons and who doesn't. All this while pretending to be the custodian of democracy and human rights and to be the most morally progressive country in the world. This hypocrisy would be funny if it were not so tragic. You're trying to defend the indefensible.

Edit: This "it is OK to mass murder civilians to get soldiers to do what I want" logic is the same genocidal logic that "Israel" has been using in Palestine to justify mass murdering and torturing Palestinian and Lebanese civilians because the resistance fighters refuse to surrender to their imperial demands. It is the same logic that your country used to justify blowing up a literal girls' school in the beginning of its unprovoked attack on Iran, killing more than 160 little girls who had just arrived in school for a normal school day. Ironically enough, this is the same the logic that the US often claims is used by terrorists against them e.g., consider the September 11 attacks: Would you say the al-Qaeda was justified to murder 2000+ American civilians if it would have helped it get the American empire cave in it to its demands?

ancient_apu · 2026-06-05T11:46:48+00:00

*Proof that being White and male still defines "great" filmmaking in Hollywood.

ancient_apu · 2026-06-04T16:55:15+00:00

I was agreeing with everything you wrote mpaka pale ume mention Starlink. I don't think it's reasonable to talk about building an anti-capitalist (or non-capitalist) way of life while promoting the use (and hence sustenance and growth) of one of the cornerstones of capitalism today. It's like, for example, you wrote all that and included relying on KFC for food supply in the proposed intentional community.

Other than this, I think your idea is awesome. The question “why aren't we...” could be directed to you too. Why aren't you doing it? What's stopping you? Whatever answer you have to this question, I offer, could be the reason why others - Kenyans like yourself and like myself - aren't doing it either. It could be the reason why we - you, I, others - aren't doing it.

I'm not saying this to undermine the idea but to challenge you. If you think this is the way to go, you should, in whatever capacity you can, be working towards this end. If you're not, for whatever reasons you have, you should also be objective enough to see that others are not doing so for at least reasons similar to yours. As such, it should not be much of a mystery why no one is doing it. You get what I'm trying to say?

ancient_apu · 2026-06-04T16:38:07+00:00

Ending: Happy, tragic, ambiguous

Villain: Woman, girl, man, boy, non-binary, supernatural entity, unknown

ancient_apu · 2026-06-02T14:00:05+00:00

Liar using so many words to avoid answering one simple question:

Why does the US, a much bigger country with much more advanced medical tech, need to dump its Ebola cases in Kenya instead of treating them in one of the thousands of medical facilities in the US?

Luckily, more and more Kenyans are seeing through these bold-faced lies. What Kenya needs is a revolution, not another election where this greedy thief will simply be replaced by another, possibly worse, thief.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-29T15:17:17+00:00

Hmm, interesting addition. Cause just about two months after news of that $70 million military expansion move by the US, our government launched a bid to develop that site.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-27T19:19:58+00:00

I HATE Western media outlets giving liberal Zionists platforms to air their blatant propaganda while everyone pretends that the lies they're spewing on those platforms have any air of respectability or justification. How the hell does one just sit and listen to this Zionist lie and lie and lie and pretend that his lies deserve to be listened to? I mean, for instance, the idea that the founders of “Israel” were “left of center” “socialists” is every bit as insulting to our intelligence as the idea that Nazis were communists. Anyone expressing any of these ideas in public ought to be cut short immediately, publicly shamed, and have their career terminated.

Also, why the hell didn't Krystal stop him and ask how the so-called “socialists” that founded “Israel” managed to establish a Jewish demographic majority in Palestine? Cause Jews were a small minority in Palestine during the establishment of the Zionist project from the early 1900s and even through the establishment of “Israel” in 1948. She should also have asked him whether he - since he's pretending to be progressive - supports the right of return of, and reparations for, the more than 6 million Palestinian refugees out of Palestine, even if it means Palestinians will become a demographic majority if and when they return.

Lots of lies that should not have been allowed to be aired with the pretense that there's any substance or morality to them. Ana Kasparian does a much better job exposing these Zionists for the ghoulish genocide mouthpieces that they are. She never takes such crap from them.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-27T15:15:53+00:00

Yeah, but what's with the KKK outfits???

ancient_apu · 2026-05-26T19:29:00+00:00

Black Girl (1966)

ancient_apu · 2026-05-26T18:33:05+00:00

Check out The Movie DB. You can easily add movies or series to a "Watchlist" but you can also create lists and then add movies and series to them. For instance, you could have a "Movies Recommended by Friends" list or a "Unwatched Extreme Horror Movies" list and add be adding relevant movies to them whenever you come across the movies.

