Paris, Texas, USA, 1984, 150 min. Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell. Directed by Wim Wenders. A man who has been gone for four years resurfaces and seeks out his son, who has been living with his aunt and uncle. Tehman then decides that the two of them need to track down the boy's mother. Wenders uses his prominent interest in the American road movie to tell the story of one man's struggle to lift himself out of the darkness into which he has sunk and rise up once again into the light.

When Father Was Away On Business, Yugoslavia, 1985, 135 min. Starring Moreno D'E Bartolli, Miki Manojlovic. Directed by Emir Kusturica. In post-WWII Yugoslavia, a man's injudicious comment about an item in a newspaper is enough to get him carted off to prison for presumed Stalinist sympathies. His young son is told that his father is just away on another business trip. But it turns out that the truth has very little to do with business or politics. Sharp and funny portrait of a family in turmoil.

Salaam Bombay!, India-UK, 1988, 113 min. Starring Shafiq Syed, Sarfuddin Quarrassi. Directed by Mira Nair. Country boy goes to the big city and discovers a wealth of vice his simple upbringing had left him ill prepared for. A familiar sort of tale perhaps, but Nair invests the proceedings with such vivid characterization and fluid storytelling it seems fresh and new.

Cinema Paradiso, Italy-France, 1988, 155 min. Starring Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin. Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Delightful story of a young boy in post-World War II Italy who strikes up a friendship with the projectionist in the local movie theater and learns much about life in the process. The film is about many different things – nostalgia, censorship, first romance – but at its heart it's about a life informed by a love of the movies. Is it any wonder it's one of our favorites?

Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, Spain, 1988, 88 min. Starring Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano. Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. A popular soap opera actress gets jilted by her lover and decides she must get him back. His gun-toting wife, however, has other ideas. Almodóvar brings his trademark outrageousness to this lively farce, a perfect vehicle for frequent collaborator Maura, with burning beds, satirical advertisements, drugged gazpacho, and plenty more.