Language-learning platform Babbel asked 20 foreign ambassadors to the US to recommend the best movies and books that visitors to their country should check out. Here are some of their choices.
Jana Walczyk/Babbel
Finland in print: Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi recommends Tove Jansson's globally adored Moomin books. "Their philosophic nature is universal," she says. "The carefree and friendly Moomins provide a warm-hearted reading experience, and are also an essential part of the childhood of every Finnish kid." Hong Kong's Moomin Cafe is pictured.
jason kwok/cnn
Austria on screen: "'The Third Man,' the British noir from 1949, feels as fresh as ever," says H.E. Wolfgang A. Waldner, Ambassador of Austria to the US. "Shot entirely on location, you see the city [of Vienna] in ruins and split up into French, American, British and Russian sectors with spies and suspicious officials everywhere. The catchy film score, performed by Anton Karas on a zither, sets the perfect tone."
Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Bhutan in print: AmbassadorKunzang C. Namgyel recommends "Treasures of the Thunder Dragon: A Portrait of Bhutan," the 2006 memoir of Bhutan's Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck. His majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is pictured after his wedding to Queen Jetsun Pema in 2011.
courtesy Mark Wiens
New Zealand in print: Ambassador Tim Groser's pick is Witi Ihimaera's 1987 novel "The Whale Rider." This uplifting coming-of-age tale about a young Maoiri girl was turned into a 2002 film starring Keisha Castle-Hughes.
Newmaker Films
Chile in print: Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdés recommends Isabel Allende's 1982 novel "La casa de los espíritus" ("The House of the Spirits"). It "depicts the recent past and memories from a landowner's point of view, and his daughter's, mingled with social and political issues of the 1970s," he says. Allende is pictured in Madrid at the launch of her 2014 book "El Juego De Ripper."
Alfonso Jimenez Valero/Getty Images
Chile on screen: Valdés' film pick is "Jackie" director's 2012 film "No." He describes it as "an outstanding political film [...] based on true events in Chile in 1988." It "depicts when We The People voted against former dictator Augusto Pinochet in a national referendum."
Colombia in print: Ambassador Juan Carlos Pinzón recommends Gabriel García Márquez's magic realist novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude." Márquez was born in the Colombian village of Aracataca, pictured.
EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP/Getty Images
Denmark on screen: Ambassador Lars Gert Lose recommends Nikolaj Arcel's 2012 film "A Royal Affair." It's "a historical movie based on a true story. A young queen (Queen Caroline Mathilde), who is married to an insane king (King Christian VII of Denmark), falls secretly in love with the king's physician (Johann Friedrich Struensee), and together they start a revolution that changes Denmark."
CNN
Germany on screen: Wolfgang Becker's 2003 film "Good Bye Lenin!" was the break-out film for its German star Daniel Brühl (pictured). Says AmbassadorPeter Wittig, it's "THE movie about the Fall of the Wall. Close to the facts, and yet very funny (in a German way!)."
Jacopo Raule/Getty Images
Ireland in print: Ambassador Anne Anderson's pick is Colum McCann's 2013 novel "TransAtlantic." It dramatises encounters between Ireland and America, including the 1845 visit to Ireland of American abolitionist Frederick Douglass (pictured).
Library Of Congress/Getty Images
Ireland on screen: Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who played Outspan in Alan Parker's global smash "The Commitments" (1991), struck gold again with the 2007 musical "Once."
Larry Busacca/Getty Images
India in print: Ambassador Navtej Sarna's pick is Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins' non-fiction book "Freedom at Midnight" (1975), recently made into the film "Viceroy's House," starring Hugh Bonneville. Its subject is India's path to independence and partition, concluding with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi (pictured) in 1948.
Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Jamaica on screen: Ambassador Audrey Patrice Marks recommends cult comedy "Cool Runnings" (1993). It "tells the amazing story of boldness, endurance and perseverance by the first Jamaican bobsleigh team to participate in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. "
Walt Disney Pictures/IMDB
Norway in print: AmbassadorKåre R. Aas recommends Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole series. The detective anti-hero will be played by Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender in upcoming movie "The Snowman."
Tristan Fewings/Getty Images
Norway on screen: AmbassadorKåre R. Aas recommends the 2012 film "Kon-Tiki." It's about Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl's legendary Kon-Tiki raft voyage of 1947 (pictured), in which he set out to prove that Polynesia could have been populated from South America.
![<strong>Austria on screen: </strong>"'The Third Man,' the British noir from 1949, feels as fresh as ever," says H.E. Wolfgang A. Waldner, Ambassador of Austria to the US. "Shot entirely on location, you see the city [of Vienna] in ruins and split up into French, American, British and Russian sectors with spies and suspicious officials everywhere. The catchy film score, performed by Anton Karas on a zither, sets the perfect tone."](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/131004072413-10-movie-twists-restricted.jpg?q=w_1280,h_720,x_0,y_0,c_fill/h_447)
![<strong>Chile on screen: </strong>Valdés' film pick is "Jackie" director's 2012 film "No." He describes it as "an outstanding political film [...] based on true events in Chile in 1988." It "depicts when We The People voted against former dictator Augusto Pinochet in a national referendum."](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/130219182756-ctw-pkg-foster-pablo-larrain-00014005.jpg?q=w_1280,h_720,x_0,y_0,c_fill/h_447)
