Nadja Dumouchel

In a small village surrounded by mountains somewhere in Lesotho, the 80-year-old widow Mantoa waits for the return of her only surviving relative: her son, who works in a South African coal mine. It is Christmas and he would come home. Messengers, however, bring the sad news: her son died in a mining accident.

Angela was 8 years old when the first McDonald's opened in East Berlin - Since then, she has been fighting against the curse of her generation: to be born "too late" at a time of global political depression. Coming from a family of activists, her sister chose the world of business and her mother abandoned overnight her political struggle to move alone to the countryside.

Alex and Selma are a couple in love on a trip to the heart of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Suddenly, Selma feels a mysterious force is chasing them.

Up until the middle of the 19Th century, poverty stricken mountain farmers from the Ticino area of Switzerland frequently sold their children to Milan as chimney sweeps or spazzacamini. That is also young Giorgios fate. He is forced to climb through pitch black chimneys, flinging down the soot with his bare hands. But he does not lose heart. Together with his buddies sharing in the same misery, he establishes the association of Black Brothers. They stick together, struggling against their penury and getting involved in fights with the street gangs of Milan. The film tells of the gripping adventures of the chimney sweep boys and their spectacular escape back to their native land.

A provincial school is waiting for an official delegation from the Ministry who is supposed to bring a new bell. But a bell is not what the school needs... Struggling to survive, the institution is currently lacking the two pupils required by governmental quota in order to stay open. Anticipating the arrival of the delegation, the principal tries his best to hide the real number of students to avoid the unavoidable closing down of the school.