Set in the Bronx during the tumultuous 1960s, an adolescent boy is torn between his honest, working-class father and a violent yet charismatic crime boss. Complicating matters is the youngster's growing attraction - forbidden in his neighborhood - for a beautiful black girl.
When a young boy makes a wish at a carnival machine to be big—he wakes up the following morning to find that it has been granted and his body has grown older overnight. But he is still the same 13-year-old boy inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman.
A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.
Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American Northeast Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.
Two middle-aged friends, Mićko and Đorđe, decide to make a joke with their childhood friend, teacher Svetislav, who is a stingy when it comes to paying for the bills at bars where they often hang out. After filling his lottery ticket with numbers that Mićko claims he saw in his dream, they invite him to his home to watch lottery live on TV, but instead they play a previously recorded video material in order to make him believe he scored all seven hits. However, a joke goes wrong after Svetislav ditches his wife, resigns at the school where he works, and raises a credit at the bank, believed he's about to make a new start.
Blue-collar Paulie prepares for fatherhood and his forthcoming wedding to Sue by hanging out with his groomsmen. Brother Jimbo, cousin Mike, and his pals fill the reunion with drinking, boys-will-be-boys antics and a few unexpected personal confessions. But, when the bonding devolves into accusations and regret, Paulie has to decide whether he's ready to tie the knot and take this big step into adulthood.
Michele, a young mathematics professor, moves into a new flat. Lonely, depressed and neurotic, he spends his time obsessively monitoring the couples around him, especially his neighbors, a young pair struggling to make their relationship work. When Bianca, a new teacher at the local high school, enters his life, Michele finds himself falling in love. At the same time, a string of murders rocks the neighborhood, casting suspicion on him.
At a local chess tournament, estranged brothers Edward and Oliver Abbott reunite after many years apart, harbouring ill will and eagerness to win.
Julien, a young teacher, is wrongfully accused of sexual misconduct by a teenage girl from his class. As he faces mounting pressures from the girl’s older brother and her classmates, the situation spirals out of control. Allegations spread, the entire school is thrown into turmoil, and the teacher has to fight to clear his name.
When it is discovered that a young and pretty schoolteacher is a nudist who belongs to a local nudist camp, she is brought up on trial before the local school board and must defend herself against charges of immorality and the questioning of her ability to continue teaching the town's children.
Widowed Welsh mother Anna Leonowens becomes a governess and English tutor to the wives and many children of the stubborn King Mongkut of Siam. Anna and the King have a clash of personalities as she works to teach the royal family about the English language, customs and etiquette, and rushes to prepare a party for a group of European diplomats who must change their opinions about the King.
A Baker and a Train Driver meet during a festival to play a game of chess. While playing the game, both exchange ideas about Life and Death and their future destinies.
After Roberta Guaspari separates from her husband, she receives encouragement from her mother to take up a job of a music teacher at the Central Park East School in East Harlem.
After two American prisoners are killed by guards in the act of escaping from a German POW camp in World War II, barracks black marketeer J.J. Sefton is suspected of being an informer.
Television play
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
Just after World War II, an American takes a railway job in Germany, but finds his position politically sensitive with various people trying to use him.
One-time Maori speed-chess champ, Genesis Potini, lives with a bi-polar disorder and must overcome prejudice and violence in the battle to save his struggling chess club, his family and ultimately, himself.
Inner city kids are given new direction when they are convinced to join the school chess team.