Recommend one great movie or band from the following countries I can't remember having ever heard music or watched a movie from

Bizarrely, at the top of this list:
Quebec (for movie)
Indonesia
Belgium
Iran (for band)
Cameroon
Poland
Czechoslovakia (for band)
Mongolia
Peru
Turkey (for band)
Finland (for band)

Czechia (Czechoslovakia) - Plastic People of the Universe
Turkey - Selda (solo act but great)

For Turkey, you really can't go wrong with Erkin Koray, really psych rock.

Lots of good heavy psych and metal bands from Finland, I'm going to name Dark Buddha Rising as a good one.

Czech band = The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa

Yma Sumac is from Peru!

Polish film - almost anything by Wojciech Has, but especially The Hourglass Sanatorium and The Saragossa Manuscript.

The Hu from Mongolia

The only Indonesian movie I have seen is A Copy of My Mind (2015), which I remember enjoying but not much about.

I've definitely listened to a lot of gamelan music from Indonesia but can't remember any names offhand; I'm sure I must have listened to some rock/electronic/experimental stuff from there too but absolutely blanking.

The Indonesian metal scene is extremely high caliber if you love Brutal Death Metal with the ping snare (I do!), but I am too lazy to list some now, but this article seems to do an okay job: https://www.metalsucks.net/2021/07/07/20-brutal-bands-from-indonesia/

belgium - the films of chantal akerman

Thanks for the awesome suggestions so far!
re: belgium, I forgot that I had seen Jeanne Dielman and also JCVD... what a pair to represent the entirety of Belgian cinema...

Placing highly in the ILX Holiday Films poll a few years ago was Mon Oncle Antoine, from Quebec.

Satan’s Slaves was very good recent horror movie from Indonesia

Black Sugar are a great 70s funk act from Peru

Senyawa is a great Indonesian band as well, even better they've had an album released (in part) by an ilxor - https://senyawa-bam.bandcamp.com/album/alkisah

xpost @ Camaraderie:

Yma Sumac is amazing!

For Poland, 1999's With Fire and Sword is a great movie about the 1648 Ukrainian Cossack rebellion led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky against the Polish nobility. Featuring Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian actors, it eschews cheap nationalist thrills for a fictionalized but still nuanced portrayal of the Polish/Ukrainian conflict. The acting is fantastic, and a full Eng sub version is available on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwrlrfSQghM

Quebec (for movie)

Did Philip Nunez just get outed as a secret Quebec separatist?

For Polish cinema I would think Kieslowski is the starting point! Dekalog I prefer to the Trois Couleurs series, but it’s all worthwhile.

also my favourite gamelan is Music From the Fahnestock Expedition which should be findable. Folkways style recordings made with an acetate cutter on a ship plus a really really long microphone cable.

Cameroon: https://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/album/pop-makossa-the-invasive-dance-beat-of-cameroon-1976-1984-analog-africa-nr-23

^this rules

if Mon Oncle Antoine doesn't appeal, for Quebec movies, I would also recommend Tu dors Nicole

Thirding Mon Oncle Antoine...If you like garage, there are compilations of Peruvian garage bands out there. I've got this one:

https://e.snmc.io/i/600/w/63fe0d0ab57d03b03ca663944ff31e06/1291553/various-artists-back-to-peru-the-most-complete-compilation-of-peruvian-underground-64-74-Cover-Art.jpg

Not trying to shame anybody who mentioned (or enjoys) Mon Oncle Antoine, but it should be noted that it was directed by a notorious serial sex abuser/pedophile. Here are some great Québecois films I've loved:

La Vie rêvée (Mireille Dansereau, 1972)
Mourir à tue-tête (Anne Claire Poirier, 1979)
Sonatine (Micheline Lanctôt, 1984)
La Femme de l'hôtel (Léa Pool, 1984)
Mariages (Catherine Martin, 2001)

Had to go read up on that, didn't know a thing about it (and don't remember any news from when this book came out).

Thanks for the awesome suggestions so far!
re: belgium, I forgot that I had seen Jeanne Dielman and also JCVD... what a pair to represent the entirety of Belgian cinema...

― Philip Nunez, Monday, December 5, 2022 4:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Also the Dardennes brothers. And dEUS for music.

Noteworthy Metal bands:
Indonesia - Asphyxiate
Finland- Khanus, Oranssi Pazuzu
Poland- Furia, Gorycz

Iran: Akvan

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/akvan-interview

Belgium's (maybe the French-speaking world's) greatest chansonnier: Jacques Brel.
I've heard a few interesting records by Poland's top prog/jazz-fusion band, SBB.

cameroon - francis bebey - "akwaaba" particularly
finland - i don't know where to begin! circle, tomutonttu, aavikko, nuslux, avarus, au, kemialliset ystävät, jaakko tolvi, dxxxa d, keijo, kuupuu, lau nau, steel mammoth, just off the top of me head.
indonesia - aryo adhianto is an electronic composer up there with mark fell, autechre & gabor lazar
belgium - lugubrum
mongolia - huun huur tu - "60 horses in my herd"

also finland - never sure how aki kaurismäki's films are regarded in finland, but i love them

oh i see finland is only up for "band" my bad

Indonesian movies!

The Raid and The Raid 2 are masterpieces of modern action

Cameroon: https://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/album/pop-makossa-the-invasive-dance-beat-of-cameroon-1976-1984-analog-africa-nr-23🕸

^this rules

Mongolian movies: Veins of the World, The Cave of the Yellow Dog - both by Byambasuren Davaa

This Peruvian music blog is pretty thorough: http://rockperuanorollos.blogspot.com - Traffic Sound can get pretty righteously psychedelic. Also check out Anthology Of Experimental Music From Peru: https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-experimental-music-from-peru

Belgian trip-hop: Hooverphonic -- Why no thred on them?

Stromae is Belgian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dkDepLX0rk

Peruvian cinema:

La vida es una sola (dir. Maryanne Eide)

Sin compasión (dir. Francisco Lombardi)

No se lo digas a nadie (dir. Francisco Lombardi)

Manu Dibango of "Soul Makossa" fame is also from Cameroon

Stromae is Belgian:

📹

Poland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMPdXLun4iU

Peru:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD5oJkGnD0I

Iran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2pw1Sz8VJU

Cameroon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gGpi4r_oJ8

Turkey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0BxRq95dcE