The Gilded Lily

All of Us Strangers(en)

One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor Harry, which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life.

Fragmentary(en)

Ben Sanderson believes he can travel to an alternate reality when he drinks alcohol, to see the love of his life, who was brutally murdered in a home invasion two years prior. As Ben starts to get a hold of his new found ability, a new threat surfaces that may kill him before he can seek the truth.

The Alcohol Years(en)

Carol Morley returns to Manchester, where in the early 1980s, five years of her life were lost in an alcoholic blur. The Alcohol Years is a poetic retrieval of that time, in which rediscovered friends and acquaintances recount tales of her drunken and promiscuous behavior. In Morley’s search for her lost self, conflicting memories and viewpoints weave in and out, revealing a portrait of the city, its pop culture, and the people who lived it.

Rock of Ages(en)

A small town girl and a city boy meet on the Sunset Strip, while pursuing their Hollywood dreams.

The Past of Mary Holmes(en)

Mary Holmes (MacKellar), once a famous opera star known as Maria di Nardi, now lives in a run-down shanty and suffers from alcoholism. Known for her eccentric behavior, Mary breeds geese, and is thus known in her neighborhood as 'The Goose Woman'. She blames her grown son Geoffrey (Linden) for the deterioration of her voice, and does everything to destroy his life. When Geoffrey, who works as a commercial artist, announces to her that he will marry Joan Hoyt (Arthur), an actress, she becomes torn with jealousy and threatens to reveal to Joan that he is an illegitimate birth.

The River(fi)

Episodic study of feelings where six stories intertwine over one Saturday in a small town. Two boys save a young woman, Anni, and her baby from suicide by drowning. Esa, a down-on-his-luck musician in need of a loan, arrives to his father's 60th birthday party. Waitress Leena tries to stir up a romance between her co-workers at a pizza parlor. Middle-aged Ilpo comes home early from the paper mill and finds a strange man in their bedroom. Old Milja waits for her daughter Merja at the hospital where she is visiting her terminally ill husband Henri. Teenage Santeri tries to cope with his homosexuality.

Intohimon vallassa(fi)

A young woman is forced into an arranged marriage by her family in hopes of securing their future, but her husband turns out to be an alcoholic brute of a man and she longs for the man she truly loves.

Der Lotterieschwede(de)

Wilting of the Blood Orchid(en)

Akil, a wealthy butchery mogul, has a very close relationship with his younger brother, Sharm. When Sharm is tragically murdered all signs point to Akil's wife, Madison. With no actual proof Akil turns to alcohol and unleashes his rage on his wife. Madison plots revenge on Akil by creating a poison from her repertoire of poisonous botany, the most lethal: The Blood Orchid. Domestic rivalry ensues in this gripping psychological drama.

Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician(it)

Naples, 1959. Pure Mathematics professor Renato Caccioppoli, Bakunin's grandson, is a tortured soul. Recently discharged from the psychiatric hospital, left by his wife, and increasingly disillusioned with academia and the Communist Party, he lives his last days with painful detachment.

Morphine and Dolly Mixtures(en)

A girl's childhood in the 1950s with her brutal alcoholic father. This unrelieved melodrama examines the nature of a child's experience of a domineering, volatile alcoholic parent. It is based on an autobiographical account by Carol-Ann Courtney. At first, the girl has some diversion from her intense and frightening relationship with her father in the person of her maternal grandmother, but that outlet is soon closed when her father bans her from their home.

Just Like Zorro(sv)

Zorro and his family live in a messy, run down apartment. Zorro's father is dead and his mother is an alcoholic but, despite their situation, they share a strong bond. Zorro's best friend, Kevin, lives with his family in one of the more expensive family homes in the area. Although they are financially well off, the father is a violent man who takes his frustrations out on Kevin, his mother and younger sister. Through Kevin's and Zorro's courage and strong friendship they are able to overcome almost anything.

Zombie and the Ghost Train(fi)

Antti "Zombie" Autiomaa does two things well: play the bass guitar and drink. After several months' sleeping on the streets of Istanbul, he returns to Helsinki where he's called into the army but discharged on mental health grounds after adding turpentine to the officers' soup. Zombie lives bleary-eyed in an apartment off his parents' house where his lonely, unemployed father suffers from heart disease. His girl-friend Marjo has taken up with a hairdresser but comes back to Zombie. His friend Harri hires him as a roadie for his band "Harry and the Mulefukkers" then gives him a chance as a bass player. He has his girl and he has a gig, but can Zombie put the bottle down?

Saba(ka)

A rework of Boris Sigal's play The Trial of Stepan Korolev. Set in Tbilisi rather than Leningrad is a morality tale about the hazards of alcohol consumption that is nonetheless not without humor.

By the Sea(en)

Set in France during the mid-1970s, Vanessa, a former dancer, and her husband Roland, an American writer, travel the country together. They seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants, such as a local bar/café-keeper and a hotel owner.

Love of Siam(th)

Two boyhood friends are separated due to the disappearance of the sister of one of them, then later meet again as teenagers, when one of them has become a pop singer, and they discover feelings that they did not know they had.

Not Today(en)

Today is the day Terry Dean quits drinking. How will his addiction demons take the news?

Vital Signs(en)

Two doctors, a father and son, conceal their alcohol and drug problems in this potent look at the abuse of those substances that exist in the medical profession.

Innocent Killers(es)

Garralda is a troubled college student who only has to pass one last subject to obtain his academic degree. When his teacher catches him copying on a test, he requires him to perform a very unethical task in exchange for passing and thus achieving his goal.

Shed Your Tears and Walk Away(en)

Real-life drama about why, in a beautiful and quirky rural town, film- maker Jez Lewis' childhood friends are killing themselves. Beginning with a personal quest for understanding, the film moves into a year-long drama of human tragedy and redemption as principal character Cass comes to terms with his own mortality and attempts to lift himself out of his cycle of self-destruction. This core narrative carves an upward arc through an intimate study of a place often described as paradise, but which harbours an undertow of lethal hedonism and disillusionment. As people continue to kill themselves during the making of the film, a maelstrom of conflicting values throws up unexpected truths about the human condition.