Mobster "Baby Face" Martin returns home to visit the New York neighborhood where he grew up, dropping in on his mother, who rejects him because of his gangster lifestyle, and his old girlfriend, Francey, now a syphilitic prostitute. Martin also crosses paths with Dave, a childhood friend struggling to make it as an architect, and the Dead End Kids, a gang of young boys roaming the streets of the city's East Side slums.
Alejandro, a tough and ambitious Latino street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard on the outskirts of Queens, New York. In this chaotic world of adults, young Alejandro struggles to make a better life for himself and his 16-year-old sister, Isamar.
George, a descendant of a traditional family, lives under the guardianship of his uncle Nikiforos and aunt Elpida, and his future prospects are bright. One day, he meets Argyroula, an orphan girl who sells flowers in the city center. He falls in love with her and wants to marry her, regardless of their social differences. He manages to overcome the objections of his uncle and Argyroula herself, but not those of his aunt Elpida...
Los Angeles, 1928. When single mother Christine Collins leaves for work, her son vanishes without a trace. Five months later, the police reunite mother and son. But when Christine suspects that the boy returned to her isn't her child, her quest for truth exposes a world of corruption.
In the search for a single good person in the province of Sezuan, three gods finally find only poor street girl Shen Te, whom they reward with a large gift of money. Now wealthy, Shen Te is now so exploited by all men that she has no choice but to slip into the shoes of her hard-hearted cousin, Shui Ta. Accused of murdering the missing Shen Te, the supposed Shui Ta confesses his dual role and the gods avoid a conviction. But Shen Te aka Shui Ta is now abandoned by all humans and also by the gods – helpless in the world.
Karesz has been raised in an institution, his mother has a new family, and her husband does not tolerate that she meets her first-born son. Karesz tramps, joining up with his casual pals he washes the windscreens of cars, sells newspapers; sometimes they steal, or break into houses if hired.
It's 1875 and a young street urchin wants to see Queen Victoria...
Unemployed car salesman Peter is encouraged by his girlfriend Cynthia to approach the head of a petrol company with his plan for making petrol stations more attractive to customers. When the man rejects the idea Peter joins a rival company and becomes a great success.
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain an estimated four million children have found themselves living on the streets in the former countries of the Soviet Union. In the streets of Moscow alone there are over 30,000 surviving in this manner at the present time. The makers of the documentary film concentrated on a community of homeless children living hand to mouth in the Moscow train station Leningradsky. Eight-year-old Sasha, eleven-year-old Kristina, thirteen-year-old Misha and ten-year-old Andrej all dream of living in a communal home. They spend winter nights trying to stay warm by huddling together on hot water pipes and most of their days are spent begging. Andrej has found himself here because of disagreements with his family. Kristina was driven into this way of life by the hatred of her stepmother and twelve-year-old Roma by the regular beatings he received from his constantly drunk father. "When it is worst, we try to make money for food by prostitution," admits ...
BEPPIE is a moving and disarming portrait of an Amsterdam street urchin. Van der Keuken once described her as follows: 'She was ten years old and the joy of the Achtergracht, where I was living at the time. An Amsterdam child, sweet and crooked as a corkscrew.' He films her while she skims the city with some friends and knocks at strangers' doors. Her family has nine children and is not well off. In those days, a visit to the De Miranda swimming pool cost a quarter, but only ten cents if the weather was bad. At school, Beppie gets a poor mark because she is too boisterous, but when the whole class rattles off the multiplication tables, she joins in at the top of her voice. All of TV-watching Holland was wildly enthusiastic about this portrait, with which Van der Keuken even made the front page of the national newspaper De Telegraaf.
Claire and David have been happily married for years, but there seems to be a curse on their marriage. They have been trying to have a child for a long time, but unfortunately without success. When David dies unexpectedly, Claire's life is thrown into complete chaos. But as she tries to come to terms with the loss, she suddenly discovers dark secrets that cast her husband in a completely new light: the respected aid worker was apparently involved in dirty business in Africa. And then for years he has also kept it from Claire that he has been having regular sex with the call girl Sabina. Suddenly more and more strange things are happening and Claire suddenly feels persecuted. Could David have been murdered? If so, who has something to cover up? And what did David's assistant Michael know? For Claire's psychiatrist and David's confidant Hagedorn, these are just delusions. But who can the widow trust now?
Isi doesn't get the world anymore. Just a short while ago, life was wild, fun, and without obligations, but suddenly everyone around her seems to be grown-up and successful. With her diploma in one hand and a drink in the other, she is stuck between the careless days of college and real life. When her best friend Lotte gets a respectable job and becomes pregnant, Isi realizes that she needs to find a way to start living a life on her own.
After his successful first "case", Allmen decides to make finding lost art objects his profession and thus avoid financial misery in the future.
As a divorced father of two teenage daughters, with a head-strong ex-wife for a best friend, too many peculiar patients to keep up with and a new dog, psychotherapist Max certainly doesn't need another challenge. But when Sophie, a compulsive gambler with a boyfriend problem, regularly shows up late for her appointments, she rocks his world in ways he's not ready for.
The door has been closed for many weeks. A teenager has locked himself in - shutting out a helpless father, mother and sister. In Japan, youths like him have already been given a name: Hikikomori (the secluded). The phenomenon is also beginning to spread throughout the Western world. This is all the family has been able to find out. All they can do is stand in front of the locked door and ask, beg, implore, throw tantrums, despair, accuse, ignore and hope. All the while, the door increasingly becomes a mirror of their own lives.
Luisa works as a couples therapist and has a loveless relationship with her husband Richard, but at the same time she is having an affair with Richard's boss Leopold. As everything slowly threatens to get out of hand, she wakes up one morning to find a second Luisa next to her, who looks just like her but, unlike the original, is somewhat naive and completely relaxed. Luisa christens her doppelganger Ann. At first, everything seems perfect, because while Ann lives out her needs and stays with Richard, Luisa can finally spend more time with Leopold. But as Richard slowly takes a liking to Ann, Luisa realizes that she is not happy with the new situation either. A serious conflict begins to brew between the two halves of her personality...