County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.
Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.
Expecting the usual tedium that accompanies a summer in the Catskills with her family, 17-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman is surprised to find herself stepping into the shoes of a professional hoofer—and unexpectedly falling in love.
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.
Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.
A young woman's journey across the world following a set of cryptic clues.
An important man's death brings forth a secret, revealing a daughter from another woman, previously unknown to his wife - and bringing about the meeting of the two sisters.
Apu and his family have moved away from the country to live in the bustling holy city of Benares. As he progresses from wide-eyed child to intellectually curious teenager, eventually studying in Kolkata, we witness his academic and moral education, as well as the growing complexity of his relationship with his mother.
Jesse Aarons trained all summer to become the fastest runner in school. So he's very upset when newcomer Leslie Burke outruns him and everyone else. Despite this and other differences including that she's rich, he's poor, she's a city girl, and he's a country boy the two become fast friends. Together they create Terabithia, a land of monsters, trolls, ogres, and giants where they rule as king and queen.
A group of friends come to a party hosted at a secluded house on the outskirts of Delhi, where events that would turn their lives for better or worse transpire.
Marram tells the story of a family on a Scottish Hebridean island. While they are going to great lengths to understand and revive a beloved son, the marram grass they need to thatch the roof over their heads recedes from a gradually eroding coastline.
A party entertainer must go to extraordinary heights to escape a house of horror
Federico and his brother Simon live their teenage years to the fullest, until the day Simon dies by falling from a balcony at a party. While his family falls to pieces before his eyes, Federico tries to live a normal life during his final weeks of school. Unable to mourn, he starts to grow closer to Laura, his dead brother’s girlfriend and seems to find comfort in her.
An unemployed, depressed creative-writing teacher attempts to restore his dignity in his daughter's eyes when everything else is lost.
Separate We Come, Separate We Go is the story of a 10-year-old girl, Thea who escapes her bleak domestic life to find sanctuary in the surreal desert landscape of Dungeness. Roaming around the barren skeletons of boats and abandoned fishing huts, she is increasingly aware of her loneliness and vulnerability. Seemingly out of nowhere a man (David Thewlis) appears; she is so intrigued by him she defies all lessons taught about strangers and approaches him. As they walk and talk she discovers he is a widower and has lost his son; she realises she is not alone in experiencing loss. He notices her sadness and unusual maturity and decides to help lift her out of her melancholy. Through the metaphor of the freedom of flying birds, he shows her that life does have exciting possibilities. This redemptive story shows that in life you should not allow fear to limit your horizons.
Yeong-shin and Dong-hyuk graduate from college with a cause. They plan to bring education and modernization to farmers living in the rural area of their hometown. When they arrive, the pair immediately get to work, Dong-hyuk builds a village hall and starts aiding the farmers while Yeong-shin tries to gather the children to form a school. However, the villagers at first resent and resist the pair. It is not until one child, Ok-bun, takes the initiative and and learns to read under Yeong-shin’s care that the villages trust the pair and allow their children to be taken from the fields and taught reading, writing and math.
In his efforts to connect with his Chinese heritage, a biracial man discovers challenges and complexities he may not have expected in James Michael Chiang’s remarkably deft blending of drama and comedy.
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.
In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their father. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, how to get ahead in business and in life, and how to relate to his estranged mother.