The Primal Law

Based on the 1836 standoff between a group of Texan and Tejano men, led by Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and Mexican dictator Santa Anna's forces at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.

When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.

Necropolis

Bear (10 minutes, 35 seconds) was Steve McQueen's first major film. Although not an overtly political work, for many viewers it raises sensitive issues about race, homoeroticism and violence. It depicts two naked men – one of whom is the artist – tussling and teasing one another in an encounter which shifts between tenderness and aggression. The film is silent but a series of stares, glances and winks between the protagonists creates an optical language of flirtation and threat.

God and Satan wager on the soul of a learned and prayerful alchemist as part of their eternal war over Earth.

The sinking of the Titanic is presented in a highly realistic fashion in this tense British drama. The disaster is portrayed largely from the perspective of the ocean liner's second officer, Charles Lightoller. Despite numerous warnings about ice, the ship sails on, with Capt. Edward John Smith keeping it going at a steady clip. When the doomed vessel finally hits an iceberg, the crew and passengers discover that they lack enough lifeboats, and tragedy follows.

To please his dying father, Hong Yu, a college student, is forced to abandon his girlfriend, Little Hong, and marry his cousin, with disastrous results.

A just-married young woman attempts suicide after her husband tells her he really doesn't love her because he has become involved in an extortion racket, then finds herself becoming involved with the doctor who has saved her life and become attracted to her.

Pyrenees mountain range, 17th century. Before dying, Diego de Robles, leader of a ruthless gang of highwaymen, has his daughter Carmen, a beautiful young woman full of courage, recognized as the new leader of the gang. (Partially preserved film: with a running time of approximately twenty-five minutes, about nineteen survive. There are doubts about the true identities of those involved in the production, both technical and artistic crew.)

A British army officer refuses to avenge the death of a general who was murdered years earlier. He is awarded three feathers by his officers. When his fiancée fails to defend his stance, he plucks a feather from her fan. He proves his courage by rescuing his comrades in dangerous and life-threatening situations. Later he returns each feather as proof of his redemption and courage.

A successful Texas gynecologist finds himself amid a bevy of women and their problems – his wife’s breakdown, his daughter's fake marriage, his other daughter’s conspiracy theories, and his secretary’s crush. Craving time for himself, he finds solace in a kind outsider.

A tale of murder, crime and punishment set in the summer of 1949. Ed Crane, a barber in a small California town, is dissatisfied with his life, but his wife Doris' infidelity and a mysterious opportunity presents him with a chance to change it.

Scientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.

When an aspiring painter grapples with self-doubt in his artistic journey, his father must learn to love and accept him for who he is.

“Nobody Leaves Alive” by André Ristum is shot in beautiful but also distancing black and white. Looking at the Venice line-up, this seems to be a trend this year among the maestros of cinema. The film is inspired by true events that took place in the last century in the “Colonia” hospital in Brazil. Whoever didn’t fit the standards of society, or their family’s perception of it, was locked away, tortured, and killed. There were altogether more than 60,000 victims. Hope dies last, and some of the inmates don’t give up the fight. We’re reminded of film classics such as “One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest” or “Alcatraz”.

During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.

Dalyal is a girl of astonishing beauty. Because of this beauty, she suffers from a psychological complex with acute self-esteem issues. She marries a rich man, but cannot give him what men demand. Her husband's nephew, Professor of Psychology Dr. Mukhtar, tries to cure her of this psychological condition, but the rich old man becomes jealous of his nephew.

A crew of young environmental activists execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline.

The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. A chaotic chain of misunderstandings, lies and mischief ensues after he devises a plot to have them murdered.

On one of his trips, Wahid, a forty-year-old journalist, meets Sawsan, a young flight attendant. Admiration grows between them, and love grows, but the age difference between them is an obstacle, as she fears repeating the experience of her mother, who married her father, who was twenty years older than her, and then he died. Sawsan falls ill and is admitted to a hospital, and Wahid goes to visit her. The mother is surprised that he is her lover, whom she loved when she was young, and was unable to marry him.