Being a bride is never easy, but being betrothed to a Syrian, in the Israeli controlled Golan Heights is doubly hard. Anyone leaving to marry someone in Syria, becomes a Syrian citizen and isn’t allowed back into the country. The film combines the political complexities of the occupied territories with with an equally challenging family drama.
Adam is a 55-year-old pool attendant in Chad. He’s been working the same hotel job for the past 30 years. His son Abdel has taken up the trade and works along him. He’s a fit young man and does more of the physical work. When the new Chinese owners decide to have Adam replaced by his son, he loses his identity and tormented by shame.
Ludo is the life of the party, but when he’s involved in a crippling accident. It has his close friends wondering if they should break off their yearly vacation together. These are people that have shared their lives and know each other’s secrets. It’s those still buried secrets that unravel.
Nuno has placed all hope in a foot scanning machine to provide for a better life for his family. On the way to a big sales pitch, he loses control of his car and spends the day unconscious in a field. Upon waking he finds he can’t get out of his car. He’s not paralyzed as he can still operate the foot controls, but he physically can’t get out of the car. What’s stopping him?
Simon is a young man with Asperger syndrome. He has extremely poor social skills and borders on rude. Simon lives with his brother Sam and his partner Frida. When Simon’s behaviour drives her away, Sam is distraught and Simon seeks a new girlfriend for him.
Kelin is a beautiful girl about to be married. Her father negotiates a bride price between two suitors. A hunter is Kelin’s choice for husband but he loses the bidding to a Yak herder. She soon finds that her life isn’t so bad and has a sexual awakening. Life gets complicated when her hunter suitor wants her back.
Jamal’s wife and sister are part of the resistance movement, his sister is exiled and wife dead by suicide. Hoping to avoid the same fate for his daughter Miral, he has her brought up in a school for Palestinian orphans. He hopes that education can temper the rising Intifada. This is Miral’s story of her struggle between violence and peace.
Prior to World War II the state of Israel didn’t exist, it was carved out of lands with an uncertain status. Jews and Arabs have historically lived in that area but in 1948 the area became Israel. Some Arabs left and many stayed, this is a story about the Suleiman family that stayed.
Older brother Izumi couldn’t be more different from graffiti remover and brother Haru. While doing his job, Haru discovers a pattern between the graffiti and a string of arson fires. What seems like a light drama turns into a tale about family bonds, arson, rape, revenge and murder.
Andrés is a 30ish travel writer based in Berlin. He’s back in Santiago, the city of his youth after being away for 10 years. He drops in at a birthday party, when he’s told his ex is at there. Andrés’ demeanour changes, as conflicting emotions flood in.
Daniel and Julio are brothers but not paternal ones. Julio’s single mom found Daniel abandoned in a garbage pile. With great love the two boys are brought up as brothers. 16 years later, fortune smiles on them when a scout for Caracas FC spots them playing football and offers them a tryout.
1984, it’s a magical time for Boy, a Maori growing up in the New Zealand. Despite being absent most of Boy’s life, he believes his dad is doing heroic things. When his dad returns, Boy must reconcile the imagined dad with the misfit father he actually has.
