Life Is Short

Straight-arrow policewoman Cooper is excited and thrilled about her next assignment. Her task is to escort Daniella Riva, a wisecracking Colombian beauty, from San Antonio to Dallas so both she and her husband can testify against a drug lord. Plans go awry when Mr. Riva gets ambushed, leaving Daniella a widow. Cooper and her witness must now use their wits to escape from crooked cops and murderous gunmen, while not killing each other in the process.

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.

Controversial director Angela Chan explores the "La Cage Aux Folles" demi-monde that thrives in today's Hong Kong, but which has never before been portrayed in a major movie. Alex To plays a handsome fashion designer trapped in a tangle of ambiguous relationships that becomes even more complex when he falls for a beautiful D.J. (Cecilia Yip) who, with the help of her best friend (Cherie Chung), is trying to get out of an arranged marriage. This film looks and sounds like a comedy, but has some serious comments about a veiled segment of Hong Kong.

A tall and a small masked man wearing police uniforms driving the local cop car rob 600.000 Euro from a money transport in Eifel town Monreal. Incompetent state inspector Melanie Marschall focuses local police detectives Killmer and Kati Biever, neither of which has an alibi, both had the car keys, even fitting masks where found at Killmer's home. The are suspended, needing to find the -obviously well-informed- real culprits, while precinct colleague Ralf is recruited to spy on them. While Kati's irresponsible grandmother loads further suspicion on them, the cop pair finds several townsfolk and Melanie Marschall in financial need, yet no conclusive clue until a murder raises crucial questions.

The year is 1898. Héloïse, 9 years old, comes from a family belonging to the anti-Dreyfus and anti-Semitic Parisian high bourgeoisie. In a spirit of revolt, she begins a love affair with Maxime, a young Jewish journalist. During a terrible quarrel with her father, the latter suffers a stroke and dies. To get her away from Maxime, her mother Mathilde and her cousin Olympe take Héloïse on a trip to the Orient. After Cairo and the Pyramids, they go up the Nile and cross the desert in a caravan.

Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace prize winner, is known in the whole world as the banker of the poor, because he pioneered and tested a funding system in Bangladesh: by lending little sums of money to the less well-off with no interest, and returning it by installments gained with their work, people are able to get free from extreme misery. Thus, what can happen if three boys, just graduated, who live in Naples, try to import this funding system that subverts every economic rule?

Faustine suffers the wounds of first love. During a summer when she is staying with her grandmother, she comes to know the nearby neighbors. Two brothers live in the large house. One is divorced and one has recently remarried, both of them live there with their teenaged and adult children. Though the boys of the household are drawn to Faustine, she grows ever more smitten with the divorced older man...

Colinot's world is turned upside down when his fiancee is kidnapped.

A film about two young women, trying to decide how to go on with their lives and loves: Marie just dumped her boyfriend, who's married and can see her just secretly twice a week. At this point Pipa invites her to join her on a visit at her home at the coast of Portugal. Only when they are arrived there, Marie learns that Pipa has come to marry Manuel, and that she too is unsure if she'll be happy with her decision.

Toni is a wedding coordinator who at 25 is considered an old maid by her family and friends. Lorenz is a photographer who does not believe in happy endings. A bet brings the two together and leaves them questioning their feelings for each other.

Mr. Gray is the new Resident in Charge of the Welcome Islands in the Indian Ocean. The Islands are full of life, but the only other Europeans are the "sanctimonious, psalm-singing" brother-sister missionary team of Martha and Owen Jordans, and the Honourable Ted - a hard-drinking, womanizing social outcast whose English family pays him to stay away. Martha and Ted become an unlikely team when cholera threatens the islands and they must do their best to stop its spread.

In the wake of their parent's separation, three siblings spend the summer in the south of France with their estranged Grandfather. In less than 24 hours, a clash of generations has occurred between the teenagers and the old man. During this turbulent summer, both generations will be transformed by one another.

A barrage balloon appears unexpectedly over a Bulgarian village during World War II. The startled villagers decide to knock it down with a fusillade yet the balloon flies off to the mountains. The villagers, armed to their teeth, set off after it. But they are not alone in this undertaking...

Hannah, the headstrong rebel of seven siblings, tries to avoid the preparations for her parent's wedding anniversary, but her charming brand-new lover Victor sort of drags her along, and soon proves an ideal son-in-law, which arouses mixed feelings in her. The sister in law who for years tries to fit in but always felt ignored gets a fit because Victor is immediately invited to chip in and join the anniversary river cruise, so they take over the organization from her. Yet when he confides in her the bunch is miserable at communicating, she claims he can't judge after just one evening and seems suddenly uncertain whether to stay with Victor who proves quite patient and understanding...

A short musical drawing from the real-life exploits of lobotomist Dr. Walter Freeman.

A dark comedy about a young woman in her early thirties becomes aware of her own mortality and reacts by meticulously planning her own funeral. Possibly due to a lack of other big days in her life so far, such as a wedding, this becomes her moment to shine.

Newly married Ally struggles to cook the perfect Thanksgiving meal for her husband, his two daughters and his ex-wife (without stabbing anyone).

In the middle of the South African bush, Emma decides that things can't go on like this. After 25 years of good marriage, she leaves her husband Ferdinand and moves into the unknown with her trolley case. On the ostrich farm of the solitary John, she finds the freedom she is looking for - and the challenge of her life.

As Carmen prepares to marry for the fourth time, her three sisters find themselves juggling romantic predicaments of their own in this offbeat comedy from Brazil.

Filmmaker Talya Lavie steps into the spotlight with a dark comedy about everyday life for a unit of young female Israeli soldiers. The human resources office at a remote desert base serves as the setting for this cast of characters, who bide their time pushing paper, battling for the top score in Minesweeper, and counting down the minutes until they can return to civilian life. Amidst their boredom and clashing personalities, issues of commitment—from friendship to love and country—are handled with humor and sharp-edged wit.