Identity and performance, resistance and submission, and monotony and quiet rage crash into one another in this clear-eyed vision of a lesbian working as a professional dominatrix with a police officer as a regular client.
Mary
Police Officer
From the youth directed novel of the same name by Greogor Tressnow comes a film by Detlev Buck that is a realistic portrait of life in the section of Berlin called Neukölln. It’s about power and weakness, delinquents and victims, and the difficulties a 15-year-old faces in a poor and criminal environment.
A backstage documentary and interview with the real life lesbian stage performer Kaoru Kiri mixed with a fictional life of her rejected lover.
Selma, a Czech immigrant on the verge of blindness, struggles to make ends meet for herself and her son, who has inherited the same genetic disorder and will suffer the same fate without an expensive operation. When life gets too difficult, Selma learns to cope through her love of musicals, escaping life's troubles - even if just for a moment - by dreaming up little numbers to the rhythmic beats of her surroundings.
New York City is in a panic caused by an insane murderer; Maria, a police officer is entrusted with the case; to do this, she pretends to be a prostitute. One night, she meets a possible suspect who holds her and her partner hostage.
Peter, a married psychotherapist, and Suzanne, a professional dominatrix, have been engaged in an affair of sensual dominance and submission in an S&M dungeon where they must abide by the rules. Now, those rules are about to be broken when they agree to see each other on the outside. As Peter becomes increasingly obsessed with the troubled Suzanne, they embark on a sordid psychosexual journey into their tortured pasts through their most carnal desires.
Elisabeth leaves her abusive and drunken husband Rolf, and goes to live with her brother, Göran. The year is 1975 and Göran lives in a commune called Together. Living in this leftist commune Elisabeth learns that the world can be viewed from different perspectives.
A girl falls for a pickpocketer who gets arrested, so she hooks up with his ex-girlfriend and his ex-cellmate.
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Jerry, a small-town Minnesota car salesman is bursting at the seams with debt... but he's got a plan. He's going to hire two thugs to kidnap his wife in a scheme to collect a hefty ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. It's going to be a snap and nobody's going to get hurt... until people start dying. Enter Police Chief Marge, a coffee-drinking, parka-wearing - and extremely pregnant - investigator who'll stop at nothing to get her man. And if you think her small-time investigative skills will give the crooks a run for their ransom... you betcha!
While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.
Province of Quebec, Canada, the Maple Spring, 2012. Driven by frustration and the desire to find a new life, Klas Batalo, Ordine Nuovo, Tumulto and Giutizia form a counter-cultural group, a radical cell guided by a deep hostility to the established order that they manifest through terribly ambiguous political expressions, Molotov cocktails and guerrilla tactics, seeking to sow mayhem in Montreal as a prelude to the overthrow of the government.
A snack bar owner smokes with his Muslim neighbor in the stairwell of their apartment building at night. Her husband is his good friend. They draw closer to one another as the nights go on and look out over the city to the dark satellites, the brutalist concrete buildings on the outskirts of the city - relics of the GDR past. A security guard watches over Objekt 95, a satellite town with a residential complex which many foreigners call home. While on patrol at night, he gets to know a young Ukrainian woman who fled her home country when the war broke out. He wants to protect her, while his friend, the “old security guard”, radios to him from an abandoned Russian barrack night after night. A woman from the train cleaning service drinks in a train station bar after her night shift. There, she meets a hairdresser. The two of them become friends and spend many nights together in the station. Every night, her desire grows even greater for this woman who is exactly as lonely as she is.
Struggling with feelings for her best friend, 14-year-old Marie stages an almost perfect plan. Playing dangerously with consent, Marie crosses the line as she corners her crush in a blind attempt at what she feels might be love.
In a beauty salon in Beirut the lives of five women cross paths. The beauty salon is a colorful and sensual microcosm where they share and entrust their hopes, fears and expectations.
Kyung-jin, a police officer who finds herself chasing down a suspected bag-snatcher on her day off. However, the man she catches turns out to be Myungwoo, a passer-by who was himself trying to apprehend the real criminal.
Iva and Marija, a young lesbian couple, rent an apartment in Zagreb, in a building that seems to provide a quiet and safe environment for their love, but over time the atmosphere in the building becomes more and more threatening. The elder landlady Olga dominates the building. Other tenants include her calm husband, her grown-up son Daniel who has a crush on Iva, the prostitute Lidija, an abused housewife, a widower keeping the corpse of his newly deceased wife, a gynecologist performing abortions in one flat of the house, and an ex-soldier who regularly plays martial music at night. After Olga finds out that Iva and Marija are lesbians, the situation escalates .
When a desperate man’s car breaks down in a bizarre desert town while evading vengeful bookies, he becomes entangled in a dangerous love triangle. Caught between a married couple, he’s faced with deadly contracts to kill them both.
Charlie and Hannah can't say it out loud, but they both know their relationship is coming to an end. As a last ditch effort, the two head south with Hannah's cat, along the dusty coast of Baja California. There they discover not only a new world, but that the troubles between them can't remain dormant for much longer.
Jae-Young is an amateur prostitute who sleeps with men while her best friend Yeo-Jin "manages" her, fixing dates, taking care of the money, and making sure the coast is clear. When Jae-Young falls in love with one of those men, she suppresses her feelings towards him in respect of her friend who's jealous.
In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.