Delhi Crime

Set in the immediate aftermath of an appalling, notorious sexual assault on a New Delhi bus, Delhi Crime follows the efforts of police officers working under enormous public pressure and with few resources other than their own ingenuity to find and arrest the suspects. At once a visceral police procedural, a tense character-driven drama, and a sweeping, nuanced portrait of India’s bustling capital, Delhi Crime is never burdened by the tropes of any of these genres: it tells its own story on its own terms, horrifying and captivating in equal measure.

TV ShowDominique LearMarch 14, 2020India, On Netflix, Thriller, Crime

Velvet

Why would anyone ever need a cheesy soap? That's what I used to say until I encountered the recent trend in (Spain) Spanish historical fiction soaps, from which Velvet stands out as the origin series. In Velvet, we're transported to a department store in Madrid in the 1940s, where the main character, Ana, works as a seamstress. She and the store's owner are in love, and have been since they were children, but pesky societal and class boundaries won't let them be together. This is exactly what one needs to watch when the world is a little too much, and you need to believe love will prevail above all else.

TV ShowDominique LearMarch 14, 2020Spain, Soapy, Romantic, On Netflix

On Body and Soul

What would you do if you found out that you share dreams with someone you just met? This question underlines the plot of Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi’s On Body and Soul—a quirky and ethereal romance, though not one for the faint of heart. (Let’s just say it’s set in a slaughterhouse.)

MoviesDominique LearMarch 14, 2020Hungary, Heartwarming, Quirky, On Netflix

Okja

This movie is quite a treat - though it took Dominique a few tries before she finally sat down to watch it, Okja, directed by Bong Joon-Ho, is a Netflix Original movie in which a young girl and her best friend and super pig, Okja, get caught in a battle between environmentalists and a multi-national corporation. Delightfully dystopic, this is a movie well timed for our current environmental crisis.

MoviesDominique LearMarch 14, 2020Korea, On Netflix, Quirky, Environment

Babylon Berlin

This gorgeous German period piece revels in the joys and turmoil of Berlin's "Golden Twenties"—the brief, raucous years between the horrors of the Great War and the Great Depression. Police commissioner Gereon Rath, a veteran with a morphine problem, is sent from sleepy Kōln to Berlin to find his father's blackmailers. The investigation leads him through slums, nightclubs, train yards, Communist hideouts, and fine restaurants on the trail of an ever-expanding conspiracy.

TV ShowDominique LearMarch 14, 2020Germany, On Netflix, Quirky, Historical

And Breathe Normally

A single Icelandic mother and her son embark on an adventure, albeit, not a particularly fun one. Struggling with poverty, the mother and son duo are forced to vacate their apartment, return their recently adopted cat to the shelter, and depend on food samples at the supermarket to complete meals. But along the way, they meet a Guinea-Bissauan refugee applying for asylum in the country, with whom a gentle and kind friendship emerges. It's a sweet, thoughtful movie for when you want to escape your own walls.

MoviesDominique LearMarch 14, 2020Iceland, On Netflix, Heartwarming

The Hunt

What happens when someone is falsely accused of a crime? What happens when that crime is pedophilia? The Hunt is set in a small Danish town, where Lucas, a daycare teacher, has to face unwelcome and potentially life-threatening allegations, while at the same time learning to navigate the toxicity of a small town armed against him. A less contemporary film than the previous two, but a great watch nonetheless!

MoviesDominique LearMarch 14, 2020Denmark, On Netflix, Thriller

Ghoul

In the dystopian India of the miniseries Ghoul, Muslims and other groups live under the heel of a hyperviolent state. Young security officer Nidu is posted to an underground interrogation facility, shut in with a small band of torturers and ragged prisoners. Then a strange, ancient force arrives among them, stirring the jailers' dark terrors, hunting them through the concrete maze. Not for the faint of heart, Ghoul crafts a riveting series from the all-too-real horrors of state violence, terrorism, and atrocity.

TV ShowCian DinanSeptember 1, 2019India, On Netflix

Dark

Dark is a Netflix original thriller focuses on a small German town shaken by the disappearance of two boys. But when a body finally turns up in the woods, it is the perfectly preserved body of another boy who went missing in the eighties, who's case was never solved. Almost frustratingly slowly, the show unravels the interconnected trauma of three generations of three families forced to reconcile with the hurt they've dealt each other and themselves. This is Stranger Things' sinister German cousin, and if you're anything like us here on the Xeno team, you'll find yourself on the other side of it in three days, reeling and demanding more. The good news is, the second season *just* came out. But a warning—it may be a good idea to grab a notepad and a pen to keep track of who is who and what is what in this fantastic, twisty show.

TV ShowEmma WenningerSeptember 1, 2019Germany, On Netflix

3%

This week, Dominique binge-watched a Brazilian TV Show available on Netflix called 3%. 3% is mildly like The Hunger Games, in that the show’s conceit consists of a test that allows citizens to become part of the 3% (or the elites). But what makes this show so fascinating is that it is much more complex than “good” and “bad” or “elites” and “the 97%.” The budding resistance movement fighting for more equality is not clearly all good, and the founding principles of the 3% are not all evil. It’s a deeply intriguing show.

TV ShowDominique LearMay 4, 2019Brazil, On Netflix, Dystopian

Call My Agent

Call My Agent, or Dix Pour Cent in the French, is a TV show comedy about a talent agency in Paris. It's a joy to watch the main characters (all high-powered, fast-speaking Parisian agents) juggle the egos of a similarly eclectic cast of actors and actresses.

TV ShowDominique LearMay 3, 2019France, On Netflix, Humor, Quirky

Virunga

We're always looking for great documentaries that transport us to different places and times. Virunga takes you to Easten Congo, where you meet a family of orphaned gorillas and their caretakers, who are battling dangerous political conditions to keep the gorillas alive. It's a poignant, gripping, and heart-wrenching journey.

MoviesDominique LearMay 3, 2019Congo (DRC), On Netflix, Enraging, Thought-Provoking

Aquarius

We loved this film—it depicts a middle-aged woman waging a war on a developer looking to buy out her apartment to demolish a classic building on Recife's coast. The main character is a force of nature - she is the best kind of stubborn, sticking to her (literal) ground, despite what anyone around her says or thinks. This is a forceful and beautiful movie, with an excellent, empowering, and bewildering ending.

MoviesDominique LearMay 3, 2019Brazil, On Netflix, Thought-Provoking, Empowering

Osmosis

French Netflix production Osmosis is the latest in a line of gripping and brainy Western European sci-fi shows. Siblings Esther and Paul are the founders and leaders of a tech startup promising to revolutionize the way we fall in love. Using a system of “implants” and mind mapping, they promise patients total emotional consummation with their “soul mate.” (We know: what could possibly go wrong?) On the eve of the company’s public launch, beset by treacherous test subjects, mutinous staff, and sinister backers, Paul and Esther begin to unravel the consequences of their own emotional needs. A deeply felt and deliciously tense story about what we feel and how we try—and usually fail—to control it.

TV ShowDominique LearMay 3, 2019France, On Netflix, Dystopian, Quirky