For those of you who don't mind reading subtitles, 2006 offered numerous riches in the world of foreign language film, including a magic-realist ode to womanhood, a tribute to an enemy of fascism, a darkly comic tour of the health care system, and a fairy tale for big kids.

One of the world's most celebrated directors is Spaniard Pedro Almodovar, whose films have won him a cult following -- as well as an Oscar. In Volver, he re-teams with muse Penelope Cruz in a drama the Hollywood Reporter's Ray Bennett describes as a "richly entertaining fantasy" about a woman who has to find a way to safely dispose of her husband's body without alerting the authorities.

With Water, director Deepa Mehta gives us a story about a custom still in practice in India today: when her husband dies a woman, regardless of her age, is sent to a halfway house to live out the rest of her days. Richard Roeper calls "pretty remarkable."

From Germany, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days tells the story of a courageous student who dared to speak out in opposition to the Third Reich. Julia Jentsch gives a moving performance as the title character, leading the Houston Chronicle's Bruce Westbrook to remark, "If any actor in an English-language film has given a better performance in the past year, I'd like to see it."

And you thought the heath care system was bad where you are: From Romania, we have The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, an absurdist drama about a sick man at the mercy of the hospital bureaucracy. The Boston Globe's Wesley Morris calls it "a powerfully disturbing odyssey through the Bucharest health care system."

The Golden Tomato award for best-reviewed foreign movie goes to ... Pan's Labyrinth.

Pan's Labyrinth is the lastest from Mexico's Guillermo del Toro, the director who gave us Hellboy and Blade II. To escape the horrific reality around her in Spain during WWII, a little girl creates an imaginary world in which she encounters all sorts of fantastical creatures. "It's a triumph," says Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger. Gene Seymour of Newsday writes, "This is fabulous filmmaking in every sense of the word." A stark allegory of childhood fears punctuated with imaginative visuals, Pan's Labyrinth, with an adjusted score of 82.08 and a Tomatometer of 99 percent, takes viewers into a world they won't soon forget.