Tough Love

5 years old Yang spends an afternoon with his mother on a shopping trip. When he throws a tantrum after feeling neglected, she decides to punish him by walking away. A seemingly harmless punishment eventually becomes a pivotal childhood experience for Yang that will forever change him.

Whether it's playing games in a military zone, cheating at school tests, crossing borders for cheap thrills or doing whatever it takes to make illicit money - these boys know that with every risk, they move closer and closer to an irreversible jeopardy. Deftly exploring masculinity and peer-pressure, these five coming-of-age tales from France, the Netherlands and Lithuania from burgeoning new filmmakers demonstrate that sometimes young hearts can run dangerously free. The short films are: Gotta (2015); The Last Day of School (2019); Tree House [Cabane] (2016); Gameboy (2014); Pollux (2018).

A year has passed since Menma's ghostly return to the Super Peace Busters. Although the time they spent together during that summer was short, the five members reminisce about what happened as they each write a letter to their lost friend.

Jo is a neglected 16-year-old girl whose promiscuous mother marries a dandy. Jo gets pregnant after a tryst with a black cook, who leaves her over his impending responsibilities of fatherhood, and she only finds support in a gay male friend.

Kickers is a coming-of-age film about Natasha, and her attempts in salvaging a decaying friendship with her childhood buddy. As life gets in its way, priorities change, and paths diverge. The film tugs at the wistfulness of teenagehood and the inevitability of growing up and letting go.

Andrea, a young teenager goes out at her best friend's party looking for some fun. But the more it advances the night, she ends finding out that she lives in a harmful reality, even more than she expected.

Damian, a young boy raised by a single mother, believes that his father is a famous footballer playing for Glasgow Celtic F.C. His dream is to visit him. In his everyday life he has difficulty finding a common language with his mother who is trying to make a new life for herself with a younger man.

When her family moves from New York City to New Jersey, an 11-year-old girl navigates new friends, feelings, and the beginning of adolescence.

When a hot, openly gay new neighbour moves in across the street, high school senior Jake is forced to think about what - and who - he really wants.

A lonely engineer is intercepted by a young thief, to whom he offers to give all his money with the condition that they share a dinner together. This leads to a conversation that will put their thoughts and faith in life to test.

Steven spends his school days longing for all-star athlete John. But John has a gorgeous girlfriend, and Steven is still in the closet. Steven's sole confidant is his friend Linda. After a curious run-in with John in a public restroom, Steven starts to wonder if the jock is straight after all. When they begin a romance, it threatens to expose the truth about both of them.

This simple, charming series follows a young woman as she job hunts and experiences various changes in her life, all while her cat Daru remains the supportive constant.

A coming-of-age story about the three girl friends who had just graduated school.

Despite her sheltered upbringing, Jenny is a teen with a bright future; she's smart, pretty, and has aspirations of attending Oxford University. When David, a charming but much older suitor, motors into her life in a shiny automobile, Jenny gets a taste of adult life that she won't soon forget.

Thrown together under incredible circumstances, two strangers must discover courage and strength when they begin a journey across the treacherous African desert! Equipped only with their wits and the expertise of a native bushman who befriends them, they are determined to triumph over impossible odds and reach their destination. But along the way, the trio face a primitive desert wilderness.

A widower and her daughter witness the retirement of a colleague of his and the closing of her department at her university.

When four friends reunite for a night of fun in their hometown, a crisis forces them to confront the consequences of their lifestyles.

Carlos lives in a boarding school in the centre of Bogotá and longs to spend Christmas with his family. The circumstances around him force him to assume the male stereotype, in open contradiction to his true being. In private, Carlos acknowledges his sensitivity, his fragility and moves towards other forms of masculinity. At his 16 years of age, Carlos explores his sexual identity, discovers his fears, his desires, and all the things that real men never show.

Noah, an insecure middle schooler, struggles to make sense of a momentary blackout she suffers from. Her mother who has already made her own assumption of the incident, seeks the help of Noah's sister.

After their mother dies and their father leaves them, teenage brothers Tex and Mason McCormick struggle to make it on their own.