After many years, Julia returns to her childhood home, where as a child she was sexually abused by her recently deceased father. But inhabiting that place again will force her to face her ghosts and darkest memories.
A young woman is falsely convicted of a bank robbery and sent to a maximum-security prison run by a corrupt warden, where she is forced to suffer various indignities.
MARIE
Marco, a teacher from Milan, relocates to Palermo and takes a temporary job teaching in a juvenile detention centre while he waits for a high school teaching position. He tries to understand and motivate his handful of students, encouraging them to stand up for their rights, finding out about their histories: Natale, in for murder and enamored with the Mafia; Pietro, who can't seem to stay out of jail; Claudio, barely 14 and learning to stand up for himself; and Mery, a trans sex worker, who was arrested after a fight with a trick who didn't want to pay her, and is now stuck in a male prison.
Fifteen-year-old Matteo is attractive, albeit somewhat effeminate. The whole world is against him. He has no friends and his parents seem to live in a different universe. The pressure increases as his awkward attempts to win his father’s respect fail. One night two men carry him off: his parents send him to a remote alp, where he is forced to spend the summer working hard on a family farm. When Matteo arrives on the alp, a surprise awaits him.
A woman attracts the attention of a psychotic former Army interrogator and an emotionally fragile young man caring for his ailing mother.
During a shootout in a saloon, Sheriff Hunt injures a suspicious stranger. The doctor's assistant, wife of the local foreman, tends to him in prison. That night, the town is attacked and they both disappear—only the arrow of a cannibal tribe is found. Hunt and a few of his men go in search of the prisoner and the foreman's wife.
Rusty has been bailed out of bad situations more than once by his understanding but distraught mother, Mary. When Mary starts dating a psychologist, Bob, Rusty connects with the man and begins talking to him about his problems. As Rusty benefits from the therapy sessions, his best friend, Dallas, still very involved in illegal and dangerous activities, takes issue with Rusty going straight and cleaning up his life.
High-school students start a vigilante group in their neighbourhood but, as their power increases, they become more abusive and dangerous.
The military anti-terrorist army takes control of "Chuspi", an unknown and faraway small village, isolated by the terrorist group "Sendero Luminoso" (Shining Path). A soldier called Vitin Luna, and other young soldiers face an invisible, perhaps superior force. Their unit is commanded by a brutal lieutenant who declares the entire village guilty of treason. In the face of this crisis, Vitin must choose between blind obedience and his own conscience.
After losing her parents, young flower selling Midori is put up by a fairground group. She is abused and forced to slavery, until the arrival of an enigmatic magician of short stature, who gives her hope for a better future.
After being deported back to Mexico, a man has no choice but to join the vicious drug cartel that has corrupted his hometown in order to survive.
A white Bull Terrier named Baxter is given to an elderly woman by her daughter. As time passes, the dog develops aggressive and murderous behavior in order to be adopted by another family.
Young men with no future have little in the present as well. Natale is released from prison: he takes up with his friends again but none can find work. Claudio, from Palermo, gets out of juvenile detention in Naples and he's met by Vita, a girl who's come from home to run away with him. Where can they go? A young dad, whose potato stall at the market is shut down because he has no permit, takes his two small children to the beach and yells at them. Mario, gay, a prostitute in drag, gets a visit from his mom; he offers tea, then finds the water to his apartment is shut off. Social workers drop by, parole officers file reports. What hope is there? What options besides crime?
American pacifist Private Finch (Carl Schreiber) finds himself pressured by his superiors to kill a P.O.W. captured from battle. As a direct result of his apprehensions, a fatal confrontation explodes amongst his platoon, and Finch becomes stranded behind enemy lines armed with nothing but limited ammunition and an uncertain sense of direction. Making his way through foreign soil, he encounters a mysterious mailman (Marc Litman) anxious to throw himself into battle. But on their exhausting quest to find a radio and signal for help, it becomes clear that Finch's new friend harbors a few dark secrets that could prove more threatening than the next ambush.
Toni van Eyck became known with her leading role in this early "Aufklärungsfilm" (education film) Gefahren der Liebe/A Woman Branded (Eugen Thiele, 1931) opposite Hans Stüwe. She played a rape victim, who finally becomes a murderess.
Fifteen-year-old Lulu has never known any affection from her family. But when she goes to a rock concert with Pablo, a friend of the family, he introduces Lulu to her first sexual experience. Years later, Pablo and Lulu have married; Pablo has created a sheltered, private world for Lulu, into which nothing intrudes. However, Lulu tires of her cloistered existence, and begins hanging out in shady bars, looking for vicarious thrills and danger.
THE HEAT – 1. Coal or wood afire to redness, 2. High air temperature, 3. Vehemence of feelings.
Upset over his brother’s murder, Soviet special agent Gregori Wallace leaves Russia to start a new life in the United States. Now happily married to a beautiful woman and the father of a little girl, Gregori soon realizes that he can’t outrun the past.
When a middle-aged woman born in privilege opens a café in a vibrant party of her hometown of Copenhagen, she’s confronted with its dark sides as well in the shape of human trafficking and prostitution, and she has to make some hard choices.