FIVE DIRECTORS tell FIVE STORIES Meet their “characters” at a local bar – where they find love, misfortune and redemption.

When their parents die, Bianca starts to smoke and Tomas is still a virgin. The orphans explore the dangerous streets of adulthood until Bianca finds Maciste, a retired Mr. Universe, and enters his dark mansion in search of a future.

This is an intriguing avant-garde look at what motivates the leisurely classes in Portugal, for better or worse, by director Manoel de Oliveira. Set in a spacious country home peopled with a wide-ranging cast of characters, the drama begins as the friends of a widow come to console her on the loss of her husband. But at one point, the widow goes upstairs, encounters her husband, and is faced with his accusations about the past. This event and others provide the means of revealing the petty, self-serving, egocentric, and romantic pursuits of the melange of people in the house. – Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Two guys at a college prep school make wagers on seducing naive young girls, and then meet their match when they agree to see which one can seduce the most popular and devious girl who has her own agenda to everything.

After a prosecution lawyer is framed and convicted for murder, he tries to catch the real murderer from jail with the help of a con artist.

An assassin seeks redemption after being given a second chance at life.

Amish wife and mother Annie faces a crisis when her husband leaves the word of the Amish to live among “normal Americans,” or the “English” as the Amish dub them. But things turn even more dire when her husband returns, seeking custody of their son, and is willing to kill to achieve his goal…

Young love blossoms amongst a group of Athenian teenagers during a boisterous summertime idyll, in the raw, romantic and anarchic feature debut from Greek New Wave director Sofia Exarchou. One of the most eagerly awaited films to come out of Greece in recent years, Sofia Exarchou’s feature debut is a coming-of-age story that presents a summertime idyll from the perspective of Athenian youths. It allows us to see the fragility they try to conceal, and at the same time shows them to be unwaveringly resilient despite the socio-economic troubles that affect their destinies.

In 1979, an Indian family moves to America with hopes of living the American Dream. While their 10-year-old boy Smith falls head-over-heels for the girl next door, his desire to become a “good old boy” propels him further away from his family’s ideals than ever before.

Andrea, a gifted young Polish violinist from Krakow, is bound for America when he is swept overboard by a storm. When the Widdington sisters discover the handsome stranger on the beach below their house, they nurse him back to health. However, the presence of the musically talented young man disrupts the peaceful lives of Ursula and Janet and the community in which they live.

One summer, mother and ex dancer Eileen lapses back to a troubled past as she starts a new relationship… we watch as she and her family combust. The film, shot on a micro budget, treads between darkness and humour as it moves from its beginning in the suburban cricket club to its conclusion at a music festival.

Psychological thriller about a woman’s slow descent into dangerous obsession and madness.