In a surreal meeting filled with countless individuals from a variety of backgrounds, nine people recount how sex and sexuality have been used to exert control over their lives. Regardless of race, sexual orientation, nationality, social class, religion, or gender, all are equally shattered and all are equally victims. Those that recount their experiences show that the power / sex dynamic can come in many forms. Whether the power is taken away by physical or psychological means, and regardless of whether it is perpetrated by an individual, institution, or society, the results are equally devastating.
Valkyries (2024)
It is the year 2020 and the Corona pandemic has Germany firmly in its grip. Thus, the red-light business must also close its doors and the sex workers are driven onto the unsafe streets, where the situation is shamelessly exploited.
o.k. (1970)
A five-man US fireteam dig in at the Bon Song Valley (represented by the Bavarian forest) to await the end of the Easter truce with the Vietnamese. A Vietnamese girl passes by and the team rape and kill her. One refuses to take part and escapes to report the incident, but it is dismissed by his superior.
One Hamlet Less (1973)
The Prince of Denmark, Hamlet, is little interested in family affairs and the fate of the kingdom, and not at all attracted by a doll-like Ophelia sucking his finger. Annoyed by his friend Horatio, who tells him of the apparition of his father's spectre that would like to drive him to revenge, and by Polonius, Ophelia's father, who psychoanalyses him by explaining the Oedipus complex, he imagines escaping to Paris with Kate, the leading actress of the company performing in Elsinore, to become a playwright.
The Girl from the Wardrobe (2013)
This is the story of three characters (brothers Tomek and Jacek and their neighbor Magda), each of them is in their own way lonely and alienated. The title character makes herself secluded. Tomek's alienation results from his neurological disease, and Jacek contacts the world mainly via the Internet. This is also a film about love. Love of one brother to the other and of one alienated human being to the other. All together it creates a very universal picture with a Polish entourage.
The Woman Who Invented Love (1980)
Doralice is a simple minded woman romantically fascinated by marriage. However, when she is raped by a butcher, a friend advises her to become a prostitute - and she does it. After that, all her wishes and longings will curl up into a fascinating vortex.
The Rape of Aphrodite (1984)
The story of the Cyprus' turbulent recent history using the device of a desperate man, Evagoras (Costas Timvios), who returns to the island after years of absence to look for his wife and son. His family disappeared while they were visiting his native village on Cyprus, just when the Turkish army invaded (1974). As Evagoras goes out on his search each day with a friendly taxi driver, flashbacks illustrate the recent history of the Greek Cypriots, and the normally quiet Evagoras heads closer and closer to a militant stance.
Notes on a Scandal (2006)
A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of her 15-year-old students. However, her intentions with this new "friend" also go well beyond platonic friendship.
Gloomy Sunday (1999)
Budapest in the thirties. The restaurant owner Laszlo hires the pianist András to play in his restaurant. Both men fall in love with the beautiful waitress Ilona who inspires András to his only composition. His song of Gloomy Sunday is, at first, loved and then feared, for its melancholic melody triggers off a chain of suicides. The fragile balance of the erotic ménage à trois is sent off kilter when the German Hans goes and falls in love with Ilona as well.
The Dreamers (2003)
When Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and everything is possible.
Sex and Lucía (2001)
Various lives converge on an isolated island, all connected by an author whose novel has become inextricably entwined with his own life.
Shortbus (2006)
In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
The 312 (2017)
A transformative unconventional story blending coming-of-age cinema verite in a deep personal tale of weightloss struggles and love. Based on the true relationships of Chicago natives in the two years leading up to the historic world series win.
Princesses (2005)
Caye is a young prostitute whose family is unaware of her profession. She meets her striking Dominican neighbour Zulema, an illegal immigrant, after she finds her in the bathroom, badly beaten up. They strike up a close friendship unbeknownst to Caye's xenophobic co-workers.
A Case of Rape (1974)
When she was raped, Ellen thought it was the worst thing to ever happen to her. What was worse, was the treatment by the hospital staff, police and the court system, when she reported it, and the man was caught.
I Am Happiness on Earth (2014)
Emiliano looks at his life with the eyes of a film director, mixing the objective reality with the processes of the artistic creation. The story he is filming flounders with his daily life, until his world is trapped in the lens of his camera. Confused, always alone and in front of a screen, now become a transfigured reality, but at the same time a measurable, controllable and manipulable one, he listens in loop to a song: one of those songs you sing or repeat as a prayer and forcing you to remember, believe and convince yourself.
Carmen from Kawachi (1966)
Like a girl runaway, Tsuyu moves to Osaka to work as a bar hostess. She meets the owner of a model school, Yoko, and seriously thinks about becoming a fashion model. Yoko tells her that she can move in to Yoko’s house to take lessons, while making a living at the same time.
White Room (1990)
Norm, an aimless writer, witnesses the murder of rock video star Madelaine X and feels guilty, as he did nothing to prevent it. At Madelaine’s funeral, he meets a mysterious woman in black with unexplained connections to the deceased singer.
The Witches' Sabbath (1988)
The freshly graduated psychiatrist David shall deliver an opinion about young Maddalena, who's on trial for murdering a hunter. She claims she's a witch and acted on behalf of the devil.
Larger than Life (2001)
A mother and her daughter—who are both victims of incest-rape perpetrated by the same man now languishing in jail—are approached by a couple of filmmakers with an offer to produce a movie based on the two women’s true story. They hesitate on the idea at first but agree eventually for the sum of money they will be paid in exchange for selling the rights to the material. When the finished film is finally shown in theaters, they proceed to the city all the way from their hometown to catch the screening. They are elated at the prospect of seeing the larger-than-life versions of themselves. But as the motion picture gradually unfolds before their very eyes, they instead go through another harrowing experience of a lifetime.
Wetlands (2013)
Helen is a nonconformist teenage girl who maintains a conflictual relationship with her parents. Hanging out most of her time with her friend Corinna, with whom she breaks one social taboo after another, she uses sex as a way to rebel and break the conventional bourgeois ethic. After an intimate shaving accident, Helen ends up in the hospital where it doesn’t take long before she makes waves. But there she finds Robin, a male nurse who will sweep her off her feet...