When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.
During the Vietnam War, Brian Anderson, a young Army medic, is stationed in Saigon. Initially apathetic and self-serving, he eventually has his heart won over by the children at a nearby orphanage where he does volunteer work. At first, a doctor named Katherine Cross has to persuade him to help the children. But soon, Brian willingly puts his career and safety on the line to provide the orphans with the food and medical supplies they need.
Spain, 1939. In the last days of the Spanish Civil War, the young Carlos arrives at the Santa Lucía orphanage, where he will make friends and enemies as he follows the quiet footsteps of a mysterious presence eager for revenge.
Homer is an orphan who was never adopted, becoming the favorite of orphanage director Dr. Larch. Dr. Larch imparts his full medical knowledge on Homer, who becomes a skilled, albeit unlicensed, physician. But Homer yearns for a self-chosen life outside the orphanage. What will Homer learn about life and love in the cider house? What of the destiny that Dr. Larch has planned for him?
In the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls boarding school in Australia. One Valentine's Day, the school's typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, Miranda and several other girls venture off. It's not until the end of the day that the faculty realizes the girls and one of the teachers have disappeared mysteriously.
Two young brothers in contemporary Russia are reunited with a father they know only from an old photograph after his sudden return from a long absence. With their mother’s reluctant consent, they set out on a remote trip that quickly becomes an uneasy test of authority, trust, and masculinity. As the journey moves deeper into the wilderness, the fragile bonds between father and sons are pushed to their limits.
The story of a busy man, who fills his time travelling to Africa, South America and the Middle East. His passion for his job has distanced him from his loved ones. He’s been divorced for three years and has since seen his son very little. When the latter disappears, he is forced to stand still, and soon discovers things about his ex-wife and, above all, his son. A terrible feeling of guilt overwhelms him and he decides to find his son at all costs...
A baby polar bear searches for his missing mother, while a force much colder than the frozen tundra searches for him.
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.
Lyla and Louis, a singer and a musician, fall in love, but are soon compelled to separate. Lyla is forced to give up her newborn but unknown to her, he grows up to become a musical genius.
Set in 2002, an abandoned 5-year-old boy living in a rundown orphanage in a small Russian village is adopted by an Italian family.
Five unmarried sisters make the most of their simple existence in rural Ireland in the 1930s.
A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage, intent on reopening it. Before long, her son starts to communicate with a new invisible friend.
A young woman just released from a mental institution returns home to her mansion and faces a new set of horrors.
Turtles Can Fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iraq border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
A series of bawdy and satirical episodes written during the reign of the emperor Nero and set in imperial Rome. Like the more famous version made by Federico Fellini, an adaptation of Petronius' Satyricon.
Following her father's puzzling disappearance, Kate and her city-bred companions brave the untamed backwoods in a desperate search for him. However, the harsh environment becomes a dangerous catalyst for their explosive mix of personalities, propelling them into a world of raw emotion and unbridled passion.
For many years, four teenage orphans at an Australian outback convent have watched their younger comrades find new parents, and realize that they may never be adopted. The Reverend Mother sends the four boys away on a seaside vacation, where they meet Teresa and Fearless, a couple who would make perfect parents. The youths compete with one another to be the one Teresa and Fearless decide to adopt.
Months after disappearance, the mother of a missing daughter begins her own increasingly irrational investigation.
A story of adoption told without glamour and hypocrisy that usually accompanies this topic.Anna is a top model, who was adopted by a French couple as a child. She returns to her hometown with a charity mission from France.A story of an orphan turned princess becomes a legend in her native provincial town. Anna gets treated like royal person and everyone expects miracles from herAnna is confused and cannot understand what all these people want from her. She is used to a calm and logical western lifestyle. Her home is France, in Russia she is a guest. Horrified, she watches her photographer boyfriend Michelle, admire incomprehensible Russian mentality