Returning from Mecca, Darwis changes his name to Ahmad Dahlan as he is disturbed by the trend of Islamic laws in his society; that borders on heresy, Syrik (polytheism), and Bid’ah (wrong innovation). Using a compass, he proves that the direction of Qibla (that points to Mecca), in the Great Mosque of Kauman is wrong. The discovery angers every Kyai (Islamic experts), especially the head of the Great Mosque of Kauman, Kyai Penghulu Cholil Kamaludiningrat. Dahlan, who studied in Mecca for five years, is seen as a rebel upstart. Since the proposal of changing the direction of Qibla is rejected, Dahlan starts a movement calling for the change. On his first sermon as a preacher, Dahlan criticizes the habits of residents in his village in Yogyakarta: "In a prayer, only a sincere and patient heart is needed, it requires no Kyais, money, let alone offerings". As a result, Dahlan gets a hostile reception.
Amaranta
A school teacher discusses types of government with his class. His students find it too boring to repeatedly go over national socialism and believe that dictatorship cannot be established in modern Germany. He starts an experiment to show how easily the masses can become manipulated.
Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees. When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician.
A Hispanic teen builds the confidence to tell his traditional Latin American family that he wants to shift careers and become an actor, much to their disapproval. As the conversation goes south, tensions rise, chaos ensues, and true colours are shown as the fabric of the once tight-knit family begins to tear.
Based on the Stephen King short story: A middle-aged traveling salesman contemplates his life choices at a shitty motel in Nebraska.
The true story of Bosco, a young musician orphaned and blinded by the 1993 Burundian genocide, is taken in by a member of the tribe he believes is responsible for the death of his mother. Bosco is forced to choose between hatred and hope.
When casual hook-ups become too debilitating, a man suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder seeks out different ways to purge himself of the consequences of the night before.
A quiet, stoic man, lives a monk-like existence in self-imposed exile. When his estranged son is killed in a drug deal gone bad, he is left to look after a granddaughter he never knew existed, and he is forced back into a life he tried to put behind him.
Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.
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 trio of unemployed silent film actors are mistaken for real heroes by a small Mexican village in search of someone to stop a malevolent bandit.
The story of an unruly class of bright, funny history students at a Yorkshire grammar school in pursuit of an undergraduate place at Oxford or Cambridge. Bounced between their maverick English master, a young and shrewd teacher hired to up their test scores, a grossly out-numbered history teacher, and a headmaster obsessed with results, the boys attempt to pass.
For generations, two rival French villages, Longueverne and Velrans, have been at war. But this is no ordinary conflict, for the on-going hostilities are between two armies of young schoolboys. When he is beaten by his father for having lost his buttons, the leader of the Longueverne army, Lebrac, has an idea which will give his side the advantage: next time, he and his brave soldiers will go in battle without their clothes...
A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.
The life of an ambitious small town TV reporter is upended when the death of her husband tasks her with having to help raise her 15-year-old stepdaughter.
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
A musical romantic tragedy about a famous composer who moves back to his small hometown after having had heart troubles. His search for a simple everyday life leads him into teaching the local church choir, which is not easily accepted by the town yet the choir builds a great love for their teacher.
The Recorder, the keeper of Epameinondas's mind, documents his moments on on little notes. Encouraged by his best friend Yiannis, Epameinondas sets out on a hike to escape the weight of a recent breakup. As time flows by, he becomes a father, only to later find himself battling dementia in a nursing home. The Recorder's room is now in a state of danger. Yet, the hike goes on.
Two school friends who have drifted apart over the course of adulthood spontaneously arrange to have dinner together. What starts off as an innocent attempt to get back in touch develops into a renegotiation of their shared past, estranged relationship and lost future.