I know Kore-eda (and was actually recommended by Ray Carney, who knows a lot - he has a few great web sites, too with recommendations, etc) and liked "Shoplifters" but don't know the other two, so I will make a note, and will do an automatic recording on my TV... Thanks!

 I've actually seen "The Salesman" and thought it was alright, but it definitely had a good blueprint. I tend to like movies about people, something unique. I think the writing is the biggest determining factor for me, and acting. I did do an automatic recording of all the directors and found them, including a couple of free movies by Oslund, although they have a ton of commercials, and will wait to see if they appear on cable.

Off-topic a bit, but have you seen the movie, "Buffalo '66"? I think it's one of the most unique (and best) movies I've seen, despite being simple without a ton of movement (most of the movie takes place in a couple of settings) and without things people associate with "unique" (CGI, "controversy", etc etc).

"My Sweet Pepper Land" looks good. I'll try to find it. Thanks!

Plenty of Asian countries where internet is anything but free (and I don't mean £$€) and trying to do anything "free" can lead you in jail.

Those A&E movie houses have very little middle-easterners as clients... It's mostly upper-middle class whites and most resemble me or my GF.

Let's tart with a few from Tunisia - I'll start with the softies (comedies), and move on to the darker side of Carthago.

Hi

You are talking about "after the fact" and the film being made. The problem is not "AFTER" but "BEFORE", when the film makers can not get a script allowed to be filmed, and the censors will be around each corner to make sure they can shut it all down. 

Some still make it through, but many end up being finished elsewhere where they don't have to be interrupted or controlled. This was the case (and still is) in the Chinese film industry in the 90's when Yimou and others were coming up. The stories had to be "individual" and no suggestion about the political or social this or that ... because the film would not be allowed to survive!

There was an article, and I'm not going to list it on purpose, that one film maker tried to make sure he had a live internet connection so that everything he filmed was also saved and kept elsewhere. Guess what? His connection was killed (it became a fake connection) and he will never again make another film or write one, and likely will only be able to get a jog street sweeping. It's like a film story ... and you end up crying at the justice in it all ... 

I don't know that many of the Middle-Eastern and Arabic countries are as "open minded" about the work. In some situations, these religious systems don't even believe in the arts, and folks are not allowed to make films, for example, and you won't )likely) find a local theater doing something that is not just their own political propaganda. And we don't quite even call that "theater".

Having been a part of a fascist country, that spent its time making sure that reviews of American and European films in the late 40's and 50's, you should have seen some things ... Portugal and Spain ended up "sensitive" about its writers and artists (for the most part), but to give you an idea, a book has finally been published (gosh ... some 30 or 40 years ago!) which showed at least 30 reviews of various films, and how the censors cut up the reviews to that what you read in the newspaper, or otherwise, did not tell you much, and the interest in the film was not increased. AND, we're talking about the American Actor's Studio work, and a lot of the English film and theater work around the "angry young men" in the 50's. We all know, today, how massive those two period of film and theater were ... and sometimes, for me, seeing it yet again in so many countries ... makes me sad, and sometimes difficult to say something. Folks, today, can not relate to this history at all, and many  (specially here on PA) think it's all crap and not true. 

Is there a solution? 

I doubt it. I'm 71, and all I see is the same thing happen yet again, and another revolution where the group destroys all the arts and one even demolished a movie studio! The barbarism involved in some of this is something that scares me senseless. AND, although I don't think this is the reason in all situations, many of the films we find, fell through the cracks and made  it although, for my tastes it was pretty obvious that they had to tell a "child story" in order to prevent censorship and a shut down of their project.

I don't want those films ignored at all ... I would rather folks learned to ignore the huge money making films in Hollywood and give many of these a bigger and better chance. But in this day and age with people having to "conform" to the social everything, I'm not sure that things will change anytime soon ... the days of a Bergman, Fellini, Truffaut, Godard, Fassbinder and even Kurosawa ... are over ... the chance to see a film of that stature these days are almost over ... the media owns the films and they want the money ... why the f**k would they spend time talking about something they think is taking away their money? AND, worse, we don't even see that or realize what we have to do ... we have to go and agree with all our neighbors and watch the same films and tv!

Music has done way better in this respect than other wise ... and I think that the open-ness of the music business with its much better defined and less hit driven process, is the main reason. The film industry, still lacks that idea ... and the masses still don't see that there are others out there, just as good.