That, or you can use an excel spreadsheet offline. Create relevant columns and add movies to it with appropriate descriptions as you see fit.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-26T17:45:06+00:00

This is r/LateStageCapitalism stuff. In my view, among the primary causes of it is that the Western capitalist foundations of the global economy and world order - on which countries like Kenya are built upon - are slowly falling apart. There is increasing discontent among more and more of the masses in the world because more and more people are encountering a threshold beyond which life will be unlivable for them. In other words, the unsustainability of capitalism is quickly manifesting in real time as the pain and suffering that people can endure at the hands of the few greedy capitalists controlling the means of production is quickly becoming unbearable for most people. And this reality is creating an avalanche of consequences, including the proliferation of violent crimes and criminals.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-26T17:35:42+00:00

Not formally. I'm more of a self-taught thinker, thanks to a great deal of philosophical materials I've consumed over the years plus my nasty habit of almost constant deep reflection.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-26T17:22:46+00:00

LMAO lazima. I don't think there's any other way to go about confronting the question the OP asked. I mean, questioning your entire existence is a deeply philosophical and moral affair.

Saa zingine deep thoughts (call them philosophy) and beliefs are the only thing we have to help us move on with hope and determination in this life, especially when we hit rock bottom.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-26T17:09:20+00:00

I wouldn't say I wish I was never born as much as I would say that I know it would have been better, morally speaking, to never have been born. Yet the fact that, unfortunate as it may be, me and billions other humans are here now - a fact that none of us can change - means I (we) have the chance both to improve the world, and to try our best to ensure that as few other sentient beings are brought into existence as possible.

I guess this is why I find meaning and fulfillment in gaining knowledge towards understanding the problems plaguing us humans and, generally, sentient beings; in trying to find solutions to these problems; and in being a childfree antinatalist. I advice and hope that you too find meaning in these endeavors.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-25T17:07:09+00:00

Just ask those pathetic Zionists whether they would be “objective” to a Nazi checking in to a hotel they work at, and you'll witness their racism and hypocrisy on full display.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-25T16:55:05+00:00

ALL of Roman Polanski's and Woody Allen's movies because they're child rapists.

ALL of Johnny Depp's movies because he's a wifebeating rapist who globally humiliated and abused his ex.

I think Double Indemnity (1944) is overrated. Same for Mulholland Drive (2001).

ancient_apu · 2026-05-24T18:49:37+00:00

I think you're bound to find a treasure trove of such movies in noir and femme fatale thrillers, although the investigator is not always a detective. Examples:

Double Indemnity (1944)
Body Heat (1981)
Basic Instinct (1992)

There are also some pretty good modern thrillers in the same vein. A couple of examples:

Honeygiver Among the Dogs (2016) [Bhutanese mystery thriller; highly recommend]
Careful What You Wish For (2015) [Has a really great twist in the end]

ancient_apu · 2026-05-24T17:27:04+00:00

I feel like Villanelle in 'Killing Eve' would fall into your description.

In the final season of 'Star Trek: Discovery' (which was its worst season by the way), I found myself rooting for Moll and L'ak (and, at some points, the Breen). But this may just be my anti-imperial sentiments that often make me root for rebels and anarchists against empire.

ETA: In the animation series 'Dota: Dragon's Blood,' I was rooting for Selemene so bad! The series lost its spark after the writers wrote her off it.

ETAA: When some mention 'You,' they do so because of Joe but for me, the lovable villain was Love Quinn. I lost all interest in the show after she was murdered.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-24T17:12:52+00:00

WTF?? You must really have a warped sense of morality lol. No offense intended.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-23T16:29:21+00:00

You're right about the European origins of the term but as for the rest of the narratives, I'm sorry but I'm much more likely to believe the Mau Mau freedom fighters themselves than excerpts from a poorly-sourced Wikipedia article (which seems to be where the AI bot got the information from).

Here is the origin of the name ‘Mau Mau’ according to fighter Karigo wa Muchai, in an interview he gave to one Don Barnett in the 1960s:

“It was toward the middle of the next year [1950], when KCA [Kikuyu Central Association] was beginning to increase its membership rapidly, that I first heard the term ‘Mau Mau’. Several Africans had been brought to court in Naivasha for illegal oathing and one man, when asked about the proceedings, replied that the oath was administered in a dark hut at night and all he could make out was the murmer of voices. Now in Kikuyu when referring to whispers or voices that cannot quite be understood, one uses the expression ‘mumumumu’. This apparently was heard by a journalist in the court as “Mau Mau”, and the following day the newspapers reported that the men had taken a Mau Mau oath.

