Ukrainian-French actress Olga Kurylenko may have made her start in the modeling industry, but rose to prominence after having a string of successful appearances in Marvel’s Black Widow and the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. Born in Ukraine when it was still a part of the Soviet Union, she moved to Moscow as a teenager, but a year later decided to pursue a modeling career in Paris. Upon signing a contract with an agency, she began gracing the covers of Vogue, Marie Claire, and Elle by the time she was a legally, full-fledged adult. Kurylenko made her first acting appearance in a 2003 music video, but made a complete pivot into seriously acting by 2005.

Since then, Kurylenko has appeared in a plethora of indie movies, but made her splash when cast as Camille Montes, a Bond Girl, in Quantum of Solace. She was in Oblivion with Tom Cruise in 2013, and played a role in 2017’s The Death of Stalin. Fans will recognize her from her role as a villain in Black Widow: Taskmaster. Kurylenko has had a wide variety of roles during her career, breaking into mainstream and indie cinema as an actress. These are her best movies ranked.

6 Erased

Man holds gun up to woman's neck.
E-Motion

2012’s Erased starred Kurylenko alongside Aaron Eckhart. Directed by Philipp Stölzl, Eckhart portrays a former CIA agent who, with his teenage daughter Amy, has relocated to Belgium. When he discovers something is amiss at his company and points it out to his boss, things start to get stranger when the office empties, and, suddenly, the agent and his daughter are kidnapped by one of his coworkers. As the situation gets murkier, and the two are hunted down by authorities and an assassin, his former lover (Kurylenko) appears out of the woodwork. Erased is a movie many audiences have seen before, rehashing a tale in a way that is not too unique when compared to its predecessors, but still manages to be entertaining when one does not think too hard about it.

5 L’Annulaire

Woman sits in bed.
Les Films du Veyrier

L’Annulaire was Kurylenko’s film debut, and it ended up bringing much attention to her potential as an actress. Diane Bertrand directs in this adaptation of a Japanese novel, written by Yoko Agawa, and Kurylenko stars as a young woman who takes up a job at a factory. Her role is to wash bottles, but one day, an accident happens, and she loses the tip of one of her fingers. In a slow buildup, she packs up her things, moves to another city on the seaside, then begins a new job that is not what it seems. With beautiful cinematography and a plethora of concepts to think about when finishing, L’Annulaire is worth a watch.

4 The Assassin Next Door

Woman points gun at someone off-camera.
Bleiberg Entertainment

Israeli action drama The Assassin Next Door stars Kurylenko and the Israeli musician Ninet Tayeb. Kurylenko is Galia, a sex slave from Ukraine working in Tel Aviv. The circumstance she is placed under is miserable, and one day she decides to escape with a friend. However, things are not as easy as they planned, and the two are captured before getting out. Galia survives the torture, but her friend is killed because of their plan. However, Galia finds a different way to get out of this situation: she is offered the chance to become an assassin, and she takes it. As she tries to find a way out of Israel and head home, she strikes an unlikely friendship with her neighbor after hearing her abuse.

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3 Oblivion

Oblivion movie
Relativity Media

Cruise is billed as the leading star of Oblivion, but Kurylenko portrays his wife in this disaster film. Set in 2077 on an Earth decimated by extraterrestrial war, a technician (Cruise) has been sent back to Earth. His job is to service drones and fight against any extraterrestrials that are left on the planet, but once he lands, he discovers that they are not extraterrestrials — they’re human. With a Herculean task ahead of its protagonist, Oblivion dangles between romanticism and science fiction. There is one thing that is pretty solid about the movie: it has some excellent cinematography scattered throughout.

2 The Death of Stalin

olga-kurylenko-the-death-of-stalin
Gaumont

Armando Iannucci's The Death of Stalin first made its splash at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017, managing to get itself banned in both Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The movie begins with Stalin demanding a recording of a classical music concert, leading the organizers and engineers to scurry about to appease their leader. However, one of the pianists slips a note into the record, and when Stalin finds it, he discovers some not-so-nice things were said about him as a leader. Then, he dies right after, leading the remainder of the movie to spiral into political turmoil and a black comedy as individuals scramble for power.

Related: TIFF 2022: Every Movie Broken Down by Genre

1 Seven Psychopaths

Woman pushes man away while she's on the phone.
Blueprint Pictures

Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, and Woody Harrelson all star in Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, which also debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. Marty (Farrell) is a screenwriter struggling to finish his screenplay titled Seven Psychopaths. He surrounds himself with odd company, including a friend that kidnaps dogs for a living, and finds inspiration in a recent murderer. That proves disastrous when his friends kidnap a local mobster’s dog, leading to a rather unfortunate series of events. Peculiar but hilarious, Seven Psychopaths is an excellent addition to Kurylenko’s filmography.