The Unemployment Club (2001)

When you read the title ‘Summer on the Balcony’ you probably think it will be a light Berlin summer comedy but it’s not. This film is an intimate study of two women friends who come to each other because of troubles with everyday life and with men and thus try to enjoy a life based on their ideas.

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.

Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Die Polizistin is a documentary by Andreas Dresen about the life of a young police woman who is faced with the difficulties between her responsibilities at work and her personal responsibilities.

Having first lost his wife then his job as a tweed tailor, Alex Ponttin has devised a novel way to keep himself in touch with society. He admits himself into people's homes, by pretending to be a relative or an official, and persuading his victims to give him a night's free board: He finds at first a lunch at the horrible couple Dumont, where a thief follows him for a robbery. Alex spent an evening in front of TV at Marie, mother of seven children. He runs from Marie to find an evening and a new bed at the home of charming but shy lesbian Caroline and her funny lover Gloria. To save her inheritance, Caroline - accused for her homosexuality by her horrible sister Catherine - tells her aunt Amélie, that Gloria is her secretary and Alex her lover. So Alex has to present himself nude in Caroline's bed. He saves Carolines inheritance. The police officers investigating the case are so terminally stupid that Alex has little chance of being arrested.

A drama about a Maori family living in Auckland, New Zealand. Lee Tamahori tells the story of Beth Heke’s strong will to keep her family together during times of unemployment and abuse from her violent and alcoholic husband.

A documentary about the closure of General Motors' plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Details the attempts of filmmaker Michael Moore to get an interview with GM CEO Roger Smith.

A frustrated, unemployed teacher joins forces with a scammer and his girlfriend in a blackmailing scheme.

Follows the lives of an unemployed drunk and his son as they struggle to adapt to each other.

不況の嵐吹くシェフィールド。 失業に喘ぐ男たちをよそに、女たちは熱狂の渦の中にあった。その日、巡業でやって来た男性ストリップ集団「チッペンデール」のショーが行なわれているのだ。その事を知ったガズも、一人息子を抱えて失業中の身であった。女たちの過熱ぶりを見たガズは、「これしかない!」と決意する。そして始まった仲間集めの為のオーディション。そこへ集まったのは、やはりそれぞれに事情を抱える男たちだった。

With the help of a talking freeway billboard, a "wacky weatherman" tries to win the heart of an English newspaper reporter, who is struggling to make sense of the strange world of early-90s Los Angeles.

After standing in as best man for his longtime friend Carl Petersen, Randy Dupree loses his job, becomes a barfly and attaches himself to the newlywed couple almost permanently -- as their houseguest. But the longer Dupree camps out on their couch, the closer he gets to Carl's bride, Molly, leaving the frustrated groom wondering when his pal will be moving out.

One winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...

Garvey is a San Francisco pawnshop operator. His unemployed and criminal friends Dillard, Turtle and Weslake, team up with Boardwalk, a local pimp, to burgle Garvey's shop while the owner is out of town. During the elaborate planning process, Dillard falls for a Hispanic woman, the sister of a friend. Boardwalk is assigned to case a local apartment, where he meets and falls for the maid. Amidst all these romantic hijinks, Weslake puts together a burglary plan, which is executed by the makeshift gang.

The Idle Ones is a profile of contemporary affairs - somewhere on the edge of Europe - in a place where unemployment for some young people is fast becoming a way of life. Covering a period of 18 months, the film follows the activities of a group of young men in their 20s who have finished their schooling and stayed in their home village - they loaf about unemployed since they can´t find any work in the remote district. The main characters are more or less idle young fellows whose stories link together and make up the film. Tinged with humour, The Idle Ones is a story about frustrated but vital young people in a period of transition, waiting for something to happen. For some, the waiting is becoming their life.

Three educated but unemployed youth who have come to live in a bustling, harsh metropolis struggle to earn a living.

Sylvain Berg, a "professional" unemployed who spends his time hiking and mountain climbing, and "model" bank employee Benoît Constant, who has just been fired and does not want his wife to find out, both find themselves in Françoise Duru's office at an employment agency. Françoise is secretly in love with Sylvain, so in order to keep him close she convinces her employer to give Sylvain a job he doesn't want, instead of Benoit who not only wants it but also has the right qualifications.

Torsten Södergren lives in a normal house with his normal family in a completely normal city. Every morning he greets his normal neighbours before getting into his normal car and drives the usual way to his ordinary work at an ordinary bank. But one day he is fired from his work after twenty years of loyal service. Now he is prepared to do anything to get it back...

Hortensia is a mature officer of the INEM office. She has been abandoned by her husband so she doesn't believe in love anymore. One day Eduardo Fernandez goes to the employment office because after overcoming a deep depression, he has decided that his life has to get better.

Ten French job seekers show up for a two-day recruitment session knowing only that they’re vying for a sales position in the insurance field. Their prospective employer remains a mystery. With limited information, they’re launched into a hiring process that more closely resembles a reality TV challenge than a traditional interview.This brutal examination of entry-level recruitment sheds light on the stigma of being unemployed, the power dynamics of interviewing and the roles people play in their quest to earn a minimum wage.