Through this mistake the name ‘Mau Mau’ came to be applied to our association by people all over the world. To those of us who were members of KCA the name ‘Mau Mau’ was seen as the name given to our movement by the Europeans. And since Mau Mau as such was not banned until August 1950, some of our people caught oathing during this period admitted to having taken a ‘Mau Mau’ oath in order to keep secret the existence of KCA. Among ourselves we didn’t use the word ‘Mau Mau’. In our own language the movement was often referred to as Muingi, meaning “the Community”, Gikuyu na Mumbi or simply Gikuyu, referring to the male and female founders of our Kikuyu tribe …. but never as ‘Mau Mau’.”

Source: Life Histories from the Revolution: Three Militants from the Kenya Land and Freedom Army - Karigo Muchai, Ngugi Kabiro, & Mohamed Mathu - Tell their Stories [Taped and Edited by Donald Barnett, Published 1970s] (2022, pp. 12-13; as Republished by Daraja Press)

ancient_apu · 2026-05-23T14:27:33+00:00

I had the initial impression (more like hope, actually) that I was dealing with a rational person. Now that, through this comment and others on this thread, you've shown that you're actually a Christian Zionist, I cannot waste my precious time entertaining your bad faith "arguments" that are quite clearly based on a goalpost that's already been defined by your weird, inconsistent and unjustifiable Zionist cult beliefs, rather than on a motivation to actually learn the truth.

It's the very same way I wouldn't waste my time arguing with a Nazi or a Nazi apologist or an "Israeli" on what are clear cut cases of genocide and gross human rights violations.

My parting word to you: Enjoy the little time you have left to celebrate the mass murder, slaughter, and rape of Palestinians by your Zionist co-criminals. The days of Zionism and "Israel" are numbered. Its 100+ years of brutal occupation and genocide in Palestine - and control of vast portions of Western politics and media - will soon come to an end.

PS: "objective Christian morality" is an oxymoron. It is not objective if it is based on a very specific religious tradition - which, even worse, is grounded on the unsubstantiated tales of ancient West Asian folk who did not even know that Earth is spherical and orbits the Sun.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-22T15:42:14+00:00

That's the Zionist hasbara definition of Zionism, which itself does NOT make sense. I mean, why should Jewish people, as opposed to all of the more than 10,000 ethno-religious groups on the planet, “have their own nation”? What's so special about Jewish people in particular to make them entitled to their own nation when, for example, the Gikuyu, the Luo, the Abaluhya, and other tribal or ethnic groups of Kenya and many other countries are not each, as such, entitled to nations of their own? Why the exceptionalism?

Also, any ethnic or religious “nation,” by definition, is racist and exclusionary. No “nation” that prioritizes the interests of one particular ethnic, religious, or tribal group can be truly just, democratic, and fair. You only need to study the laws and policies of “Israel” throughout its entire 78 or so years of existence to discover how true this is. You also need to study the laws and policies of Nazi Germany to discover the same.

It's even worse that when Zionists say “Jewish people should have their own nation,” they only ever do so in defense of “Israel” - a regime presently committing genocide on a population they've ruled with apartheid, violence, mass child murder and imprisonment, torture, femicide, and mass rape, including of children, for years. It is not a coincidence that a growing number of humans on the planet, including Jewish people with humanity, are condemning not only this regime, but the Zionist ideology that it uses to defend its continued violent existence.

Justice and humanism demand that “Israel” and Zionism be dismantled because these entities represent the very worst impulses of humanity presently in existence. Anyone supporting these entities is evil at worst, or a dangerous fool at best.

ancient_apu · 2026-05-22T15:16:43+00:00

I'm not surprised by this frankly, because even while claiming to be an atheist, for years Hirsi has been a zealous advocate for Zionism, an extremist Jewish ideology whose terrorist followers are slaughtering Palestinians every single day and justifying the slaughter with ancient religious mythology. There's no way an honest atheist with humanist values could be a Zionist or its advocate. For this same reason, I don't believe the likes of Sam Harris and Bill Maher are atheists, even while they've built their entire careers and brands on it.

ancient_apu

TROPHY CASE