Young adults growing up in an oppressed society, finding ways to fight back and discovering as individuals who they truly are.
Made with a message of hope, Rites of Passage is a raw, uncensored and honest film inspired by the life experiences of the young people involved in the making of this powerful feature-length drama. Six interwoven stories show these teenagers negotiating the dangers and discoveries of their age and because the cast were also the crew what emerges is a self portrait of resilient kids responding to the challenges surrounding them. They might live in public housing and come from families that have seen disadvantage and hardship. But with frankness and courage, these young people have dipped below the surface of their often tough exteriors to reveal what’s going on inside their lives.
A high school girl, Sayaka Kudō was the bottom of the class. After a year, she improved her deviation value from 30 to 70, then passed Keio University that is considered one of the most difficult to enter in Japan.
Sweet, chubby, theatrical Billy was never cut out to be a farmer or a rugby player, but as the only son of a ‘good kiwi bloke’ he’s obliged to try. The cows are stubborn and the chores gruelling but Billy finds escape in a fantasy world playing Lana, heroine of his favourite TV show Adventures in Space. Not everyone approves of Billy's transformation. On the brink of adolescene, he discovers growing up is more complicated than he could ever have imagined.
College student Sota picks up a cassette tape left behind by musician Aki when he died a year ago. When the tape is played back, Aki takes over Sota's body for just 30 minutes. They share the same body and rush to reunite a band that split up and bring a smile to Aki's girlfriend Kana's face.
Jojo, a lonely German boy during World War II has his world shaken when he learns that his single mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Influenced by a buffoonish imaginary version of Adolf Hitler, he begins to question his beliefs and confront the conflict between propaganda and his own humanity.
Problem student Haru Yoshida sits next to the cold and studious Shizuku Mizutani in class. Without any other friends to turn to, both of them start to get to know each other and grow closer. Haru eventually develop feelings for Shizuku and confesses his feelings to her. Will Haru and Shizuku get their happily ever after?
The teens of a defense-plant town hop on the road to juvenile delinquency while their parents are busy with the war.
Akari is a first grade high school student. She is positive, realistic and outgoing with romance. Akari though is not good at expressing her feelings. She become friends with Yuna, who attends the same high school.
A math genius with social phobia and a swimmer tired of pressure meet again in college. Through unlikely friendship, they help each other heal and grow. Prequel to "The Ambiguous Focus".
The story of a small town in Norway that resists German occupation during World War II. Based on a John Steinbeck novel.
Allied propaganda in the form of cartoons and newsreels shows the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
A gang of teenage delinquents terrorize a small community by stealing cars and stripping them for parts, then selling the parts to a crooked junkyard owner. The police and an insurance company investigator set out to break up the gang.
Horrorcore hip-hop, drugs, and the lives of six troubled teens collide in a decaying, racially-divided town. While Elena and aspiring rapper Jason fall into a turbulent relationship, Gabe, an earnest young man frustrated with his position in life, begins slinging drugs.
Two different students—a successful but aloof academic and a rebellious but kindhearted delinquent—form a friendship through their love of jazz music.
During WWII, the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.
During the 1942 North African campaign, a British straggler passes as a waiter at the hotel commandeered as Erwin Rommel's headquarters. He has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may provide an even better use.
Frenchman Abel Tiffauges is a naive man who lives a simple life working as a mechanic. Falsely accused of being a child abuser, he is recruited as a soldier when World War II begins, but is captured soon and taken to the heart of Nazi Germany.
A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man's family.
Kahlil Gibran remembers his days as a young poet and artist in Lebanon, and of the young woman (Salma) who ignited his passions.