Bathory is based on the legends surrounding the life and deeds of Countess Elizabeth Bathory known as the greatest murderess in the history of mankind. Contrary to popular belief, Elizabeth Bathory was a modern Renaissance woman who ultimately fell victim to men’s aspirations for power and wealth.
Elisabeth and her brother Paul live isolated from much of the world after Paul is injured in a snowball fight. As a coping mechanism, the two conjure up a hermetic dream of their own making. Their relationship, however, isn't exactly wholesome. Jealousy and a malevolent undercurrent intrude on their fantasy when Elisabeth invites the strange Agathe to stay with them -- and Paul is immediately attracted to her.
Mona Bergström is a sweet eurovision-obsessed woman in her 30s. She is married to a lazy husband and has four children, all named after her favorite Swedish Eurovision popstars. Her brother is a crossdressing guy self-titled "Candy Darling". Mona works in a retirement home for disabled people, where she is responsible for taking care of a young man named David who suffers a movement-restricting disease forcing him into a wheelchair. David's parents have abandoned him, as they wanted a normal child. Mona holds a big place in David's heart, and vica versa. David's goal is to get his parents to come and visit him, and he wants to show them that he is a great person, despite his handicap. Therefore he works with music on his computer, and his goal is to create a song, send it to "The Cardigans", a famous Swedish band and have them play the song and credit him, hoping his parents would spot it and want to visit him.
Captain Taher protects the people of the port against Jaber and his gang. His parallel wife is not satisfied with his deeds. After his young niece Darya comes to visit him and his wife, she seduces Captain, to begin falling in love with her. Darya is caught between the incestuous affair of her Uncle and a young deckhand, the brother of Captain's business partner ...
Jason and Billy struggling to fulfill their unlikely dream, and having their world crumble around them as a consequence.
In sickness and in health, should marriage really be an unconditional partnership that should never be broken? Christina, in her 30's, is married to Hector, a husband who's paralyzed and therefore physically incompetent to consummate their marriage. She wants to liberate herself from a sexless union. Her needs as a woman are unfulfilled. But her love for Hector, and her commitment to him coupled with the dictates of her faith and marital vows, and her sympathy and care for her husband keeps her in "cage of marriage," where she suffers in melancholic solitude, yet contemplates on freedom and rediscovering her true worth. - Written by Lilit Reyes
Two young boys who have met by fate are bound by the irony of their lives. Can two different people share the same story? And can each of them find his own escape?
This psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of Oscar, a young American drug dealer and addict living in Tokyo with his prostitute sister, Linda. When Oscar is killed by police during a bust gone bad, his spirit journeys from the past -- where he sees his parents before their deaths -- to the present -- where he witnesses his own autopsy -- and then to the future, where he looks out for his sister from beyond the grave.
Bobby is an underachieving high school kid with a deep love for motorcycles. His most recent achievement seems to have been getting photos of himself on a road trip printed in a motorcyclist hobby magazine. When he gets a letter from a girl his age, he decides to write her back.
The Gospel of John is reimagined as a Filipino pasyon tale.
After spending thirty years in prison, Pedro (Lou Veloso), aging and obviously clueless as to what has become of the world outside the penitentiary, is finally freed.
Melinda Uy is a half-Filipino, half-Chinese struggling mother to four children married to a full-Chinese blood man. Her family was believed to bring curse to Olive's famiily. Because of this, Melinda was not accepted by Uy's family as one of their members. Melinda's struggling as a mother begand when she has nothing else to do but to strive and work more.
Carol Jeffries is a naive American woman staying in the Philippines. She is given ten years in prison after being set up by her drug-dealer boyfriend, Rudy. She endures the harsh conditions, sadistic head matron and attempts on her life, then convinces her cell-mates to try to escape with her through the jungle, in spite of the knowledge that ruthless trackers will be sent out after them.
Her name is Angela and she’s a woman of the world. Daring and defiant, she works as a stripper in a night club to support her family. Her work, she thinks, has made her indiffirent to love. But the day comes when she meets the guy who makes her frigid heart beat again.
Desperate to provide a comfortable life for her children, Ina willingly takes all kinds of jobs available to her. But what happens when Ina's family continues to fall apart despite all her sacrifices?
When their teacher disappears, school children cradle guns in their arms instead of books.
Only the famous family that doesn't weep can help reunite a desperate woman with her own.
Hanoi comes across almost picture-perfect in director Tran Anh Hung's beautiful, elegiac tale about the lives and loves of three Vietnamese sisters. A mood characteristic of Hung's films is set early on with the vivid sounds of birds, insects and water and the way the lighting enhances the subtle use of color. They all combine to gem-like effect here.
It is in the culture of the Filipinos that when a person dies, you can whisper and send your wishes to the dead. The film is about a family who happens to take care of their ailing mother / grandmother. They see this as a burden in their lives and they wait for her death so they could whisper their wishes.
Set in Philippine post-American colonialist era, where the American influence was still apparent, Ilusyon tells the story of Miguel, a young man from the countryside, who decides to visit his father, Pablo, a Modernist painter in Manila. Upon his arrival, he discovers that his father has decided to leave for the province but he opted to stay in Manila for a vacation. One day, he meets Stella, a nude model originally scheduled to pose for Miguel's father. Struck by her beauty, Miguel does the unthinkable - he pretends to be his father the painter. Developing a relationship based on a lie, things turn for the worse as Stella begets a strange skin disease that turns off Miguel. Surrounded by strange characters - a talking cow, a talkative mailman and a nosy landlady - Miguel is driven into a frenzy realization about beauty, lust, love and being true to oneself. An ambiguous ending underlines the surreal tone of the film.