Empire Waist

Jharia, India, one of the most dangerous places on earth. Fires rage underground, smoke and dangerous fumes belch from cracks in the ground. This is the home of Anant, an 8 year old boy who scrapes a living picking coal and selling it at the local markets to try and feed himself and his sick mother. One day, a chance encounter changes Anant's life, forever. This is a coming of age drama that casts a spotlight on a humanitarian disaster area and gives us a chance to see the world through the eyes of one of India's many child labourers.

It's 1986, Shannon Crane means to be bound for a future she cannot know, on a day filled with possibility and hope. In her 7th grade class, Shannon has to reckon with the ordinary calamity of being herself after a simultaneous incident of being bullied, is caught between the extraordinary catastrophic event of the space challenger disaster, leaving a debris of searching, questioning.

Through the eyes of two 12-year-old boys, the sexual revolution arrives in a conservative and religious small town in Northern Finland.

IRL (In Real Life) is a film about the evils among teenagers in the world of social media. Elias will not escape his tormentors. They are everywhere, in school, on the subway and spew their hatred of him online. He flees into The Secret World, an online game with thousands of players where Elias accepts the Invincible Warrior S:]iles guise. In the game, he meets Sc4rlet, a talented and beautiful girl soldier. Together they conquer their violent digital world. Sc4rlet want to meet Elias IRL (In Real Life). Hesitantly he agrees to be seen but well at the meeting place, where a very ordinary girl standing, he dare not go forward. Elias realizes that he will never meet Sc4rlet and decides to take his life that night.

With problems on the home front, 15-year-old Murra is on the verge of lashing out. That is, until her policeman uncle thwarts her self-destructive behaviour with a lifeline: a “photo-safari for at-risk kids”. Murra isn’t entirely convinced, but she soon joins cantankerous Kylie, uptight Sean, happy-go-lucky Elvis, and camp counsellors Fernando and Michelle on a transformative bus trip to the Pilbara. On the trail, the teens learn about fun, friendship and first crushes, as well as the forces of ‘reality’ that puncture the bubble of youth.

Nidal navigates his way through the treacherous four years of engineering as he comes in terms with his philosophy and morals.

L'Idiot follows Rajat "Rinku" Chaddha, an awkward, daydreaming young man obsessed with French culture, as he attempts to win over Mona, a charismatic girl in his French class. With the help of a local thief, Rinku devises a plan to become Mona's hero, but things take an unexpected turn, forcing him to confront his fantasies and reality.

During the student crisis of 1968, Ines, an 18-year-old homosexual, is prevented from attending law school by her family, who believe that this is not the right course for a woman. This awakens in Inês a feeling of injustice, which leads her to accept Julio's invitation to join the high school students' association. The next day, we find out that the student association has been closed since they found a copy of the clandestine newspaper "Avante!" on the premises. The rectory then decides to expel suspicious students, starting a revolt in the high school and an ideological confrontation between the couple of Inês and Adelaide.

Matti and Niila, growing up in the mid-sixties in the harsh and conservative environment of a Finnish-speaking part of Tornedalen in Swedish Laponia, close to the Finnish border. Their big dream is to become rock stars. In the present the now grown-up Matti feels guilt for the death of his drug-addicted rock star friend Niila.

A deadpan young man obsessed with death meets an eccentric septuagenarian who teaches him to live life to the fullest.

In the middle of the Los Angeles ghetto, drugs, robberies and shootings dominate everyday life. During these times, Furious tries to raise his son Tre to be a decent person. Tre's friends, on the other hand, have little regard for the law and drag the entire neighborhood into a street war...

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.