A teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".
Mateo and Lucía are moving abroad. The day before leaving, Mateo reunites with his lifelong friend, Dionisio, to spend one last summer afternoon together. However, as their inevitable goodbye inches closer, Mateo begins to perceive a series of strange events. In particular, he begins to hear a goat's bleat…
The 'Dead End Kids & Little Tough Guys' are working as collectors for a finance company, when they discover the company's illegal activities and try to stop them.
Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs.
Eleven-year-old petty criminal Maroa lives with her violent grandmother Brigida in Caracas. After her boyfriend Carlos is involved in a shooting, Maroa is arrested and sent to a school where Joaquin conducts the youth orchestra, and he asks the naturally talented Maroa to join. Days now revolve around the classes that Joaquin, the shy and unconventional teacher, gives her. He is immediately interested in this talented young girl, who lacks all notion of discipline. Joaquin, the only person to offer hope in the midst of her rejection, finds that through Maroa, his world has also changed forever.
Rio de Janeiro. Confronted with the violence that exists in the favela where he lives, Tiago sees the only way out to become a soccer player and, in this way, help his family to have a better life. Although he is the best player in his neighborhood and the chances of being discovered by a scout are good, he faces a number of problems. One of them is Tubarão, the leader of the most powerful gang in the favela, who wants Tiago to work for him as a drug dealer. To complicate matters even more, Tiago falls in love with Juliana, Tubarão's sister.
A microcosm of people lost in search of an artificial happiness, which leads them to steal and prostitute themselves for the short ecstasy of a squirt of heroin in the veins. Marco and Pina live in this world of drugs, prostitution and violence, and they must fight for their survival. One day one of their friend dies during a holdup. Marco and Pina are helpless and will do anything to escape, but fate does not want a similar world. Between bites of heroin and sidewalk they are in a deadly trance.
Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.
In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.
Best friends Deco and Naldinho co-own a cargo boat in Brazil's Salvador da Bahia. They give a ride to a sultry prostitute named Karinna, and soon both men fall prey to her considerable sexual charms, pushing the bounds of their friendship to the limit.
After being released from prison, Billy Skinner returns to his low-income neighbourhood feeling like a fish out of water; the area has changed dramatically, and what was once a predominantly white neighbourhood is now mostly occupied by refugee families.
Heimliche Ehen
A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.
A young South African boy from the Johannesburg ghetto named Tsotsi, meaning Gangster, leaves home as a child to get away from his helpless parents. Now a teenage thug, Tsotsi finds a baby in the back seat of a car he's just stolen. He decides that it is his responsibility to care for the infant and in the process learns that maybe the criminal life isn’t the best way.
Maria married an honest worker at a very young age, works as a part-time beautician and has three children. Her life is like many others in the working-class suburbs of Naples, where the daily struggle to make ends meet makes you get used to everything. When her husband is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Maria accepts the help of Gennaro, a rich owner of a car dealership. She lets him court her until she becomes his lover. One day he suggests that she become a business partner: he will transport a load of cocaine to Switzerland. Once she becomes a widow, her relationship with Gennaro will make her fall into a criminal vortex, which will finally allow her to experience new possibilities and fulfill old dreams. But the path chosen by Maria for her personal revenge will leave its inevitable victims in its wake, just like in a war that does not look anyone in the face.
In the slums of the upper West Side of Manhattan, tensions are high as a gang of Polish-Americans compete against a gang of recently immigrated Puerto Ricans, but this doesn't stop two romantics from each gang falling in love.
A drama about a Maori family living in Auckland, New Zealand. Lee Tamahori tells the story of Beth Heke’s strong will to keep her family together during times of unemployment and abuse from her violent and alcoholic husband.
An aspiring designer from the slums of Chicago puts herself through fashion school in the hopes of becoming one of the world's top designers. Her ambition leads her to Rome spurring a choice between the man she loves or her newfound success.
Three boys from the slums of Manila find their luck has changed when one of them learns he's the heir of a rich man.
Toni, Aghi, Bubu, and Saras get the task of making essays. They create a free school for street children but they chose to earn money than learn.