In the center of the film is a powerful, peculiar, talented Russian man, the largest timber merchant Yegor Bulychyov. He is experiencing a tragic discord with himself, with the world that surrounds him, with great social injustice, to which his whole life has been given. The idea of the film is to determine the purpose and meaning of the existence of the human person, consider its polysyllabic and versatile connections with the world.
The news that frames the two days in which the whole story takes place is bad. At first glance, these don't seem like the happiest two days. And yet, they are filled with comedy that is so entertaining and full of twists and turns. What's more, it's a comedy that finds strength in the hope that there is kindness and a deep desire for understanding and openness hidden in each of us. It's a story of our times (as the radio news reports quoted suggest), and yet it transcends our times; after all, it's not every day that the pope is kidnapped.
In New York, a gambler is challenged to take a cold female missionary to Havana, but they fall for each other, and the bet has a hidden motive to finance a crap game.
An exiled magician finds an opportunity for revenge against his enemies muted when his daughter and the son of his chief enemy fall in love in this uniquely structured retelling of the 'The Tempest'.
Five unmarried sisters make the most of their simple existence in rural Ireland in the 1930s.
On the first day at his new school, Cameron instantly falls for Bianca, the gorgeous girl of his dreams. The only problem is that Bianca is forbidden to date until her ill-tempered, completely un-dateable older sister Kat goes out, too. In an attempt to solve his problem, Cameron singles out the only guy who could possibly be a match for Kat: a mysterious bad boy with a nasty reputation of his own.
Two gay men living in St. Tropez have their lives turned upside down when the son of one of the men announces he is getting married. They try to conceal their lifestyle and their ownership of the drag club downstairs when the fiancée and her parents come for dinner.
When her father dies, Epifania Parerga, an Italian in London, becomes the world's richest woman. She feels incomplete without a husband and falls in love with a humble, Indian physician, Ahmed el Kabir, much loved by his indigent English patients.
Locked in a high-tech English manor, bound in a deadly duel of wits, Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle come together as English gentlemen to discuss the matter of Wyke's wife: the woman both are sleeping with.
A stranger's call informs Roberta that her estranged brother Frank has died in a small town under bizarre circumstances. Ben, his best friend from college, also gets the call. Arriving just in time for his funeral, it becomes quickly obvious to them that the little slice of small-town America in which they find themselves is like an episode of The Twilight Zone featuring Frank's eccentric friends, his amazing secrets and his stunning final request. Both Ben and Roberta are shocked to discover that Frank not only had a child, but that he has left them responsible for his son's care.
Crown of Castile, 1520. The Comuneros rise up against Charles I, king of Castile and Aragon and emperor of the Hispanic Monarchy. While Juan de Padilla, leader of the uprising, and his captains, Juan Bravo and Francisco Maldonado, fight against the imperial armies, his wife, María de Pacheco, rules the city of Toledo, capital of the rebels.
Professor Philip Goodman devotes his life to exposing phony psychics and fraudulent supernatural shenanigans. His skepticism soon gets put to the test when he receives news of three chilling and inexplicable cases -- disturbing visions in an abandoned asylum, a car accident deep in the woods and the spirit of an unborn child. Even scarier -- each of the macabre stories seems to have a sinister connection to the professor's own life.
Two escaped cons' only prayer to escape is to pass themselves off as priests and pass by the police blockade at the border into the safety of Canada.
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love against the wishes of their feuding families. Driven by their passion, the young lovers defy their destiny and elope, only to suffer the ultimate tragedy.
Three sisters take their small inheritance and move from Kansas to California in search of rich husbands. To start with, Pamela poses as a socialite and Moira and Elizabeth pretend to be her staff.
In Madrid, Spain, Susana's flirtations with the old apothecary Don Hilarión arouse the jealousy of Julián, Susana's boyfriend.
An Jung-geun fights for Korea's independence from the Japanese Empire and sparks a movement. In 1909, he assassinates Itō Hirobumi, the first prime minister of Japan and resident-general of Korea.
Honza Vavrinec (Rudolf Hrusínský) works in the investment department of a large office. One day he gets involved in the case of an unjustly convicted worker who mistakenly considers him a parliamentary deputy. Honza as a "deputy" interferes in the case and helps the worker. Encouraged by the success and possibly also out of love for the beautiful secretary Svatava (Blanka Bohdanová), the then shy and fearful Honza stands up for the chief of the department, Hofmánek (Ladislav Pesek), who has been removed from his position.
The relationships of two couples become complicated and deceitful when the man from one couple meets the woman of the other.
The war drama The Horse Patrol is an adaptation of the play of the same name by writer and military doctor František Langer. It takes place in 1919 in Russia and depicts the conflict between members of the Czechoslovak legions and Soviet agitators who are trying to forcibly integrate the legionnaires into the Red Army. Members of the legionnaire's horse patrol, led by sergeant František Matějka (Z. Štěpánek), befriend the inhabitants of a Russian village, but after a cunning attack they find themselves isolated in a lonely building. They are holding two Russian prisoners, while two of their soldiers have set out to report to their superiors. The horse patrol then loses its horse due to betrayal and must prepare for an unequal battle during a major Red Army attack...