An animated short based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a poor young girl with a burning desire to find comfort and happiness in her life. Desperate to keep warm, the girl lights the matches she sells, and envisions a very different life for herself in the fiery flames filled with images of loving relatives, bountiful food, and a place to call home.
A businessman's professional struggles begin to conflict with his personal life over the course of two days.
Angie, a poverty-stricken young mother, is taking care of her son and alcoholic mother when she is evicted from her house. Now she has to get money from the only person she knows with any - the man who abused her as a child.
The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.
After a failed suicide attempt leaves him partially crippled, Rory begins spending a lot of time at a neighborhood bar full of interesting misfits. When Jerry the bartender suddenly finds himself playing basketball for the Golden State Warriors, Rory and the rest of the bar regulars hope his success will provide a lift to their sagging spirits. Will Jerry forget his friends? What about his junkie hooker girlfriend and her pimp?
A young girl whose father is an ex-convict and whose mother is a junkie finds it difficult to conform and tries to find comfort in a quirky combination of Elvis and the punk scene.
The life story of one of Britain's most notorious bare-knuckle fighters, Lenny McLean, also known as "The Guv'nor".
Sharecropper's son Marvin tries to help his community overcome poverty and ignorance.
Follows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law.
It's Christmas time, and a grandmother spends a quiet afternoon tending to the family chores. But the arrival of an unexpected visitor brings with her some deadly consequences.
Two young children living illegally in a model apartment outside Boston are left to fend for themselves when their hardworking mother disappears
A wealthy, self-absorbed Rome socialite is racked by guilt over the death of her young son. As a way of dealing with her grief and finding meaning in her life, she decides to devote her time and money to the city’s poor and sick. Her newfound, single-minded activism leads to conflicts with her husband and questions about her sanity.
"Baba" is a bitter melodrama set in Istambul. A father is not able to earn enough money to feed his family. He is waiting to emigrate to Germany. When his landlord's son kills a man while drunk, the father is prepared to answer for the deed himself, provided that the landlord supports his wife and children. As there is little difference for the father between ten years in prison or ten years in a foreign country, he regards this to be the best solution.
A story about life adversities of an old emigrant who returns from America to his native village.
Jesus is asked to judge an inheritance dispute, but instead He uses this conflict to affirm the eternal ideals of His Beatitudes taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus teaches the wronged brother to forgive and love his brother. All who follow Jesus must learn that what we own has little to do with who we are. Important ideals of stewardship and preparedness are emphasized through the parable of the House Built on Rock.
Stuck in a mining town near Vladivostok in 1947 amongst Soviet exiles and Japanese POWs (Japanese prisoners remained in Siberia for years after the war had ended), the kids have to come up with something to keep them busy. Two friends, Valerka and Galia, play some peculiar, very dangerous games of their own amid the man-made wasteland of Suchan.
It's Christmas night when Victor gets stranded in a deserted hotel in Baltimore. To pass the lonely hours, he decides that for first time in his life he's going to order the services of a call girl. When Victor mistakenly recognizes a beautiful young woman at the bar for the call girl, he is taken aback by her warm response to his shy approach. From this moment on, the line between real love and paid love quickly dissolves.
Chronique de l'ennui
Alberto Robles, a young doctor, is faced with the decision to surrender to a life full of comforts and luxuries or to continue dedicating himself body and soul to serving those who need it most.
Saori, a school girl, is molested on the notorious "molester train" of the Hanagawa line and rescued by another school girl who witnesses the act. The girl who rescues her turned out to be a new student of the same high school Saori attends. The mysterious new student Yuriko is rumoured to be a "parent killer". Yuriko then leads Saori and her friends to hunt molesters.