A wide variety of Iraqis in exile meet at Café Abu Nawas in London, including the architect Amal, the poet Taufiq and the gay IT specialist Muhannad. They all want to finally feel free in London - something that was denied them in their homeland. But adversity threatens...
In a parallel present, delivery man Ray Tincelli is struggling to support himself and his ailing younger brother. After a series of two-bit hustles and unsuccessful swindles, Ray takes a job in a strange new realm of the gig economy: trekking deep into the forest, pulling cable over miles of terrain to connect large, metal cubes that link together the new quantum trading market. As he gets pulled deeper into the zone, he encounters growing hostility and the threat of robot cablers, and must choose to either help his fellow workers or to get rich and get out.
When his father dies, an awkward young man is shocked by the attention of his friends. When the warmth is gone and things return to their usual coldness, he begins to wonder: “Who else must die?”
Natalie, a gifted New York photographer, has a troubled past reflected in her art. When she struggles to make ends meet in the city, her agent, arranges an assignment in Boston for a considerable sum of money. Unable to turn it down in her dire straits, Natalie takes the job -- only to find that her estranged gay brother, Roy, is the employer. Roy wants to mend their broken past, but must convince her to stay long enough to do so.
A French woman mourning over the death of her husband three years prior is courted by a Swedish co-worker.
When his business partner retires, an overly-attentive cafe owner, embraces the challenge of working solo.
Sartika, a pregnant young woman, moves away from her city hoping to provide a better future for her child. She meets Maya, a coffee shop owner in Pantura. Maya takes care of Sartika and helps with her deliveries. After Sartika gives birth, Maya manipulates her into working for her as the "Kopi Pangku" waitress, a job that requires her to serve coffee on a man's lap, until one day she meets a fish distributor truck driver named Hadi and falls in love. Will she find happiness?
Julio, a young fisherman from a provincial village, descends into social alienation as he arrives in Manila to search for his loved one.
From the 17th floor of an office building, Pierre is staring out a colleague that is here for hours.
After a colleague is murdered, insurance worker Kafka gets embroiled in an underground group who are attempting to thwart a secret organization that controls the major events in society.
A town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.
Austin, Texas, is an Eden for the young and unambitious, from the enthusiastically eccentric to the dangerously apathetic. Here, the nobly lazy can eschew responsibility in favor of nursing their esoteric obsessions. The locals include a backseat philosopher who passionately expounds on his dream theories to a seemingly comatose cabbie, a young woman who tries to hawk Madonna's Pap test to anyone who will listen and a kindly old anarchist looking for recruits.
A three-part anthology film. 1) AMSTERDAM: Jovke and his two friends try to make some quick cash before going off to army. At the same time, he tries to establish communication both with his catatonic father and the girl he likes. 2) TIE REQUIRED: While drudging at the docks with two inseparable friends of his, Neša is waiting for a waiter's job at the bar where his mother works. After not being allowed to a birthday party, the trio decides to look for fun somewhere else. 3) ABSOLUTE PITCH: An unemployed paleonthologist spends his nights sewing dresses for his beloved one. When she sets off to countryside for work and doesn't call back, he becomes suspicious and decides to solve this sudden departure on his own. The movie was nominated for a Student Academy Award in 1991.
A short film exploring two stories about love, loss and reunion set inside a café in Kolkata, India.
A disabled man takes on the system when his pension is tied up in a morass of red tape. His story is revealed on a television program, and the star of the show is admonished for trying to incite the public against the system. The media, the man and the television manager gather to try to talk out the misunderstandings they all experience with the system of slow-moving social injustices. The message of the film also states that the days of media scrutiny and public-opinion feedback are here to stay.
After the war, the country is plagued by famine. The secretary party committee, Martin Kreka, leads a campaign to gather the grain that is sold in the black market.
A female worker in Socialist Hungary gains the acceptance of her male colleagues.
A switchman at a seaside railway witnesses a murder but does not report it after he finds a suitcase full of money at the scene of the crime.
A girl with insomnia who works in a coffee house has impossibly high standards for her love and fears she will never meet a worthy man. Then in walks a new employee and they click - until she discovers he has a girlfriend. Undaunted, she moves to L.A. with a friend sure that he will dump the girlfriend and follow her. She puts all her faith in fate and hopes for the best.
After going through a hiring process for a company based on São Paulo, Daniel, that came from another city, now needs to deliver them some important documents. However, he is blocked from the entrance because he is wearing shorts.