"The Hours" is the story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.
Paul (Macfadyen), a prize-winning war journalist, returns to his remote New Zealand hometown due to the death of his father, battle-scarred and world-weary. For the discontented sixteen-year-old Celia (Barclay) he opens up a world she has only dreamed of. She actively pursues a friendship with him, fascinated by his cynicism and experience of the world beyond her small-town existence. But many, including the members of both their families (Otto, Moy), frown upon the friendship and when Celia goes missing, Paul becomes the increasingly loathed and persecuted prime suspect in her disappearance. As the violent and urgent truth gradually emerges, Paul is forced to confront the family tragedy and betrayal that he ran from as a youth, and to face the grievous consequences of silence and secrecy that has surrounded his entire adult life.
The only thing keeping Harold's family bound is his unconditional love for them.
Ken Park focuses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother. Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.
Ertan Ongun is German-Turkish, a child of migrants. He likes to refer to himself as Kanake. His buddies Mehdi and Kemal are of the same ilk. They do “business” on the street together, but because of their recklessness and sometimes great stupidity, they repeatedly offend both other criminals and the police. No problem for Ertan, because his motto is loyalty, quick money, and being a kanake. “Fuck and be fucked, that’s life!” … and that’s what he lives by one hundred percent.
A girl from a troubled family befriends two younger girls and begins to feel a sense of normalcy as they go adventuring at the seaside.
A homeless couple looks for a way to get ahead, working and making an effort, while trying to overcome their past.
María, a young student of Fine Arts, decides to spend a weekend with Julio, her partner, in the house of her parents' town. Once there, the young woman will have to face a reality already forgotten. The solid mentality of her family means that practically nothing has changed in the life of his brother Hugo and his father, Arturo
Long blue hours characterise summer nights in the sleepy Norwegian port town of Ålesund. Asta is a young journalist working for the local newspaper, where she is expected to report on local sports, historic preservation, and cruise ships. It is only when she stumbles across the strange story of a refugee’s forced deportation, that she finds new meaning in her work and life.
15 years ago, Luiza decided to make a fresh start in Spain. She left her 3-year-old daughter Cristina in the care of her relatives and took off. When she returns to Romania, the woman learns some shocking truths that were kept hidden from her: Cristina ran away from home, is a drug addict and has a 2-year-old girl who lives in an orphanage. Overwhelmed by guilt, Luiza attempts to save her daughter
In the inflation era, Jacob, who recently got kicked out, is desperate to find a home, when landing on a cheap listing he doesn’t read the fine print, unknowing what he got himself into.
The Unyielding Life of Things
Iqbal never prays nor reads the Qu’ran. Finally he repents after he feels guilty for hurting his mother. He decides to attend the Kyai Siddiq religious school in Tegal Jadin. But for two months, he is only told to get water from a pond. Out of frustration, he vents his anger at the pond. Then he meets Aisyah, daughter of Kyai Subadar and granddaughter of Kyai Siddiq. Afraid that the Kyai will be angry with him, Iqbal runs away aimlessly. Then, he meets Pricilia, a kind Christian girl, who helps him find a place to stay. But Iqbal finally decides to stay at the house of Ms. Jamilah, a beggar living with her two children, Fatimah and Irsyad. In his journey to study Islam, Iqbal faces many challenges.
After an unexpected trauma, Luna (25) is no longer able to leave the house.She is failing to be a good example for her 10-year-old sister, Aurora. The little sister reacted very differently by starting to dress every day like the great women she admires: Frida Kahlo, Coco Chanel, Emmy Noether. On Aurora's birthday, Luna discovers that her gift will not be delivered to her home and that she will have to pick it up directly at the delivery branch. How will Luna react?
Lichter is an episodic tale from Hans-Christian Schmid about the life on the border between Germany and Poland. The film sheds light on the everyday stories of escape and desperateness.
Two long-time internet friends - Ted, the hometown artist, and Liz, a globe-hopping humanitarian. On the night of his gallery opening, on a river that goes nowhere, they meet for the first time. Neither one knows that the other loves them.
Clara and Hans are left-wing terrorists who have been sought by police for almost fifteen years. Their increasingly rebellious daughter Jeanne begins to pose a threat to their security when she falls in love with a boy she meets on the beach.
The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century in Sicily. Salvatore, a very poor farmer, and a widower, decides to emigrate to the US with all his family, including his old mother. Before they embark, they meet Lucy. She is supposed to be a British lady and wants to come back to the States. Lucy, or Luce as Salvatore calls her, for unknown reasons wants to marry someone before to arrive to Ellis Island in New York. Salvatore accepts the proposal. Once they arrive in Ellis Island they spend the quarantine period trying to pass the examinations to be admitted to the States. Tests are not so simple for poor farmers coming from Sicily. Their destiny is in the hands of the custom officers.
Raiz
A man walks into a foreign neighborhood to look for a house. Then, the drastic summarization of the story and time will confuse the audience at first, but it brings suspense and a deeply lingering impression to the story. There is more that is unseen than visible. This intentional void prompts various emotional interpretations. During that time, what sort of moments and stories did the man and the house share? Since the guessing is left to the audience, we are left to remember, not the man’s, but our own personal memories. Hanyang villa or whatever else, that’s what houses do – they are where our memories dwell.