Festive Foreign Film Fans
Bob and Mark are regular American guys exploring different countries and cultures through the holiday experience of Christmas. They enjoy festive movies, music, food, and customs. Each episode features the two visiting a new international location. It's like a global Christmas party!
Episodes
35 episodes since 2023
Season 2, Episode 5 - Memory Box (Lebanon)
If you want to enjoy a true Middle Eastern Christmas, one with diverse religions and languages, but also filled with historic, cultural, culinary and artistic delights, join the Fans as we head on a festive jaunt to amazing Lebanon. This ...
September 06, 2024
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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40:40
Season 2, Episode 4 - Tudo Bem No Natal Que Vem (Brazil)
How do you want to spend Christmas? If you like to celebrate in a warm and colorful locale with incredible natural beauty, lush beaches, and a stunning rainforest, grab a holiday speedo or thong, because you are going to love this episode...
August 25, 2024
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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42:13
Season 2, Episode 3 - Himmelfall (Norway)
Put on your Gjermundbu helmet, grab your tunic and don’t forget the woolen underwear. We are off the coolest country in Europe to explore their Christmas traditions during our dog days of summer. We are talking Norway, on the outskirts of Europ...
August 06, 2024
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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41:27
Season 2, Episode 2: The December Boys (Australia)
G’day Mate! We’re so stoked. The Festive Fans are firing the barbie today for holiday tucker -- heaps of prawns and snags. We’re putting on some cozies and thongs (well, Mark’s in a budgie smuggler) to enjoy our visit to Stray...
July 25, 2024
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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41:12
Season 2, Episode 1 - Let There Be Light (Slovakia)
So it's Season 2. We are older and wiser. Or, with all the traditional food and drink from last season, maybe just older and wider. We have a much broader view now and we are keeping our chins up ... all of them. To kick...
July 06, 2024
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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43:27
Episode 26: It's Our Anniversary Show! (Part 2)
This episode is our longest and most special. It is Part 2 of our anniversary show. We welcome our first guest, author and podcaster Alonso Duralde; we pick our favorite global holiday songs and movies; and, most importantly, we enj...
June 25, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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1:16:25
Episode 25 - It's Our Anniversary! (Part 1)
One Year! Wow, it seems like just last June we were in the street markets of Ancient Baghdad on a flying carpet with Aladin. Or, trying to escape from the top of a burning tower in South Korea. These films offered us a cinemat...
June 06, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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40:47
Episode 24: Rak haeng Siam or "The Love of Siam" (Thailand)
OK, Festive Fans, pour yourselves a Mai Thai and get ready for the last episode of our first season! We are heading east – Far East – to Thailand, a captivating land of beaches, palaces, ruins, and temples. It’s the perfect ending f...
May 25, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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39:38
Episode 23: Alles is Liefde (Netherlands)
The boys are going Dutch this episode and exploring Christmas in the land of tulips, windmills, and hole-y dykes. Grab your wooden shoes, we are heading to the Netherlands for St. Nicholas Day! We also examine a surprisingly dated ...
May 06, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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42:09
Episode 22: Skenbart (Sweden)
In today’s episode, we enjoy Skenbart or “IIlusive Tracks” a black and white Swedish film set in 1945. It is a comedy, thriller, drama and love story, all wrapped up in one, along with those common elements you expect in a Christmas fi...
April 25, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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39:55
Episode 21: Retfærdighedens Ryttere (Denmark)
The boys head north again to another Scandinavian country to fully embrace the land of Vikings, pastries, and Mads Mikkelsen. It’s Denmark! Yes, our own Hannibal Lecter stars in a revenge drama that has all of the elements you...
April 06, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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42:08
Episode 20: Kisses (Ireland)
We are still in our post-St. Patrick’s Day reverie so the Festive Fans decide to head off to enjoy the Emerald Isle. Mark is excited to celebrate the locale of his favorite film The Quiet Man and the home to three of his great-gr...
March 25, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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41:52
Episode 19: Le Nocha Magica (Argentina)
Don’t cry for us Argentina, you have delivered on a very meaty holiday. And we are not just talking about the ox tongue and tuna sauce at the Asado. Our first tour stop in South America really delivers its fireworks -- both on and ...
March 06, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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45:11
Episode 18: A Naija Christmas (Nigeria)
This reminds us of when we reviewed a film from Turkey in November, now February is Black History month in the States and we just happen to be covering our first film on the African continent. Today we travel to Lagos, Nigeria for an ente...
February 25, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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47:59
Episode 17: Una famiglia perfetta (Italy)
We’re gonna show you a movie you can’t refuse. The boys are off to Italia -- Bob’s ancestral homeland – for a magnifica celebration of amore, famiglia, and Natale. And don’t worry, it’s not personal, it’s business. We review t...
February 06, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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47:04
Episode 16: Starry, Starry Night (Taiwan)
Vincent Van Gogh’s classic painting “Starry Night” has, through the years, inspired poets, musicians, and now another gem -- this episode’s holiday film from Taiwan. Mark describes it as the “best film we have reviewed” so far. &nbs...
January 25, 2024
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42:14
Episode 15: Echo (Iceland) … and Happy New Year!
It’s a new episode, a new year, and an exciting new country for the Festive Fans! For the start of 2024, we travel to Iceland -- a country with dramatic landscapes full of giant glaciers and fiery volcanos. Such extreme contrasts al...
January 05, 2024
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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49:51
Episode 14: Schedryk (Ukraine) and Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all of our Festive Fans! The boys celebrate Christmas today by considering the uplifting Ukrainian song and the movie Carol of the Bells or “Schedryk”. The story takes place in the years preceding and during World...
December 25, 2023
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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47:03
Episode 13: Serebryanye Konki (Russia)
The Festive Fans embark on their plan to spread Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men this episode as they journey to Mother Russia. It’s a sincere effort to try to find some Christmas spirit in the former Soviet nation. We watch a mo...
December 05, 2023
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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45:58
Episode 12: Christmas in the Clouds (the American Indian Nation)
In today’s episode we explore how true Americans celebrate Christmas – the Native Americans. Yes, we make a visit to the American Indian nation, as a Thanksgiving Day salute to the indigenous people who saved the Pilgrim butts and got a b...
November 25, 2023
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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42:20
Episode 11: Neseli Hayat (Turkey)
It’s November and we are talking Turkey. No, not those dim-witted, low-flying, tree-roosting birds that many of us plan to eat later this month. We are talking the country of Turkey, which is the ancestral home and inspiration for S...
November 06, 2023
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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43:47
A Very Special Episode (Non è mai troppo tardi)
Happy National Christmas Podcast Day! The theme of today’s special event is for the many different Christmas podcasts to cover a version of Charles Dickens Christmas Carol. Since we are the Festive Foreign Film Fans, we nee...
November 01, 2023
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Season 1
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Episode 0
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27:58
Episode 10: Pastorela (Mexico)
Boo! It’s spooky season for our Christmas podcast. This episode we have Pastorela, and it is devilishly good. It is the appropriate holiday film for October as it features demons, an exorcism, and an epic battle of Go...
October 25, 2023
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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42:46
Episode 9: Bada Din (India)
Today is a "Bada Din" – which means Big Day in Hindi. Mark and Bob explore the movie of the same name, which is the Indian term for Christmas. Bada Din was released in 1998 and is a holiday dance and song spectacle – it features ...
October 06, 2023
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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43:32