My Hope

Clara and Hans are left-wing terrorists who have been sought by police for almost fifteen years. Their increasingly rebellious daughter Jeanne begins to pose a threat to their security when she falls in love with a boy she meets on the beach.

MARIAN is an 80 year old resident of Meadow Park Rest Home. During a difficult visit, her daughter PHILLIPA is forced out and accidentally leaves something important behind. Wandering out of the rest home, the outside world proves challenging, as Marian battles her mind in an attempt to return her daughter’s beloved possession.

A socially awkward veterinary assistant with a lazy eye and obsession with perfection descends into depravity after developing a crush on a boy with perfect hands.

15 years ago, Luiza decided to make a fresh start in Spain. She left her 3-year-old daughter Cristina in the care of her relatives and took off. When she returns to Romania, the woman learns some shocking truths that were kept hidden from her: Cristina ran away from home, is a drug addict and has a 2-year-old girl who lives in an orphanage. Overwhelmed by guilt, Luiza attempts to save her daughter

Francie and Joe live the usual playful, fantasy filled childhoods of normal boys. However, with a violent, alcoholic father and a manic depressive, suicidal mother the pressure on Francie to grow up are immense. When Francie's world turns to madness, he tries to counter it with further insanity, with dire consequences.

Tito's break-up with Stalin in 1948 marked the beginning of not only confusing, but also very dangerous, years for many hard-core Yugoslav communists. A careless remark about the newspaper cartoon is enough for Mesha to join many arrested unfortunates. His family is now forced to cope with the situation and wait for his release from prison.

While her mother is expecting their second child, young Thi befriends Ngoc, a club waitress who has just moved in as a tenant in their family home. As their friendship grows, she discovers that Ngoc is secretly a sex worker. Meanwhile, an art book of Tamara de Lempicka’s female nudes, stolen from a bookshop, silently bears witness.

Miso lives from day to day by housekeeping. Cigarettes and whiskey are the two things that get her through the day. As cigarette prices and rent start to rise, Miso decides to give up her house for cigarettes and whiskey, leading her to couch surf with old friends while reconsidering her place in life.

The three friends Ertan, Kemal and Mehdi live in Kiel. They are foreigners, "Kanaks", as they proudly call themselves. For them, this term is an expression of their attitude to life. The trio keeps their heads above water with small-time crooks, but over time they are drawn deeper and deeper into a maelstrom of violence and crime. On a whim, Erkan acts as the protector of two prostitutes and makes enemies of two unscrupulous pimps. After a failed robbery, Ertan ends up in prison for a short time and Kemal is deported to Turkey. However, the two proud "Kanaks" don't let this get them down, on the contrary: together, the friends now want to build a drug air bridge between Istanbul and Germany. But the dream of quick money ends in death and grief for Kemal and Ertan.

Forcibly separated from her twin brother when they are orphaned, a melancholic misfit learns how to find confidence within herself amid the clutter of misfortunes and everyday life.

Božidarka Frajt (playing herself) is an actress who is unsuccessfully looking for a job in Zagreb. The film follows her everyday life: she spends time with her friends and colleagues, shoots a television commercial, goes to a party, remembers her difficult childhood as a war orphan, and contemplates her professional and personal failures. Finally, she visits theatre manager Vjeran Zuppa in his office and asks for a job.

Lily has saved up a large sum of money to fulfill her dream of studying acting at an American university. On the day she receives confirmation that she has been accepted, her dysfunctional mother returns to Lily's life and tells her that she has a huge debt that needs to be paid off immediately. In one day, Lily tries to find a way to help her mother without using her savings. Lily is faced with the choice of buying her future and remaining a bad daughter, or letting it go, bending to the needs of others.

Impoverished priest Harihar Ray leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work. His wife, Sarbojaya, looks after their rebellious daughter, Durga, and young son, Apu. The children enjoy the small pleasures of their difficult life.

Eleven-year-old Steve is the smallest boy in class. He thinks girls are soppy, detests football and prefers painting. To alleviate his loneliness, he occasionally escapes into an excitingly violent fantasy realm of his own creation. His best mate Stuart is the only solid thing in a comfortless world where people argue too much… usually about Steve.

Rhea is a 24-year-old woman who has just moved into a new house with her husband. Over the course of 10 years she will have three different partners with whom she will experience three moves in different parts of the world. In the intimacy of a universal living room, the viewer will experience the passage of time and how the protagonist is getting rid of many material belongings. Her relationships seem very volatile and light. However, a novel written by her first love will endure in time amidst so much personal and material rupture.

Franz Holl, 6 years old, is sent off by his mother and stepfather to live on his father's farm. His father turns out to be a mischievous man who won't grant him any chance in life. The roles are played by amateur actors from Carinthia.

After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.

The lives of a motherless young man, who's just starting to find interest in women, and his physically abused, poverty stricken friend, are mixed with more or less innocent childhood experiences and challenges most their age experience.

The story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.

A look at the trials and tribulations of school and childhood.