Rosamont

As Islamic morality squads stage arbitrary raids in Tehran and as fundamentalists seize hold of the universities, Azar Nafisi, an inspired teacher, secretly gathers six of her most committed female students to read forbidden western classics. Unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, they soon removed their veils, their stories intertwining with the novels they read: just like the heroines of Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James or Jane Austen, the women in Nafisi’s living room dare to dream, hope and love as we experience the complexity of the lives of individuals facing political, moral and personal siege.

Maria, Pinuccia, Lia, Katia and Antonella are five sisters who live in an apartment in Palermo. They make a living by renting doves for ceremonies. On a normal day at the beach, tragedy strucks.

Three prostitutes live in the wasteland by the sea, where a village of outcasts has emerged. It is life in a harsh reality of poverty, ignorance, and violence. And the only ray of light in their lives is Arturo, whom they care for together. The young man is a weak-minded child in an adult body. His mother died in childbirth, and the women took him into their care as a newborn. What will the fate of this young man be in an environment he has not chosen and cannot choose because of his disability?

Aharon has devoted his life to raising his son Uri. They live together in a gentle routine, away from the real world. But Uri is autistic, and now as a young adult it might be time for him to live in a specialized home. While on their way to the institution, Aharon decides to run away with his son and hits the road, knowing that Uri is not ready for this separation. Or is it, in fact, his father who is not ready?

A misfit teenager, an anxious mother, and a recent widow see their day interrupted by a mysterious natural phenomenon. As their world descends into chaos, the three women struggle to find their place in life.

Alex and Edith, a young couple in their 30s, live their relationship made up of small gestures and everyday life among the ruins of Cuban buildings. Milagros, an elderly woman now retired, tries to survive by selling "manì" (typical Cuban roasted peanut cones) and spends her days listening to the radio and reading old letters. Frank and Alain, two nine-year-old friends, go to school and dream of emigrating together to the United States to become Major League Baseball players. Against the backdrop of San Antonio De Los Baños, a town in inland Cuba where time seems to stand still, these three narratives and their respective worlds unfold. Over this mosaic of contemporaneity, however, brought to life through the characters' memories, hovers the specter of separation, the true great scourge of Cuban society.

After his son dies, an Italian mountain farmer moves to Brussels to look after his granddaughter.

Biasutti and Perbellini have the same name, Fausto, and they both hate life in the big city. They meet by chance during a trip for amateur photographers, become friends and begin to cultivate together the dream of going to live in the countryside, keeping with the fruit of their efforts. When Biasutti inherits his grandmother’s old house in Valvana, in the hills of the north east, the dream can finally become reality: the welcome in the village, however, proves less warm than expected.

Teenage best friends Doe and Muna are going on a trip of a lifetime. Quiet, watchful Doe hasn’t gone anywhere since arriving in the UK as a refugee from Somalia at the age of three. Badass Muna of Pakistani heritage, is the dominant force, leads Doe through airport security. The girls are giddy and excited about their adventure, but as the flight is announced their mood changes. These girls are not going on holiday, but to Istanbul, to be met by a stranger who will take them to the border to start a new life in Syria. Disaster strikes when their fixer doesn’t show up. But there’s no turning back now. Doe and Muna hastily forge a new plan to continue their journey alone; testing their resolve, their faith and their friendship. As we begin to discover the experiences that have led them here, the girls are confronted by the reality of what lies ahead.