Awesome non-US movies that I enjoyed and that spring to mind right now, accompanied by a link to their trailer on YT:
Arn the Templar
A movie/series adaption of a Swedish novel trilogy, this one tells the story of the fictional knight Arn as he fights for his love, his country, and his religion. In this way, the movie also tells the story of how the Kingdom of Sweden came to exist, but also deals with the crusades in the Holy Land, most notably Saladin's march on Jerusalem. The movie is chiefly in Swedish, but depending on the characters and the location, English, Latin, French and Arabic are spoken as well.
Brotherhood of the Wolf
This French movie is set in the era of the Revolution, though civil unrest only serves as a backdrop to the plot, which is instead focused on a strange beast terrorizing the countryside. King Louis XV sends men to deal with the creature that has so far eluded capture or killing by locals and soldiers, but they soon discover that there is more to the story. Interestingly, the so-called Beast of Gévaudan has a real life origin, currently theorized of having been a hybrid between wild wolf and a domestic mastiff, or a surviving remnant of an extinct hooved carnivore.
Children of Men
Women are infertile. The youngest person on Earth is 18 years old, and within a single generation, mankind will be extinct. As the fabric of society breaks down and the nations of the world are ravaged by hopelessness, anarchy and civil war, a group of activists is determined to smuggle the only pregnant woman on the entire world out of the country. This British movie is famous for having one of the longest continuous camera shots in filmmaking.
Das Boot
Very old but still popular German WW2 movie about a submarine and its crew. Captain Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock (Jürgen Prochnow) is determined to see his men survive the madness of the war. The story is focused on the people and how they act in both daily routine as well as in combat.
District 9
A South African sci-fi movie, District 9 is about an alien species making first contact with humanity. However, the aliens are downtrodden workers with little initiative or understanding of the technology contained in their ship. Soon regarded as an unwanted drain on resources, the aliens are forcibly confined to a camp outside Johannesburg, an obvious allusion to Apartheid.
Doomsday
Rhona Mitra stars as Major Eden Sinclair in this British action movie about a deadly virus that has been contained in a walled-off section of the British mainland. Forced to return to the forsaken territory in search of a cure, the soldiers are faced with the barbaric society established by abandoned survivors.
Downfall
Probably the most famous of Germany's recent movies (or all movies?), this WW2 war drama deals with the fall of Berlin and the leadership of the Nazi regime. The story is focused on Hitler and his staff, but takes brief glances at the lives of other officers and civilians left in the besieged city.
Ghost in the Shell
The starting point of an entire legendary franchise in Japanese anime, GitS takes place in a near-future where cybernetic modifications have become so commonplace that many citizens are permanently connected to the network. As a criminal called the "Puppet Master" begins to hack into people's brains, the team of Public Security agent Motoko Kusanagi is dispatched to deal with the highly sensitive case. During the investigations, the completely cyberized Motoko also begins to question her own humanity.
Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade
A Japanese animated political thriller about internal rivalries between different police organizations in a Post-WW2 Tokyo set in an alternate history, Jin-Roh is the story of Constable Kazuki Fuse, a member of the so-called Kerberos division Panzer Cops - elite soldiers with heavy armour and machine guns deployed as a backup police force. In a power struggle between the civilian Metropolitan Police and the military Capital Police, Fuse is made a scapegoat, yet Kerberos has its own plans for the affair.
Moon
British sci-fi about a lunar mining colony staffed by a single astronaut whose three-year-contract is about to expire. A few days before being allowed to return to Earth, he discovers a terrible secret amidst the loneliness of the planet's moon. Brilliant story with a dark twist, and notable for relying almost entirely on a single character.
Napola (aka "Before the Fall")
Another German movie dealing with the country's Nazi era, this one explores a topic not often discussed: the Third Reich's elite schools and their training regime. The story follows two young boys' stay in one of the castles these institutes were often set up in. Actual former Napola pupils served as advisors for providing authenticity.
Nausicaä - Valley of the Wind
This Japanese anime is considered to be the beginning of Studio Ghibli. Almost the entire world has been turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, leaving the few survivors huddle together into makeshift city-states and villages whilst nature tries to adapted, evolving into a new ecosystem poisonous to human life. As the human tribes resume fighting, nature prepares for one last allergic reaction, but a brave village girl is determined to stop the warring factions and restore the balance.
Princess Mononoke
In a struggle between the expanding human civilization and the forces of nature, a battle between man and god is about to decide the future of an entire country. Will technology suffice to win the war, or will human hubris achieve nothing but the suffering and deaths of countless innocent beings? The eponymous princess Mononoke stands torn between her human heritage and her allegiance to the forest. Another Japanese anime from Studio Ghibli.
The Vengeance Trilogy
Encompassing the movies Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, these South Korean movies unsurprisingly deals with revenge and human nature. Quite violent, but certainly good if somewhat sickening material. The movies are not connected per se, but are often referenced and sold/marketed as a trilogy anyways.
I'm sure I forgot a few. Also, this list took way too long to compile. Curses!
