Charitable Childhood

Bandit Queen(hi)

Born a lower-caste girl in rural India's patriarchal society, "married" at 11, repeatedly raped and brutalized, Phooland Devi finds freedom only as an avenging warrior, the eponymous Bandit Queen. Devi becomes a kind a bloody Robin Hood; this extraordinary biographical film offers both a vivid portrait of a driven woman and a savage critique of the society that made her.

The Bench(da)

Kaj is a stubborn man with a great deal of pride. The former chef lives in a council flat. He has wasted his life and is now on a council job training scheme for the long-term unemployed, where he refuses to let the foreman of the activation project boss him about. When Kaj's daughter, with whom he has not been in touch for nineteen years, moves into the same council estate on the run from her violent husband, a change comes over Kaj. His initial instinct is to avoid her, but by chance he ends up helping to look after Jonas, her six-year-old son. For the first time for years Kaj need not survive on his own devices. Now he has responsibilities and a family of his own.

My Father's Wings(tr)

Set against the backdrop of construction activity promising to fill in the empty spaces of the urban landscape with entirely new neighborhoods, a story unfolds of an aging construction worker who, unlike his peers, has to drop all plans for the future after being diagnosed with a malignant tumor. This self-assured debut contemplates the dignity of the individual within the context of modern Turkish society.

Iemon(ja)

Latif(ru)

Latif a seven year old boy living during the collectivization policy in USSR.

Our Mother's House(en)

Seven British children bury their mother and hide her death, until their long-lost father returns.

The Tailor of Panama(en)

A British spy is banished to Panama after having an affair with an ambassador's mistress. Once there he makes connection with a local tailor with a nefarious past and connections to all of the top political and gangster figures in Panama. The tailor also has a wife, who works for the Panamanian president and a huge debt. The mission is to learn what the President intends to do with the Canal.

The Blackguard(de)

A French violinist saves his beloved princess from the Russian revolution..

Laveata tietä(fi)

Master violist Anton Lardozo rounds around Europe by performing and spending all his free time in restaurants. While he is visiting in Finland, he leaves with his friend Eero for country and stays in the inn of Harakkala. Lardozo falls in love with country girl named Kirsi but soon one of his lady friends, Tanja, arrives from Paris.

The Innocence of Ruth(en)

The young Ruth Travers, left an orphan after the death of her father financially ruined by Mortimer Reynolds, is welcomed at home by Jimmy Carter, a young millionaire who becomes her guardian. Ruth's winsome qualities gradually win Jimmy's heart. Meanwhile at a Charity Ball, Ruth meets Mr. Reynolds, who is contriving to ruin her virtue.

Rosetta(fr)

Young, impulsive Rosetta lives a hard and stressful life as she struggles to support herself and her alcoholic mother. Refusing all charity, she is desperate to maintain a dignified job.

Earth Crying(th)

Set in Isaan, this is the story of a mother who struggles to lead her needy family through seemingly endless hardships and pressures. To help the family survive, the father endures greedy capitalists who heartlessly take advantage of him and his family, forcing him to slave at the harvest of an infertile field. That is until he loses both his arms. Then all the burdens fall on the mother: bread-winning, taking care of her crippled husband and raising the kids, all amid external pressures from drought to vile businessmen.

People on Sunday(de)

A semi-documentary experimental 1930 German silent film created by amateurs with a small budget. With authentic scenes of the metropolis city of Berlin, it's the first film from the later famous screenwriters/directors Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann.

Battleship Potemkin(ru)

A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing support, which brought on a police massacre. The film had an incredible impact on the development of cinema and is a masterful example of montage editing.

Nanook of the North(en)

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

October (Ten Days that Shook the World)(ru)

Sergei M. Eisenstein's docu-drama about the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Made ten years after the events and edited in Eisenstein's 'Soviet Montage' style, it re-enacts in celebratory terms several key scenes from the revolution.

Skyscrapers(en)

A new skyscraper is being built in New York City, and numerous workmen are busy at hazardous jobs high above the ground. When one of the workers, Dago Pete, deliberately starts a fight, he is immediately fired. But the discharged worker soon comes up with a plan to commit a robbery and get even. His scheme could affect the lives of several others.

The Man Under the Table(hr)

The microcosmic world of a street market on the outskirts of Zagreb: traders, thieves, prostitutes, self-appointed security guards and other lost souls, each with their own unique ideas, passion or mania. We follow the tragicomic, mutually intertwined mini dramas of each character, as they fight to save the marketplace itself, when city planners threaten to raze it to the ground and replace it with a skyscraper.

The Unwritten Law: A Thrilling Drama Based on the Thaw-White Tragedy(en)

Dramatization of the real-life shooting of Stanford White by Harry K. Thaw.

Työn sankarilaulu(fi)

A triangular drama set in the factory region and wilderness of Lapland.