Inhabitants of a small village in Hungary deal with the effects of the fall of Communism. The town's source of revenue, a factory, has closed, and the locals, who include a doctor and three couples, await a cash payment offered in the wake of the shuttering. Irimias, a villager thought to be dead, returns and, unbeknownst to the locals, is a police informant. In a scheme, he persuades the villagers to form a commune with him.
A young and beautiful female teacher starts working in an all boys high school.
Convinced that his subtenant is a spy and an enemy of the state, Ilija Čvorović falls into deep paranoia which leads to absurd and destructive chain of events.
During the 18th century, German noblewoman Sophia Frederica, who would later become Catherine the Great, travels to Moscow to marry the dimwitted Grand Duke Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. Their arranged marriage proves to be loveless, and Catherine takes many lovers, including the handsome Count Alexei, and bears a son. When the unstable Peter eventually ascends to the throne, Catherine plots to oust him from power.
Lucas is a 17-year-old gay teenager coping with the sudden and unexpected death of his father in an accident that may or may not have been suicide. He views his life as a wild animal in need of taming. Between a brother settled in Paris and a mother with whom he now lives alone, Lucas will have to fight to rediscover hope and love.
An amorous lieutenant is forced to marry a socially awkward princess, though he tries to keep his violin-playing girlfriend on the side.
In a remote region of Wales, five travelers beset by a relentless storm find shelter in an old mansion.
A boy's Bar Mitzvah looks set to be a disaster when it coincides with the 1966 World Cup Final.
A Tree of Palme is an interpretation of the Pinocchio tale. It concerns a small puppet, Palme, who was tasked by his creator to look over his ailing wife, Xian. After her passing, Palme is visited by a mysterious woman who he mistakenly believes to be Xian. Shaken out of his sadness, Palme accepts her request to deliver something special to a far-off place known as Tama. This sets Palme off on a journey to discover his own emotions, and what it truly means to be human.
Amélie, a young Belgian woman, having spent her childhood in Japan, decides to return to live there and tries to integrate in the Japanese society. She is determined to be a "real Japanese" before her year contract runs out, though it precisely this determination that is incompatable with Japanese humility. Though she is hired for a choice position as a translator at an import/export firm, her inability to understand Japanese cultural norms results in increasingly humiliating demotions. Though Amelie secretly adulates her, her immediate supervisor takes sadistic pleasure in belittling her all along. She finally manages to break Amelie's will by making her the bathroom attendant, and is delighted when Amelie tells her the she will not renew her contract. Amelie realizes that she is finally a real Japanese when she enters the company president's office "with fear and trembling," which could only be possible because her determination was broken by Miss Fubuki's systematic torture.
Cheated on, mistreated and stepped on, the women are holding their breath, waiting for the elusive "good man" to break a string of less-than-stellar lovers. Friends and confidants Vannah, Bernie, Glo and Robin talk it all out, determined to find a better way to breathe.
Out of love, young Corinna follows the plantation owner Mannsfeld to the Far East - where she has to realize that he is already married. A small consolation for her is the fact that Mannsfeld is not about a womanizer, but that he is serious about his love for Corinna. The only thing standing in the way of this love is his wife, who, despite the broken marriage, does not want to let Mannsfeld go. When the wife is murdered, this crime seems to bring dubious happiness to the two of them - but it doesn't last long.
The Herlihys are a working class family from Chicago whose three children take wildly divergent paths: Brian joins the Marines right out of High School and goes to Vietnam, Michael becomes involved in the civil rights movement and after campaigning for Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy becomes involved in radical politics, and Katie gets pregnant, moves to San Francisco and joins a hippie commune. Meanwhile, the Taylors are an African-American family living in the deep South. When Willie Taylor, a minister and civil rights organizer, is shot to death, his son Emmet moves to the city and eventually joins the Black Panthers, serving as a bodyguard for Fred Hampton.
Mina is a poor girl who arrives on Corfu for vacation. There, she meets Darzento, a rich man pretending to be poor, and poses as the daughter of a shipowner. Then, he shows up, and things take a new turn.
After handsome and rich man Dong-Ni (Alan Tang) is blinded in a car accident, he becomes moody, and does not go out of his room. Dong-Ni's mother hires beautiful Ai-Sha (Chen-chen) as her son's carer. Initially, Dong-Ni often throws tantrums at Ai-Sha, but Ai-Sha is patient, caring and does not give up. Dong-Ni's mother notices Dong-Ni's growing interests in Ai-Sha and becomes concerned, as Ai-Sha is not in the right social class for her son. What would happen to the couple?
A story about 10-year-old Ruth and her life in Jakobstad in the years 1917-1918, during the Finnish Civil War. Based on a novel by Anna Bondestam.
Jacob tries to keep a tradition alive by throwing a Christmas party for his distant friends. The night takes a deadly turn when they brush off an antique Christmas board game. It proceeds to show him his friends aren't who they seem.
Flanders, Hispanic Monarchy, 1616. The inhabitants of the small town of Boom are busy organizing the annual local festivities when the arrival of the Duke of Olivares, who rules the country on behalf of the King Philip III of Spain, is announced. While the male citizens cowardly surrender to panic, the brave female citizens decide to become the best hosts the Spaniards can ever meet. (German version of the French film La Kermesse héroïque, 1935.)