Oscar Movie Preview: Mongol for Best Foreign Film

BuzzSugar — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:39:20 PST

As part of my coverage of this year's Oscars, I'll be posting the trailers for as many of the Best Documentary and Best Foreign Language Film nominees as I can find. Since it's often harder to see these films in theaters, it's nice to get a taste of them before Oscar night - not to mention that it might help you when you fill out your Oscar ballot.

Kazakhstan may be well known for being the butt of most of Borat's jokes, but this year it's making its mark on the film world in a different way. Mongol marks the first time one of the country's films has been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

The film focuses on the life of Temudgin, the boy who grows up to be the warrior Genghis Khan. Enslaved as a boy, he eventually escaped captivity and went on to conquer much of the world. The movie has been a controversial project in Mongolia itself, but ultimately the filmmakers were able to shoot much of the film in the region. It's envisioned as the first of three movies tracing the life of Genghis Khan.

The movie will be released in the US in June, and you can watch an English-language trailer at this site. Or, to watch a subtitled version of a fight scene from the movie as well as the Russian trailer, just

Oscar Movie Preview: The Counterfeiters for Best Foreign Film

BuzzSugar — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:30:00 PST

The third film I've featured from this category is also the third to deal with war in one form or another. Austria's entry, The Counterfeiters, is based on the true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, one of the most skilled counterfeiters of all time. In the last years of World War II, Sorowitsch was captured by the German government and put into a concentration camp, where he and others were forced to make false US dollars, British pounds, and other bills used by Germany's enemies, with the idea that the money would cause the countries' economies to collapse. If the counterfeiters went along with the scam, they were treated better than any prisoner could imagine, with good food and warm beds; if they refused, they faced a certain death in the camp's gas chambers. The choice: Aid the Nazi war effort, or lose their lives.

The Counterfeiters is opening in New York and LA on Feb. 22 and will later expand to other cities. For now, though, you can check out a trailer if you