Movies connect us with people we might not get the chance to meet IRL. For #GlobalMovieDay, we’ve put together a THREAD of immersive films from around the world. Think of it like that year you always said you’d spend backpacking, but you can do it from the comfort of your couch!

When you think Scottish cinema, Get Duked! might not be the first film that comes to mind, but what better way to understand youth culture than to laugh at four teens as they hallucinate their way through the Highlands?

In this dramedy from Marat Sarulu, a Russian couple living in the jaw-dropping Eurasian Steppe are forced to have some awkward convos when their baby comes out looking a lot like their handsome Kazakh neighbor. Songs from the Southern Seas will scratch your itch for juicy gossip!

In the silly and sweet comedy Toto, a young Filipino man does everything he can to secure himself work visa access to the United States, even though his ambition confuses and annoys his lovably quirky group of friends.

This one’s a period piece, but its themes still ring true today! Pride follows the true story of the queer youth organization that supported the ‘84 Welsh miners’ strike. It’s guaranteed to make you laugh, dance, and also cry.

We’re bending the rules for Banana in a Nutshell because it’s technically a doc, but Roseanne Liang includes so many comical re-enactments that it feels like a regular rom-com. Raised in New Zealand, Liang reckons with her Chinese parents when she falls for a white Kiwi dude.

Band Baaja Baaraat is a great intro to Bollywood musicals, and it’s also a cool look at Indian wedding culture and the tension between rural and urban living. Plus it’s just a great plot: Two business partners fight their obvious chemistry until they just can’t take it anymore.

She was a punk, he made crab dumplings. What more can we say? Moko Jumbie is a coming-of-age story set in Trinidad about a teenage goth girl who develops a serious crush on her neighbor. There’s even a supernatural haunting element, but we’ll leave it at that to avoid spoilers!

Romantics Anonymous follows the journey of a terribly shy French chocolatier who falls in love with her boss (a nice man who also has severe social anxiety). This French rom-com is sweet, more than a lil awkward, and ultimately very satisfying.

Okay, one more romance. We can’t help it. Rafiki follows two young Kenyan women who fall helplessly in love. Director Wanuri Kahiu says her bright aesthetic is part of the Afrobubblegum artistic movement, which aims to capture joyful, fantastical African youth culture.

That’s it for our #GlobalMovieDay thread. We hope you found at least one world you’re dying to dive into. If you’ve got a contemporary film in mind that does a great job showing off a particular country’s culture, drop it below!