Emmanuelle Laborit

Filmmakers from all over the world provide short films – each of which is eleven minutes, nine seconds, and one frame of film in length – that offer differing perspectives on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Verena, the mother superior at a German convent, tells the story of young nun Antonia. Born deaf and taken in by the convent at a young age, Antonia was raised to be a sister. At the age of 27, Antonia begins commuting to work at a men's shelter in town. There she meets handsome pickpocket Mikas, who is also deaf. Mikas courts Antonia and the two become lovers. But when Mikas is tragically killed by police, Antonia decides to take her fate into her own hands and travels to America where she will study to become an actor.

A woman learns to care for others when she's forced to help people on the wrong side of the law in this drama. Marie-Line (Muriel Robin) is a single woman in her mid-forties who oversees the cleaning crew at a large office building. On the job, Marie-Line is all business, with no patience for laziness and no tolerance for employees who do less than a perfect job. But Marie-Line's bosses are in the midst of a money crunch and they've cut back on her budget, so when several of her employees quit, she has to find new cleaners willing to work for a lower wage. Marie-Line soon finds new workers willing to work hard for low pay, but there's a catch -- most of them are illegal aliens, smuggled into France from Africa, Albania, or the Middle East, and when police begin asking questions about Marie-Line's new cleaners, she has to scramble to cover for them.

Louise, a young deaf and dumb comedian, has just been named best actress of the year. She is married to Yann, twenty years her senior. But their relationship is conflicting. It seems that Yann takes a malicious pleasure in psychologically torturing Louise. A whirlwind of uncertainties where dreams collide with nightmares, anguish, submission, sadism... Louise confides in Stephanie, her best friend, who advises her to flee. Louise refuses, convinced of a better future. One evening, while Yann tortures her once again, she kills him.

In 18th-century Sicily, deaf-mute highborn Marianna Ucrìa is forced to marry his uncle Pietro, a disgusting old man, at age 13. She bears three children before even turning 16, when she finally gives birth to a boy. Despite everything, she'll find a way to emancipate herself from the oppressive social conventions of the time.

Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into the lives of the deaf and at a story about the love for music. A girl who has always had to translate speech into sign language for her deaf parents yet when her love for playing music grows strong she must decide to continue doing something she cannot share with her parents.