Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Denmark’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film, The Guilty is as suspenseful as they come. Gustav Möller’s dark, spare thriller opens in an emergency dispatch center and never leaves the premises. Most of the action takes place on the phone as Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren), a cop demoted to desk duty, tries desperately to save a life. It’s a testament to Möller’s abilities that this claustrophobic, no-frills film never loses steam, but continues to grip the viewer throughout its 85-minute runtime.

Right from the start, the focus is tight on Asger as he gruffly handles mundane, almost amusing, emergency calls—someone freaking out on drugs, a guy who was mugged by a prostitute. Just when the bored cop begins to space out, there’s a call from a woman in distress. As he quickly ascertains that she is being held in a moving car against her will, the film’s tension immediately ratchets up.

Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

The woman pretends she’s speaking with her child as Asger asks a series of questions to figure out her location. His mind spinning with possibilities, he embarks on a series of frantic calls, which include sending a patrol car to a location indicated by her phone’s GPS. He also calls the woman’s home and speaks to her panicked six-year-old, promising the girl that he’ll protect her mother. Keeping his calm at first, Asger skillfully unravels the situation while constantly being told by various entities that it’s not his job. There’s talk about a big case coming up the next day, along with references to a psychiatrist; we wonder what he’s done.

As horrific details emerge, Asger moves into another room to continue working on the case, enlisting his partner, his commanding officer, whomever he can send to do something. Occasionally, he goes into a fugue-like state until the phone or a co-worker snaps him out of it. Then there’s a brutal twist that neither Asger nor the viewer sees coming. The film’s protagonist shifts into shocked despair, but he doesn’t stop trying, eventually coming clean with his own demons.

The Guilty is quite a thrill ride, all the more remarkable for its lack of onscreen action. At its center, Cedergren — filmed mostly in tight close-up — is solid and convincing as a compromised law enforcement professional determined to save the day.

Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories

Alexandria Bombach’s documentary On Her Shoulders is a moving portrait of 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Nadia Murad. A survivor of the ISIS-inflicted Yazidi genocide in northern Iraq, Murad is an intensely sympathetic young woman, but she’s far from pathetic. After escaping sexual slavery at the hands of ISIS when the terrorist group took over her village and killed most of her family, Nadia could not forget the women and girls still imprisoned. Bombach’s film follows her and the Yazda Organization’s executive director Murad Ismael as they travel to Canada, Greece, Germany and ultimately, the U.S., drumming up support for their cause: making the genocide a priority for the UN.

As Nadia gives speeches and interviews with journalists and public officials, she suffers in reliving the horrific details of her ordeal, but she keeps going, all the way to the UN General Assembly. A revered figure in the decimated Yazidi community, she’s clearly under tremendous pressure, but conducts herself with admirable grace, enduring inane comments and small talk by well-meaning supporters and politicians. Bombach’s film shows the loneliness, isolation and exhaustion of a reluctant activist whose overarching goal somehow enables her to deal with her memories and current strange reality.

Courtesy of Menemsha Films

The UN is also present in Ruth Beckermann’s The Waldheim Waltz, a lively documentary about the rise to power of former UN Secretary General and Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, despite evidence of his Nazi past. Using recently discovered footage that she shot in the ’80s, along with news reports and other clips, Beckermann recreates the controversy leading up to the 1986 Austrian presidential election, when the World Jewish Congress led accusations that Waldheim was involved in the 1943 deportation of 60,000 Greek Jews. During his presidential campaign, Waldheim maintained that he was just following orders as “an honest soldier” in the German Army. Despite outward expressions of anti-Nazi sentiment, much of Austria chose to believe him or—as the film shows—just overlook this aspect of his career. The Waldheim Waltz reveals a fascinating and shameful time in the history of a world leader and his country.

The Guilty, On Her Shoulders and The Waldheim Waltz all open in NYC on Friday, October 19.

—Marina Zogbi