It follows a year in the life of a family in the North-Eastern part of Finland. From the gloomy days of winter to the Mid Summer wedding festivities.
Kuhle Wampe takes place in early-1930s Berlin. The film begins with a montage of newspaper headlines describing steadily-rising unemployment figures. This is followed by scenes of a young man looking for work in the city and the family discussing the unpaid back rent. The young man, brother of the protagonist Anni, removes his wristwatch and throws himself from a window out of despair. Shortly thereafter his family is evicted from their apartment. Now homeless, the family moves into a garden colony of sorts with the name “Kuhle Wampe.”
Die Polizistin is a documentary by Andreas Dresen about the life of a young police woman who is faced with the difficulties between her responsibilities at work and her personal responsibilities.
A lottery win of $5,000 forever changes the lives of a miner turned dentist and his wife.
One winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...
Summer 1994: Christian grows up under the violent hand of his father. When his mother dies, his aunt Juli fights to ensure that Christian can attend secondary school. In the process, he gets caught in the middle.
Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
The short drama film follows the daily life of the Juan and Jorge, two brothers living on the streets of Mexico City. It won an Academy Award in 2001 for Best Live Action Short Film.
"Laia" is located in the imaginary village of Sinera, a fishing village inhabited by a series of extreme characters, indiscriminately diverted to the adversities of destiny. There, Laia lives, a woman marked by a miserable and unhappy childhood, that is debated between her cruel husband and lover who is his best friend and faces the hatred of a whole town while dreaming of a freedom that only the sea can grant.
The ever-poker-faced Ilona loses her job as a restaurant hostess, as her tram driver husband, Lauri, also finds himself out of work. Together they must hit the streets of Helsinki, facing up to hardship and humiliation in their quest for survival, guided through the gloom by a ray of hope.
A woman struggles as she is caught at a supermarket for shoplifting. This award-winning short film is inspired by the cost of living crisis in Britain.
Sisters moving from Hunan to Hong Kong in the 1990s are faced with an identity crisis, poverty, and their father's drug addiction.
A nurse from Ukraine searches for a better life in the West, while an unemployed security guard from Austria heads East for the same reason. Both are looking for work, a new beginning, an existence, struggling to believe in themselves, to find a meaning in life...
Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.
Master painter Hans Moll and his wife, the television announcer Ms. Wellinek and her husband, and the German-Russian Jew Yevgenia have many things to live on: food, drink, an apartment. What they do not have is work. They all discover the yearning for a chance to start all over again and bring themselves back to life.
A heroin junkie works as a prostitute to support his habit and fund an abortion needed by the girlfriend of his lesbian wife. His seedy encounters with delusional and damaged clients, and dates with drag queens and hustlers are heavy on sex, drugs and decadence.
Jim Davis is an ex-Army Ranger who finds himself slipping back into his old life of petty crime after a job offer from the LAPD evaporates. His best friend is pressured by his girlfriend Sylvia to find a job, but Jim is more interested in hanging out and making cash from small heists, while trying to get a law enforcement job so he can marry his Mexican girlfriend.
According to Plan
A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.
Impoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.