What A Miracle

“If you jerk off a 100 times, you die.” This threat rings through the ears of our main character. One day he has to choose between imminent hell and the impetuousness of adolescence.

The first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series. Comprised of several short films by some of the world's most exciting directors, Words with Gods follows the theme of religion - specifically as it relates to an individual's relationship with his/her god or gods...or the lack thereof. In Words with Gods, each director recounts a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship; including early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism. An animated sequence by Mexican animator Maribel Martinez is woven through each of the film segments, with each segment narratively connected as a feature-length film.

Alex is a disgruntled waiter at a snobby exclusive restaurant who falls on hard times. Forced to deal with the contempt and disgust of the upper class, Alex & cohorts attempt to go on a rampage. Meanwhile, General Karprov and Spider plot to involve the inept anarchists into their plans to derail the prime-minister-to-be's campaign.

A neo-nazi sentenced to community service at a church clashes with the blindly devotional priest.

A husband-and-wife team play detective, but not in the traditional sense. Instead, the happy duo helps others solve their existential issues, the kind that keep you up at night, wondering what it all means.

Brian Cohen is an average young Jewish man, but through a series of ridiculous events, he gains a reputation as the Messiah. When he's not dodging his followers or being scolded by his shrill mother, the hapless Brian has to contend with the pompous Pontius Pilate and acronym-obsessed members of a separatist movement. Rife with Monty Python's signature absurdity, the tale finds Brian's life paralleling Biblical lore, albeit with many more laughs.

An abortion clinic worker with a special heritage is called upon to save the existence of humanity from being negated by two renegade angels trying to exploit a loophole and re-enter Heaven.

Bruce Nolan toils as a "human interest" television reporter in Buffalo, NY, but despite his high ratings and the love of his beautiful girlfriend, Bruce remains unfulfilled. At the end of the worst day in his life, he angrily ridicules God — and the Almighty responds, endowing Bruce with all of His divine powers.

Gloria is a mother like any other: cooking, cleaning, and loving her family. But, her leg starts to hurt, stopping her from working around the house and forcing her to confront her sense of responsibility while talking to a crucifix of Jesus.

The ardent prayer of a monk brings about a true miracle in a West German industrial town, which, however, is not understood by the people but only exploited as a lucrative sensation.

Two escaped cons' only prayer to escape is to pass themselves off as priests and pass by the police blockade at the border into the safety of Canada.

Drifter and small-time con man Sheldon Bart encounters old friend, Brother Bud Sanders, a big-time con artist into faith healing and fencing stolen cars, at his revival tent outside a small town. Whilst helping Brother Bud, Sheldon falls in love with deeply religious and deeply lonely supermarket clerk Arlene, who believes in UFOs. When Arlene has a vision of an approaching UFO, everyone deals with the impending doom in their own ways.

Pino is a young man who lives in Assisi with his father Damiano, a communist revolutionary, and his partner Nadine. One day Pino sees Maria Teresa studying Latin and starts giving her some lessons. Soon they fall in love.

Set in a world where the concept of lying doesn't exist, a loser changes his lot when he invents lying and uses it to get ahead.

It is a fetish, a mantra, a secret religion to modern man: work. In times of the financial crisis and massive job reductions, this documentary movie questions work as our 'hallow' sense in life in a way that both humors and pains us.

Bubby has spent thirty years trapped in the same small room, tricked by his mother. One day, he manages to escape and, deranged and naive in equal measures, his adventure into a modern and nihilistic life begins.

A short animated telling of the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania, a place of pilgrimage consisting of a formidable accumulation of crosses that was often razed during the Soviet period. Coming to replant a cross was then an act of resistance.

Isolated in the bell tower of Notre Dame, Quasimodo longs to experience the world beyond the cathedral walls, despite the wishes of his stern guardian, the Judge of Paris Claude Frollo. His first venture into the city leads him to Esmeralda, a fearless Romani woman whose defiance of Frollo's tyranny draws her—and Quasimodo—into his dangerous obsession.

The stakes are much higher than life or death in The Tribunal, a courtroom drama set in a Catholic Marriage Tribunal. On the surface, it appears that the struggle between Tony and Joe, two best friends who both love Emily, hinges on Joe obtaining an annulment of his first marriage, so Emily, a devout Catholic, can marry him. As they each fight for whom they love, the Tribunal slowly answers the ever-present question hanging over the proceedings, "What does God want?" Why it matters to these three is the reason it matters to every person. Our souls will not rest until they rest in the arms of the Lord.

C'est tout ?