Zestrea

Jamila and the President

April 2009 •Indonesian

Jamila is a prostitute serving a life sentence behind bars. She surrenders herself to the authorities after admitting she killed a high-ranking minister, and refuses to be represented by any lawyer or request a plea to ease her sentence.

The Second Wife

October 1967 •Arabic

A story in the Egyptian countryside about an unjust mayor who controls everything in the village with his power.

Rayya and Sekina

February 1952 •Arabic

In Alexandria a terrifying phenomenon of the disappearance of women, spreads terror in the city. Police work to unravel its secrets. Officer Ahmed is preparing a plan to uncover who's behind it and it turns out to be the gang of Raya and Sakina, who were targeting women to steal their jewelry.

Ma fille est innocente

October 2007 •French

A teenage girl spends her vacation in Asia together with her mom and dad. There she meets another guy from France, who uses her, and she is caught by the drug police, arrested and sentenced to jail. Now her parents need to do something to release their innocent girl and punish the real criminal. Conditions in prison are very bad, the authorities are corrupted and are only interested in their money.

Awakened

June 2013 •English

Samantha believes that her father murdered her mother. In her exhausting search for the truth about her young mother's untimely death 14 years earlier, Samantha receives help from beyond the grave.

The Tied Up Balloon

December 1967 •Bulgarian

A barrage balloon appears unexpectedly over a Bulgarian village during World War II. The startled villagers decide to knock it down with a fusillade yet the balloon flies off to the mountains. The villagers, armed to their teeth, set off after it. But they are not alone in this undertaking...

Freak Show

January 2018 •English

The story of teenager Billy Bloom who, despite attending an ultra conservative high school, makes the decision to run for homecoming queen.

Broken Threads

April 1976 •Albanian

A foreign agent, Sami Ameni, wants to find another agent, with whom he has collaborated during WWII, in order to blow up a factory.

Bye Bye Victor

September 1989 •French

Friendship between two old men becomes love. Slightly-unkempt, tired, and frail, Philippe Lanctot moves into a rest home. The administrator says she wants him to be happy, but that seems far from his mind: he's waiting to die. Then, into his room, unannounced, rolls the voluble Victor Laprade, who draws out Philippe over the next few months. Victor gives Philippe the gift of experiencing the moment. In return, the well-heeled Philippe organises field trips to dinner and to a botanical garden, and, unknown to Victor, becomes the man's benefactor when Victor's children get stingy. The openly-gay Victor also pushes Philippe to acknowledge feelings he's always kept suppressed.

Peasants

June 1981 •Russian

Pavel's mother hates his fiancee. When Pavel serves in the Army she writes him that Nastya is no longer faithful to him. Pavel decides not to return to his native town. But many years later he returns to his fathers funeral and finds out that Nastya died sometime ago. She left three kids orphans and her elder daughter is also a daughter of Pavel.

لحظات خوف

September 1972 •Arabic

Cherry Blossoms in March

May 2024 •English

In this mother-daughter story, a young woman explores her own mortality through art and poetry as her terminal illness holds her back from a normal life.

Metropolis

February 1927 •German

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

My Life Without Me

March 2003 •English

A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.

Open Hearts

September 2002 •Danish

Cecilie and Joachim are about to get married when a freak car accident leaves Joachim disabled, throwing their lives into a spin. The driver of the other car, Marie, and her family don’t get off lightly, either. Her husband Niels works in the hospital where he meets Cecilie and falls madly in love with her.

Italian for Beginners

December 2000 •Danish

Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. The film, which unspools the connections and family drama shared between the students, complies with several aesthetic principles of Dogme 95 movement.

No End

June 1985 •Polish

1982, Poland. A translator loses her husband and becomes a victim of her own sorrow. She looks to sex, to her son, to law, and to hypnotism when she has nothing else in this time of martial law when Solidarity was banned.

Freaks

January 1932 •English

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.

All Quiet on the Western Front

April 1930 •English

When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.

Wings of Desire

September 1987 •German

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds -- with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk -- that it might be possible for him to take human form.