20 Foreign Language Movies You Must See Before You Die

5. M

Country: Germany.

Plot: Berlin's criminal underworld hunts a serial killer of children.

There's a strong argument that Fritz Lang's chilling serial killer masterpiece M is the finest German movie ever made.

An ingeniously-directed gem, M is a haunting and icy exercise in fear and horror that also makes for a great work of psychology, with the child murderer at the centre of the film (played to perfection by Peter Lorre) being a very complex, well-drawn villain. As if all of that wasn't enough, it's also an extremely entertaining and gripping film that's ageing like a fine wine.

This is an absolute classic of world cinema and thankfully, unlike many great foreign-language films (including a fair few of the films mentioned on this list), this one does actually have a spot on the IMDb Top 250 and it certainly deserves it.