Pawlikowski elicits utter transparency from first-time actress Agata Trzebuchowska, as a novitiate in 1962 Poland; and from Agata Kulesza, as the nun’s aunt who must come to terms with their WWII family history. One of Schrader’s favorite films of recent years, this Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film also earned Oscar nods for cinematographers Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski’s pristine black-and-white imagery.

In Polish with English subtitles